Arizona, Winter 2017

We arrived at Brenda, Arizona, after an overnight stop at the Buckeye Walmart Hilton.  Brenda is on the opposite side of the mountains from where we stayed for five weeks last year.  (Some of you who read the posts may remember the Grand Canyon of Bouse, the highlight of the five weeks.)

A day or two after we arrived, we were invited to join a group ride to an area south of I-10.  Although we had a book of maps I bought last year, we thought it would be good at least once to go with people who know the trails.  Well, at Hidden Valley Road, a big group ride might be 8-10 rigs.  This one had 20 and a couple of folks who were supposed to go stayed home.  TOO MANY RIGS.  However, it did show us how to get to the area south of I-10 for future reference.   It took most of the day to do a ride which we could have done in a couple of hours but we needed to start somewhere.  

We made a couple of peculiar stops.  This is is just a big hole in the ground but the leader stopped here for probably twenty minutes.  It seems there used to be owls who nested in this hole.  They disappeared a couple of years ago but we stopped to admire where they used to be.  

Crossing under I-10 was an interesting experience.  You can hear the massive 18-wheelers going right over your head.  Shortly after clearing the interstate, the leader took us to a small shrine.  No one seemed to know who built it or who it honors.  Another twenty minute stop.

The next stop on the grand tour was at a wildlife guzzler.  Saw one of these out here last year as well.  Each one is different, built specifically to the individual site.  For those of you who may have forgotten, these are rainwater catchment basins built by Arizona Fish & Game to provide additional water for wildlife. 

The next day, we took off by ourselves and just wandered around.  We came up on a small mesa and saw two beautiful big horn sheep.  Unfortunately, my little camera's telephoto wasn't good enough to get a photo with mostly the sheep.  The sheep weren't particularly concerned by our sudden appearance in their domain.  They just watched us for a couple of minutes and then disappeared down a canyon.

These are beautiful animals.  Hard to understand the whole concept of "trophy hunting."

Our friends, Ron and Sally Niemann, left Arivaca and met us here at Brenda.  For two weeks we ran trails with them.  Ron is a geologist and we could get our questions about what we were seeing answered at last!  

We spent one day looking for the location of banded rhyolite, a rather uncommon formation.  On our travels, we found the Apache Chief Mine cabin.  There's a sign on it that says, "If you can't take out your trash, don't stop."  

Banded Rhyolite

We did finally locate the right trail to get to the banded rhyolite deposits.  And the trail was narrow, steep, tilty, with lots of loose rock and a 300 foot drop to the canyon bottom if you made a mistake.  Hhhmmmm....

Ron and rhyolite.

Mike's dog, Indy, is very particular about his friends.  Sally somehow became Indy's very favorite person.  She came over nearly every night, picked Indy up and plopped him in her lap, and he was content.  Not an everyday occurrence with him.  

Sally and Sleepy Indy

Many weeks later:

We finished our time in Arizona and headed to the trailer dealership in Phoenix to fix some warranty problems.  Pulling the 22 foot flatbed trailer loaded with two off-road vehicles through Phoenix traffic is not an experience I want to repeat any time soon.  After several boring hours waiting for the repairs, we got started towards home again.  Phoenix is too far from Deming to make it in one day, even if we hadn't stopped in the trailer dealership.  Safford has a Walmart and we spent the night there.  

The problem with being gone for weeks (or months) at a time is that there is so much work when we get home.  The trailers have to be unloaded and items laundered, cleaned, etc.  And groceries must be bought almost immediately for the trailer in the park if we want to continue to eat regularly.  Usually have at least a grocery bag full of mail,, mostly junk, but it all has to be opened and reviewed.  Just to make things interesting, I started having problems with a tooth.  (Root canal this morning, 3/13.)

The weather has FINALLY started to warm up here and be beautiful.  Deming has had uncharacteristically cold and wet and windy weather the past two winters.  Hope next winter is better.  Today it should be in the high 70's and it's brilliantly clear. 

We will be here in Deming for another 4 weeks and then head out east to visit New Orleans, Vicksburg, and a few other spots before returning to Deming.  After a month or so here, we'll load up and head out to Utah to run off-road trails for four months.  Should have lots of good photos and good stories.

Until then...