Who was Dylan?

The last couple months, a new geocacher has been placing some interesting caches, primarily near the west end of Canyon Lake. I've driven the twisting road several times this past month, either with BJ or with another geocaching friend. 

The caches are generally located within 1/4 mile of the road, but take you to very interesting viewpoints. The hills are mostly volcanic tuff tipped up on edge.

Some of the caches had beautiful views of Canyon Lake. Based on some of the log entries, these caches are placed in memory of a son & brother. Mom is picking some really special places to hide these caches.

Many of them involved some exercise. The view points usually aren't located in the valleys!

BJ and I managed to get First to Find on a couple of them.

One of them was located near a small abandoned mine site. We've driven past this for 30 years and never knew it was here.

Spotted the remains of what I think was an oil bath air cleaner, but nothing of any significance. Did a bit of research after this trip but couldn't find anything about a mine in that location.

Got a test run in on the Silver Subie. Glad to have the engine rebuild finished. It's almost time to change out the break-in oil.

Loving the change to do some local wandering and seeing what's around the next corner.

Running Out of Time

Triple digits are still threatening (the 99 we got doesn't count!) which means that sane desert wandering is nearing an end for the summer. Even now, an early morning start is always a wise decision.

A couple weeks ago, I went wandering, looking for places for a series of five caches. There was an are on the map that had a number of washes but looked a bit barren of trails. It was time to explore.

Turns out, there were some obvious trails and some interesting saguaro. The brittle bush were blooming and an occasional hedgehog, but the grass and other flowers was already brown.

As I wandered the trails, I discovered other, fainter trails that led to interesting places

and interesting rocks - all of which could serve as clues to where this latest series of caches were placed.

Now & then a saguaro would stand tall and get my attention

but this area was different than some of the others. Boulders large and small provided structure for the hills while the palo verde trees and other plants struggled for a foothold.

All in all, I found five spots I liked, all with interesting views that required some effort to attain. We'll see how many are willing to make sense of the directions and try to locate these before the summer heat hits for real.

All Washed Up

Over a year ago, BJ and I hiked to the lime kiln in search of a First To Find on a geocache near there. The other day, I was approached by a couple other folks about going past the lime kiln to log another cache on the hill past the kiln. We parked at Blue Point and headed downriver before the sun started dispersing the shadows.

The spring flowers have been extra special this year and because our temps have been sane, the flowers have lasted longer than usual.

Even some of the cactus were starting to join the party.

 

The vast majority of the hike was in a variety of sandy washes.

After Bob signed Pizza-Pizza (near the kiln,) we headed up a wash. Turns out the wash we chose headed in a reasonably appropriate direction, but was blocked in several spots by brush, creating more work for us.

Eventually, we spotted a pile of rocks that seemed like it deserved a geocache, but nothing there.

Apparently, we need to go "that a'way." The last 1000 feet or so was a total bushwhack.

The views to the north were part of the reward,

and the smiles when we found the rarely visited cache were another part of the reward. After some snacks and liquid, and replaced the cache with three more signatures on the log, it was time to head back down the hill.

We elected to gamble on a different wash on the way down the hill,

since the uphill wash wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

The downhill wash wasn't straight, but it also wasn't choked with brush which made it a much better choice.

All told, about 6 miles round trip for just one cache, but a delightful morning with friends and a chance to visit another area I'd never seen before.

White Stuff

Unlike the rest of the country, our snow has been better behaved. We've had a lot of rain in the desert and enough cool days to dump a nice coating of snow on Four Peaks.

The snow on the Superstitions drew all sorts of traffic to Apache Junction for a couple days. There was no peace & solitude to be found in the desert with people everywhere looking for just the right angle.

If you can't beat them, join them!

As usual, the snow only lasted a couple days, but we had one of the wettest February on record.

The result was worth waiting for!

More Yuma

Yuma sunrises are every bit as impressive as the sunsets. This one was taken while waiting for the annual geocoin challenge to start.

For the past six years, the folks in Yuma have organized a geocoin challenge on the day before the Mega event. They make a list of 20 waypoints around the greater Yuma area, leaving the routing up to the individual. One of the points this year was up against "the fence." I was amazed how much US private property was on the 'wrong' side of the fence.

Yuma is known as the winter lettuce capital of the world. You can have your greens (or purples) as you chose.

Cabbage was coming off some of the fields I drove by, but I didn't get any pictures of the harvesting process.

Geocoins are incredibly difficult to photograph since they often had highly polished finishes. This year's geocoin challenge coin featured a 'cache miner' on one side, and the Southwest Arizona Geocacher logo on the other.

If you found the required information at all 20 of the waypoints, you received one of these coins.

After finishing the coin challenge, I visited a few other caches. This one had two locks and required a visit to multiple locations to solve the puzzle.

I was amazed to discover a single silver high heel in the cache with a trackable tag attached. I have a hunch it may not move quickly since it's too large for many caches!

At another cache I spotted this old Peterbilt nearby. Perhaps this is why the cache was named "Dog Pound"

The Mega Event was a blur, talking with friends. I did manage to get a picture with the Geocaching mascot,

and I bought one of the coins that SWAG created as a fund raiser for the event. This year the coin was oval and had lots of relief on the back side.

It would have been nice to spend a couple more days in town, but it was time to head for home. Thirty-four nights in the trailer this trip.

Wandering Yuma

After the better part of three weeks in Quartzsite, I moved to Yuma. Every year, it seems the town gets busier as do the various boondocking locations. This year I headed back to a spot just south of Mittry Lake that I'd stayed at two years ago. It, too, was busier than in the past, but I found a spot that kept my solar panel working nicely.

Once I had the trailer organized, I headed in to town to do a series of lab caches based on murals around town. Some were historic in nature, others were very artistic.

The civic center now sports a very large mural dealing with some early history.

The one I liked the best covered the side of a grocery store.

You had to go across the street to view the whole thing. As usual, clicking on a picture will bring up a larger version.

The next morning I headed off early to find my way to the Gila Petroglyphs.

The cairns even sported their own blooming flowers although they washed out in the sun.

The hike was wonderful, and the petroglyphs were nicely done although not numerous. This was the site of the first event of the weekend related to the annual Yuma Mega geocaching event. I got there ahead of the crowd, signed the log, and headed back down the trail to make more room for others.

Later that day, after chasing caches in the desert, I enjoyed lunch and a date shake at Martha's Gardens which was the site of the second event of the day.

The "logbook" at this event took the form of a multi-segmented wooden lizard which people signed until the lizard ran out of room!

Late that afternoon, there was yet another event, this time a 'flash mob' near a local theater. It was amazing to see how many people showed up for that event.

After a long day, I got back to the trailer just in time to watch the sun set as a crop duster worked the fields.