Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Scarlett, She's a Hauler - Now Boondocking near Safford, AZ

Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol sidecar rig, reminded me of her usefulness over this past weekend.

Not only did she haul two full bags of trash to the dumpsters near the Shell station by Picacho Peak Road; she also:

Hauled discarded concreted tiles which I used to fill in a couple of big holes/ruts on the trail into the camping area.  Sorry, no pics, it was hard work.

She also enabled me to make a big haul of crap to the dumpsters on Sunday.  Some moron had left shot up pieces of ceiling tile and furniture which lay in pieces at one campsite:


At another campsite, and to a lesser extent on a neighboring one, there was firewood to be had:

On Sunday, Scarlett hauled my butt along with the garbage collection, to the town of Eloy, AZ where there's an Amazon Locker.  I got my stuff and headed back using frontage roads along the I-10 super slab, since one thing Scarlett can't do, is haul ass!


As I was nearing the camp site turnoff from the Adelante Road frontage road, I saw where was an accident on the I-10, with cars in the median between north and south bound lanes.  Glad I stuck to frontage roads.

Before I drove Scarlett to the campsite, I detoured onto Nona Road and paralleled a portion of the CAP or Central Arizona Project.  It's a water management project to move water in the water, and it provided this nice reflection on a bend of the road:


Picacho Peak from Nona Road

Sunset was OK, the highlight was I noticed parachute jumpers descending while the sunset occurred:


Monday, February 17

Just a rest day, relaxing.  Here's the sunset I saw for President's Day.


Tuesday, February 18

I displaced to BLM land accessed via Tanque Road which lies roughly halfway from the I-10 Super Slab and the city of Safford, AZ along US 191 highway.

Tanque (Tank, as in water tank in Spanish) Road is a dirt road which bisects the San Simon River valley which has Mount Graham and the Pinalenos Mountains on the west and the Hot Well Dunes Rec Area on the east side.

There are several camping spots and I picked one that suited me just fine.  Empty spots .5 and .8 miles on either side of my site, and no one in line of sight!


Hot Well Dunes is located at the base
of Javelina Peak in the background.

Closer view of Javelina Peak on the left

So far, am very pleased with this BLM area.  I hope to do some exploring of nearby Fort Grant Historic Area, Mount Graham itself and just the area around me.

2 comments:

Oz said...

Service roads on the interstates can be the best place at times. Scarlet is quite the workhorse :)

redlegsrides said...

I agree Oz, there's no enjoyment but lots of hazards and long slogs...