Thursday, March 18, 2021

A Warm Day's worth of light four-wheeling, hiking and T-Dub'ing

 It would almost reach the forecasted high of 78 degrees farenheit today, 77 degrees!  It felt great.

Spent the early part of the morning troubleshooting the energy meter.  At first I thought the power converter in the URRV had failed and wasted time/energy trying to get to it.  Finally determined it wasn't a fuse or a failed converter.  It turned out to be a loose connection on the energy meter's shunt!   I was quite relieved.  Now the meter is behaving correctly, the battery is charging up nicely with either solar or generator power and the inverter is working fine as well.

Drove to nearby gate 14 and tried to find a way south that would get me into the area I'm boondocking in; alas, no joy.  I ended up on a dry river bed, all loose gravel, and damn near where I started near gate 14!

I did pose Mariko under the bridge which allows US 85 to span the dry river bed:

Under the bridge which is part of US85

Retracing my route, and this time not being fooled by 732 road, I checked out the end of 742 road instead.  You end up at a small semi-circular group of rocks, with signs saying the area beyond is closed.

End of the trail for 742 Road

Returning back to camp by lunch, I waited till after 2PM (to avoid the hottest and brightest part of the day) and then went hiking to nearby rock formations which I thought weren't reachable by either Sammy or T-Dub.  I was wrong.




So, after hiking for about an hour and getting slightly lost, I found my way back to the camp and rested till 4PM.  Then I took Yagi out for some cross-country riding:





A gloriously warm day to be sure.  Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter!  I'm thinking of exploring the mountain near the town of Ajo; which has a big letter A made of stones I think.  The rumor is that one can drive up to it!  We'll see if I can find the road.


4 comments:

SonjaM said...

Every day seems an adventure for you, Dom. I am happy to be tagging along.

Steve Williams said...

Ahh, lovely desolation. The photographs are a fine depiction of the desert landscape, at least how this man of the East pictures it. I always go to Google Maps to get a sense of where on the map you are. Before long you'll be reporting from Baja California or the Sonora.

Every time I read your posts I ascribe to you freedom and wanderlust that I can only find in daydreams. You are in a different world Dom!

Hope all is well with you and the family.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks for continuing to peruse these meanderings of mine SonjaM!

redlegsrides said...

Thanks for the comments and feedback Steve Williams; all is well back home. Hope all is as well as it can be with you and Kim. Soon it will be time to start moving north towards Utah or perhaps Nevada not sure yet.