More birds, more Uraling and a Sunset at the Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area

Another gloriously warm and sunny day.

All the noisy dirt biker and ATVs left last night, leaving the place very quiet.  The camp host said it was unusual for the weekend to be so quiet.  I'll take it!

Did some Uraling after breakfast but first, these birds presented themselves in the vicinity of the URRV and I got some decent pics that I then enlarged.

 I wonder if this is a female Cardinal?

 I believe this is the same Cardinal I saw yesterday

Ok, so then I went Uraling in the nearby dunes.

Near the common area by the hot tubs, I spotted this interesting area of heavily eroded rock formations:

So of course, I had to get closer for a good look:

By now it was past 11:00 AM and it was getting quite warm.  I went back to my campsite and after a leisurely lunch, spent the afternoon reading books in the shade of the campsite's trees and doing minor cleanup tasks on Fiona.

Even managed to work in a short nap once things had cooled down a little bit around 5:00 PM as I waited for the right time to head out for sunset pictures.

I exited the recreation area with Fiona and we went north a mile or so on Haekel Road till I saw a good flat spot to pose her off the side of the road.

Uraling the Sandy Dunes of Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area

Pretty good day today, sunny and warm, almost too hot!

I put the new Heidenau K37 Knobby tire that I'd had on Fiona as a spare, to use as the pusher tire as there was sand to be ridden today!

No issues doing the tire swap, though the sand in the campsite proved a bit unstable for the bottle jack until I made sure the rig wouldn't "rock" as the pusher wheel was lifted off the sand.

 The BLM Site Host lent me the required flag for riding in the dunes.

I rode the main trail about 4 miles to get closer to Javelina Peak:

I then returned to the vicinity of the campsite area to try Fiona's traction in the dunes and sandy "trails" nearby.  Just in case I got stuck, I wouldn't have a long walk to the host's site to ask for his help.  Turns out I didn't need any help, Fiona did great!  I did have to use 2WD most of the time though in order to keep up momentum on the steeper portions.

Lots of fun criss-crossing among the dunes, not really tackling the big dunes yet.  Then I got back on the main "road" and exited the recreation area and drove Fiona on the heavily cratered paved portion of road.  I'm talking medium sized bomb craters in some cases!

 The snowy peak is Mount Heliograph

 Another shot of Javelina Peak from Hackle Road, the access road

used to link the towns of Bowie and Safford.

Going back into the recreation area, I went all the way to Area C where the hot tubs are, and the wider parking areas for day users are located.  This is the area where most of the ATV traffic seems to have been headed towards.  The campsites are mostly in area B fortunately.

Dang ATV and dirt bike riders, apparently the 10 MPH speed limit on the main access road is but a suggestion to them.  This is why we can't have nice things.

Anyways.  They've drained the hot tubs due to Covid-19, they don't want people to be that close to each other you see.  I'd tried riding Yagi to the hot tubs for these pics:

Here's remnants of the drilling hardware used to tap into the hot water pocket that was discovered back in 1928 while drilling for oil in the area.

Then I tried some of the small dunes and sandy trails and there was a lot of dabbing on my part.  I think I just go too slow, speed is apparently a requirement but I don't want to "go down" while moving faster....so it'll be mostly riding on Fiona for me there rest of my time here in the Hot Well Dunes area.

I returned to my campsite, parked the rig and later took a short walk to get some pictures of the flora. 

 Prime Bloom Condition

 Decaying....?

Spent some time reading my e-book at the stone picnic bench that is part of the campsite.  It's in the shade of trees so it was really nice and comfortable conditions.  I spotted this bird nearby and had the camera ready with the telephoto lens.  I'd spotted this character yesterday you see, this time I was ready.

A Cardinal in Arizona!  Go figure.  :)

Prior to sunset, close to 6PM or so, I took Fiona into the nearby dunes again thinking I'd find a nice spot to pose her with the sun setting in the background.  Climbed a few dunes looking for a spot but didn't find anything usable.

Still, I did manage a couple of pics of her on a tall dune.

I got back to camp, a bit of clutch disk odor coming from Fiona as I had to do a bit of slipping the clutch each time she would start to get bogged down!  She climbed the semi-steep dunes just fine but a running head start and constant acceleration was mandatory!

Then I took the camera and tripod, and walked to a good spot after trying several, to get this shot of the sunset.  No clouds, but good color.

I like this campground so far, and bonus, the BLM isn't collecting the $3/vehicle fee that is due!  I forget the reason but most likely it's Covid-19 related somehow.

Now boondocking at the Hot Well Dunes BLM Campground

Thursday, April 2

Did mostly nothing all day but hang out by and in the URRV, reading books, cooking meals, puttering around and just trying out the "do nothing" concept.  No riding!  Spent way too much coming to grips with a "Hate Message" I received from a nut job in Oregon, he didn't like my April Fool's Day posting involving Baboquivari Peak.  Anyways, moving on.

