Slow easy days in rapidly warming weather....time to head northeast

 March 23, Wednesday

Today's accomplishment was the repair and reinforcement of the mud guard flaps supports for the VRRV's dually wheels.  They had loosened enough, the supports, that the flaps could conceivably be pushed against the tires when in a following wind.  Probably not good in terms of friction heating up the tires.

I went for a short ride in the afternoon, realizing as I went that I'd seen the trails I had chosen already in previous rides.  I guess I've covered the area quite thoroughly.

This is the "Cow Pie" in the map below

Some more stuff found while meandering about the desert on Yagi:

To include the gravesite and marker for someone's dog:

March 24, Thursday

Spent the day, sheltering from the sweltering sun, keeping the motorcycles in the shade whenever possible.  I did manage to improve the sealing of the battery compartment to further keep the dust out, to protect (somewhat) the existing inverter.

Sheltering in the shade on another hot day

Not much got done but the finishing of the accumulation of rusted tin cans and metal bits into four piles.  No way I can carry what is at least 100+ lbs. of rusting metal.  I looked it up, it takes about 55 years for tin cans to rust away.  

Given the conditions I found the cans and other assorted containers, I figured they'd been around for at least 35+ years.  The rust was well developed and you could, with care, push your finger through the remaining metal on some of them.

Some of the metal trash I found strewn about was larger items, I figure this area has been used previously as a dump by the locals.  Freaking swine!

March 25, Friday

It was a hot one, the high temperature would reach 90°F (32.2°C) outside and 95°F (35°C) inside the VRRV!  Needless to say, I spent most of the day outside, in the shade again.

It had been pretty windless all day, making the heat quite sweltering.  Towards 5:00 PM though, a breeze started to blow though, cooling things down somewhat.

The sunset wasn't too bad.

March 26, Saturday

The day started pretty clear but would turn overcast quite soon after sunrise.  Still, a nice sunrise was made available:

Another hot one today, though there were more clouds in the sky which helped along with a pretty steady breeze.

Today was my last day in the area, as it's the 14th day of the usual 14 day camping limit set by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The plan is to drive Northeast towards the NE corner of Arizona to check out both the Petrified Forest National Park and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Here's what I got for a goodbye from Ajo sunset:

Mail Call and apparently I've ridden to Mordor.

 Monday, March 21

Here's Spring's first sunset for the year (yesterday), at my campsite near Ajo, AZ:

I must say, it's been quite windy so far, this Spring....

I drove into Ajo today on Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol, to fill up her spare gas can and top off her main tank.  Gas here, for the 87 Octane Unleaded, remains at $4.99/gallon.  So, $16....yikes.

That chore done, I drove to the Ajo Post Office to retrieve a care package from home and another from Amazon.

The best thing enclosed, and proof that my wife loves me, was four packages of Salt-Cured Ham.  Yummy.

Along with a spare set of eyeglasses, there was also another item that I bought from Amazon but had delivered to the house.  I must say, when they say overnight delivery is an option, in this case it was same day!  It arrived at my house in less than 4 hours.

I ordered this 500 Watt Pure Sinewave Inverter to have on hand when my existing 600 Watt version bites the dust.  The existing one still works, but lately it's been displaying troubling issues like the power switch taking several times to actually turn on.

The new one is basically the same as the old one, just lower wattage which is fine given my power budget and solar set up.

On a different subject, another map I found at the visitor center in Ajo was for local Mountain Bike rides.  Turns out, I've done quite a few of the trails already as I explored the area on either Scarlett or Yagi.  (Mostly Yagi).

I show you the map as I find it entertaining, useful and humorous way to convey good information.  And yes, Yagi and I did ride to Mordor apparently!

I believe, I've ridden on the following trails, as listed in the map above:  Mordor, Piece of Pie, Nafta, Hello Mexico, Roller Coaster, the Scenic Loop, Sumpin' Specialized, Locomotive Rock, and Side Step.

Tuesday, March 22

Didn't do a whole heck of a lot today, though I did do some riding around noon to get pictures of the Ajo Peaks....the light seemed good anyways.

T'Dub'ing on Pipeline Road and finding an Oldsmobile Holiday 98

 Saturday, March 19

Mid-morning, I rode Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 over to Ajo's Vendor Market,  located right by Artists Alley.  

It turned out to be just a collection of "stuff" that one can easily find in a Thrift Store, to include old shoes.  There weren't a lot of customers, shall we say?

Leaving there, I found the entrance to Pipeline Road, a dirt road which leads east away from Ajo and which seemed worth exploring.  I'd gotten the idea yesterday while checking out an old tourist map at the Ajo Visitor Center.

The pipeline appears to be a Natural Gas pipeline, buried under the desert surface.  I did see another, old and decommissioned pipeline but it went around the tailings pile and in different direction.

The road is dirt as I mentioned, but not bad at all except for a few technical spots and that only because of large, loose rocks or very deep and loose gravel in dry creek beds.

I followed BLM Rout 8100 until it junctioned with Route 8100E which takes you to a small loop at the end, next to the base of the rock formations I'd been wanting to take pictures of.

What's that rectangular opening?  Manmade?

I'm thinking the straight line edge forming the "roof" of the entrance is just the bottom edge of the geological strata.  Still, it seemed man made from a distance.

The most "scenic" rock formation didn't have a name according to my Peakfinder app, so I decided to name it:  The Ark.  What do you think?

Some more pics as I retraced my route back towards Ajo:

so, can you spot the pinhole in the rocks

behind Yagi?

The "mountain" to the right of Yagi in the background

is Coffee Pot Mountain.  I don't see it but then

again I had trouble previously with Locomotive Rock.

Sunday, March 20

The morning was overcast and windy, with the sun briefly shining every now and then.  It would change to clear skies, mostly, in the afternoon.

Based again on a review of the map I took a picture of at the Ajo Visitor Center:

Take note of the short route labeled 8117, top center, in the map above.  It went to the east side of Black Mountain and I was curious to see it.

I took Yagi, my Yamaha TW200, thinking the terrain would be rocky and uneven.  I would be proven correct, the Ural Patrol would not have been much fun.

Through trial and error, and a bit of luck, I managed to find the gate in the fence put up by I assume the Bureau of Land Management.  It's not marked off of AZ Hwy 85.

The route itself is not bad, technical in spots where dry creek beds are crossed but otherwise not bad.  Worse thing is large loose rocks which tend to cause Yagi to bounce and skip around a bit unexpectedly.

Riding along Rte 8117, I stopped Yagi for a picture of the east side, as I got closer:

Rte 8117 peters out a bit away from the base of Black Mountain, see below:

View of the Ajo Valley, looking towards the South

I then retraced my route and explored Rte 8117A.  Not a very long trail and it also petered out soon.  At the end of the trail, I saw this abandoned and cannibalized automobile.

The car's "VIN" number led me to a google search:

info from v8cars.hu

Some googling then led to a picture of a 1956 Oldsmobile Holiday 98 Sedan with the paint job I guessed the car had when new.  (based on what I saw remaining)

I enjoyed finding the information on this car, sad that it was abandoned in the desert but then again, it is what it is.  Apparently, a fully restored model goes for a lot of money today.

Anyways, I left the car behind and tried to find my way back to the gate.  I managed to miss the route back and instead ended up on Darby Well Road!  Apparently, you can get to Rte 8117 without first getting on US85 and finding the gate.  Oh well.

When I got back to camp, I noticed Yagi had picked up a stowaway...must have happened at some point in the ride of course.  Pretty sure it wasn't me brushing up against a cactus as I would have been wearing some similar stowaway!