Friday, we walked from the trailer to the LTVA office, 3.5 miles each way. That was a bit further than we planned, and we were glad when we got back. When we came out a few weeks ago to look over the LTVA, we mentioned that our permit had the last couple of digits in the trailer license plate wrong. They said to bring it into the office when we came out, and they would correct it on their records. There was a different volunteer today, and all she did was correct it on our copy and give it back to us, so the only benefit of the walk was the exercise. On the way back to the trailer, we heard a burro braying, we took a picture in the general direction, but didn't think we could see it. However, when we loaded the pictures, there was a burro. They blend into the background, and don't move much, so they can be hard to spot.
In the evening, we were surprised to see a couple of 5th wheels with ATV trailers park in the same patch we are in. We thought we had the only level spot. Even though they are somewhat closer than normal out here, they are still further away than in an RV park.
Nice sunset over the hills.
Saturday, we walked just over a mile to take a bag of garbage to the nearest dumpster at the Quail Hill area. Then we walked back along the canal to a bridge that is just below our trailer. We passed a hawk along the way. Maybe he was watching all the ducks on the canal.
Sunday, we got away fairly early for a walk straight toward the hills to the west. Shortly we came into a what could have been just a gravel pit, but had a few bits that might indicate a mine site. After a while, we got to a point above a wash where we could see the typical mining building at the edge.
There was a rock garden near it.
Below it, there were a couple of guys dry gold mining, shaking sand to separate out the bits of gold. We chatted with them for a few minutes. Back up on the plateau, we encountered two more fellows. We got a bit more information from them, finding that there is an association, the SPMA that has 6 claims in this area. You can join the association for the privilege of working on the claims. A bit further on we saw an adit on the far side of the wash. There was a trail that went around a small knoll to go down into the wash. Then we clambered back out of the wash to the adit. This one is unusual, as it was a square entrance, well made, and the shaft descending into the hill at about 45 degrees as far as the light went.
The inside of the shaft had wood sheets on all 4 sides, with stud framing spaced out about 4 feet apart.
On the slope facing the adit, there was a rock cistern.Our trip back to the trailer was much faster, as we didn't have the side trips, and we found a trail that was more direct than the BLM road.
Monday was a windy day, but warm enough that it was still pleasant to walk. Our route went up the next road with RVs to the east of us. It is called Cistern Road. A short distance up the road, we came to the cistern, which is at least 8 feet high. The road took us further north along the range of hills to the west than we had gone last Thursday. We found an old car rusting in the desert near the hills. It had been used for gun target practice on both sides.
We walked up a wash area to check out some white rocks along a ridge. Someone had painted them white. No idea why. On a flat area near the car, someone had laid out a message with rocks".
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| Hi Choppers |
We stopped for water and a snack in a lava field, which had a few rocks high enough to sit on.
A burro trail went through the lava field, so instead of going back on the road, we followed the burro trail.
It was fairly parallel to the road, about 1/4 mile from it. When it got to a power line crossing our route, we followed it toward the plateau that our trailer is on. It went through the wash next to our plateau through the desert golf course we had seen on an earlier walk.
When we got up on the plateau, we noticed a Titanium, similar to our 5th wheel. We introduced ourselves to the couple, who had just arrived. They are from north-east Saskatchewan. They keep their trailer in storage here so they don't have to pull it back and forth, particularly at this time of year.
The wind continued into Tuesday, and since it was a bit cooler in the morning, we went for a walk about an hour later than usual (around 10). This time, we checked out some digging on the side of a hill near the trailer. There was no other evidence of mining there. From there we continued back toward where we went on Sunday. This time, we went past where we had turned around toward a red object we had noticed on Tuesday. The object was a truck bed that had been turned into a trailer. Like the old car we had seen yesterday, it was riddled with bullet holes. The bed of the truck was open, so we sat on the bumper while we had our snack before heading back.
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No burros on the hillside in this area. Every once in a while, for the full duration of our walk, we could hear loud booms. We figure that the army must be doing some testing of artillery on the Yuma Proving grounds across the river in Arizona. The proving grounds is a huge area that stretches from here north to near Quartzite, between highway 95 and the Colorado River.
Late afternoon, one of our neighbours, from the Nelson BC area, knocked on our door. They hadn't seen us for a couple of days, and our truck hadn't moved and our chairs were still sitting upside down beside the trailer, so he came to check to make sure we were okay. We explained that we walk in the mornings, and watch TV in the afternoons.
Wednesday, we drove up Ferguson Lake Road. It is on the west side of the Colorado River about 6 miles north of the LTVA. The road wanders through some interesting hills,
then across a bit of a plateau, coming to a wide point above the lake, where we stopped to take some pictures.
The road descends to the edge of lake.
Although the road is passable, we decided that we had rattled the truck enough for the day, so instead of continuing a couple more miles along the lake, we turned back. We had to use our 4 wheel drive at one point going back up the hill from the lake.
Thursday, Joan baked some buns on the barbecue. They turned out really well. Later John finished a process of loading a gps file of California mines on to the computer. He decided to head toward the Triple C Mine, the closest one to us. It looked like the easiest way to get to it was west along the canal beside us. We took the second road heading west from the canal. When we got to the end of the road, we could see down into the wash where the miners who we met on Sunday were working again. We were about .4 miles away from the Triple C, but couldn't get there without going down into the wash, well below us. It turned out that the adit we had seen on Sunday was the Triple C mine.
From here, we had a good view of the LTVA. Click on the picture to be able to see the RVs along the top.
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| LTVA from hill to south |
We returned to the canal, and continued south for a while, past a car that somehow landed in a tree,
until we got to a pond on the west side of the canal.
On our way back to the canal, one of the miners we had talked to came up behind us in his jeep. He stopped and chatted with us a while.
Around 2 pm, the wind came up, and broken cloud came rolling in, the first significant cloud to interfere with our solar panels while we have been in the LTVA. So far we haven't had to run the generator since the day we arrived. Maybe this afternoon?
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