From Mica Mine Road March 13th 2014

Just a quick note, since some of you may be on my flight plan. I have now decided to pull up stakes here in the Ajo Hills and am heading North. Planning about two weeks or so to get to the Canadian border, I thought I would try the Oregon Coast State Parks again, hopefully without becoming snowbound on the way at the Willits, CA Safeway parking lot. My last effort was disrupted by snowstorms in Northern California, so I didn’t really visit too many places

On the way I shall pass through  Bakersfield, CA - there to visit the Verizon store and inquire about getting an updated MiFi for Internet access, then the Redwood Forest Avenue of the Giants where I shall resist any temptation to attempt to pull the trailer through the big tree that sits in the middle of the road and has room for cars. Anyway, that's the plan - subject to change as external conditions dictate. . Maybe, with luck (bad), I could pick up a Redwood Forest rat (apparently they are giants) on the way through.

 

Oregon could take about a week after which, the Columbia River Gorge has some nice spots, including US Army Corps of Engineers campsites at some of the dams on the way. In the end, I will stop at the Boardman Regional Park, south of the Tri-Cities for a day or two. This is a past favourite and puts me in striking distance of the border at the end of the month.

 

Meanwhile, back in Ajo, my first of this year’s forays into the Scrabble world at my friends, Gayle and Don Weyers in Ajo resulted, predictable, in defeat, though I did manage a creditable second place in one game. Not content with one loss, I returned for more of the same yesterday Wed, March 12th and got thumped again. Perhaps I should have studied my crib-sheet of two-letter words beginning with “Q” a little better.

 

My primary preoccupation of late, however, has been the search and destroy mission of a packrat that took up residence in the motor compartment of my truck. One might recall that I had a rat nesting issue about a month ago while camped on Plomosa Road and thought that the situation had been resolved with a couple of pressure washes at the local car wash. That rat, I never actually saw but there was plenty of evidence in the form of nesting materials.

 

The Mica Mine Road fiend (now deceased), I had seen on several occasions and ample evidence of its presence was to be found in the form of cholla cactus spikes and fruits along with plentiful droppings littering the entire engine area. When popping the hood in bright sunshine, he/she/it sat and stared with ratlike innocence, though by the time I went to find a suitable weapon with which to dispatch it, the rat had disappeared into the bowels of the motor. I tried mothballs, another motor wash, poking with a BBQ fork and rat traps but nothing proved successful until I spotted a grey bit of fur by the light of my flashlight down in one of the many engine cavities but out of reach of all my tools – except, my ski pole. In the end, this spear completed the job, though it took me an hour or more to poke the rat out onto the ground. Now I have traps set and am hoping that the rest of the tribe doesn’t arrive to commence a settling of scores.