Boondocking

We headed out of Dogpound South last Wednesday towards a spot over near the La Paz Valley. We have been there before but it was a long while back, in fact almost 6 years ago was the last time we left there. It was great to get back to that wonderful spot. It is quiet and off the beaten track and although the madness that is Quartzite in January is only an hour away it doesn't spill over towards our spot. Although this a great spot for chillin' and riding the Can-Am it would not be so good for the ponies as it is pretty rocky. I spent some time riding some old trails that I had walked extensively 6 years ago, but although Blue II can cover a lot more ground in a lot less time than Shank's Pony he is restricted to existing trails where on foot you can roam wherever your mind tends to lead.

Some of this weeks trails

My riding partners changed on an almost daily basis, sometimes Brenda came along, but when she opted to enjoy the peace and quiet in camp Max was more than willing to climb aboard and see the country.

Max along for the ride

 He is probably wondering where to get some of those Doggles that Emmi from Montana has for riding the desert.

Our low profile toy hauler

Camp along the wash

Great for an ATV but not so great for horses

A Panorama from atop TV Hill

 Long time readers will recall some shots from atop this hill taken back in January 2011. I am here to tell you it was a lot quicker and certainly easier on the lungs getting back up here on Blue II rather than Shank's Mare. If you click on this shot and enlarge it the red arrow is pointing at our site this year.

 This quartz outcrop is just poking out of the desert.

Just a shot of a small hill along the trail

Sunset with what I call TV Hill in the centre.

Blue II waiting patiently for Brenda and I to investigate a mine flooded with water. 

Doing our part to repatriate some Carbon back into the atmosphere

Max and Maya chillin' in camp.

An old Mine Site

A beautiful vista

An interesting piece of wood, looks like a leg roast

 I stumbled on these store fronts along the trail, I have no idea how or why they came to be there. Out back are pens that look like stabling but not much sign of critters being held there.

Star Struck

An interesting piece of wood that I found along the wash.

We thoroughly enjoy our stay in the desert, I think between Brenda and I, we consumed about 7 or 8 books and still saw a lot of country. Although we didn't see to many other folks out there it is obvious that we are pretty pokey when it comes to ATV'ing, we rather enjoy moseying along at 6 or 8 miles an hours snooping in every nook and cranny and watching for the things that those hurtling along at breakneck speeds might miss.

Everybody is going somewhere. Those are all trails in the sky

Christmas Feast

Brenda misses her turkey and all the trimmings, or maybe she just misses cooking for hours and hours. So this year she decided that she was doing it all. We got a fresh turkey, bread crumbs and all the rest and she spent a glorious Christmas Day making all her favourite side dishes. We had a roast turkey that was about 5 times bigger than we could eat, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, mashed carrots and turnips, homemade cranberries, and of course real stuffing right from the bird, all dressed up with her great homemade gravy. And to finish it off we had shortbread cookies, both Pecan and Butter tarts, along with chocolate mints, homemade turtles, and peanut butter balls. And to top it all off we managed to coax Ivan and Hailey in from their usual desert haunts to help us with the feast.

Ivan slipped in on Christmas Eve and we had a great session catching up on all the details of his travels this winter and his firefighting endeavours last summer. Although we both winter in the south and only live a few miles apart on the Northern Ranges we don't actually bump into each other all that frequently. Ivan's blog keeps us reasonably up to date on his activities but with my somewhat infrequent blogging we had lots to share.

While Brenda was working her magic in the kitchen Christmas Day Ivan and I took a whirl in the side by side out to the Petroglyphs along Vekol Wash.

It was a nice day for a ATV ride, not to hot and not to cold, and we wandered up through the Petroglyphs contemplating who and when they were put there. It turned into a sunny warm day and we sat on the side of the hill enjoying the sunshine and having a good chin wag. If anyone has any questions about the state of affairs in the world today or concerns about how they are turning out, you can let your minds rest at ease, I hazard a guess Ivan and I solved most of those issues over the past couple of days. Now if someone only comes to find out the answers.

