Dec. 31-Jan. 4: I left Escondido on December 31 and headed to the Plaster City rocket launch site to meet up with my Sister Bev. We spent a beautiful weekend with the San Diego rocket group. I was a member of this club for years and always had a great time with them. I no longer launch rockets, but the launch weekend is always a good time. On Saturday night we had a potluck with about a dozen people. On Sunday I helped tear down the launch equipment and all the rocketeers left. Bev and I spent a quiet night there alone.
Jan. 4-12: On Monday, the 4th, we headed up to Slab City to camp with the LoWs group. I joined LoWs in order to have some fellow single campers to meet up with. The Slabs is a unique place, but the LoWs area is very nice. I uploaded a few Slab City area pictures to my Picasa site. The group gets together for coffee every morning and 3-4PM is cocktail hour. They have assorted activities throughout the week. These people have this place all setup. They have three old trailers on a slab for a get together/meeting spot. There is a trash trailer, recycling and the LoWs area is trash free. Some of the other areas of Slab City resemble a landfill. Slab City is the site of a W.W.II Marine camp.
My plan was to check out the various wildlife areas on the East side of the Salton Sea. I spent part of each day from Tuesday to Friday exploring the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding areas. As of Friday I saw about 60 species of birds including several new species I had never seen before. (Birders call these "lifers", as the are new to my life list of birds seen.) The highlight of the week was two close looks at Peregrine Falcons.
Friday night I got a call from Bev. She is over with a friend in Arizona. Her back has been bothering her most of this trip. She drove down from Portland with no problems, but started to hurt after she got to the desert. She is not sure what to do, but will try to make it to Busses by the Bridge in Lake Havisu, AZ. Busses by the Bridge is a big gathering of VW bus owners and Bev enjoys attending.
In seven days of exploring the area east of the Salton Sea I saw 73 species of birds. Three of these were new to me; mountain plovers, common ground dove and Eurasian ringed dove. There are literally hundreds of thousands of waterfowl, shorebirds and gulls around the Sea. Also found in this area are geothermal power plants, a maximum security state prison and very extensive farming activities. There are also remnants of volcanic activity and a few mud volcanoes and steam vents in the are around the power plants
On the 12th I drove back to Escondido. I wanted to get back before the predicted storm arrived. I'll spend about a week here tying up loose ends before I head back to the desert.
Jan. 12-21: I planned to stay in Escondido for one week. When it was time to head back to the desert a strong series of storms was predicted. Since I have no fixed schedule, I decided to stay in town one more week and not drive in the bad weather. I'm staying at the Escondido RV Park, a nice, but expensive place to stay. I've lived here on and off over the past few years. I like it because it's in the part of Escondido where we lived for 20+ years. I was able to get in to my dentist's office for a cleaning and my optometrist's office to have my new glasses reordered. I had an eye exam earlier and had purchased new glasses. I got them just before I left for the desert and I could not wear them because the distance correction was not in focus for me. Hopefully the new version of the lenses will be in before I leave next Tuesday.
Today we are in the midst of a series of strong rain storms. The rain gauge at the house in the San Pasqual Valley showed four inches of rain for the storm so far. Rain is expected to continue for another two days. Last winter I patched a leak in the left rear corner of the trailer. This same spot leaked again. We had a short break in the weather earlier and I was able to seal the cracks a bit more and cover the leaky area with a blue tarp. I've also been working on a couple of leaks in my truck topper. A bit more rain latter in the week added to the storm rainfall total. By the time the rains ended there was 7.1 inches recorded by the rain gauge.
Jan. 24: More trailer problems. Last year I replaced my kitchen faucet with a home model, not an RV unit. It's been working fine till now. The gasket on the hot water side got excessively compressed and started leaking. The challenge was to find a replacement on a Sunday. Camping World- no luck...Home Depot- no luck...Freeway Trailer Sales(Where I bought this trailer.) had one of these special little gaskets for the RV plastic fittings. Installed in a few minutes and no leak.
