Rainy Days bring Flood Warnings.....but nice sunsets

Wednesday, March 11

Didn't get much riding done, the day was rainy and with overcast skies.

 A painted rock found at the campsite, left by previous campers

I did take Yagi out for a brief outing to check out the traction on the roads, it wasn't too bad.

I also verified the route to take to Black Mesa, hopefully I'll be able to ride it in dry conditions this weekend.

While wandering the trails near the campsite, posed Yagi by this abandoned "house".

As you can see in the pictures, the heavy overcast skies presaged no sunset views.  So I was surprised by this view from the camper as I sat down to dinner.  I hurriedly setup the tripod and camera:

Thursday, March 12

Even more rain today, accompanied by Flood Watch notices that became Flood Warnings for the central La Paz County area, where I am camped. 

I kept a close eye on the nearby dry creek bed and it would develop flowing water twice today when it would rain the hardest, but never a hazard to the campsite. 

 Before the rains started

 The clouds moved in over the nearby hills

 After the first big rain storm, about mid-morning....flowing water

can be seen in the nearby creek bed

After lunch, the sun shone briefly through the clouds and I rode Fiona around to see the sights after the rain.  Lots of puddles, and one big one in the same spot as on Wednesday.

 Looking west towards California

 That's the I-10 super slab seen as two straight lines leading into the horizon

The town of Quartzsite is visible as well.

 The big puddle I mentioned.  I did cross it of course, and had to 

goose the engine halfway through as the mufflers were under water!

 Double Rainbows

The rain sort of petered out during the late afternoon but clouds continue to roll northward from the south so it remained overcast for the sunset.

There's less of a chance of rain for tomorrow, Friday, and I hope the weather forecast is correct.  It would be nice for the sun to come out and dry out the terrain around here.

Last Day near Gila Bend, a Moonset, and now boondocking near Quartzsite, AZ

Sunday, March 8

Lazy Sunday, did some light riding with the T-Dub but nothing serious, just looking for new angles on the usual scenery.  Seven days in same location, that's longer than usual for me!

 Hat Mountain again, note the red truck....I didn't spot him

till he was much closer to me.  I wonder where he camped?

 Eye of the Needle?

 Another view of Hat Mountain and the valley

 Can you spot Uma?

Sunday's sunset was "ok"

Monday, March 9

Woke early enough to try and catch the setting of the Moon as the dawn presaged the arrival of the Sun.
I had everything lined up to catch the Moon as it neared the horizon but distant haze occluded my view of the moon, so this is the best I got:

After the moon shot, I broke camp and headed in towards Phoenix and my FIL's home.  The plan was to take receipt of several Amazon packages from him, and hang out there for the rest of Monday.  It was a good opportunity to get a good long shower in, and get a "Butter Burger" at the nearby Culver's Fast Food joint.

Tuesday, March 10.

After a leisurely breakfast, I got more water from my FIL to top off Umarang's fresh water tank and I headed on out towards Quartzsite hoping to avoid the rain forecasted for later in the afternoon.

I would end up arriving at the BLM area south of the Gold Nugget Road exit with a light rain coming down.  Not too bad though, I parked Umarang, got Yagi off the front rack and went scouting in the light rain for a suitable spot.

I found a nice spot, with stone covered flat dirt surface, so I wouldn't have to worry about mud too much over the next few days of forecasted rains.  I re-mounted Yagi onto the front rack, then drove Uma over the spot and set up camp.  By the time camp was set up, the rains had stopped for a bit and the sun even came out!

 Guadalupe Peak close by, with its telecom antennae

As the rain had stopped, and it was only 2:30 PM, I took Yagi out for a ride to see if I could access the road leading up  to the telcom tower complex on top of nearby Guadalupe Peak:

It turned out that the gate was open and I didn't see any "no trespassing" signage so I rode on up the access road.  It proved to be quite steep, this road, and full of big loose rocks which made life a bit too interesting at times.

