Back home after one more camping day at the Maxwell NWR

Saturday, March 1

I left Elephant Butte at 7AM this morning after saying goodbye to my host, Mike W.  Laura got her goodbye last night as she had to be at work early today.

Driving conditions were sunny, cold but not too cold, windy but not too gusty.  Pretty much perfect driving conditions and traffic.

Seven hours later, I was pulling into the camping area of the Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge less than an hour south of Raton, NM.  I was beat and rested the afternoon away, doing a little bit of exploring with Yagi, my TW200.

I've stayed here before, usually when enroute south going to warmer climes.  

Can you spot Uma?

Closest to the campsite, there were just a few Canadian Geese that were quite swift to take wing.  

I rode towards a farm and along the way I spotted these geese and what I think are Herons!

I managed to stop the motorcycle in time, avoiding spooking them into flight as I slowly walked closer to the fence which bordered the area above.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the sunshine, using the VRRV to block the increasing windiness. 

Sunday, March 2

I left the Maxwell NWR soon after 7AM.  Less than one hour later, I crossed the border into Colorado using Raton Pass.  A total of 4.5 hours later, I was nearing Buckley Space Force Base to drop off the trailer and Scarlett.  

Once I get the VRRV cleaned up, I'll put it into storage and return home using Scarlett.  This way, I avoid tying up garage space with the trailer while getting things cleaned up.

Overall, a very good camping trip.

Exploring an Unlisted BLM dispersed campsite site and a visit with Mike and Laura W.

February 28, Friday 

Leaving the Gila NF site I decided to drive towards Silver City, NM and from there get on AZ Highway 152 to cross the Black Range Mountains of New Mexico.

Boy, they weren't kidding when they posted a sign saying truckers should find alternate routes!  As it transits the mountains, it has a lot of twisty tight turns!  The VRRV did fine but one had to pay more close attention than usual.  I think it would be a blast on a motorcycle but again, you have to be careful.

There's several NF campgrounds along the way, probably nice to stay at in the heat of summer for it was very cool/chilly at those altitudes.

I finally made it to the highest point of the Black Range: Emory Pass.  I stopped the VRRV at a pull off next to a turn for the vista overlook.  (They really mean it when they post: No Trailers).  I found out the hard way but managed to get Uma turned around after some effort.

Slowly but surely, I made my twisty way down from the mountains and back to valley level as I approached the I-25 Super Slab.  Before I got there though, I'd been monitoring my progress with the BLM map for New Mexico using the FieldMaps app.  (I'll be writing a separate post on this very useful set of maps/system.

I decided to enter a BLM area where I spotted a cattle gate.  As with most BLM areas, the gate isn't locked.  I drove in and found a nice spot away from the road and mostly out of view as well.

There were many of the signs posted around the area:

I saw and rode over to a guy in a white pickup truck, thinking it was the BLM ranger.  Instead, he was a retired senior gentleman, member of the GPAA or Gold Prospectors Association of America.

The 160 acres of which this camping area is a small part, is part of a single mining claim.  The owner allows the GPA and its members to mine for gold, it's apparently available as very small flakes.  (he showed me a pic of previous searches).

Kind of cool but that's a lot of work for such a small amount of gold.  

Here's another view of the area, you can see Uma in the distance.

Wandering around, I spotted an unusual object:

Some kind of water dispenser apparently.  The wheels inside the rectangular slots rotate, and I think, picking up water as cattle lick the wheel to make it move?

Nearby, there was a small water hole or perhaps holding spot:

The above explorations were cut short by going further on towards Elephant Butte, NM.  I was lot docking at Mike and Laura W's driveway.  Mike and Laura are the couple whom I got to know during my Suzuki Samurai Sojourn. 

After dinner, we drove over to a couple nearby friends so I could meet them.  Another great couple: Ed and Lawana.  Ed is a retired deputy police chief from the Seattle area and his wife is quite the crafty one in terms of stitchery, quilting, jewelry, and nutritions!  

It was a great evening with good conversation.  

After saying goodnight to Ed and Lawana, we returned to the W's home and soon were off to our beds.  I slept in the VRRV as I planned an early departure in the morning.

