1-10-04

Peace and quiet is shattered in remote desert wash.

I found a nice little camping spot down in a wash below an area that has a desert drawing on a large flat spot of desert pavement. Somebody(s) a long time ago, scraped up the small dark colored rocks that make up a pavement on the lighter colored soils underneath. I am not sure just what this picture is, there are several around the area, but from the air they can be seen. I saw some photos in Quartzite that showed several different ones. The most famous one is of a man figure with a spear pointing down to a squiggly line (water) with fish underneath. The story goes that the local Indians have a traditional story about some god striking the earth and forming the Colorado river. These are almost impossible to see and were first found when airplanes started flying in the area. The BLM has them fenced off to keep the four wheelers from tearing them up. I guess the last time I spent any time in the desert, there were no quads. There were lots of dirt bikes and their trails were very evident. The machine of preference now is the quad. The little road up the hill from my old camp when I first got there was little used and the road was just perfect for mountain bilking. By the time I left, the road was two deep ruts of dust and piles of loose gravel on the sides and middle. It was really hard to ride my bike. There was a pack of kids that would go up the road and  one or more of them must have locked up the front brakes and dug two big holes in the road with the rear tires. They did this several places on the way up the road and there were several places where they would just zoom around in circles. I am sure they were having fun and I probably would have been one of them when I was younger! Most of the riders were old folks and I don’t think they were tearing up the roads like  the kids but just the action of the aggressive tread chews up the roads. I remember that there was quite a controversy over mountain bikes when they first came out because they sure do tear up trails. Vibram or lug soled boots do the same so I guess unless we all go bare foot our human trails will get chewed up until all is paved. I once saw a photo of a crossing point on the Rio Grande river where the Indians had been using that spot to cross for thousands of years. the trail went up over a sandstone (?) embankment that had been worn down maybe twenty feet by the foot traffic. I guess that would be bare feet and yucca fiber sandals.

I put out a few targets and happily punched a few holes in them with 22 rifle and pistol. It was nice to touch off a few rounds after such a long withdrawal. It was so nice and quiet down here!!! I found a few clay pigeon fragments so I guess this is a favorite spot for the shot gunners as well.

1-11-04

I took a hike up the nearest hill to see if I could get a look at the desert pavement drawing (what are these things called?) from above but it was too far away to see. I am in the desert where the saguaro cactus grows. The old ones with many arms are several hundred years old. This area must not be conducive to long life but I did find several that were fairly good size. There is also the cholla, pad and some barrel cactus. It is mostly open country with greasewoods and mesquite and paloverde  in the washes. E-dog hasn’t gotten into the cactus yet….

I headed off the top of the hill and came straight down the north side toward a big wash. Just a short way down the hill I saw something moving in the underbrush. I stopped and watched as a very small animal moved easily down the hill stopping often to look back and check what I was doing. I don’t know for sure just what it was and was kicking myself for not bringing my binoculars along. It was about the size of a cat but I think it was probably a fox. It was medium gray with a long charcoal gray tail. When it would stop and look back at me, it appeared to be light silver color under the chin and neck. I watched it as it made its way to the wash and disappeared. I thought it was amazing that Ely didn’t see it moving. She is not a hunting type dog at all. I always liked to hike with my ridgebacks because they saw everything. I guess if we run across some desert sheep she can rip into action.  As we worked our way down to where the fox(?) was, Ely could really smell it, even though it was long gone. We came back to camp on a quad road and there was a patch of the road that was just powder where I found some small tracks. I am not sure if it was the same animal but these were about 1inch across in the dust and were definitely dog like. When Ely made tracks in the dust, they were over 2inches across. It must have been a fox that I saw, if these were its tracks. We have a nice desert animal book and I will try to get susan  to send it to me.

We just lazed around the rest of the day and enjoyed the quiet

1-12-04

we went up the major quad road on bike at sunrise for a little exercise and came back and set up the work bench and made a few hair clips. There have been a few quad people come by. They really just creep along as most of the guys have their wives along. They all have a big cooler on the back rack and  that must be where all the beer cans are coming from. I try to pick up any cans I see on my travels. I have a really nice camp under a mesquite tree for shade. I have the radio set up and the only am station I get has Rush on this morning. E dog is usually sacked out and wakes up and comes over to see what the problem is when I yell at the radio.

Oh, later is shawn hanidy (sp?) and O’Riley so it was a very conservative day under the tree pounding on my silver. It is so nice to be away form all this action here in town. I just came in around sundown and am headed back now. It is only about ten miles or so to camp so that isn’t a bad commute. I never have made it to Bouse but might take a trip over the hill to see it. I think it is only twenty miles form quartzite so I am halfway there.

The radio station says that there will be bragging weather all week. I hope you all have the same where you are.

Cheers, Rx