The big RV sales place next to Camping World in San Marcos has more bare blacktop than units for sale. This is not a good time to be in the RV sales business.
Jan. 29: Left Escondido at noon and drove back to Slab City. The storm left ponds all across the desert and many muddy tracks where people drove off the highways. The crew here at Slab City said that they got 2 inches of rain and very strong winds. Now I have my Kawasaki with me and can explore the area on two wheels, much cheaper than driving the F-350.
Jan. 30: Took a nice hike up the wash from Slab City over the canal and off toward the Chocolate Mtns. I needed to burn off a few calories after last night's spaghetti dinner with the Slab LoWs. Usual desert birds-verdin, phainopepla, Gambel's quail and a few white-crowned sparrows. There are quite a few invasive Eurasian collared doves here. In the wash I noticed a pipe sticking out of the ground. Walked over and found a section corner from a 1918 survey! Considering the survey technology in 1918 I wonder how close this is to the actual section corner.
Jan. 30- Feb. 10: Been just hanging out. I've continued to explore the area around the National Wildlife Refuge. Did a bit of hiking around Slab City. Mostly just been relaxing here. I picked up a couple of 6 volt batteries for the trailer, they are supposed to be better than the 12 volt deep-cycle batteries. I priced a solar panel and associated electronics and decided I can do without($1000!).
Staying with the LoWs has paid off financially, camping is free. I could get water, gas, fuel and groceries in Niland so didn't have to travel far. It will be painful to pay for campsites again. I'll come back here later and stay for a while before I head north in the spring. Tomorrow I'll leave and move toward Organ Pipe National Monument. I'm planing to meet up with old friends in AZ and NM next month.
Feb. 11: Drove from Slab City, CA to Ajo, AZ. Got a spot in an RV park so I can stock up on supplies(fuel, propane, groceries). Traffic was light and the weather was fine, 60s and clear all the way. There must be a rodeo in Tucson, because trucks pulling horses kept going by all day.
I bought a spot in a RV park and the guy up front gives me a WIFI code and tells me there are digital TV problems...well, WIFI does not work and my digital TV cannot detect any channels. At least the electricity works. Verizon signals are weak and webpages load slow, if at all. I need an external antenna to collect those weak signals. Maybe I can get one in Tucson.
Heard a John McCain commercial. Where did I enter the time warp?
Feb. 12: Got groceries and fuel in Ajo and headed down to Organ Pipe National Monument. Didn't stop at the copper mine this time, I've visited it a couple of times in the past. Got set up in the campground and took a short drive to check things out. The ground here, as in other desert areas this winter, is covered in a green fuzz. This is going to be a spectacular desert flower year. The highway south from Ajo was full of RVs and few stopped at Organ Pipe, I can only assume that they are heading down into Mexico.
The Border Patrol presence has increased since three years ago. There are more agents, dogs and technology than I remember. Mexico is visible from my campsite.
Most of the trucks and campers here have their hoods open...interesting. A notice at the Visitor Center says that packrats have been harvesting insulation from motors for their nests! Apparently they don't like the light from an open hood. So far mine is closed: will I regret this?
Feb. 13 & 14: Just hiking and driving locally. It's a bit windy and around 70. Got a picture of the new border fence and the border crossing at Lukeville, AZ. For some unknown reason may people left the campground today. I like the lower population density. A friend of my sister(Kathleen) from Oregon is here. It's nice to have someone to visit with.
Feb. 15: My sister's friend, Kathleen, and I drove over to Tucson today across the Tohono O'odham Nation(Reservation) today. It was an interesting 150 miles. I saw two crested caracaras and two black vultures, both of which were new species for me. The drive on Arizona Highway 86 across the Reservation is fairly desolate(Reminded me of the movie "No County for Old Men"). I like to listen to the Tohono O'odham radio station(KOHN Radio - 91.9 FM) when I'm down here. They play a very strange mixture of music and it's nice to listen to the native language. There were very many Border Patrol vehicles of all descriptions on this highway. When I got to the checkpoint SW of Tucson two Border Patrol agents asked me if was OK to put a training device(a metal box with a magnet) on my truck. Of course I said OK. They put it in the rear wheel well and the dog found it. So I guess I can say now that I've had drugs in my truck!
