Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Cross-Country T-Dub'ing to a False Cave

 After breakfast this morning, I was walking around the outside of the URRV and happened to spot what looked like a railroad tunnel opening in the distance, high up on one of the nearby hills.

Using the binoculars, it seemed to be a railroad tunnel for sure....as it didn't match the existing railroad which traverses the Barry Goldwater AF Gunnery Range I'm presently boondocking in, it was an alluring mystery.

So, after gearing up, I rode Yagi the 2 miles or so across country as there was no road or trail.  The TW200 made light work of traversing the gullies and shallow washes that crisscross this area of Arizona.  There were times when the bank was too steep or high and forced a detour to find a shallower "fording" area but no big deal otherwise.

It was around 10:30 by the time I got as close as I was going to get and it still "kinda" looked like a railroad tunnel but the sun's light was casting the area in different shadows now.

I left Yagi and climbed for a bit to get a closer look.  It wasn't too bad a climb, a bit slippery with lots of loose rock but not too risky.

Finally, I was close enough to get a good look and damned if it was just a trick of the light/shadows that had drawn me to this location.



I'd failed to take a picture from the camp, where it really did appear as a railroad tunnel's opening.  I'll try and remember to take a picture tomorrow but then again, the camera in my new Android phone isn't great for long distance imagery.

Rest of the day was spent resting from all the climbing/hiking of the morning.  Did some more research on possible cameras to replace my burnt up Sony A5000.  CCjon came up with a good set of suggestions in the category of Big Zoom cameras so I wouldn't have to carry a separate telephoto lens.

Spent some time looking at some of those but the nagging doubt in the back of my mind was how little or how infrequently I did end up using the telephoto lens so not sure about this category of cameras.

I'm open to suggestions from you, dear readers.  I have become accustomed to the Sony interface in their cameras and like all the options in manual mode.  I had been cruising sites such as eBay and Craigslist seeking to just find exact replacements for the Sony A5000 and telephoto lens, now not so sure.

Oh, there were several A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft flying about the area, practicing their gunnery.  The phone's camera proved woefully inadequate for such long distance photography.

6 comments:

RichardM said...

Can't really ride the Ural cross country like that.

redlegsrides said...

Definitely not! A couple of those washes would have been showstoppers.

Bluekat said...

How fun to spot an unknown railroad tunnel. I love scouting for these secret kind of things. Alas it turned out to be an illusion. But the scouting was fun while it lasted. I still have my a5000, but wouldn’t mind having a camera with a viewfinder. Good luck in your search. Will be anxious to hear what you find.

redlegsrides said...

It was actually quite fun, Bluekat.

Not the first time the light and shadows have fooled me either!

CCjon said...

Pretty desolate out there, are you carrying an SOS device?

I know more gear is not your wish, but a spotting scope would come in handy at times.

redlegsrides said...

CCjon I have the Garmin In-reach Mini when riding in areas without cell coverage. There was however good signal in this area. As to a spawning scope, I have 10x40 binoculars in the URRV.