We did have a couple of locals wandering about while we were there also.

All in all a pleasant day, topped off by a wonderful meal.

A Different Kind of Trail Ride

As Al from the Bayfield Bunch would say Yahooie Louie, Brenda has made it to Arizona. I ran into Sky Harbor to pick her up on Monday afternoon. Enroute I had some things to gather at Costco to start her re-provisioning of the place down here at Dogpound South. I guess the bag of spuds, package of steaks and jar of peanut butter that I had wasn't satisfactory.

I spent a large portion of the weekend dusting and vacuuming around the place here but as I expected she was soon redoing everything. Tuesday morning she was off to Fry's for a big grocery re-supply, so I headed off swimming so I was limbered up for the hauling the big load into the house when she got home. I am trying to get a swim in on most weekdays, nice to have the great Copper Sky facility so close, and usually for most of my swim I have the pool to myself.

On my last solo journey out into the desert with my ATV I met some hikers coming out of a wash, I stopped to chat with them and turns out they are from Canal Flats in British Columbia, having recently retired and moved there from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Turns out they know our daughter Lacey. They also have an ATV and told me that they would give me a shout next time they were heading out.

Friday evening I heard from Paul and Linda, telling me that they and another couple, Brad and Carol were going to run down to Vekol Ranch late Saturday morning with the ATV's. I met them at their place a few miles from Dogpound South (DPS) and off we went. Now in the past when I am out there by myself I just poke along, but these guys cover ground in a hurry. Amazing how fast you can actually move with these machines and the suspension just eats the bumps. And seeing how I had no idea where we were going I had no choice but to keep up. That sometimes is a challenge as you want to stay far enough back to avoid most of the dust but close enough so when they take a fork in the road you don't miss the turn. I am a decent tracker and given time I could probably figure which way they went, but at the pace they set, pondering the turns would just put me further and further behind, so driver her McGyver was the order of the day. They did stop along the way for a cool beverage though.

As this was my first trip out with a group I had brought along my extra gas can, just never know how far this guys we're going and I don't yet have a good handle on how far my outfit will travel on a tank, so better safe than sorry. After asking that question they assured me they never really travel more than a tank of fuel on a trip as they would have to leave some coolers full of beverages home to make room for gas. I'll know for next time. Bigger coolers and smaller gas jugs, Got it!!

After a short break we headed south up Vekol Wash, under I-8, and soon arrived at a spot they call Vekol Ranch, an abandoned set of buildings. Rumour has it that it was inhabited as recently as the 1970's, but I am betting water levels dropping caused it to stop flourishing. The old well sounded pretty deep but a rock dropped down it just hit a dry bottom after a long fall so that probably confirms my theory.

Stone and Concrete

 The house was made out of cement blocks and all the walls and outbuildings were fashioned from stone. The fireplace below as well as a big fireplace inside the house were also built with stone. Probably hauled in from the mountains you see in the background and obviously, from the green tint, a copper rich environment.

Outside Fireplace and possibly Cooking Oven

We ate our lunch at this stop as well.

Lunch spot

After lunch we continued on south to another spot where some enterprising folks had built a kind of stone boundary complete with lizards, stone, and other figures outlined with local stones. A lot of work went into this and it appears that most folks are respecting the work and leaving it be.

Stone Art

It would be interesting to talk to the artist and hear just what it is meant to signify, I think it is pretty recent stuff, unlike the Medicine Wheel we came upon while riding up near Wickenburg. This was the southern terminus of our trip and we basically followed the wash back up to the Petroglyphs I was at a couple of weeks ago and then on to DPS. Overall we traveled about 50 miles through the desert and it appears that I had lots of fuel left, I think I am down to 3/4 of a tank now, so I might be able to leave that jug at home.

Picket Post and ATVing

This week I spent some time at the pool everyday getting my routine back up to snuff. Yesterday Thursday was the first time I make the 4000 yards I try to achieve each day. Took ten days to get there after having a sloth like summer where swimming wasn't on the agenda. But it is hard to ignore Maricopa's great facility just down the road and that morning swim is usually just me, 8 lanes of pool, and a life guard or two.

