Junior came back from the Wednesday ride and told us about a mine that he had visited. It sounded like a mine that we had been to earlier this year. We decided to go with him yesterday to check it out.
There were three jeeps on the trip; Junior led in his jeep with Dennis riding shotgun, Mary Ann and Randy drove their jeep
and Patti and I followed in Clifford.
I neglected to mention in previous blogs that, Mary Ann and Randy traded their Hummer H3 in and purchased a 2012 Jeep Rubicon.
They are very happy with the change and have been following us on several trips.
We drove out Plomosa Rd. to Mile 6 and turned right into the desert. We wound around through gullies and over hills until we got to the mine.
As soon as we pulled up we realized that we had in fact been there before but since Mary Ann and Randy hadn’t we went inside.
This was Mary Ann’s first mine experience and she enjoyed it.
This is one of my favorite tunnels because it is so colorful, with seams of Crisocola,
Iron Pyrite
and Quartz.
After we left that mine we went a little further around the mountain. and checked out another one. This one has a deep vertical shaft at the back with a scary looking ladder going down it.
From there we drove out to Plomosa Road and headed north toward Bouse. We turned west off Plomosa Rd and headed for the Four Peaks. We stopped to show Mary Ann and Randy the “big hole”. We have been there many times before so I neglected to take any pictures. Leaving the “big hole” we have to climb a steep bank. It was good practice for Randy as he is something of a novice at off roading.
His Rubi makes up for a lot of inexperience and after a little backing and filling he got around the tight right turn. We all had to do the same maneuvering by the way. From there we headed west and south toward Quartzsite. On the way we had to cross several sand dunes, another learning experience for Randy. The last dune in the group has a steep soft sandy incline. We went over it in Clifford with out a problem. A short time later Junior came over the top. We waited for a while and could hear the Rubicon's engine winding up on the other side of the hill. The Ruby was having trouble getting up the sandy incline.
The main problem was that Randy hadn’t lowered the tire pressure. This is something that new jeepers have trouble understanding. They are afraid that the tire will come off the rim if they lower the pressure and don’t understand that lower pressure gives them better traction in the soft stuff and a softer ride in the rocks. It also saves the tires from sharp rock ruptures.
We dropped the pressure in the Rubicon’s tires
and had Randy try the hill several times. Eventually he got the idea of keeping his speed steady and got over the sand hill.
Mary Ann wanted to try it and flew over the hill. She was very excited that she made it with no problem.
All in all it was a fun ride as well as being a good learning experience for Randy and Mary Ann.
No comments:
Post a Comment