Week ending Mar 26, 2020 Returned to Vulcan, Alberta

Friday morning Joan heard on the radio that California was instituting a mandatory 'Stay at home' order to curtail the spread of coronavirus.  We decided we should head home before this started spreading.  We had booked an axle packing and greasing with Alex's Tire in Blyth for the 27th, when we were planning to start heading back.  We phoned them and were able to get the trailer in the same day.  They did the axles for the most reasonable price we have ever paid.  By 11:00 PST we were on the road heading for AVI Casino on the Colorado at the very south tip of Nevada.   We had a chat with a couple from Alberta.  When we asked them whether they were heading back because their insurance coverage for the virus expired on the 23rd, 10 days after the Canadian travel advisory was issued.   They had called their coverer and found out they hadn't had any travel coverage for the last few months, because their pension plan coverage had reduced travel coverage to 60 days.  The notice of the change had gone to a previous address.  They were full-timers, so were looking for a place to stay in the Okanogan until the weather in Alberta warms up. 

Saturday, we headed for Alamo Nevada,  north east of Las Vegas, south of Ely.  When we stopped for lunch, we called the RV park.  They were full, so we checked with Young's in Caliente, where we have stayed a couple of times.  Fortunately they had space.  We were watching TV about 8:30 when we heard a racket in the trailer.  After checking around, we determined it was coming from the insides.  It turned out to be the hydraulic brake controller.  This should only be running when the brakes are on.   After a bit of checking around, we determined it would go off if we moved the emergency brake mechanism, which in theory only gets triggered if the trailer separates from truck somehow.  There is a cable that wraps around the hitch that pulls out a tab if the trailer gets off the hitch while the cable is still attached.  If the tab is pulled out, the brakes go on. Somehow this got loose, and activated the brakes.  When we reinserted the tab, the controller turned off.   A similar thing happened to us the year we were coming down the west coast when a piece of wood shifted in the box of the truck and landed on the cable.  Another one of the security processes that is only a problem in situations other than the intended ones.   We were quite relieved we were able to figure out the cause of the noise, and could get it fixed.  Not the time we want to be looking for an RV tech to fix a problem.

Sunday, we phoned our usual stop at the casino in Fort Hall, Idaho.  Since they closed the casino, and the cashier  in the casino was where we paid for the RV, they closed the RV park too.  That was a bit scary.   We stopped at Jackpot, Nevada, at the very north end of highway 93.  They have a self-serve pay option, so quite a few snowbirds heading north stopped there for the night. 

Monday, we drove to Dillon, Montana, after calling a RV park we stayed at before. They weren't open yet, but referred us to Beaverhead River RV Park.   We called them, and paid for site 6.  When we got there, a motorhome was in site 6.  They had also called and been given this site.  It turned out the guy we both talked to thought the second guys were us, calling again for some reason.  Anyway, we were able to park in a different site.  

From there we drove to Helena, to the KOA, and paid for 2 nights.  We did this because the weather the next day in Vulcan was supposed to hit a low of -9C.  We could handle that but preferred not to.  But just to be nasty, the low in Helena the second night was about the same.   John topped up our propane tanks, so we would have 3 full ones when we arrive in Vulcan.  We need to run our propane furnace to heat under the trailer when the temps are below freezing.  With the mandatory self-isolation in place after hitting the border (ie. you have to drive straight to where you are staying and cannot stop anywhere to shop or whatever until the 14 days are up), we figured we should have plenty of propane.  Since the RV park had a propane tank, John walked the 2 tanks over to get them filled.  Later in the day, one of our neighbours came over to see if we had a problem with the truck, since John didn't drive to get the propane.  He offered to drive us if we needed.   We had thought he was from Montana, since he had a truck with Montana plates.  He explained that he was from Alberta, but his new truck had a blown head-gasket after 10,000 km, and it was going to take 12 days to get the truck repaired.  They had provided him with a rental. 
What bad luck!

On Thursday we headed for the border.  Not too far from the border, we saw an Alberta motorhome on the back of a tow truck, going off at an exit.  Another traveler with problem getting home.  

The wait at the border was pretty short, with only about 7 vehicles ahead of us.   After the usual questions about what we were bringing back, the agent read off the information about the mandatory self-isolation, and sent us on our way.  We didn't even have to go in to pay the duty on our excess wine, due to the risks of spreading the virus.  About 3 PM we arrived to our usual spot at the Petro-Can in Vulcan.  We arranged everything on the phone, as we can't go into the station.   We had a one choice of putting cash in a sealed envelope, which they disinfect after opening.  Since we didn't have enough cash to pay until May 1, we opted for the e-transfer method. 

We are all set up for our 14 days, except for some fresh vegetables, which you aren't supposed to bring across the border.  If we can't get them delivered to us by someone in town, Trev has volunteered to have someone in his family bring them out to us.  A bit of a waste to have them come this far, and not even be able to visit in person.   We'll see how that goes. 

We have paid for our campground and golf from May through September.  We'll see whether that is till feasible.  When we checked with the town to see whether we could stay in Virginia Mitchell Campground with just power and sewer, no water, no washrooms, they said no, and they weren't even sure they would be opening the campground this summer due to the virus, if the Alberta Government decides campgrounds aren't safe.  Could get interesting for full-time RVers.  Several states in the USA have already closed down all RV parks, etc, even ones with permanent residents.  

If anything out of the ordinary for the the next month happens, we will add a blog entry, but otherwise we won't be creating another entry until sometime in mid-October.  
Have a good and safe summer.

    

Week ending Mar 19, 2020 Midland LTVA

Thursday evening we were watching Jeopardy when we got an emergency alert.  It was on our phone, since it is a USA provider, warning about flash flood possibilities for our area.   This was the first time we have had an emergency alert. 

Friday, we got a few things done to prepare for leaving.

Saturday we packed up, dumped our tanks and filled the fresh water.  Then we drove west across the Colorado on I-10 to Blythe, California.  After picking up a few groceries we headed north on Midland Road to the Midland LTVA, another long term stay area.  It has a sewer dump, garbage, but no fresh water.  We plan to stay for a couple of weeks, before heading for home.

Sunday morning we headed roughly north toward a mine area we can see on the edge of the hills to the north. 

mine area from a distance

We started by heading north up the road we are on. It follows a wash that forms the east boundary of the north side of the LTVA.  After about a mile the trail we were on headed east, so we went over a ridge to the north. From there we crossed at least 3 major washes running southwest from the hills.  Our target was to go below a ridge ahead that ended abruptly, but had several large boulders below its end.

rock blocks

These were large structures of conglomerate gravel that probably got undercut at the bottom of the ridge by two washes coming together. 

budding hedgehog cactus

About .7 mi further, we got to a road heading toward the mine.  By this time we had come 3.6 miles, and we still had lots more to go (turned out to be another 1.6 miles when we located the spot on Google Maps satellite view).  We decided it was time to head back.  The road we were on headed pretty much straight back toward the LTVA.  Once we got down into the large wash crossing Midland Road, after passing a pile of tires dumped out here, we came to an ATV trail that paralleled Midland road, and saved us about a third of a mile.   7.2 miles total in 4.25 hours.  We were sure glad to be back to the trailer.

Monday morning, we saw a text from Trev.  He wanted to make sure we knew that there might be issues with our travel health care due to COVID-19 if we don't head back to Canada ASAP.  We checked the Medipac website.  Nothing on it.  We sent them an e-mail to get clarification.  Then we got an e-mail from Carol saying it seems we will have to self-isolate for 2 weeks when we do return.   Karen called to say her cruise from San Juan to Barcelona next month is going to get cancelled.

We went for a reconnaisance walk around the edge of the LTVA to see where things are.  We read the plaque marking the "Desert Strike" military exercise in May 1964.  Along the way we got greated by 3 dogs in one of the corners.  We chatted with their owner for a few minutes.   Further north on the west side of the LTVA we had a long conversation with a couple from Oregon.

fancy boundary marker

Monday evening, we got a response from Medipac.  They let us know that since we started our trip before the Travel Advisory was issued, we will be covered if we happen to get the COVID-19 virus.   We have decided to return a bit early, by April 9, in case we are directed to self-isolate when we return to Canada.  That gives us 2 weeks until our dental and medical appointments later in the month.

Tuesday, we resumed our walk around the edge of the LTVA.  This time we did the west side.  One stretch of it, the signs are at the top of parallel ridges with steep sides.   At the north end, it is along the edge of a the wide shallow wash, with lots of space and only a couple of units.   In this area, there were 3 big concrete based picnic tables, an unusual amenity in the LTVAs.   We deduce these must have been here in a rec area prior to the LTVA being created.

Along the way we came across a desert lily.  

Desert Lily

At this point, Joan headed back to the trailer to bake oatmeal raisin cookies.  John continued across to Midland Road, which runs down the middle of the LTVA.  There was a sign to Moreno Ranch just north of the west side of the LTVA.   Continuing on to the west side of the LTVA, John was coming toward a trailer in the corner.  The occupant came out, and John explained he was scouting out the edge of the LTVA.  "Okay" was the response.  John finished up the route around the LTVA that was left on the south end on the east side.   Along the way he chatted, from a safe distance, with a lady from Montana.  She is avoiding grocery stores, but goes into McDonalds regularly to buy a small item and use their wifi.

Wednesday was a rainy day, again.  We took the opportunity to go into Blythe to get some groceries and arrange to get our axles greased on the 27.   Ann called in the afternoon to let us know the borders were being closed.  We assured her that we would still be able to return to Alberta.  They are just stopping non-Canadians from coming into Canada.


Thursday, drove to about 2 miles from the Calcium Carbonate Quarry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_carbonate, that we had stopped before reaching on Sunday, since it was too far.  The white layer on the mountain is the calcium carbonate.

We walked from there to the quarry.

quarry

loose CaCO3 crystals on gathering area

On the way back to the truck we some some master blister beetles.

blister beetle

 

Week ending Mar 12, 2020 Quartzsite LTVA

Friday, we walked the garbage up, and did a 3 mile loop around the LTVA on the west side of the highway, walking ESE along a row near the garbage, then south, and then back WNW along the row we are on, so we could see where the people that drive out past are camped.  One site had a croquet course laid out.  Looks like someone has to hold the post for the person taking their final shot.  

Then lots of curling.

Saturday we headed out to climb the little hill past the row of digs we went to last week.  We are seeing more quail, hare and geckos in the wash areas, and birds sitting on trees or cacti.

When we got past the digs we climbed the little hill along an ATV trail that went to the shoulder below the flag.  When we got to the shoulder, we found that the flag was on the next hill.  There was even a man at the top. 

From the valley it had looked like one hill.  We descended down to the shoulder between the hills, then climbed the path up the hill to the flag.  When we got to the top, we realized that the village just south of it was Rainbow Acres, not La Paz Valley as we had assumed last week.   On the rocks at the base of the flag, instead of the usual graffitti you see in such places, people had placed little painted rocks marking their ascent.  One was for a boy who was 6 1/2 when he was here, and another couple were for a girl when she was 2 the first time, and again when 3. 

rock momentos

We returned around the 'false' hill instead of going back over it.  Subsequently we came across a few areas with quartz bits spread across them.

hedgehog cactus

Sunday we did a little loop up the next road north of us between the Brier and the Nascar race. 

Monday, we went for a walk up the steep slope to the right of the ridge we did early in our stay on this side. 

quail in a tree

Views from the top, but nothing inspiring.  Then we drove into Parker for groceries, and to stock up on wine to take home.  We had lunch at Crossroads Cafe, a good spot in Parker.  We were surprised at how busy it was at 10:30.  We had to wait for a few minutes to get a table.  A lot of the people must be like us, changing to daylight savings time to match our TV programs, even though Arizona doesn't do DST.  After a good lunch, we headed to Walmart.  The one in Parker is a bit of zoo, as the parking lot is small for a Walmart, and there were quite a few trailers in the lot.  The store itself is similar, with narrower than usual aisles, and boxes of stuff parked in aisles as well.  The checkouts were busy, and we made a bad call, winding up behind a couple with tons of stuff.  We were wondering if we had missed some kind of special sale day.  It turned out that they were stocking up on things because of the coronavirus panic.  You would think that the economy was going to come to a halt, so people are buying up lots of canned food, just in case.  Sounds like Y2K again.  The concerns about what might happen are likely way worse than what will happen, and as they escalate, it causes a lot of other issues.

Tuesday morning was very overcast with rain on and off.  After breakfast, there was a break in the rain, so we walked our garbage to the bins, and then walked up the ATV trail up one of the middle ridges on Granite.  Along the way, we got a picture of a Loggerhead Shrike on an occotillo bush.

We even had a butterfly pause long enough for a picture.

butterfly

Once up the ridge, instead of taking the ATV trail down the side of the ridge, we carried on a few more hundred feet and followed another ridge going north down into the valley.  We had a good view of the area where we are camped.  It shows an advantage of this kind of area.

our closest neighbors with our trailer in the bottom center

We got a few sprinkles along the way, but nothing serious.  When we got back to the trailer, we got a few minutes of rain, then set up the generator under the front overhang of the trailer.

Wednesday we had a bit more rain overnight.  Cloudy in the morning.

cloudy morning

We hiked out to a hill to the southwest near our the hill with the flag.  We could see a cairn, or two, on the top of the hill, and thought there might be some mining there.   

We took the route around to the south of the hill, to where we had seen the road to the top of the hill. It was another steep climb, 24%.  

hill with cairn

There was no mine at the top.  the other cairn was on another hill to the north.  The route down the north side was easier than the south.  It went down a shorter distance to the shoulder between the two hills.  The cairn on the north hill marked the location of a hole about 8-12 ft deep 6ft wide and 12 feet long carved out of the rock.  The road from the shoulder headed west, away from the trailer, but looked like the easiest route out, so we headed that way, then back around the north side of second hill.  There were a few more small digs on that side.  Further east along the valley, we got to a junction, from which the 2 choices both headed up over hills.  We headed up the north route across a wash.   In the wash we saw a plant we haven't seen around here.

desert holly

This route kept climbing up over another hill to the north.  About half-way up, we opted to go off-road on a trace of a trail that angled down into another wash.  We followed it down until we got back down to the main wash, crossed it to the trailer. 

Thursday there were 'flash flood' warnings starting at 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM Friday.  We went into Quartzsite to do laundry.  When we got back the washes on the road in the LTVA were a little deeper than when we went in. 

Wash running across road

Stream running from road

We decided we should do a walk to a 'waterfall' we had seen on one of our previous walks, hoping there might be some water flowing.  Although we saw a few little areas with some flowing water this side of Tyson Wash, there were only a few puddles on the west side.  We got some better pictures of the rocks in the wash which would create a waterfall, but decided we would need to be there in the rain to see any flow over them.

dry waterfall

On our way back, we could see rain clouds on the east side of the valley.  By the time we got back to the trailer, the rain had arrived.  It wasn't very heavy and didn't last long.

Week ending Mar 5, 2020 Quartzsite LTVA

Friday morning was overcast.  The forecast said about 50% cloud cover, but it was closer to 99% until noon.  Then it got a bit less.  We did a 5 mile loop south east along the main road, then followed a road south west for a while.  Then we got into a bit less well traveled areas heading west then northwest until we got back to a line of trailers.  We could see why there was not many south of them, as there was a deep fairly steep walled wash going east-west.  We managed to work our way across it, then traveled north toward the trailer.

We were planning to move the trailer to the west side of the LTVA to be closer to the trails on Granite Mtn next Monday, but the weather forecast is for rain then.  We moved on Saturday.  The only disadvantage of the new location is that it is just east of Old Yuma Road which runs along the west side of the LTVA.  It is very popular with ATVers, who raise a bit of dust.  While setting up, we heard a couple of souped up off-road cars roaring by, ignoring the 15 mph speed limit.  They raised even more dust.  We can't complain too much, as this is about 1.5 miles closer to the ATV trails on Granite Mountain and its surrounds.  

Sunday morning after watching about half of the morning Tim's draw, we hiked west toward a couple of trails running up the SE corner of Granite. 

We entered the wash running north-south between a couple of truck campers.  One, from Alberta, had a beautiful fluffy white dog who greeted us.  We wound our way across the wash

to the ATV trails on the hill, and followed the left one up a ridge, since it was the lower of the two.

From the top of the ridge we could see further into a canyon into the mountain.

Lots of nice flowers.  

Beavertail cactus flower

A little further, down from the ridge we came to another trail joining the one we were on from the south.  We took this, as the slope looked better than the one we came up.  As we got back down into a wash at the bottom, we heard some ATV's which parked on the top of the ridge we had been on.   A bit further on, we came to an intersection.  We took the trail heading back east toward the trailer.  We saw a few quail cross the trail ahead of us.

Shortly after this, the ATV's that had been on the ridge approached us.  When we got back down into Tyson Wash, we encountered the white dog  we had seen on the way out, taking its owners for a walk.

Back to the trailer for more curling, and Nascar in the afternoon.

Monday morning we did a trip into Quartzsite to empty our recycling bin. On the way, we stopped at Main Street Eatery again for breakfast.  After recycling, we picked up a few groceries before returning to the trailer.  Then about 9:30 we started a hike to the west, targeting J. Cone's cabin on the SW side of Granite Mtn.   As we were entering the wide part of Tyson Wash, we saw a quail perched on a tree limb.  When we went to take a picture, we saw that the memory card hadn't been put back in.  John returned the .4 mi to the trailer to pick up the memory card.  By the time he got back to Joan, the quail had walked along the tree limb it was on, jumped down to another branch, then down to the ground.  The first mile or so of our hike was retracing the route from the day before.  Then we continued along the wash on the south side of Granite.  There was another ridge road about half way along the south side.  It just looked like an ATV climb, although you might get some good views.  When we arrived at the Cone cabin, we saw that it is fenced in, with DANGER signs.  Pity that people are so careless that they have to be protected from themselves.  There are good views of the hills around from the cabin.   Cone was an artist and worker of ironwood.  The larger building was his workshop. A few years ago, there were roofs on the buildings.   

Workshop

Workshop

Cabin

On the way back, we encountered a fellow on a bicycle, who figured the road was really rough, and two ATVs.  A while later we heard and saw some more quails, from a distance.  Then we came up to a group of about 10 ATVs who were stopped for a break.  We notice they usually travel in groups.  We have been thinking about getting an ATV to be able to go further off-road than we can hike.  Seeing the goups of ATVs makes us think it might be a good idea to have one each, just in case we had a breakdown.  Then we wouldn't have to walk a long way back to get help.
Rain started at 1:04 as predicted (.02in forecast), but figure we must have got more than that. 

On Tuesday, we went south west from the trailer.  Crossing the wash, we spooked a hare.  Once across the wash, instead of heading west on our route yesterday, we followed the atv trail further south then up a small hill

hills to south

with a dig on it. 

dig

From the crest, we could see south to La Paz Valley.  Between us and La Paz Valley, there was a series of small digs .  Click picture for better view of the digs.

line of digs with La Paz Valley beyond

 We had a choice of following the atv trail up over a couple of higher hills higher to get down, or taking a faint route down into the wash.   The digs were spread out over an area about 1/6 mile. Further southwest, we noticed a little hill with a flag on the top, but opted not to climb it today.   We worked our way back across the wash further south than the we had come out.  We saw another hare.  This one wasn't as quick to get out of sight, as it didn't notice us.  However, there was too much cover to get a picture.  

Wednesday we decided to hike up a trail on the northeast corner of Granite that we saw from the stone cabin by the wash a few weeks ago.  We followed the same route to above the cabin, then headed uphill on an ATV trail until we got to the trail angling up over a little shoulder. 

It was a fairly steep climb on a narrow little path, but not unreasonable. 

variety

When we got to the shoulder, we could see the west end of Quartzsite ahead of us.

From here the trail continued across the side of the hill, coming out above a gap going north south.

  The track continued northwest around the hill towards Quartzsite, but we decided to work down a good slope to an ATV trail below.  We followed that trail southeast toward the trailer.  It climbed a bit to get over the next shoulder.  From there, we worked our way back to the trailer.  In one of the washes coming down the hill we saw an usual dry waterfall.

dry waterfall

We spooked a hare which hid under a bush, then darted away and paused out in the open.  Finally got pictures.

On the way back we saw a few more quail in a couple of places.  We even saw a squirrel-type rodent with a bit of something in it dash across our trail.  Makes me want to get a Go-Pro to have on while hiking to get pictures of the animals that dart by too fast to get the camera out. 

Thursday we retraced our route to the little ridge we did on Sunday. This time, instead of climbing the ridge, we followed the wash north of it.

warbler?

We thought we had seen paths above the wash on one side or the other, but we couldn't find one, so we exited the wash when it crossed the ATV trail that comes across the west shoulder of the ridge.  From there, we walked along the ATV trail toward a shoulder to the NW.  The last bit up the shoulder looked pretty steep so we followed a path to the left to a shoulder a bit west.

thin trail heading left

After looking north into the gap we had come south through yesterday, we followed the little trail along a ridge that came back out on the ATV trail.

Week ending Feb 27, 2020 Quartzsite LTVA

Friday was a quiet day, watching curling.

Saturday early morning we started getting a bit of rain.  Then mid-morning we go a lot more.  The little washes between the rows of trailers started flowing.

water in the shallow wash beside the trailer

Instead of turning on the TV we listened to Quartzsite KBUX radio.  It is tailored for us baby-boomers with 50's and 60's music.  Unfortunately, you can only get it within about 20 miles of Quartzsite.   By noon, the clouds had cleared off quite a bit. 

Sunday we walked out to the stone cabin we had seen from Chocolate Mountain.  We parked near a camp spot we had picked out to move to in about a week, but found someone had occupied it.   There were a few spots still holding the rain from yesterday.

 

creosote bush flowering

stone cabin

deer tracks

maple leaf quartz

Monday, we did a walk east and south for just under 6 miles.  A few flowers, perhaps as a result of the rain.   One bush, a Baja Fairy Duster was very prolific. 

Baja fairy duster

flower next to quartz

little yellow flowers

 And a few birds.

woodpecker

cactus wren

cacti boxing ;)

We followed a pink ribbon trail with a faint ATV track back west to the trailers. 

pink ribbon

Back in the LTVA we saw an interesting custom-made trailer.

semi-trailer conversion

In the afternoon we tested our sewer tote, walking the first load the 1/4 mile to the dump station.  Since that worked well, we took a second load hitched to the truck.  Joan walked behind for about half the way to make sure our cotter pinned wheel didn't come loose.  It worked fine.

Tuesday we retraced our route from soon after we arrived here, going NE to the road running southwest from the north LTVA.  Then, we followed it NW toward the north LTVA entrance, arriving just short of the garbage bins in that area.  We saw an RV with a hitch platform at the back, folded up.  We chatted with the lady who owns it.  She had ordered it from Amazon, and found it useful for carrying stuff.  It even held a teak chest that took 3 people to load it, so it can hold a good sized load.  We were thinking of getting one to hold the sewer tote, putting it in the truck hitch.  Joan did some measurement with her walking pole.  When we got back to the trailer Joan found that the top of the platform would be a few inches above the low point on the flow through tailgate.  There are likely ones a little smaller than this that would still be large enough for the tote, but fold up below the low point on the tailgate. 

Wednesday morning just as the heat was getting up to a nice temperature during breakfast, the propane for the heater ran out.  Good timing, as we planned to go into Yuma today to fill two of our three tanks, get another two weeks of u-pick grapefruit, and some groceries.  We chose Yuma rather than Blythe and Parker, which are less than half the distance because the propane and grapefruit are the cheapest around.  Probably not quite worth the extra distance, but close enough for us.   The trip took a little extra time, about 12 minutes, because there was a section of the highway with one side closed for crack tarring. 

Thursday, we drove a few miles south to the road that heads west to La Paz Valley, an unincorporated hamlet about half a square mile about 5 miles south of Quartzite.  We parked in the Roadrunner 14-day BLM camping area next to highway 95, and walked the 1.5 miles west to the area.  Along the way we noticed a BLM marker with an unusual icon on it.  It turned out to be for the Arizona Peace Trail, a new trail which crosses here on Old Yuma Road,  the western boundary of the LTVA north of here.

AZ Peace Trail sign

In the hamlet, there are two large RV parks there, and a fair number of residences.  At the end of the roads, there are signs indicating who lives down each road. 

list of residents down the road

more residents

 

At the west edge of town, our topo map points of interest lead us to the Eightmile Well.  We couldn't figure out 8 miles from where. 

Eightmile Well

Hard to imagine  there were cattle ranging here.

cattle loading chute

 

After we got back to the truck, we drove west to Old Yuma Road, and followed it back to the LTVA rather than driving back up the highway.