Saturday, February 4/2012

Different rock color

K Bear getting the gate

Sunset heading home

Looking down on Wickenburg from Wickenburg MT

Sunset from the mountain

At the ponds

Heading down Blue Tank Wash

The coyotes were yapping again this morning before I got out of bed and once again, they did not sound too far away.  I see on Facebook, that Kimmy's Mom, Gloria is also enjoying the melodious tunes of the coyotes as well.  Fortunately for me, I am hearing them around six or seven in the morning while Gloria is hearing them around four in the morning!!  Sometimes one fails to appreciate the finer things of Nature at four in the morning!!

The sun is shining this morning and it looks like it will be a good day for a ride.  We are to meet Ray and Kay at 12:30 so that should be fun.  Maybe we will take a scoot through Box Canyon.
We arrived at the designated meeting point to find Ray and Kay already there and we were early!! I wandered around under the trestle for a bit and spotted a flattened coin on the ground.  Someone obviously had put it on the tracks for the train to run over and flatten it.  It was a one dollar gold coin minted in 2011 and was the last in a series of four "president" coins.  This coin had the face of James Garfield on it.  So with my flattened coin in my pocket, off we went towards today's adventure.
We stopped at "The Ponds" along side the Hassayampa which are often filled with water and attract many different birds but today, they are dry so no birds.  The "ponds" were created when the Department of Transport was fixing the highway.  They took dirt from this area leaving huge depressions in the ground.  Once they fill with water, they become "the ponds".
We then headed down Blue Tank Wash and travelled over and through a wide variety on terrain.  It was quite pretty.  Ray mentioned that you could see wild goats along the trails at times so I was hoping to catch a glimpse of them but as it turned out, this was not to be.  We stopped several times for refreshments and eventually made it to Constellation Road which brought us back into Wickenburg.  We made a quick stop at Ray's brother's place but he was not home so ended up accessing the Hassayampa River again and heading towards home.
We drove to Ray and Kay's home as they feed the Javalina and were telling us that there is one with three babies so I was hoping to be able to see them and snap some pics.  This too was not to be as they did not show up either so I was double skunked - first by the goats and now the javelina!!  Ray and Kay have a wonderful home and it is full of all sorts of little "treasures" they have collected over the years.
With a final stop at Mitch's home (he lives in the same area) John and I made the trip back to the Hassayampa, down to the train trestle and back across the desert to the bus.  It was an absolutely wonderful night ride as it was very clear and bright out.
Keith and Charlotte, who drove into Surprise this morning were not home yet and that made us wonder why however, not 10 minutes later, we heard their diesel truck coming down the road.  John and I had climbed the hill for one final beer when they were coming down the road so John was sending signals to them with the headlights of the quad.  This freaked Charlotte out as to just who the hell was up the hill!!
Eventually, they hauled all their groceries into the trailer then wandered down and we sat around the "campfire in a can" while the potato cooked for our supper.
Steak and baked potato for supper after a wonderful ride - Life is Good!!