Friday, April 3

Displaced from the campsite in the Santa Margarita Ranch and drove through Tucson via the I-10 Super Slab, taking the opportunity to dump tanks and top off the fresh water tank at an RV resort ($20!).  Then I kept driving east on I-10 and at Benson, AZ I got propane at a propane dealership.  I'd first tried a Loves Travel center but they couldn't get my tank to take in any propane....said something wrong with my propane tank.

Dammit.

So I left the Loves Travel Center and drove a few miles to a propane place to have them try again.  The guy said it was just because my onboard propane tank was "warm" from the day's heat and driving and it was fighting the inbound pressure of the propane dispenser.  He got it going, slow at first then it sped up to normal fill up speeds as the new propane cooled down the tank I guess.  Pheeww, I thought I had a repair job in my future!

I kept driving and eventually got off the I-10 super slab at Bowie, AZ and wound my way north about 20 miles to the Hot Well Dunes BLM Campground.  I wanted to see how the motorcycles would do at these dunes.  The sand on the trails here is much looser!

That is Javelina Peak in the background.

First though, another repair.

The slideout had been doing its usual bump when sliding out and while disturbing at first, I'd not found anything wrong with the mechanism underneath.  Today as I went to move the slideout, it kind of stopped about half way and I had to to keep  pushing the button on/off to nudge it fully out.  Dammit.

Then I had an epiphany as I noticed the slideout presented no issues coming back in but did have issues going back out.  Hmmmm.....was the awning cover dragging and the slideout having to fight to deploy it?

After a bit of puzzling over the awning's mount and removing screws attaching it to the slideout, I finally got it off.  It's going to be a two person job to put it back on, if ever I do.  I think I may have to replace it because without it installed the slideout goes out and in just fine, no issues, no bumps, no jerks, nothing!  So it was the awning causing the issue.

I'll leave it removed and carry it home in the trailer for further study and thought.  Not to mention, I need ladders and another person to install it back up or put up a replacement.

Then again, it's a "nice to have" item, it precludes your having to go up on the roof to sweep the top of the slideout clear of leaves, branches etc before sliding it back in.  We'll see.

No real riding this afternoon, was just too spent removing the slideout's awning cover and I'd managed to leave the ignition key in the ON position on Yagi when I dismounted it from the front rack so I had to run the generator to recharge Yagi's battery.  Doh!

Yagi's battery did charge up pretty quickly so I took her for a brief spin in the nearby dunes....the traction here is trickier than the dunes in the Imperial Sand Dunes area back in California.  More on this tomorrow.

The sunset turned out pretty good as I wandered around the nearby sandy dunes (covered with bushes on the top).

Uraling to Santa Margarita Ranch and a small April Fool's Day Prank

Today's Sunrise wasn't too bad:

After breakfast today, I gathered up the nearly full bag of trash and used Fiona, my '99 Ural Patrol to ferry it to the Waste Transfer Station for the town of Sasabe, located near the junction of AZ 286 and Arivaca Road.

Chore complete, I drove back north of Mile Marker 15 and turned into the driveway for the Santa Margarita Ranch, the land on which I am camping being part of the ranch.

Not much to see, there's a long and pretty straight dirt road in pretty good condition that takes one eventually to the closed gate to the actual ranch buildings.  There's a "Designated Access Route" going off to the left of the gate which leads one to the sometimes rough and always rock strewn trails to the south.

I went down this access route for a bit but found nothing significant or scenic so I turned back to the main access road and retraced my way back to the highway.

Along the way, I stopped when I spotted a puddle that provided a good reflection of Baboquivari Peak:

Mildred Peak between the trees and of course, "Babo" is the

tallest peak.

Returning back to the campsite, I stayed geared up and changed to Yagi to check out a trail I'd spotted enroute to the Baboquivari Trail Head.

I went up a side trail up a small hill and found this view and a water tank in apparent working order though the surface of the water was green and slimy.

Getting off the hill the way I went up, I turned onto the trail to be explored.  I didn't get very hard as it turned gnarly really fast.  I elected to stop while I was ahead when things became steep and with big rocks at the bottom and went back to the campsite.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the warm weather, reading and listening to books and just doing minor chores on Fiona and the URRV.

The April Fool's Prank which I put together hurriedly this morning after downloading and installing Photoshop.  I only posted it on Facebook:

The text was:  T-Dubing to the top of Baboquivari Peak.....well, almost. Can you spot the T-Dub in the second picture? 

Here's the two pictures I included:

So, can you spot the T-Dub?  :)