The Wednesday Ride on Thursday.

Prolog.

Usually, the Wednesday jeep group goes out on rides on Wednesday and we play cards on Thursday.
Some of the folks were involved with helping some venders set up at the big rock and mineral show here this Wednesday.
As a result we played cards last night (Wednesday) and are going on a jeep ride today (Thursday).

Tom Wells Rd.

We gathered at the Carl’s Jr at the west end of town.
By 9:00 everyone was there. There were 6 jeeps on this ride.

We headed west on I-10.

Working  our way through a clot of trucks.

After about six miles we took the Tom Wells Rd. turnoff. We crossed over I-10 and headed south. Just after crossing I-10 the pavement ends. Here, we stopped to air down.

Tom Wells Rd, on the south side of the freeway is a wide, graded, very dusty road. There is very little breeze today so the dust doesn’t get blown away. It can get a bit thick with this many jeeps in a line.

The only thing to do is back off until you are out of the dust. Some times that can put you up to a quarter mile behind. 

Going up the Wash.

Eventually the road got smaller with more rock and gravel and a little less dust. We turned east into a wash heading toward the mountains.
Ah, yes, now this is more like it.

Here the trail climbs out of the wash for a ways.

We stop to take a picture of this old gnarly Ironwood corps.

We continue along the trail which has been pretty easy so far.

This stretch is a little bumpy.

It went that way for a long ways; dropping into the wash…

crawling through the rock gardens for a while…

then climb out of the wash and go over some hills.

Traffic.

Climbing up this narrow rocky stretch of trail we came to some ATV’s coming down.

Fortunately where the ATV’s were, was wide enough that they could pull over.

This was about the most interesting spot on the trail; it was kind of bumpy and a little off camber.

The Power Line Road.

Eventually we got through the mountains and connected with the Power Line Road traveling east.

There are a lot more people on this side of the mountains. Of course, Quartzsite is at its fullest at this time of year so there are a lot of folks riding around all over the desert.

Heading North.

From the Power Line Road, we turned onto a trail going north.

The trail winds around through the mountains going in and out of gullies…

and deep canyons.

Lunch.

We took a side trail that turned out to be a col-d-sac so we stopped at the end and had lunch.

Deer Run Resort.

After lunch we continued our ride North’ish.
We crossed a wash and turned left. Just a short distance up the trail we came to this old powder magazine.

Now, I knew where we were. This trail is the back way to The Deer Run Resort. I have been over this trail from the other side but never from this side so its like finding a new trail.

We had to pull over for more traffic. There were six jeeps in that group.

The climb from the south side is steep and rocky in spots but it isn’t a problem if you go slow.

From the top of the pass you get a nice view of Dome Rock.

Here is another nice view to the east. The base of dome Rock is on the left.

We dropped down into a narrow canyon for a while. The trail widens out at the Deer Run Resort.

You find places like this through out the desert. Places that people decorate (or trash) depending on your outlook or how well it’s done.

This particular spot is pretty cool. It has been here for years and I suspect there have some really fun parties out here. It is a great spot for it.

Heading Home.

We hung around here for a little while and decided that since we were so close to Quartzsite we should head in and stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream before going home.
So off we went.

Broken Jeep.

When we got to the pavement Tom stopped to check something under his jeep. It turned out that the bolt on the passenger side lower control arm had come out and was missing.  Dennis found a bolt in his jeep that would work temporarily so Tom could get to town and most importantly get to Dairy Queen.

Tom’s Jeep.

So, we all made it home okay.
Tom drove his jeep to Dennis’s and checked it out more closely. The hole in the mount where the missing bolt lives is warn oblong and the bushing is also worn out on the control arm. Fortunately Dennis had a control arm so now Tom just needs the right bolt and nuts and the special washers and maybe a little welding and his jeep will be back on the road.

Back Update.

My back is doing better. I’m a little sore today after that ride but not as bad as I have been.

Okay that’s it for now.