Lone Rangers Christmas Ride

We headed out on Friday morning to meet some friends up near Wickenburg. It is the annual Christmas Ride for a group we ride with here in Arizona, the Lone Rangers Single Riders Club, yep strange group for us old married folks to ride with, but we have friends who were members and they invited us along last fall for a ride. Since then we have frequented their rides so often that they have accepted us as pseudo members. These folks love to ride and show us newcomers the trails of Arizona and we love to follow them around. They ride once a month over the winter months and we manage to join them on a majority of their adventures. December is the Christmas ride and this year, as last, they gathered in Wickenburg and rode, ate, and exchanged gifts.

We sat around the fire, shared stories, most of them at least in part true, and a lot of laughs as well as great food. As I have said many times before “we are not part of a riding club, we are an eating club that rides.”

Saturday we rode out under the capable leadership of Dave Modahl and headed towards the “Wheel of Life”. a medicine wheel type of rock art in the desert,

I have no idea how this came to be built here in the desert but have no doubt that it was a labour of love and meant a great deal to someone as there is an incredible amount of work that went into it’s construction. On the way out to the Wheel of Life we had to pass a crested saguaro alongside the trail and as usual we got some pictures while we were there including this one of Linda Modahl and her mule Annabelle.

We had lunch at Pete’s Windmill, told a few more stories, then headed back to camp. Brenda and Meg were back in camp as Willow is still lame and we haven’t closed the deal on a replacement yet.

A fellow might not want to slip a little on that trail in the photo above, but Blue is pretty sure footed and getting better and better about watching where he puts those feet.

Here is a map of our ride on Saturday and although it shows some roads on it most of them are only in the mapmakers imagination so don’t try to drive there without a lot of investigation. Our trail is the red one and black trail that joins it is our ride track from last year.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early and headed back to Dogpound South, had to check on Willow, while the rest of the group headed out on another ride before breaking camp and heading home.

Medicine Wheel and Crested Saguaro

Brenda and I in front of the Crested Saguaro, thanks K

This weekend we joined a bunch of friends for a ride out of the Wickenburg Rodeo grounds. We headed up there Friday night and got settled in about mid-day.

That gave me time to take a spin around the area and check things out as well as scout out a water source across the road in the rodeo grounds. Once we had the lay of the land figured out Brenda went to work and cooked us up some of that great Taco Soup and we had a few folks over to help us make sure there was only enough leftovers for one meal. Perfect, and we got to enjoy a little conversation as well as good food around the campfire as the moon rose over Constellation Park.

Saturday was time to ride and Dave and Frank led us on a merry chase through the ravines and up and down a few washes,

and across the desert until we came upon this Crested Saquaro.

and after a few minutes to take a few photo’s we headed on over the hill and dale until we wound up at this Medicine Wheel.

Whether you are a believer or not it is not hard to imagine a person or persons doing all this work without gaining some insight into at least his own bodies workings, that is a lot of rocks to move and place in that pattern. Although I rested on the centre spot here unlike Dave I was unable to levitate anywhere but did feel that same peace that the desert always brings to my soul.

Then it was on to our lunch spot near a set of corrals and a windmill complete with stock watering facilities.

Gathered around the windmill are Theresa on the left, Randy at the centre and Diana on the right, and up at the top is our friend “K”. At work I am sure he has used spurs to climb power poles but just in case you didn’t know “K” those spurs are not for climbing. But if you just can’t resist or are looking for more windmills to scale sometime in the next year or so I need someone to climb up and oil mine at Dogpound North.

Then it was time to head back towards camp.

Coming right along is Gus and Linda, and the rest of the group winding down the trail behind them. Once back in camp Linda took her Mini’s, Madeline on the right and Reba for a walk before we all sat down to a wonderful Christmas dinner complete with turkey, ham and a potluck dinner.

Now the rest of the group rode out on Sunday and saw a little more country but Brenda and I packed up camp and headed back to Dogpound South about mid-morning. In the afternoon Blue and I went over and had another go at cattle sorting, and although we still have a few issues to work through we sure had fun and managed to take a few photo’s of some old time buckaroo’s working in the next pen.

Ranch Roping VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

That looks like an interesting sport with a lot of art and steady horses involved in it.

To have a look at all the photo’s of the Wickenburg ride follow this link,

and just click on Ranch Roping to see more of that.