The first rays of light woke me up. Without so much as combing my hair, I got the dogs ready to walk cross-country toward the hills to the west. I had no hike planned other than my morning jaunt. Today's jaunt took me to the northern section of the Mid Hills, walking in a westerly direction. I figured a few miles in two hours would be a nice start. I had hilltops pointing the way and my GPS app on to guide me.
The terrain here was surprisingly soft. Sometimes it was so soft, my shoes got stuck in compressed air pockets. Nothing prickly was on this ground, although I came across a few mining relics. I had no goal, but saw a rocky hilltop and went for it. Once on the hilltop, I saw another one, a higher one, that I had to bag. And so it went.
As in so many areas of California, there was evidence of an old wildfire. Dead oaks marked the landscape. More interesting were the many boulders piled on each other, as if placed there by a higher being. We spotted a deer that Zeke attempted to chase. I spotted a radar tower that intrigued me, only to see another human on the hilltop that had me curious, too. Who was this person?
It turned out to be a woman camped out at the official Mid Hills campground below. I had walked just under two miles at this point (it seemed longer) and there were many vehicles around this shaded campsite. Most of the vehicles were large 4Wheelers. The women went back down the hill without talking to me and I turned around to resume the descent and return to my van. The mountain shade was slowly fading as the sun rose. I wanted to get back to the van before we all got thirsty. I didn't carry any water because this was supposed to be a quick morning jaunt.
I don't normally enjoy cross-country walks but this one was a pleasant one. Bushwhacking across the desert in Arizona means stumbling over hidden boulders, stepping into holes, or having one's legs jabbed by shin daggers or the dreaded cholla. This walk enabled me to walk the dogs off-leash, without disturbing anyone. Both dogs stayed by my side, but Sadie did take off in the last .3 mile to get back to the van, only to return to me far away. Everyone around me was awake. The large Jeep group behind me was also breaking camp. They had come here to drive the famed Mojave Trail, a trail consisting of old Indian trails, old army supply routes, and washes that bisects the Preserve east to west. They had four dogs, a GSD, a Doberman and a Zeke-looking dog. I didn't see the fourth dog.
I didn't want to leave this tranquil place. I would have been content sitting in my van for an hour to read a bit more, but then a blue Honda Element pulled up. Henry from Eugene, Oregon asked if he could set his tent up and reserve it for tonight so that he'd have a guaranteed place to stay once he finished his hike in Hole-in-the-Wall. He's been on the road three months and isn't returning to Oregon until he can move into his new home in May. He didn't want to pay rent for two months during the closing process and decided to travel the country. He slept on a homemade platform in the back of his Element. "I have all my belongings in a 10 x 10 storage locker!" said Henry. Ugh. Wish I could say the same.
I left my little patch of nature and ended up right behind Henry on Black Canyon Road on my drive south back to the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor's Center. A Jeep had overturned on the road, crushing the windshield but luckily saving the couple that haphazardly sat on their camper cooler while a National Forest Service Law Enforcement agent was filing a report. The overturned vehicle allowed just enough space to slowly pass the couple without detouring off the road. How did they manage to overturn the vehicle without speeding? And how long where they out there? With no cellphone service getting help would be an eternity.
Henry and I both ended up stopping at the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor's Center again. The ranger on duty knew about the accident but didn't know much detail. He had no idea how long the car was overturned. He was being unbiased, citing perhaps a sudden stop for wildlife as a possible cause of the vehicle flip. There is two feet of straight up dirt along the road that the Jeep may have hit at just the right angle. After seeing other Jeeps pass me by just yesterday, I doubt any of the ranger's speculations are true and believe speeding is the cause. Whatever the couple was doing, it ruined their visit to the park and surely added to unnecessary expenses. I am thankful I have been spared such grief, despite temporary panics of losing keys and/or wallet at various times during my trip.
Henry stayed and got ready to hike but I decided to drive on. There were too many people to make this an enjoyable hike with the dogs. A Scout troop was getting ready to head out, young families were on the trail, and a lot of hikers were mingling around. The ranger said leashed dogs were fine. Hiking with leashed dogs up steep trails is no fun! I bid Henry farewell on his road trip as I continued south on Black Canyon Road back to I-40 and eastward. The ragged mountains were now to my south as I neared the Colorado River region, a swampy area on both sides of the river. I got on Route 66 briefly and drove through the dead town of Goffs, a once-beaming railroad town that now just offers a place for tired RVers to spend the night.
What I lost in high terrain I gained in wildflowers again. The roadside was dotted with yellow and blue flowers and the fields became more dense the closer I got to the river, especially from Lake Havasu City and points south. I stopped briedly to walk a nature trail in the new Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge off the Colorado River but at 94F deemed it too hot to enjoy and turned around at the mile mark. This Refuge was once a popular ATV site and now all the roads are closed to vehicles. That didn't stop three ATVers from racing past me as I drove out of the Refuge and back on AZ95.
Another colorful display was along CA62. Yes, I did drive back into California at the Parker bridge but only ventured ten miles. The two-lane hilly road was treacheous enough with all the truck traffic.
I made it to Quartzsite, AZ at 6pm. That gave me a chance to visit the Hi Jolly Monument. Hi Jolly was a Greek camel herder born in Syria who was hired by the US Army to tend to a herd of camels. These camels were tested for field duty before the Civil War but the experiement was abandoned and the camels set free in the desert. Hi Jolly was the Americanized name of the man buried in this cemetery whose tombstones face the south.
I knew I was going to spend the night in Quartzsite. A meal at the McD's and then a few hours behind a Pilot Gas Station provided plenty of entertainment. One of the dogs was snoring for most of this time. One young transient was camped in the front of the store under the marquee. I later saw him walking around the dumpsters. The next morning when I returned for breakfast he was back again.
No comments:
Post a Comment