03-06-12

We have been kind of busy the last few days. I will try to conical it all for you but I may miss a thing or two.

I think we went shopping on Thursday.

Friday was Dennis’ 70th birthday. Patti and I went to lunch with him, Becky Shirley, Bill, Bob at the Q Cafe. While we were having lunch Suzanne and Roy decorated B&D’s Arizona room.

When Becky and Dennis got home we did the “Surprise!” thing

and Of course gave Dennis a hard time about getting old with all the standard old geezer jokes. Of course there was an abundance of laughing and frivolity.

Saturday;

We have gone up the steep grade called the Hogs Back several times. Each time we do we look across the valley at an other way to the top that appears to be much more difficult. Finally it was time to try it.

In the group was Missy, Junior, Jo Ann, Dave, Becky and Dennis in their Rhino. Also was the leader of the Wednesday Jeep ride, another Dennis and his wife in his semi rock crawler and another of the Wednesday jeepers Gene and wife in their Rubicon. Bob went with me in Clifford.

The trail was everything we thought it would be with lots of rocks and some very steep climbs. One spot was particularly steep and with lots of loose rock.

Junior tried it first and after three attempts

just couldn’t quite make it.

Next to try was Dennis in his modified jeep. He made two attempts

 

before he finely made it over the top.

Then Gene tried it in his Rubicon it took him three attempts.

Junior tried it a couple of more times and finally made it.

By now the hill was getting pretty torn up. Next it was my turn. I put Clifford in Low,low and attacked the hill.

After two unsuccessful tries I decided to let some one else give it a go.

Dave was next he hit it a couple of times

and finally got towed over the top by Dennis’s jeep.

Next came Dennis in his Rhino he tried it twice

and also had to be towed up.

Now I was the only one left. I decided that one of the problems I had was not being able to get enough speed in Low, Low so I put Clifford in second gear and punched it. I got as high as the big holes that had been dug in the trail by the previous tries and lost traction.

I had to be pulled the rest of the way.

The next bad spot in the trail was what I called the ‘boulder field’. It was a stretch of road that was steep and made up of boulders from cantaloupe size to basketball size rocks a few feet deep.

Of course the two Jeeps with lockers made it.

Junior had a little trouble but made it okay.

I got stuck between some large rocks and could not go forward or back up.

Finally Junior and I had to move the rocks out of the way

and I was able to proceed.

Dave and Dennis in his Rhino made it with little difficulty.

The rest of the trail although steep

was not much problem and we all made it to the top where we had lunch.

After lunch we went down the east side of the hogs back

to the mail box cabin, also called the Apache chief B&B where we stopped for pictures.

From there we headed for the dripping springs trail. We stopped at one of the more difficult spots in the trail so Dennis in his modified jeep could show what a jeep that is set up properly was capable of.

This is what they mean by rock crawling.

 

It was an easy ride home from there.

Saturday afternoon I loaded Clifford up for our camping trip.

Saturday evening Patti and I went with Becky and Dennis to the stock car races in Blythe. We met Shirley and Bill there. It was fun but it was very cold. I got a few pictures of the races but not many of them turned out.

Patti took this one and it is priceless.

On Sunday we left on our camping trip around 9:30am. We drove south on 95 to about 30 miles to King Valley Road where we stopped to let Dennis unload the Rhino

and for Bob to air down.

From there we drove east; we stopped at the kiosk to get some maps

then continued until we came to the trail to the Horse tanks.  We turned south on the trail

and went to the tanks to see how much water was there. The tanks were low but there was still some water left.

After wandering around there for a while

we went to check out the Indian cave near the tanks.

We left there and went back to King Valley Road and followed it east to intersection 60 where we turned south again. We followed that trail to intersection 53 where we turned northeast and drove for about a mile to intersection 56. Then we turned south and followed that trail south; we stopped for lunch just off the road.

The desert is starting to bloom and it is beautiful.

After lunch we visited Little White Tank

and a bit further along Figueroa tank.

 

From there we retraced out tracks to 56 and turned right following the trail to 76 at King Valley Road, turned right and drove to intersection 79 where we turned south again and drove about eight miles

to where the road has been blocked in a wide wash. The road continues to Castle Rock Dam and Adams Well but there is a cable across the trail.

We camped in the wash.

It is a very scenic spot with high rocky hills all around. We decided to call one of the hills Ares Rock.

It was very nice sitting around a campfire and roasting hot dogs.

The next morning was a little cloudy but it soon warmed up nicely.

We packed up the tents and camping gear and left around 11:30.

On the drive down the wash we saw a couple of large lizards.

One was a Collar Lizard

The other one was a Chuckwalla.

We got home around 2:00, cleaned up and went to subway to get some sandwiches. We took the sandwiches out to the French Quarter where the gang was having party/weenie roast for Suzanne and Roy who are celebrating their 49th anniversary and are leaving Thursday to go back to Canada.

It got a little emotional.

But mostly it was a lot of laughs.

Their leaving is a sign that the season is coming to an end. Our friends will be leaving every week or so until we go home around the end of April. We still have plans to do some camping and other stuff until then but it seems like the season has slipped by so fast. The weenie roast was fun and of course we all laughed and kidded a lot.

Today, I went through all the pictures from the last several days and picked out some of the best ones for the blog. Tomorrow we are going on the Wednesday jeep ride to a place called the Eye of the Needle. It should be fun.