We got to Hobie's here and had an exceptionally good dinner. Hobie and Kathleen are friends of my sister's from the Wetwesties VW bus group. I'll do a little city stuff here and head out to the SE in a day or two.
Feb. 16 - 19: Did a grocery run on the 16th with Kathleen.
Tucson has neat grocery stores Sunflower Farmers Market, kind of like Trader
Joes. I also bought a small Canon camera. I had a very nice small Sony camera
that I really liked. I used it to take some photos of a crop dusting helicopter
near the Salton Sea and that was the last time I saw it. I've been tearing the
truck and trailer apart looking for it, to no avail. It's nice to have a pocket
camera point-and-shoot camera. (I'm fairly happy after using this camera for
a few days. It's easy to use and takes excellent pictures. It is a Canon SD1200
IS.)
On the 17th I drove down to Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains. The canyon is famous for unusual birds. I saw three birds there that were new for me; Mexican jay, yellow-eyed junco and bridled titmouse. If my records are correct the Mexican jay was the 400th species of bird that I've seen in my life. There was a nice dusting of snow on the Santa Rita Mountains. Took the long way back by driving east along the north edge of the range. I saw a nice 8 point mule deer buck who still had his antlers. This seems late in the winter to still have antlers.
I was planning on leaving on the 18th, but stayed an extra day. On the 18 Hobie and I hauled his garbage to the transfer station. On the way back Hobie took me on a backroad tour through a section of Saguaro Nation Monument, which is close to his place. We checked out some pictographs, cacti and CCC era picnic tables. The roofs over the picnic tables had been constructed using saguaro ribs. That evening we had tamales for dinner. Kathleen and her friend Joyce picked up the tamales in Tucson. We had a nice dinner and visit. The stay at Hobie's was a real joy.
On the 19th I drove from Tucson to Rodeo, NM, a nice 190 drive across the desert. It was a little cooler today, temps in the 60s. Over the past two weeks desert temperatures have been low 70s daytime and 40s nighttime. I plan to explore the Chiricahua Mtns. over the nest few days. These mountains in southern New Mexico are beautifully snow covered now. This is the only place I've been where there is no cell phone service. However, the RV park I'm in has slow Internet.
Feb. 20: During the night I kept hearing the wind blowing. In the morning it was clear with a strong south wind. Since it was clear I headed for the Chiricahuas. I drove in past Portal an up into the Coronado National Forest. I drove the road network up to about 6500 feet to where the road became snowy, icy and not driveable with my highway tires. The bird and other wildlife was minimal due to the winds. I did get some nice photos of the rocks and snow covered mountains. I also hiked up to an old abandoned gold mine. The miners had worked a milky quartz vein. There were hints of copper in the vein(blue colors) so I thought they might have been looking for that, but the locals say they were after gold.
When I got back to the trailer at noon it was rocking in a very strong west wind. I reset the stabilizers, which had become loose and pulled the big slide in. Since the trailer was at a right angle to the wind I was concerned about the wind tipping it over. The sky became progressively darker, first over the mountains to the west. After a while the mountains disappeared in the storm and the rain started here(almost horizontally). By 5 PM the rain had passed and the mountains became visible again. But, then the snow level had dropped almost to the level of the desert valley. As of 7 PM it's 37 degrees outside.
Tomorrow I need to find a place to get fuel, or look for a real estate agent. I'm not sure I have enough fuel to make it out of here. The gas station at the turnoff from I-10 was closed when I came down here. I have 4 gallons extra, but that plus what's in the truck may not be enough to get out of here.
