Boondocking in the Kofa NWR

The 14 day LTVA permit I purchased expired today.  So I displaced a day earlier than planned.  ( I had lost track of what day the 15th ) fell on.

Note: you can "check out" the morning after the permit expires, and still use the facilities.

Since tomorrow is Presidents Day, the water points wouldn't be running I found out after I'd dumped tanks.  So it's just as well I displaced today.

The next few days were forecasted as cooler so decided to only displace a short distance to wait out the cooler weather.

Less than 20 miles to Palm Canyon Road which leads you into the Kofa NWR.  Still lots of places to camp and I selected one that didn't have any other campers too close to it.  I also chose the side of the road upwind of it as conditions were quite dusty.  This was specially true when OHVAs raced but, way above posted speed limits, raising huge dust clouds.

After setting up camp, I rested for a bit.  After lunch, I tried out the bino/cameraphone adapter:

1x zoom with bino

1x no bino

1x zoom with bino 

1x zoom with bino

3x zoom no bino

1x zoom no bino

The tallest point in the mountains above is Signal Peak.  There's apparently a 3 and 1/2 mile trail to the top of it but I am not sure I will be doing that.  The 0.9 mile trail into nearby Palm Canyon had me huffing and puffing when I did it years ago!

Later, around 3:30 or so, I decided to check out Skull Rock, which is located in the Kofa Queen Canyon Road.  The roads are packed gravel and are very stony in points. The road to Queen Canyon was even worse which kept my pace down. Lots and lots of big stones and fist size rocks, that demanded close attention.

Once I reached the point where Google maps said that it was the location of Skull Rock, I started looking around.  Skull Rock must be one of those formations that is named by someone with very active imagination I think. I think I found it but not sure. 

February 16 update:  below pics are not of Skull Rock, did some googling today and will ride out again tomorrow to find it  

Heading back out of Queen Canyon, the light returned briefly through the ever increasing clouds of the afternoon. I may have to check out this road again tomorrow or the next day in better light and earlier in the day. 

Sunset was ok:

Mountain Views and. short Visit by Chris Z.

 Thursday, February 12

The day started cloudy but cleared up nicely before mid-morning.

The lighting in the morning led to more practice on using the adapter for binos for my phone camera:

Cunningham Mountain and it's telecom towers:

1x zoom with binoculars 

3x zoom with binos

After lunch, I decided to see how close I could get to this nearby unnamed mountain:

Bino shot from campsite from a few days ago

Google maps didn't easily show the smaller trails so I ended up taking Pipeline Road and from there, a power line road and eventually down seeming unmarked trails.  Getting ever closer, going slow due to loose rocks / gravel / dirt that could make things interesting if you did not pay attention.

Using the rock formation as a guide, I eventually got pretty close:

I think the houses in the distance are in La Paz Valley

South of Quartzsite 

I took BLM Road 0061 (yep, found a marked tail junction) all the way back to civilization.  I missed the turnoff for La Posa South LTVA and ended up in La Posa North.  No problem, it's a short ride from it to the right LTVA and my campsite within.

Last views of today's mountain view destination:

Realizing that one can expand the last pic to get what's shown in the one before; which one is more attractive to your eye?

Friday, February 13

Chris Z of Blazeourway showed up in the afternoon to talk to the Bowen Custom folks re his new truck's flatbed that was made by Bowen.

Chris had bought it second hand and wanted to ensure it was installed right by the seller.  Fortunately, the Bowen team checked it out and declared it ready for travels.  The camper, by Alaskan, will be ready in about 3 weeks and Chris and Lori will drive their truck to WA to have Alaskan install the camper.

There's a Truck Camper Rally going on at Quartzsite, which explained Bowens presence in relative proxity to Chris and Lori's home in Meadview 

Here's the Bowen demo rig, quite the campus machine eh?

Chris talking to the Bowen team about the rig and some future work for his own truck 

Inspection completed, it was time for a drink by a small campfire back at camp:

Sunrises, Crystal Hill, Sunsets

 Tuesday, February 10

Not too bad a sunrise for what turned out to be a short ride/hike day.

I rode out on Yagi to the Crystal Hill Collection Area to see what was there.  I'd been there before but hadn't had rock collection on my mind.  Turned out, the area is mainly for the surface collection of white quartz rock.  Meh.

I did walk by several interesting outcroppings of Shale....

The views from the saddle between the two main hills in the area.

It's getting warm around here, it was 67°F at 3AM when I my bladder woke me up.

Wednesday, February 11

An overcast yet nicely warm kind of day.  It got up to 75°F!  I mostly did some reorganizing of misc items in the VRRV and on Yagi.  I did do a grocery run into town with Yagi, using a backpack to carry the food and the rear cargo rack for a case of Brisk Ice Tea cans.

Sunrise:

Sunset:

Thursday, February 12

A pretty good sunrise this morning:

How I Check Tire Pressure on Dually Tires

 My RV has dually tires in the rear to support the weight of the motorhome and its contents. 

I use TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) sensors to keep track of the air pressure on the RVs tires and to alert me if there is a loss of tire pressure such as when a tire blows out or develops a big leak.

This causes access issues when you are trying to get to the TPMS sensor on the inner dually tire. I've tried valve extenders, but as you can find via Google; they tend to not be very effective and tend to come loose or damage the valve stem because of centrifugal forces and such. 

I've tried valve extenders with support brackets but with no luck.

After much trial and error and trying various methods, this is the way I do it today. 

Tools I use for this task:

22mm Tube Wrench/tubular box spanner

You will have to have the correct size for your sensors. 

I used the sensors from EEZtires

Braided air valve extension for

easy access while checking/adding air.

1-1/8" socket to remove mounting caps

from decorative wheel hub covers

First thing I have to do, is to remove the decorative wheel hub cover from the outer dually tire.  This is where the one and 1/8 inch socket comes in.  My RV came with a special wrench for this purpose but I have managed to lose it.

Only two of the caps are involved with securing the hub cover, just tap on each and find the one that sounds different. It's mate will be directly opposite.

Decorative hub cover off

As you can see in the above picture, the TPMS sensor (located at the 10:00 position) for the outer dually is easily accessible. 

The inner dually TPMS sensor however is not so accessible:

Some folks on the internet say you can access this sensor on the inner dually via the gap between the two tires, this does not work for me.  I use the 22mm tube wrench instead.  I guide the wrench onto the sensor until it snugs up around the sensor itself. Then it's just a matter of turning it counterclockwise to loose in the sensor and remove it from the valve stem. 

Next, I attached the valve extender to the valve stem so I can connect the air pump easily to the inner dually's valve stem:

Now I can add or remove air, checking with the TPMS monitor, until I have the right air pressure in the tire.

Once I am satisfied with the tire pressure in the inner dually, I remove the valve extender and use the tube wrench to remount the TPMS sensor.  You basically just put it into the wrench and then gently align the TPMS sensor to the valve stem and screw it in.

I then check the air pressure on the outer dually tire, and then I put the decorative hub cover back on.  Done!

Please comment if you've questions.  YMMV, this procedure works for me.  Not the fastest thing, or most convenient, but it works.