After the swim I headed out to Picket Post as I heard a rumour friends of our Dave and Linda Modahl were going to be there for a Lone Rangers ride this weekend. The Modahl's live up by Seligman now so this might be as close as they will get this winter so I wanted to take the opportunity to pop by for a visit. I had a nice chat with them and over the time I spent there some others folks I know, Judy, Suzi, Becky, and Gary pulled into camp so I got to say hi to a bunch of riders.

PIcket Post Mountain

 It is always great to see old friends and it is especially nice to do it in as beautiful a spot as this.

This morning I was intending to head to the pool but Matt called from Dogpound North late last night and said there appeared to be a lake forming in the barnyard back home so I stuck around here to give him what help I could on the phone as he troubleshot that issue. Turns out the waterer had burst a hose, so he was able to shut it down and will replace the hose in the next day or two. Meanwhile the horses have the other waterer to use so all is under control on the northern ranges.

Once the water issue was resolved at DPN I thought it was a good time to take Blue II for a spin down at the end of Warren. There are a bunch of trails down there that I have ridden in the past with Blue and I thought some of them might be OK with an ATV. Some of it is State Trust Land but I have always had my permit up to date so that wasn't an issue. I ran into some hikers down there from Rocky Mountain House and had a chat with them about some of the places they ride their quads when they aren't hiking.

Blue II ready to unload

 Although many of the trails are good enough to use the Commander on, it is still a little bit more restricted than a horse, when you are on horseback it is kind of go where you like, but with these machines you need to stay on the commonly used trails so you don't cause unwanted impacts to a delicate environment.

Along the trail.

I am still getting a feel for where this new outfit will go. And travelling alone out there it is always good to use an abundance of caution. Although the likelihood of getting bucked off is somewhat less than on horseback the consequences would be just as serious I expect. For the first 20 years of my working life I was in the back country with either four wheel drives or tracked vehicles and learned along time ago not to get myself into spots that might be challenging to get out of so I am always looking around the next corner to make sure I can get back. It is amazing the places that this unit will crawl over and up though. I am sure as I get more familiar with it my horizons will expand a little.

Top of the Mountain.

And here is the view from just behind the machine. The red circle is where our truck and trailer are and the X marks DPS. Wonder how many drug lookouts saw me go by and wondered what I was up to.

Back in Canada Brenda has returned to Alberta from her Rare Disease Conference and after a couple of days of rest will jump on a plane to the Valley of the Sun. We are looking forward to seeing her on Monday.

Petroglyphs

Yesterday I decided to take a run out into the desert and see what I could see. I have heard for years about these petroglyphs but they are a little far for a ride from DPS, about 10 miles one way with the CanAm although you might be able to knock a mile or so off of that on horseback. But that is just a short run with my new ride, so I made a loop of about 25 miles out of it.

Petroglyphs

 The whole hillside is covered with this prehistoric art, obviously someone or probably many someones had a lot of time on their hands. I need to go back and take some better shots but I think I will wait till it cools off a little more, it looks like a snake rich environment, and although I didn't see any I wished I had some tall boots on while I was clambering about.

Ribs

I did find this Millipede, who had not survived the summer heat or something. Usually they are a kind of reddish colour and this fellow looked pretty bleached out so he might have been there a while.

I am guessing that the artists who did these petroglyphs were actually just killing time while they watched this vast plain waiting for dinner to come walking by. It must have been a much wetter time as I can't imagine a lot of game wandering around there now, although I have seen deer in the mountains to the south before.

Today was the first of the winter series barrel races so I headed up there for a while and took a few pictures.

Sue Coleman

Connie Volk

Jasmine Naffarate

C.C. Cochran

Always good to see fast horses at work. I think they had about 40 riders and the weather was beautiful, mid 70's.

Brenda headed down to Toronto for her Rare Disease conference, she will be there all week, returning to Alberta on Friday. After a day or two of resting up from the long flight home she will be joining me down here at DPS.