The Wednesday Ride

We gathered in front of  Freda and Gene's place on the northwest corner of Quartzsite. The plan was to take Boyer Gap Road north and then get on a trail that goes west toward the mountains.

Once we were all aired down we left on our ride lead by Dick in his latest jeep. There were eleven  jeeps this time. That is a long line of jeeps.

We got on Boyer Gap Road heading north. We drove for about 1/2 mile and went through a gap in a fence where we turned west and followed a narrow track toward the mountains.

We drove through washes;

up and down steep hills;

 

and along ridge tops.

 

 

We even found some rocks to crawl over.

 

 



We passed a Saguaro with a birds nest.

Some of the front jeeps reported seeing deer but as we were at the end of the line we saw no wildlife.

Patti noticed this small window in the top of a rocky hill.

We dropped into a large wash where we found a place out of the wind. The day was bright and clear but the light wind that was blowing was very cold so we sat in the lea of the bank and enjoyed the warmth of the sun while we ate our lunch.

After lunch we continued in the wash for a while then climbed out of the wash and got back on Boyer Gap Road and drove east for a couple of miles.

Near the Tyson Wash we turned left off Boyer Gap Road and headed north on a smaller trail. We followed this trail for about a mile where we crossed Tyson Wash. The trail entered a large area of sand dunes.

We stopped at a spot where Patton's army had done a lot of tank training. There are still some old bullets and other military stuff around. The area has been picked over pretty well in the years since WWII ended so there isn't a lot of stuff still lying around.

Some of the guys broke out their metal detectors to see if they could find anything interesting.

 

They were no more successful than those without the detectors. There were a few bullets and a couple links from 50 cal machine gun belts found but nothing real interesting

After some time we got back in the jeeps and continued through the dunes.

Eventually we came to a fence near the  large mine that can bee seen from Highway 95 north of Q.
These are the tailings from the mine.

We turned left and followed the fence for a while eventually the trail turned south.

We followed this trail until it dropped into Tyson Wash where we stopped for a break.

Once we got going again we drove south in the wash for a ways and turned right, onto a trail that crosses the wash. We followed it back to Boyer Gap Road and turned toward home.

It was a fun ride and we got to see some places where we hadn't been before.