A Very Quiet Summer

With Covid-19, all activities in the park were cancelled indefinitely.  The ATV jamboree and Octoberfest were cancelled this week.  Ordinarily there are lots of things to do...Kentucky Derby party, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day, etc.  Not this year.  To my knowledge, there have been no cases at all in park and about 80 cases in Grant County, most associated with the three big copper mines. 

Casual socializing, distanced appropriately of course, still is popular.  At a recent Happy Hour across the street, the hostess, Karen modeled her hummingbird hat.  They have three or four feeders and literally dozens of hummingbirds.

Interestingly enough, business at the park has been very good.  There have been 17 new leases written so far and the park has been booked up in advance for the holiday weekends. 

Living out here in the middle of 3.5 million acres of national forest presents some interesting problems.  Two of the neighbors came out on a Sunday a few weeks ago to find flat tires.  

Above is a photo of the across-the-lane neighbor's tire.  Note the teeth marks.  It was a complete surprise to me that bears are attracted to tires!  Bob, the neighbor, said that they are attracted to oil/fat.  Mutilated tires are a common problem for hunters who take vehicles into the wilderness.  

Update:  Last night I heard gunshots at about 10 pm.  This morning I checked with the neighbor across the street.  A full grown bear was on their deck licking the grill.  When Bob went out with a big flashlight (and a pistol); the bear just looked at him.  So Bob fired five shots into the ground to run off the bear.  It may be the same one who tried to eat Bob's tire.  Time for Fish and Game to come out to trap and relocate him to a more remote area.  

We have new neighbors in the park who have a home in Deming.  This summer, with the heat wave, Deming has been slightly hotter than the surface of the sun so they decided to find someplace at the higher altitudes close to Deming where they can spend time.  They stumbled onto Burro Mountain Homestead, saw a place for sale, talked with the owner, agreed on a price.  Within a week or so, the park had run their background check and they had turned over the money to the owner.  Diane left everything...patio furniture, accessories, linens, kitchen equipment, the works.  

Their new neighbor across the lane had an Arctic Cat Wildcat side-by-side she wanted to sell so they bought that as well.  They had no experience in driving an off-road vehicle and, of course, no knowledge of the trails up here.  We've been coaching them on both.

Yesterday we got a phone call from them that they had gone out by themselves (a very risky idea) and their Wildcat had sprung an oil leak and they were stranded.  It was over 90 degrees.  Took several hours to go out to where they were, set up the tow strap, and then tow them back to the park.  

Mary Anne and Nina at the top of O Shit Hill

On a ride with Nina and Roger, their friend Deb saw a great rock climbing opportunity.  She is far braver than I am.

This is the time of the year when we start seeing the does with their new babies in the park.  Mule deer commonly have twins.  We had two moms and their two each babies this morning at the salt block we recently put in the yard.  The photo is a little fuzzy because I had to take it through the window of the trailer.  I also put out pieces of apple for them.  First one to come by gets it all.

Oh my...where did the past 12 months go?

Somehow the past 12 months have flown past me.  My charming son gave me a push when he recently texted me that I was overdue for a blog post.  He's right...drat.  And then he sent me a second text on the same subject...

Okay, so I will do a recap of the past months with photos.

Shortly after we arrived at Ramblin' Roads RV Resort (RRRR) in October, we visited an off-road dealer in Phoenix to upgrade our rigs. Mike's old Wolverine was beginning to show its age and my Polaris had needed $1,000 in repairs and wasn't even two years old.  I no longer trusted it to keep me safe out in the wilderness.  

The one above was my choice.  (The red truck in the background also belongs to me.)  

This is Ray, our neighbor in the park directly behind us.    Ray is sitting at the entrance to the Desert Queen Mine (Winchester and the Desert Queen).  He was not familiar with off-road so we took him on an excursion in exchange for his helping to remove the spacers on the Polaris.(Spacers set the wheels out about two inches which makes for a more stable ride.)  We didn't want to trade in the Polaris with the spacers on it and we had friends who wanted them (see below).

Robin and Steve live down the lane from us in New Mexico and they also spend winters in Arizona visiting friends in various places.  This photo was taken on Super Bowl Sunday while we watched the KC Chiefs trounce the SF 49'ers in the last quarter of the game!!!!  Steve and Mike installed the spacers mentioned above on their Polaris as it was the same size as my old one.  

We took Robin and Steve on a couple of our favorite rides before they moved on to visit other friends.  This photo was taken at Picnic Hill, a short distance from the park.  In fact, you can see the park by looking out from where Mike is sitting.  

