Well, I had to let the smoke out of my old computer so my escapades have gone un-documented lately. I have gotten out but through wrestling with my computer and dealing with the newfound heat, I had not posted anything.
So, on a Saturday about a month ago I headed over to my machinist's house to kidnap him and take him out wheelin. All my plans were set, weapons were loaded, ordinace stowed and secured. Then it happened. My wife informed me that my boy was going with her to some something and not going with me out on the trail. Uh, what am I going to do without my door gunner?? Immediate adjustments were necessary. Oof.
So I headout at the crack of dawn and slink over to my buddy Russ's place (it was actually about 0900). Now, not having a door gunner created an issue for me. I had to lay down my own cover fire. I rolled up and in a hail of gunfire (I casually parked in the driveway and rang the door bell), I managed to get Russ loaded in the truck and took off in a barrage of bullets (It was probably just gravel bouncing into the wheel wells from the tires). I think I heard his wife yelling something about not bringing him back (might have actually happened), but I could be mistaken on that one--she was throwing a bunch of lead our way (wishing us a good time and come home safely).
So, we are on the road. I come to the realization that this is his first ride in the truck that his machine work helped finish to my specs. We were heading up to an area north of Lake Pleasant. The trail past the turnoff for the boat ramp was practically paved now, but further north it did go back to the typical gravel road that it had been.
It surprised me that the Saguaro cactus were still preparing to bloom this late in the year:
Gratuitous truck shot: I stopped here because most every rock around this area was sparkling like they were full of mica or bright quartz or something. It was kind of strange. Sedimentary, metamorphic all of them sparkled. It was just right here though, not other areas.
So I thought I knew where we were, but come to find out I thought we were about seven miles south of where we actually were. This is cool because I know where we actually were and we were on a trail that I thought was locked up by a private land owner. I was looking at a map and knew where I was on the map, but my brain was telling me that we were somewhere else. I listened to what the map said and we rolled through Walker Canyon:
After a while of driving and a few intersections of other minor trails, you come around a corner (still in the middle of nowhere) and you are greeted with this:
It is an old resort that was built back in the 1800's. It was famous for its hot springs. A fire started in the hotel and it burned down in 1976. It is so far out that bythe time fire crews could get on site it was too late.
This is a shot of the foundation of the old hotel.
There is a caretaker who lives in the old activites building now (yellow building in the first pic). He keeps everybody away. It can be viewed from the trail, but from what I have heard, the place is not too friendly to strangers.
On the way out, Lake Pleasant comes in to view:
The whole trip is mostly just a sight-seeing run, but it is so nice to get out and see some things that are not in town. The two best things that came out of the trip were figuring out that the trail that I thought was closed was actually open and the second was that I finally tried adjusting my shocks. I put Rancho RS9000's on and when I started driving it, I adjusted them up fairly stout and left them there. Well,somewhere during our trip I decided to try turning them down a couple clicks. WOW!! What a diffference. It didn't make it a Cadillac, but it softened the ride up noticably. It softened it enough that I could actually start driving it a bit aggressively on a few stretches of the low trail in the river bed. That was fun. It was the first time I had driven this thing beyond an "easy" drive. It was a blast. Not too soft, but soft enough to have some fun. I had not experienced the cresting of a hill and not being able to see which way the trail goes on the other side and having to prepare for either direction immediately. Fun, FUN!! That was cool. I do not know why I never adjusted the shocks, but I wish I had a couple years ago. It would have helped significantly on some of the trails we have run.