The day starts out nice enough. I’m up around 3000 feet, so I’m glad it is not a super cold night for up there – got tanks that could freeze if it gets too cold. My plan for today is to get back where I can get an internet signal (absolutely nothing at Cibbets Campground). Once connected, sign up for another $100 for 10 gigs for 20 days. Then use my googles to find my way to the San Diego Zoo for a day. Things were not going to go to plan today. Not even close.
Leaving Fortuna Pond, I set a pin down to the nearest Walmart. The big G decides to take me out another way, down a different set of levee roads. No big deal, I think, it’s more of the same, right?
Kofa had been been great, but it was time to move on. I’ve only seen one little piece of this magnificent desert park – empty, quiet and mostly unspoiled landscape. I need to return to this place again.
But first on the list, get out of Kofa. My mirror was re-duct taped; looked solid enough to survive the road out, I thought. Yet, I don’t trust it enough to use the driver’s side door – every slam of the door shakes the mirror around like a wobbly head. Would the rest of the rig make it out? Well, we were about to find out!
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I had re-duct taped my mirror, re-applied ointment to my head gash, and re-evaluated my second hike of the day. I felt I was good for a small hike to my southeast, down a cart track cars were banned from, perhaps climb the small hill that the road looked to end at.
I am sitting here writing this after having re-assessed the price paid for seeing the red rocks hidden up in the hills to the west of me. I’m out here in nothing but swimming trunks, soaking in a bit of winter desert sun. There is blood pictured in this post, just to warn you.
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The day started at 6:30. Early to bed, early to rise seems to be the thing I’m doing now. Go look for a good sunrise.
I only had time for a little hike for my first afternoon, it was about one and a half hours before sunset. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me, plenty of time to hike up the valley accross from my rig, to these little hills!
It was time to leave the Roadrunner BLM camp, time to move on, time to discover a new area. My planning this trip has been absolute shit, yet I don’t care. I seem to have fallen into a pattern of starting to think it’s time to go, open the googles map and take a quick look around, with no more than a direction in mind. I scout an area with the satellite imagery view, throw down a marker, and head that way. That’s it for planning.
After a very sober New Year’s celebration that ended before the beginning of the new year, we were actually fresh and ready for a hike this first day of the new year. Carolyn was interested in seeing the Petroglyphs we had got to previously, and we were more than happy to show her something she had not seen. I figured it would be a nice break for her from her normal work routine.
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The day dawned quiet and peaceful. No road noise, no people yapping, no generators. About the only sound is the distance whistle and hum of trains passing, about two miles from my site. My plan was to do a hike in the morning then head back to Quartzsite to meet Larry and Carolyn for New Year’s Eve. I figured I’d hike onto the nearby hill and see what the view was like. Not many Cholla up there, so I could get there without getting pricked by them. But I find new discoveries up there too.