Boondocking in the Gila National Forest, near Lordsburg, NM

Wednesday, February 26

A short driving day today, I wanted to check out the Gila National Forest area north of Lordsburg along US90.  Not great shakes for scenery but its a nice area.

iOverlander showed a spot for camping and that's where I ended up, finally picking a spot big enough for the VRRV and trailer.  Most of the spots are smaller, more suitable for van campers and such.  Still, very secluded and quiet for the most part.

There's only one other "camper" out here in the area with me, about .5 miles away.  He's a car camper from Minnesota.  Not too sketchy looking, but I did wonder what the heck he was doing here over the next couple of days.

This particular camping area reminded me one should pull in one's mirrors when passing through narrow portions of the trail when there's thick bushes alongside the trail.  One of the small auxiliary mirrors got ripped off, but I repaired it easily enough.

I did have one bar of cell signal, enough for texting but really not for surfing.  I powered up Starlink a couple of times.

Thursday, February 27

After a very quiet night and no further campers showing up, I spent the morning doing minor chores and repairs while windy conditions prevailed.

Around 2 PM or so, I rode Yagi, my TW200 to check out the Tyrone Mine further north along US90.

Along the way:

I think if I was McComas, I'd call it more than an incident.

I'd hoped to be able to find an overlook to see into the mine but no luck, so just views of the huge amounts of tailings dug up in search of ore.

eye catching pattern 

US 90 crossed the Continental Divide and there were two spots with trailheads to the CDT or Continental Divide Trail near my campsite:

As I rode south on US90, I checked out likely locations for campsite for future use.  Found several along Gold Gulch Road and Kings Canyon Road.  I marked the spots in my personal google maps for possible future use.  If I had been planning on staying longer in the area, I'd have displaced to a couple of the sites!

Tomorrow I displace to Elephant Butte/Truth or Consequences.  I think I'll be using the route through the mountains instead of retracing my way back to the I-10 Interstate.  We'll see.

First Camping for 2025

Martha and I left the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area on Sunday of this week.  We were racing to catch a narrow weather window before snow threatened to close down our route through New Mexico.

We left these conditions, not too bad really but cold:

We got our wish, dry roads all the way into New Mexico.  We ran out of daylight though and had to find our way to our chosen county park campground in the dark!  

It would have to wait till sunrise on Monday for me to see what the campground looked like:

Monday was spent driving through New Mexico and into Arizona using the I-10 Super Slab.

Hot Well Dunes was pretty much empty in terms of campers.  We got a nice site for Uma:

We checked out the hot tubs, no one around!

The weather would be overcast/cloudy and colder than normal.  Tuesday was spent on repair chores such as fixing the ground points for the front rack lights, broken fender mounts on the trailer.

Of course, it was time for a mishap.  Our second visit to the hot tubs Tuesday afternoon resulted in me carelessly getting my Pixel 4a phone wet!  Dammit.

The marketing specs say the phone is IP68 water resistant.  Supposedly you can put it into at 3ft of water for 30 minutes with no issues.  My pixel 4a didn't survive 5 seconds of foot deep water.  

A bit of a bummer ending for Tuesday but it finally got me off the fence about getting an upgrade.

Wednesday, Jan 8 

Rode in some bone chilling temperatures to the village of Thatcher, located west of Safford, AZ.  There was a Verizon store there and I'd placed an online order for a replacement phone:  A Samsung Galaxy S24+.

The phone was ready for pickup by the time I motored up, less than an hour later I was all set up and driving back to camp.  Some really strong wind gusts added to the fun as I drove Scarlett.  I think I would have rather spent the morning relaxing warm in the VRRV instead but one must pay the price for careless stupidity eh?

Here's the first pics taken with the S24+:

The above are in the default .jpg format, I've seen switched the camera setting to shoot in RAW as well.

Spent the rest of the day configuring the new phone, getting data from the old phone when it would cooperate with me.  The old phone sometimes displays correctly, but you have to use an external keyboard (courtesy of Martha) to navigate around.  I might send the pixel in for repairs, not sure.  Right now, it won't recognize the SIM card so no phone functions, the display only works half the time and its recognition of finger input is crap.

Hopefully it won't be as windy tomorrow and things are supposed to get a bit warmer starting Thursday.  Sunny conditions should help a lot.

Home for a Bit

Returned from New Mexico after ten fun-filled hours of uneventful driving on the I-25 Super Slab.