Feb. 21: The weather was nice at sun rise and the forecast was for west winds with east winds tomorrow. So I decided to drive over to Alamogordo today. That was a good decision as I averaged 12.4 mpg which is about the maximum when pulling the trailer. A tailwind really helps the mpg and a headwind hurts.
When I got to Alamogordo I had a problem, I didn't know where my friends(Jim and Dallas from Rhinelander) were staying. I visited them here a few years ago so I hoped I could find the RV park. Sure enough while driving through town I recognized the RV park. I pulled in and got the last open site and it happened to be right across the road from Jim's rig.
Feb. 23: Grocery, laundry and camper organization day.
Feb. 24: Woke up to snow! Morning temperature was 25 degrees. The water hose was froze so I had to use water from the tank. This is the first time this trailer has been covered in snow. There's about an inch on everything.
In spite of the snow, Jim and I headed up to the White Mountains. We hiked a few miles up a deep snow-filled canyon. The highlight of the day was a big bull elk against the sky. He just stood there for a long time like the king of the forest. A very impressive beast. The photo below is an enlarged section of a photo taken with my little Canon SD1200 IS. It's a 10 megapixel camera and it's amazing that you can even see the elk he was a quarter a mile away..
Snow depths in the canyon ranged from 2 to 8 inches. I did not bring winter gear with me so I ended up with wet feet. Jim is four years older than me and in much better shape. I had to work to keep up with him.
Here's the trail.
Lunch time
Looking down the canyon toward the Tularosa Valley.
On Thursday(Feb. 25) Jim, Dennis(a friend of Jim) and I hiked a different canyon. This time we walked mostly on the south facing slope so there not as much snow. Like the day before I had to work to keep up. Climbing stairs in lab buildings did not prepare me for mountain hiking. These were my first hikes in mountains in 2 years. Those flat desert walks don't work those climbing muscles much. It's a day later as I write this and my legs still feel the climb. (Especially my right gastrocnemius which is complaining loudly.)
This turned out to be a million dollar hike. Not long after we started we started encountering herds of elk. The first group had about 30 animals with 3 or four small bulls. As we moved along the edge of the range we kept seeing more and more elk. They were not jumpy and we could just watch them move off on their own. We never caused them enough concern to run off. The lower edges of mountain ranges are the winter range for elk. This area is typical, the higher elevations are heavily snowed. The shrubs in this are were all severely browsed. Obviously many elk have wintered here for many years.
Here's a herd of about 30 elk scattered on the hillside(look close). This is the typical habitat where the elk were. Brushy with scattered junipers and pinion pine.
In amongst the elk were two mule deer bucks with very large antlers. They stood side by side, with their racks overlapping from the view Dennis and I had. They were in a brushy area so I couldn't get a photo. Either one of these would have been the largest mule deer buck I'd ever seen, but there they were side-by-side.
Here's Dennis pointing at the bucks.
As we climbed higher we didn't see many more elk, but saw lots of tracks. Jim liked to explore this area looking for shed elk antlers. Here's a view of the general area with a few more elk. We only saw smaller bulls today.
Here's Jim and me with an shed antler he found. That's White Sands National Monument in the distance below us. We were up over 7000 feet here.
Sections of decomposing breccia made for interesting walking, somewhat like walking on marbles. Here's a photo of a nice section with the matrix surrounding the round rocks imbedded within. At higher elevations the rock was rhyolite.
Friday(Feb. 26) was a day in town. I installed a new power point in my truck because my cigarette lighter died. I also worked a bit on the trailer. I also had a bit of good luck. I'd been looking for my small Sony camera for about three weeks. I thought that I had set it down in the truck after taking some photos of a crop dusting helicopter. When organizing my pack today I found in the bottom of a compartment where I don't usually keep it. I broke my rule of always keeping things in the same place. In the meantime I bought the small Canon camera so that I always had a camera with me. Now what to do? Keep both or get rid of the Canon. I actually started liking the Canon...it's a 10 mega pixel camera and is very easy to use.
More mountains tomorrow. I hope my leg muscles hold up.