Lazy Sunday, did some light riding with the T-Dub but nothing serious, just looking for new angles on the usual scenery. Seven days in same location, that's longer than usual for me!
Hat Mountain again, note the red truck....I didn't spot him
till he was much closer to me. I wonder where he camped?
Eye of the Needle?
Another view of Hat Mountain and the valley
Can you spot Uma?
Sunday's sunset was "ok"
Monday, March 9
Woke early enough to try and catch the setting of the Moon as the dawn presaged the arrival of the Sun.
I had everything lined up to catch the Moon as it neared the horizon but distant haze occluded my view of the moon, so this is the best I got:
After the moon shot, I broke camp and headed in towards Phoenix and my FIL's home. The plan was to take receipt of several Amazon packages from him, and hang out there for the rest of Monday. It was a good opportunity to get a good long shower in, and get a "Butter Burger" at the nearby Culver's Fast Food joint.
Tuesday, March 10.
After a leisurely breakfast, I got more water from my FIL to top off Umarang's fresh water tank and I headed on out towards Quartzsite hoping to avoid the rain forecasted for later in the afternoon.
I would end up arriving at the BLM area south of the Gold Nugget Road exit with a light rain coming down. Not too bad though, I parked Umarang, got Yagi off the front rack and went scouting in the light rain for a suitable spot.
I found a nice spot, with stone covered flat dirt surface, so I wouldn't have to worry about mud too much over the next few days of forecasted rains. I re-mounted Yagi onto the front rack, then drove Uma over the spot and set up camp. By the time camp was set up, the rains had stopped for a bit and the sun even came out!
Guadalupe Peak close by, with its telecom antennae
As the rain had stopped, and it was only 2:30 PM, I took Yagi out for a ride to see if I could access the road leading up to the telcom tower complex on top of nearby Guadalupe Peak:
It turned out that the gate was open and I didn't see any "no trespassing" signage so I rode on up the access road. It proved to be quite steep, this road, and full of big loose rocks which made life a bit too interesting at times.
I stopped, at about 3/4 of the way up, as I wasn't feeling very confident about the remaining distance. I was also worried about riding back down the steep road with its hairpins but that turned out to be a non-issue with Yagi in first gear!
Some pics taken on the way back down:
As you can see, I got pretty close to the top. Perhaps I'll try again.
Not a bad view of distant peaks and the I-10 Super Slab
Once I got back down, I circled Guadalupe Peak using dirt trails with BLM numbering. I ended up exploring what looked like a metal frame way up on a small hill:
The yellow van is a camper with two bothersome dogs
You can see one of my other "neighbors" from the top of this hill containing the mine shaft:
I kept exploring the trails, even rode over the overpass to the north side of the superslab's BLM land and found even more interesting trails and one other camper. Lots to explore here in terms of trails so I'm hoping the rain won't make things too muddy over the next few days. It's raining lightly as I type this so we'll see.
2 comments:
Nice moonset! I've heard that Quartzsite has gotten enough rain for some very large puddles to form.
Thanks RichardM, saw one big puddle at the entrance to a parking area where I had initially parked.....nothing big where I’m camping so far....but an inch forecasted today.
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