Saturday, January 30/2010

The sun is shining this morning and with it being Saturday, there is more traffic on the trail. Who wouldn't want to be out this way? The scenery is wonderful and the trails are fun. This is an area shared by all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts.

Spent the day suntanning and reading. It sure was nice to finally be able to get back into the nice warm sun!!

Friday, January 29/2010

Wow, for dreary days!! Another one has reared it's ugly head. Lots of cloud coverage so may not see the sun today - rats!! How is a girl supposed to maintain her suntan with weather like this? Almost makes one wish she was back in Saskatoon shoveling snow --- NOT!!

Hogan and I once again went off on one of our walks. Today heard some gunshots (what else is new!!) and I wondered if the deer were once again in peril. I saw more tracks today so they must be on the move. We met Truman again on the trail and he did mention that we really should stop meeting like this!! Saw Bob and Ann as well and they wondered if we had made it through all the rain without any problems. They were off to hunt rocks. Once we were back at camp, John was ready to head out onto the trails.

We did the Vulture Mountains Trail which took us from our campsite to the town of Morristown. We traversed a few of the Vulture Mountains and alot of old mining roads. We passed the site of the old Big Spar Mine as well as the Mammoth Spar Mine. Both these sites had visible mine shafts, some of which were posted as dangerous and had fencing around them and some that remained open, for any unfortunate soul to fall into. Both of these mines I believe yielded gold although not to the degree that the Vulture Mine did. It was quite interesting.

Since the rains, the desert has definitely become more green. There are lots of leaves forming on the "dead" looking branches of several shrubs and there are several areas that appear to have some sort of desert "grass". It is marvelous to see and I hope to see some flowers soon. Now wouldn't that be neat!!

I hope that the pics show well. We did come across a "cave" so had to go exploring. It was actually very wide open and not very deep so had to go get some pics. I hope they show well on this blog.

Crossing the dry bed of the Hassayampa River was interesting. The sand was quite deep but "Billy" didn't seem to have any trouble crossing. The river bed still had a few wet areas from the recent rains and I wonder if it was running during the storm? Now that would have been something to see!!

All in all, it was a good trip. The prolific desert vegetation and the scenic views were well worth the trip.

Thursday, January 28/2010

The sunshine is streaming through the window this morning like crazy. It is wonderfully warm in the bus. The birds are singing and the little hummingbird is busy at the feeder. What else could a person want?

Went for a short ride today. Met Truman on the trail and stopped for a chat and he mentioned an old homestead in the area so went to check it out. What a neat little joint. I couldn't help but imagine the beauty of the small house in it's heyday. There was this lovely wrap around porch where I can only imagine what it would have been like sitting there enjoying the scenery and watching the incredible sunsets. I hope the pictures capture some of the essence to the house. There has been some "partying" at the homestead and of course the accompanying vandalism which is really too bad. Truman said that he had lived at the site for many years but the owners refused to let him fix up the house and allow him to live inside. Instead, he lived in a trailer on the property and I can't help but wonder if it is his trailer that remains at the site. The Saguaro Cactus in the yard were huge so were obviously over a hundred years old. It was a joy to see the site and I really must thank Truman the next time I see him.