New Adventure #10

Monday, March, 02
This is the hottest day we have experienced so far on this journey. The thermometer inside “Plan B” reads 100 degrees. I am sure there will be more days like this to come.
Today is also Dennis’s birthday. In honor of the day Becky is having a little party this evening. I am cooking dinner “Napolies” or “Napolitos” I am not sure which is correct. At any rate, it is a Southwestern or Mexican dish made from pickled Beavertail Cactus, pork and some other things. I learned to make it from Wayne. We have had it three times so far and it is excellent.
We went to the bookstore (The Readers Oasis) today, to trade in some books and get some new used ones.
We have been to this book store a few times but I have neglected to mention it in detail.
The store has a large selection of new and used books but the thing that stands out, is the proprietor. I have never been in a book store or any other store for that mater, where the owner is virtually naked. I was going to try and describe him but decided that the best thing was give you a link to a web sight with his picture on it.
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/photos/authors_in_their_natural_/p6280127.html
You may have to copy and paste this link to the address bar on your browser.
Arizona dose have its share of caricatures.







It’s 100 degrees in here so I think it’s time to turn on the Air Conditioner before I start dressing like the book seller. Especially if I am going to cook Mexican food.
The dinner was a success. We had a good time talking with Becky and Dennis. They are from northern California and are about our age, so we have a lot in common.

Tuesday, March. 03.
Woke up to an overcast day. It almost looked like it would rain but it never did.
Becky and Dennis had never done any exploring in “The Kofa” refuge so we took them on a ride there today.
Ok, It’s time to get out your map now.
We had to go to Mile Marker 95 to get to the Pipeline rd. which is 14 miles south of Quartzsite on the US 95.
The “Rhino” (I misspelled it in the last episode) is not good for highway driving because it will only go 45 mph. tops and the tires are real knobby, so too much riding on asphalt tears them up.
Dennis knew a way to get as far south as Mile Marker 99 by going down into “Tyson Wash” and following it south to “The Old Yuma Rd“ a dirt road which goes to “La Paz Valley”. Then east on that road to US 95 near Mile Marker 99.
On the map in our Atlas we saw a road that goes from Mile Marker 99 southeast and connects with the “Pipeline rd.” so we started down it.
After 4 or 5 miles we came to the northern border of the Kofa where there were signs that said “No Jeeps” the road looked well traveled so we continued past the signs.
In another couple of miles we came to a fence and locked gate with signs saying
“NO TRASPASING” so we turned around and headed back to Mile Marker 99.
When we got back there, we noticed an ATV trail that went south parallel to the highway. We turned on to that and traveled south for 5 miles until we came to the “Pipeline rd” where we turned east into the refuge.
Patti and I were interested in finishing the trip we had started when we had the flat tire because we never made it to the end of the road that time.
Becky and Dennis had never been anywhere in the Kofa so we figured we could show them some beautiful country and complete our previous trip at the same time, so off we went.
We stopped to show them the one lunger engine I mentioned in a previous chapter. And continued to Intersection #2 where we turned south.
There is a house just before you get to “Scott Well” that we thought might be another of the usable cabins in the refuge but when we got near it we noticed that it was a two story house with outbuildings, a pickup truck parked in front and keep out signs. So we didn’t investigate further.
We stopped at Scott Well to check it out. The wells apparently are watering holes for wildlife. Each one has a windmill, tank and a water trough with a pipe fence around it.
We continued south to intersection #25 took the trail to Intersection #24 continuing through beautiful “Burro Canyon”

to “De La Osa Well” where we hade lunch.
After lunch we retraced our tracks to Intersection #24 and turned west going through a beautiful valley that had lots of wildflowers among the cactus with rocky crags for a background.

When we got to intersection #22 we turned east on “MST&T rd. and followed it to the MST&T tower which sits on a high hill. The view from the hilltop where the tower stands is spectacular.
There was a young guy there who works for the Fish and Wildlife Service, counting sheep. Big Horn’s that is.
He was a wealth of information,
And told us that there were 390 Big Horns in the refuge with 47 collard ewe’s. He also said that there were only .7 deer for every square mile of the refuge.
The fences around the water trough’s were to keep the burros out and the house we saw was the residence of an ex refuge biologist who is quite unfriendly and would like as not take a shotgun to anyone who disturbed his peace and quiet. He called him the “crazy biologist”.
We drove down the hill to intersection #1 and followed that road west to #25, turned north and went back to the pipeline rd. where we turned east and retraced out trail back to Quartzsite.
On the way home we were treated to another nice sunset.

It was a fun ride . We got back to “Plan B” at around 6:50 and I cooked Elk burgers for our supper YUM!

