I had to resupply in Blythe, so it was time to move to a new spot. I was not done with the Midland area yet, as I had found new cool areas to explore while out on the motorcycle. I expected the spot I had found to be empty, but no, it ended up being a local hangout. Read on to see who I found.
View above my camp towards solar farm
My resupply in Blythe was not exactly cheap, this being in California. I found out that pop was as expensive as cheap beer, so I ended up with more beer, less pop. Beer taxes, even in California, are ridiculously cheap as compared to Canada. You can thank years of tolerance to increasing “sin taxes” in Canada for the high alcohol tax rates. While the local Albertsons does not have the high end selection you’d see in richer parts of the State, it does the job for all your food needs.
I noticed next door a formerly empty retail space had stuff in it, with it looking open. Yet there was no sign. I could see someone inside so I popped in and confirmed they were indeed open, just still waiting for an on order sign for their store. They were filling a huge space with discount merchandise, think home decor more so than dollar store. The place really looked in the process of being set up although the owner(?) stated they had been open for several months. I can only hope they got a steep discount on the rent because they are not drawing in business with lack of signage and general disorganization.
Well used spot below me
I headed back out to the Midlands area, heading past my last spot and hanging a left before Midland ghost town proper. The gravel road was well maintained, as it led to an active mine. I had found a spot that looked to be well used, way out in nowhere territory. But I decided that I was not going to camp right at the well used camp, rather I went up the hill a ways to the last level spot where I had a nice view looking out on the Blythe area and the camping spot below me. I figured just in case someone showed up, I’d be on my own up above, rather than having someone camp near me in what was a pretty big camping area with a watering hole for cattle.
I setup and explored the area around me. The ridge behind me was climbable, with a pole on top of one hill that I could not figure out the purpose of. I explored down the other side of the ridge too, finding fields of white quartz strewn about the area. I was on the lookout for some nice clear quartz, as this area was fairly lightly tread on, but alas, no good pieces were found.
I was enjoying the view and the solitude at my spot. I could see the solar farm and the Blythe farming area to the south of me as just a few points of light in the distance. The dark skies here are pretty good here. There was only the occasional traffic on the main gravel road, split between explorers and mine workers. There seemed to be no hauling going on from the mine at the time I was there, which helped with the traffic. 
But one day a jeep showed up in the camp below me. That wasn’t unusual, I often had people come by taking a quick look and moving on. But this person left a bunch of firewood behind, which is peculiar. I surmised that they were pre-supplying the camp for some camping. Sure enough, next day a trailer shows up. I have a great vantage point to spy upon them from above, seeing that the female of the couple was wearing a US flag shirt. It’s usually a sign of their political affiliation down here: I’m going to assume something in a conservative orange flavor until proven otherwise at this point.
Pole near camp
I went down to introduce myself, as it is a little weird being camped looking down on everyone else. I meet Ron and Debbie, who are locals out for a weekend of getting away from it all. They’re friendly enough, but not exactly chatty. While it is wiser to avoid politics with strangers in the US, we did skirt around the edges discussing the increasing costs of LTVA and services in the area. From that I could deduce that they were more in tune with the new administration as compared to the old one. Next day a second couple shows up, which turns out to be Kenny from the museum and his wife Tamera. It is a small world out here. I ended up chatting with them more as they definitely were chatty.
Standard Mine, NW of my camp
So while I explore around looking for cool rocks and if I’m lucky a cool bit of old junk, you may wonder what the locals go hunting for. It turns out these two couples head out into the desert up here looking for old WWII plane wrecks, and military training remains. Kenny told me about how they found an old training landmine out in the desert. You can tell they are the training version as they are hollow in the middle. In fact, when they left a day later, Kenny came to show me his latest find: another training mine he had found out in the desert! The locals definitely collect stuff on a different level from me.
Abandoned ready to drill
I went out exploring to the west of me, checking out a couple of places recommended to me by Kenny, but found no land mines. There were some mining remains, but for the most part the areas I visited had been cleaned up of camp infrastructure. There was one peculiar find southwest of the active mine. I see a large truck parked out in the distance, upon closer inspection it turns out to be a drill sampling rig. I assumed it was active exploration, but noticed driving by it over several days that nothing ever changed, so I go up to investigate. I find what is a comparatively new truck
Samples by the rig
(early 1980’s vintage) all setup with the drill ready to drill. There are even samples on the ground, left as if they would be back the next day to collect everything and move on. But I’d say at least five years has passed since anyone has been here. Who knows what happened, but I suspect a sudden shutdown of the project with no one ever returning to reclaim the rig and hardware. For all I know, the truck was in running condition, if old when it was parked there a few years ago.
Housing remains near a mine
While shooting is heard all the time out there, there was some more unusual shooting sounds I heard several times over the hill to the north east back towards Midland. It sounded like machine guns, definitely something you won’t have for civilian use even in the USA. From talking to Kenny, he made some calls to the local military and found out that the British Military were visiting, conducting practice maneuvers off to the north east of our camp. I made sure to NOT go hiking out in that direction after that!
Leaving my hill spot
I had a much more social week than expected out in the middle of nowhere, but that was okay. I had learned a few extra things that would have remained mysteries otherwise, as well as making some local friends which never hurts for returning to camp in the future. My plans were to explore southwest of Blythe now, hoping to find some geodes if I was lucky. Join me next time to see if I found anything.