After the morning chill had gone, it was pleasingly warm in New Mexico the couple of times I stopped to rest or gas up the VRRV.

This changed soon after I crossed into Colorado, with heavy cloud cover blocking the sun and adding to the overall gloominess and chill on the scenery.  This cloud cover wouldn't break till I got north of Colorado Springs.

It was getting dark as I pulled into my home cul-de-sac, got the trailer with Scarlett still onboard into the garage with no issues and parked the VRRV for the night.

My last view of the campsite as the sun started lighting up the eastern sky:

Last Day of Boondocking for this Month, Probably.

Saturday, December 07

Another sunlit and "warm-ish" day here near San Antonio, NM.

Alas, it's time to go home before a forecasted snow storm closes Raton Pass, on the border between NM and CO on Monday.

A short ride by Scarlett, my Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig was in order though before I put her back on the trailer.  I drove her to the canyon area about two miles away, which I'd explored before with Yagi, my TW200.

Same rocky formations as before, but as usual, Scarlett is quite a bit more photogenic:

I stopped by this formation to look at the many holes carved out of the side of the rocks.  

created by the winds perhaps?

Scarlett needs a new pusher tire, which is on order.  She slipped/slid in the deep sandy bits but managed to make it through with no major issues.  I didn't have to even put her into 2WD though it was close a couple of times!

Spent the rest of the afternoon mounting the motorcycles and taking down the gazebo.   This way, not much needs doing in terms of outside items tomorrow morning.

I'll be on the road tomorrow, Sunday, soon after waking as I've a long day on the road, at least eight hours.

Relaxing Near San Antonio, NM

Yesterday and today were pretty mellow days, lots of relaxing in the gazebo under bright sunshine, avoiding the sometimes chilling effect of winds.

Not very windy mind you, enough to get your attention and remind you of the effects of wind chill.

Today was much less windy than yesterday, thereby more enjoyable.

Yesterday's riding involved checking out the narrow canyon trail created along the old creek bed of Walnut Creek.  I rode Yagi all the way through this time until I saw signs of habitation in the distance.  I then retraced my route back towards camp.

The road/trail as you see is in quite good condition.  In fact, the VRRV would probably be able to drive it with no issues except for the sometimes very deep sandy spots where the creek bed used to be.

Today, it was time for Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol sidecar rig to get some exercise.  I rode her along the same route as Yagi had already explored but not into the canyon, perhaps tomorrow for that.

That's Socorro Peak in the background

I didn't go very far, electing instead to spend more time at camp enjoying the warmish weather.  Amazing how bright sunlight and little wind add enjoyment to temperatures that never reached the forecasted 60 degrees.

One thing about this place and time of year, the sunsets aren't much so far:

Boondocking near San Antonio, New Mexico

Yesterday, Ileft the overcrowded cesspool that is the Metro Denver area yesterday and drove a bit over 8 hours to a BLM area near San Antonio, NM.

I'd hoped to reach the vicinity of Truth or Consequences but ran out of daylight an hour north of it.  So I took a chance at a new area as listed on iOverlander.

Turned out to be a good choice.  About three miles from the I-25 Interstate, just south of Socorro, NM, I found a nice spot next to a rundown corral.

This morning, while I waited for things to warm up into the 50s (woke to 37 degrees outside), I rode about the dirt roads near me:

First though, today's sunrise:

One of the roads led to some interesting rock formations:

Found a shrine in the rocks at the narrow passageway below:

I didn't ride much past the above cut through the rocks, I was getting cold even though I was riding slowly.

Later in the morning, it was still a bit chilly but I bundled up more and rode Yagi over through the nearby "town" of San Antonio and eight miles further, to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

The town's claim to fame

A decommissioned church in town

The NWR is basically open lands with some stretches of woods, the main attractions being several lakes populated with diverse birds.  I checked out the North Loop Tour route and the highlight was:

I rode back to the campsite and spent the rest of the day resting and enjoying the warmth inside the gazebo.  Mild winds kept things a bit cool, even though temperatures neared 60 degrees and plenty of sunlight on hand.

The idea had been that this trip would last a month or two before returning to Colorado.  However, due to logistical matters involving the VA, I am returning to Colorado this weekend.  A bit of a bummer but its for the best.  There might be other camping trips closer to home but highly weather dependent of course.