Shortly after Robin and Steve left, our other neighbors in New Mexico arrived for a visit.  Karen and Bob live directly across the lane from us on Sunrise Ridge.  They are experienced side-by-side drivers so we picked some of the more challenging trails for them.  (One trail we wanted to run had a major collapse over the summer and is no longer accessible.  About a 25 foot section of the trail slid down the hillside.  If you go back on the blog posts, I believe I did a post and photos of it year before last.  It's the Yuma Mine Overlook trail.)  

The photo below was taken at what we call the No Left Turn Mine.  It is in a box canyon, and to get to the trail, you turn right at the No Left Turn sign.  And why, you are asking, is there a traffic sign in the middle of nowhere?  If you turn left, there is a parcel of private land which is not open to the public .

It was quite an interesting winter for us as we kept getting new neighbors who like to ride.  One day I walked into the office to buy quarters for the laundry.  Standing at the office window was a tall, attractive 40-ish man who was asking about riding opportunities.  I asked him where he was from (west of Fort Collins, CO) and where he was parked at RRRR.  Oddly enough, he was two spaces down from us.  Well, we had a great time with Jason and Michelle for several weeks.  His sister and brother-in-law joined them for a few days so we had four rigs on the rides.  

Our neighbors from Montana, Colleen and Mike Fenimore, were also at RRRR for the winter.  They frequently came over to join the post-ride festivities with Jason and Michelle.  Here Mike looks over Jason's firearm.

While Jason and Michelle were with us one day, we came across these beautiful animals Big Horn Sheep .  I was leading, came around a curve, and the three rams were at the side of the trail.  Instead of bolting, they just slowly ambled across to the other side and stopped to look at us.  Jason got out to take photos.  (These are his.)  I was too gobsmacked to get my phone out.  

Jason always has a pistol on rides, as do many others.  Since the rams showed no reluctance about staying in the area, Jason fired his pistol to see if they would react.  They just looked at him.  Clearly, they are not hunted and do not fear humans.

Finally they slowly moved off and climbed a hillside, then disappeared over the top.  I asked at the office if people were reporting sightings this year, as we had not seen any Big Horns our previous two winters.  Joyce said that there had been a number of people who had seen them.  An incredible piece of luck to see them.

Before Jason and Michelle left, they told us they are looking forward to coming back to RRRR for three weeks next year to ride with us.

And the fun and interesting people just kept coming.  We met a couple from Maryland who also liked to off-road.  Steve and Levere spend winters in AZ, drifting around from park to park.  Steve drives and is relatively new to it; Levere doesn't drive.  We were careful about our selection of trails and went out with them several times.  Levere really wanted to learn to drive but didn't want Steve to teach her so I took her out a couple of times.  The photo below is what happens when you open the door and step out without checking where you are.  

Levere was driving and wanted me to take over, as she wasn't comfortable with driving the trail ahead.  So dummy me, I jumped out and rammed right into a jumping cholla cactus (Jumping Cholla).  I had jeans on when this happened so you can imagine what it would do to someone wearing shorts.  It takes needlenose pliers and tweezers to pull the spines out, as they have a barb at the end.  Go in really easy and come out really hard.  If you don't get them out, they create a festering sore.  

Going into Phoenix is an exercise in patience.  We are about 100 miles west via I-10.  The photo below was taken at 2:30 PM on a weekday.  Heaven help us if we leave any later than that.  

On this trip to Phoenix, Mike diverted to show me the Arizona Biltmore development and golf club Arizona Biltmore.  How the other 5% live...  He stopped at the club house and purchased the visor below so I could feel rich.  The parking lot at the clubhouse was full of BMW's, Porsches, Mercedes, etc.  

One more lucky encounter:  John and Wanda Kintzer.  They farm 30 miles east of Minott, ND and were in AZ for the winter.  Their son farms adjacent to them so he keeps everything going over the winter.  

John had an older four-wheeler and wasn't familiar with the side-by-sides.  Since we have two machines, we took them out for several rides and then we had the usual post-ride festivities at our place.  Both of them play guitars and participate in the jam sessions the park holds.  So one night, they brought over a guitar and we had our own little jam session and sing-along.  It was really fun.

We got a text message and a photo from them not long ago .  They stayed at RRRR weeks after we left as the weather in ND was cold, wet, snowy, etc. and the COVID-19 virus was making it dicey to travel.  As soon as they got back to ND, John went out and bought a Wolverine like Mike's!  They are planning to come back to RRRR next year and ride with us.

So now we are back at Burro Mountain. Lots of sunshine, wind, 50's at night, 70's during the day.  All park events (Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day festivities, etc.) have been cancelled.  There will be no group events until further notice which may be all season.  Oh, well, since we are not social, it makes no difference.  

Hope you all are doing the appropriate things to protect yourselves and families from the virus.