I stopped, at about 3/4 of the way up, as I wasn't feeling very confident about the remaining distance.  I was also worried about riding back down the steep road with its hairpins but that turned out to be a non-issue with Yagi in first gear!

Some pics taken on the way back down:

 As you can see, I got pretty close to the top.  Perhaps I'll try again.

 Not a bad view of distant peaks and the I-10 Super Slab

Once I got back down, I circled Guadalupe Peak using dirt trails with BLM numbering.  I ended up exploring what looked like a metal frame way up on a small hill:

The yellow van is a camper with two bothersome dogs

Once I got close enough, it was an open shaft of an old mine!  I'm surprised the BLM hasn't covered up this yawning hole in the ground!

You can see one of my other "neighbors" from the top of this hill containing the mine shaft:

I kept exploring the trails, even rode over the overpass to the north side of the superslab's BLM land and found even more interesting trails and one other camper.  Lots to explore here in terms of trails so I'm hoping the rain won't make things too muddy over the next few days.  It's raining lightly as I type this so we'll see.

T-Dub'ing near Hat Mountain, AZ

Pretty light day for activities, pretty windy though sunny and warm.

Somehow, managed to sleep through the night.  Usually I wake up around 2-3AM and usually struggle a bit to get back to sleep, only to wake way before sunrise.

This comes in handy for catching good sunrise pics but it gets old.

This morning, I didn't wake up till almost 7AM.  It felt good.

Rode about the northern portion of Area B with Yagi, my TW200 dualsport.  I rode all the way to the small yet steep pass near Trail 617 but didn't attempt the pass as I was riding alone.

One the way back towards the 609 trail, I got some good pictures of Yagi with Hat Mountain in the background:

 Looking back towards the 617 pass

I rode in part of the way on the 609 trail in order to get a good angle on the cone shaped rock formation:

Exiting the 609 trail, there's a small hillside with several shallow caves embedded.  I parked Yagi and walked to one of the more accessible openings for this show of the valley which includes Hat Mountain:

Rode back to camp with no further pics taken or issues.  I apparently had the whole place to myself as I would only see one Jeep the whole day, and that was later in the afternoon.

Relaxed in the shade, read my book, and just took it easy.  The only "work" done was replacing the brake switch for Fiona's brake pedal.  I'd had the part for a while now and I finally got motivated to replaced the broken one. 

What?  Not worried about not activating brake lights when slowing down?  Fiona has only drum brakes you see, so you use both front and rear brakes to full potential when wanting to stop, there's no just using the rear brakes.  The front brake lever switch works fine to alert the unwary/texting cagers behind me theoretically.

A little T-Dub'ing, a resupply ride to Ajo, more A-10s and a sunset

I woke in time to capture what turned out to be a pretty colorful sunrise:

Around 9AM I rode Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 dualsport over to Gate 14 of the Barry Goldwater AF Range to check it for suitable campsite candidates.  Nice area, but not much in terms of good campsites.  A couple were "OK" but cellular internet was not good.

I then rode Yagi over to the area behind Gate 15 and confirmed two good spots for camping in the future.  Of course, I also posed Yagi among the rock formations.

Rode back to camp  and prepared to load up Fiona, my '99 Ural Patrol with empty gas and water cans to refill them in Ajo, twenty miles or so away.  I also had to pick up a replacement turn signal light bulb for Yagi and some hardware for the URRV.

The A-10 Thunderbolts, a couple of them, returned to do their practice strafing runs on the west side of the highway.  

 The view of an A-10 its intended target sees as the pilot

banks his plane to get a look at the target.

The resupply run was done in the heat of the afternoon after lunch, and it was hot, let me tell ya!

I was glad to get back to the campsite so I could chuck the riding gear and cool off a bit.  Got everything put away, turn signal fixed, motion sensor light re-mounted with the new hardware and relaxed till dinner.

I took Yagi out for the sunset pictures: