Friday was cool and windy. We ran the generator for a while, since we didn't get a full dose of sun on Thursday. Then we waited until after lunch to walk to Old Senator Mine, which is one of 3 mines near the LTVA. In fact it is only about half a mile from the main road into the LTVA. After walking 3 miles, we were within 1/4 mile from the mine, but our GPS showed it was up a little gap in the hills on the east edge of the Kripple Kreek area of the LTVA, a little alcove with only about 6 units in it. John did some scouting up the gap, to see if it was worth Joan climbing up. It wasn't as still about an 1/8 of a mile from the mine, there was a little cirque of hills, and a pretty good clamber to get over the rim to the other side. On returning to the trailer, and checking the satellite view of the area, we found that the mine was on the far side of the hill, and that there were trails around the east side to get to it. Another day.
Saturday morning was colder, 39F, so we headed to the campground area at Squaw Lake, still in the LTVA. There are several shower building there that operate on $1 tokens. Then we went into Yuma for breakfast and groceries.
We stopped at DD's Discount, where Joan found some pants and tops. John picked up a new cap. When we got down here, we realized John had left his hat in his golf bag at Trev's. He bought a cap for $3 at Walmart in Laughlin after a few long hiking days. Earlier this week, we couldn't find the cap anywhere in the trailer or truck. Joan said if we bought a new one, we would find it. True enough. Later when she was going out of the trailer, paying attention to get on the stairs, she saw the cap caught on the cross bar of the steps.
When we stopped for diesel at Fry's, although there are a lot of diesel nossels, they were all being used by people using the gas nozzle on the same pump, leaving most of the gas-only pumps empty. We got in line behind one lady, and when she was done, we pulled up, only to find that her husband, in another vehicle, had started pumping gas into his car on the other side. That way they only had to enter their credit card once? To make matters worse, he then proceeded to fill 3 10 gallon gas containers. Every time we saw another pump come open, someone pulled into before we could get around. If Trev had seen this, he would have given them a lecture on being considerate by using the gas only pumps unless they were all in use. On the way back to the trailer, we stopped at a historic sign at the site of the Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner. It was built near here to protect the Spanish Anza trail from Tucson to California. The Quechans (Yuma Indians) attacked the settlement in 1781, which closed this crossing of the Colorado River.
Sunday morning we walked east along the canal. We immediately heard shotgun blasts, and saw flocks of ducks fleeing. It looked like 3 hunters west along the other side of the canal. Duck hunting along the Colorado in California is from Oct 18 until Jan 26. We came across one of the few phainopeplas we have seen this year.
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| Phainopepla |
We continued along the canal past the road coming into the LTVA, continuing toward the dam area. Across the pond, we could see the road up to Old Senator Mine.
Then we came to the
desilting ponds in front of the dam with scrapers.
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| desilting scrapers |
When we got near McKinley Road, which goes to the dam, we encountered a group taking pictures of birds. They said they were travel journalists at the
Yuma Bird, Nature and History Festival. From there we walked 1/4 mile up Mckinley Road to an old mining road up into the hills.
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| Approaching the mine |
When we got to the Old Senator Mine Area, we were confronted with a 3 line barbed-wire fence, with No Trespassing signs. The fence completely circled the mine area, going down through the wash, and up the side of hills.
We choose to obey no trespassing notices, but got some pictures of the mine, from a bit of distance.
While we were sitting down for a drink and a snack of trail mix, we heard voices above us, two people going along the crest of the hill. We don't know if they noticed us or not. When we got back down to McKinley Road, we saw them just starting on the canal route, and we followed about 1/4 mile behind them all they way back to where we leave the canal near the trailer. Along the canal, we saw a heron sitting on one of the structures in the ponds around the dam, with a nice palm tree behind it.
Further along we saw a kingfisher. At first it was sitting on the powerline. Then it flew over to a power pole, where it posed for a while.
Further down the canal was a cormorant on a wire across the canal.
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| Cormorant drying its wings |
Monday, we drove the road west towards the hill, and parked at the junction where we went to the pickup trailer last Tuesday. We walked toward a tower we have seen to the west. We went the end of the road in that direction, which was only about 3/4 mile. We figured we could make it up a burro trail to the ridge above the end of the road. However, Joan slipped trying to get up a larger than normal step out of a wash and strained the muscle in her knee, so John, after making sure she was okay, headed up to the ridge. The tower was still a couple of ridges away, so no reasonable access.
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| tower three ridges over, at least |
We returned toward the truck, and Joan's knee was feeling okay, so we followed a side road up which we had seen a miner coming out a few days ago. When we got back into that area, we encountered a couple from Prince George, and their friendly rotweiller named "Miner". They were doing some dry wash mining here under the SPMA membership. Back in BC, they spend most of their summers doing the same kind of mining there. They mentioned a couple of things to check out in the area, the "rock dam" and the "catfish pole". We'll have to see if we can find some info, or maybe just hike out in the direction they described and hope for the best.
Joan put a heating pad on her knee for the afternoon and took Tylenol to get a decent night's sleep.
On Tuesday, she was limping pretty badly so she stayed in the trailer and washed the dishes while John did the 2 1/2 mile walk to the garbage at Quail Hill in the morning. Joan did a bit of walking in the trailer to keep the knee mobile. In the afternoon, John walked back to the pond we had seen last Thursday to take pictures from the hill to the north of the pond, following burro trails, since they know the easiest routes.
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| Ducks on canal |
He was lucky enough to see an egret fly onto a tree on the edge of the pond, and a heron fly across the pond to a tree on the south edge.
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| Egret |
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| Heron in flight, Egret on left |
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| Heron |
On the opposite side of the canal, there were a couple of duck hunters who had a kayak, instead of a retriever, to get their ducks. They had already beached the kayak and then put it back on their truck. On the canal, there were racoon tracks.
Wednesday, we had to run the generator again, as we had a bit of cloud. This gave Joan a chance to use the induction cooktop to make potato salad. In the afternoon, we went into Yuma to pick up more gas for the generator, as we hadn't expected to run it as much. Joan's knee was feeling a bit better so she could do this, make it to the truck, and into the grocery store with the aid of a grocery cart. She is still getting twinges when she turns at all. We also found a business that takes recycling, so were able to drop our plastics, cardboard, etc.
Thursday, we drove into Quartzite to pick up a sewer tote, a few led lights to reduce battery use when the solar panels aren't generating. Then we went to Solar Bill's to see if they have a battery monitor. The only model they have is $359, and we figure we might get more out of another battery or solar panel, so passed on that. On the way back to the trailer, we stopped at a historic marker for an elaborate concrete-lined stone-faced paint shed
built by Italians prisoners-of war at the Yuma Test Branch toward the end of World War II. The Test Branch was testing methods to build floating bridges on the Colorado River in this area.
When we got back to the trailer we figured out how to use all of the bits that attach to the sewer tote. Soon time for a run to dump our sewers, so we'll see how that goes. As the instructions say, without saying how, don't overfill the tank. Hopefully the clear elbow connections will let help tell when it is time to close the valve. The neighbours seem to deal with this problem by dumping their sewers every few days. We have been over two weeks, so will have to be careful.
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