From Mica Mine Road Camp Jan 6th 2006

Jan 6th 2005
From Mica Mine Road Camp 3 32 19.835/112 54.013
Turnoff 32 19.711/ 112 54.063
Hello All:
It seems a long time since I last wrote from Craggy Wash but, with so much to do and so little time, things just get delayed. After spending the entire winter budget on new brakes, trailer batteries and my GPS up in Lake Havasu, I travelled south-east to Why and one of my regular campsites at Gunsight Wash. Because I know that some of you out there in group e-mail land may try to find a few of the places that I visit, and also because I need to do something useful with my new toy, I shall be writing down the positions of all campsites as they crop up in conversation from now on, as well as entry points off the nearest roads where possible. Therefore, the co-ordinates of Gunsight Wash would be written as:
Gunsight Camp site -------------- (N32 14.423’ W112 45.510’)
Turnoff from Highway 85 -------- (N32 14.345’ W112 45.018’)

I travelled down from Havasu on the 21st in good weather – sunny skies and mild temps, which, at one point near Gila Bend, hit 80°. My friends, the Percys were in residence at their usual spot in Gunsight, having arrived several days earlier.
Propane up in Gila Bend at the Shell was a shocker - $19 for a fill-up – am glad temps require no heating at the moment.
I thought that I had slipped back in time the other day when, as I was driving down from Havasu. I heard those immortal words – “hello, skiers and snowboarders”, on the radio. Apparently, the areas around Flagstaff had some snow and were up and running with new advertising on the local radio station. It seems a little strange to be talking about skiing down here where temps are close to 80° every day now as we experience a mini-heat wave.

I was at Gunsight for two weeks and camped adjacent (within sand wedge range) to the Percys. We enjoyed a few bike rides, had the daily happy hour campfire and turkey with all the “fixins” on Christmas Day. They have returned to Canada for 10 days, having stored their trailer (hopefully) within range of the Phoenix Airport. They should be back in the south before long, so maybe we’ll meet up again. The sunsets at Gunsight have been spectacular this year. It is hard to put down the camera as the light changes every few minutes each evening. I have put a few pics in the computer and I’m sure that there will be more to come.

On Jan 4th, my allotted two week period at Gunsight was up so I moved to a new spot. Mica Mine Road, aka Cemetary Road, is in the hills west of Ajo and travels from the Ajo scenic Loop to a closed gate into the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness a few miles past my camp area. I left Gunsight, dumped and watered at the Golden Hassan Casino – host lady absent, so will have to return to pay the $10.00 fee - then got propane at Flores Brothers in Why and headed for the my new spot. This is as scenic an area as anywhere that I have camped – very quiet and seemingly remote despite being only a few miles as the crow flies from Ajo. The “road” is a bull low, washed out, slow creeping goat track in spots, so I was a little concerned as to whether I could manage it safely with the trailer in tow. On a previous visit with the bicycle, however, I had seen a fifth-wheel camped at the site where I am presently ensconced. It was at least as big as mine, so I knew that the mission was possible. At first, I was tempted to take one of the sites closer to the main Ajo Loop but decided, in the end, that the day was long; I had little else to do and would not sleep well unless I tried to make it into this particular site. In the end, I succeeded with little difficulty, having avoided the hurling of plates and cups from their cupboard shelves, an occurrence that frequently marks my passage over rough terrain. Over the years, I have pretty well replaced anything breakable with plastic or Corningware – they both bounce better and seem to be better adapted for survival.
Since arrival, I have done a biking circumnavigation of Ajo Mountain as well as another loop nearer to camp. There are trails everywhere, so I shall have my hands full covering them all while I am in residence. The first morning in camp, Dale, the Ranger, came by on patrol. Unlike Wardens in our National Parks, he welcomed me and gave me some good information about the surrounding desert trails. Given that I am camped on a known route for drug smugglers and Mexican “Illegales”, it’s nice to know that someone (with a badge) knows that I am here and has my interests at heart.
On my bike ride yesterday, I encountered a man with a shotgun – out looking for Gambel’s Quail. It turns out that I had met this same man and his wife, in the same spot, last year while on a bike ride. They volunteer at the Ajo Mine Museum and organize scrabble tournaments in town. As it happens, I popped into the museum today, had lunch with my new acquaintances (the Weyers, from Ajo) got invited to a tuna sandwich lunch which was partially opened by my swiss army knife and arranged to meet for scrabble out in the hills next week.
My next port-of-call from here (in a couple of weeks) will probably be Quartzsite, for the RV Show which starts on Jan 21st. Most likely, I will stay up on Plomosa Road there, a little out of town and away from the hordes of people. Despite the masses, this is always an enjoyable time at Q. - walking around gawking at all the latest RV related things that I can’t afford, but about which I enjoy dreaming. Ted Webber, my neighbour from Craggy Wash, should also be there and can give me an advanced lesson on GPS navigation (if I can find him, I will have overcome a major hurdle). Since buying the GPS, I seem to have developed my elementary skills to a reasonable point (mainly riding the bike down steep, rocky trails with my eye on the GPS instead of the trail) but now need more help on mastering the more sophisticated functions that relate to its interface with the computer.
Temperatures are still up in record setting-range. We should top 80° for a high today, though I thought that I could recall high 80s once a few years ago – perhaps that was later in the month. With the bike riding that I have been doing (average 4 to 5 days a week), one would think that I could get back to my formerly svelte figure of 40 years ago. It seems that this is not to be and now I know why. In USA Today, I just read an article about how drinkers of Diet Coke think that they are going to lose weight but don’t because whatever is in the diet part of coke makes us hungrier. It was for the former reason that I made the switch to Diet Coke as my rum additive a few years ago. I can only conclude that the rum is an issue or perhaps the 16 oz glasses that I use (big but unbreakable) have something to do with it! Age, of course, would not be a factor. Keep the e-mails coming – I have heard from quite a few of you but there are still holdouts.
JW