Wednesday, March, 04.
A nice warm day with a light breeze.
Patti did the laundry.
About 12:30 the UPS guy showed up with the topo map software for my GPS. It took me a little while to figure out how to use it but after I watched the tutorial it wasn’t that hard. All in all it isn’t as great as advertised (duh). The map has les roads and trails than my Arizona atlas. The major roads are named but the secondary ones are just identified as “unpaved road” Or “trail”.

I am hoping that once I have used it for a while, I will find that it is better than I now think.

At this date I don’t think it was worth the $100.00 that it cost but maybe that will change.
Other than that, the day has been kind of boring, I am hoping to go out to the desert tomorrow.

Thursday, March, 05
Another nice morning with high thin clouds and a cool breeze.
We invited Becky and Dennis to join us for a ride but Becky was not feeling well so they couldn’t go this time.
Patti and I took a short trip to the desert north of town on “Boyer Gap Rd.

We took the first trail to the left after passing the quarry and followed it for a couple of miles.

We crossed several washes, past a row of dead “Iron Wood Trees” and went up a ridge back.
When we got to the top of the ridge the track disappeared.

We looked around but couldn’t find the trail so we backtracked until, after checking out a couple of boulder strewn washes, we came to the main trail again. We turned west and went a short distance until we came to another trail that led south. We turned on to it and followed it through several rugged washes, up some steep banks and past some Beavertail Cactus in bloom

We stopped for lunch on Diablo Pass.

Then continued along this road back to Quartzsite.
Got home around 1:30.
Total miles: 29.3
It was another good ride through some more rugged country.

Dennis bought the same Garmin GPS as I have, so I spent a little time this afternoon helping him get started with it.

Friday, March 06.
Today is cool with High thin clouds and temps. in the 70’s.
Just hanging out today.
Went over to help Dennis with his computer and afterwards I showed him some pictures of Indian Creek stuff.
Patti paid off all her bills and decided she wanted to take me out to dinner. I didn’t say no.
As it turned out Becky and Dennis took us both out for dinner.
We went to the “Grub Stake”. Patti, Dennis and I had the calamari and Becky had the fish and chips, it was all very good.

Saturday, March, 07.
It was very cold last night. We even had to run the heater.
This morning was clear and cold and the temperature only got to 70 this afternoon.
We drove down to Wellton to see Dianne and Wayne.
Wayne and I went out to the Berry Goldwater Range for a few hours while Patti visited with Dianne.
We got back to Quartzsite at 6:00 and went directly to The Mountain Quail Café to get the Prime Rib Special but they were all out of prime rib.
We ordered the Rib Eye Steak instead and were not disappointed. It was excellent and as big as the cut of prime rib that they serve, cheaper too.

Sunday, March, 08
This morning was cool again and there were clouds to the south but the day warmed up nicely.
By evening the clouds had extended north to cover the whole sky.
We decided to take a trip to Cibola Lake, which as it turns out is just a collection of sloughs on the east side of the Colorado River.

We drove south on US 95 about 22 miles and turned east on Cibola Rd.
Cibola Rd. is a wide flat graded road all the way through the Yuma Proving Grounds. It has a few narrow rocky spots but for the most part, is not very interesting. We did see some nice “Beaver Tail Cactus” in bloom however and Patti took some pictures of them.

We got to the town of Cibola and headed south on a paved road for a few miles until we Came to the border of the “Cibola Wildlife Refuge“.
There the road became dirt again.
We stopped for lunch at an old “historic” log cabin.

After lunch we continued west until we came to the road along the Colorado river where we turned south and followed it to the south end of Cibola Lake and stopped at the overlook to take a picture of the lake.

The “Lake” looks like it might be an interesting place to paddle a Kayak. There are lots of tulle’s so there should be some birds and other critters living around there.
We left the lake and started north on what is called the “Levy Road”. It is east of the river about a hundred yards and higher than the surrounding country so you can see the river to the west and marsh land to the east.
The only wildlife we saw were a couple of “Coots or Mud Hens”
After driving on the levy for a while we wanted to get closer to the river.
We saw a set of tracks going down the embankment, across some bottom land and back on to the road that is on the rivers edge, so we took it.
At first I was a little apprehensive because the tracks were a little deep in places but we had no trouble getting across to the River road.
We followed that road north for several miles until we came to a place where the Power lines crossed the river.
We turned east onto the Power line road.
The first 5 or 6 miles was through very deep powdery dust so I had to keep the speed up to keep from bogging down in it but as we began to climb away from the river the road became more rocky.
We were able to follow the power lines all the way to La Paz Valley where we took Old Yuma Rd. north to Tyson Wash and then followed the wash home.
We have wanted to follow the power line road from the river for some time now and we were glad we got the chance to do it.
It was another fun ride but we are both pooped, so I sent Patti to Carl’s Jr. to pick up dinner.
Total trip miles = 133 mils
Trip time = 7.5 hrs.

Join us again next week for;
“The New Adventures of Patty and Marty” episode #11