Phoenix 1

 We got a good start on the day, leaving before 9 is not our normal thing.  The roads were good, traffic no big deal through Tucson.  Nice going up I-10.  Phoenix itself was the usual rush.  All day we had two spots with slow traffic.  We never did figure out what that happened in Casa Grande.  Finding it in Phoenix was quite normal.  I had checked traffic on google maps and there was no slowdown showing, but  there was by them ewe got there 40 minutes later.  

We arrived at Ben Avery Shooting Facility before 1, got a tank dump and water refill and were settling in by 2.  Off to get groceries and check an auto repair shop nearby.  There is a rattle in the front end that needed a check out.  Red Rock Repair was 5 miles away on the map search.  But when we got there it was bare desert.  If anyone ever built any structure there it was Indians back in the day.  No signs of anything in the past century.  On to the next map location.  This time there was a building, but no auto shop.  Finding services by internet search can be challenging.  The next one was a charm.  Nice modern place, professional staff.  They took it out for a test drive to hear the noise, identified it, took it back and put it up on a lift to examine it.  U joints, bot sides, wobbly.  They are not supposed to wobble.  And they finally identified the coolant leak that I’d found in Terlingua.  I had seen the residue but had not found the source.  So they kept the truck to begin work today and will be finished tomorrow afternoon.  They gave a ride back to cam and will come get me tomorrow.  And of course, Skye made more new friends.

Once back at camp I did what unpacking I could.  Unload some things from the camper and set up camp.  But most of my unloading is taking ammo and cart etc out of the truck.  That’ll have to wait.

This little one-pad Prickly Pear was at Empire Ranch camp

Happy Campers

Empire 7, final day, Patagonia

 This is our last day at Empire Ranch, going up to phoenix tomorrow to start the Cowboy portion of the winter.  I’ll have to do a time warp to get myself in the mood for the 19th Century for a dozen days.  

So today we went down to Patagonia for breakfast at Gathering Grounds, a great coffee shop. Carlene had an egg, cheese and bacon sourdough sandwich while I had eggs, potato, bacon and sourdough toast.  Almost the same food in different formats.  And plenty of really good coffee. 

Follow that up with browsing a few shops  

The we had to take Skye for a long walk around town to walk off breakfast.  We met a guy with a dog on the green. The green is a wide green space between the two main roads in town.  Like a long narrow park.  So this guy has lived there for 20+ years after leaving Tucson.  He tells us that dogs are very welcome at the library and they are headed over there.  The librarian is a German woman who has been here 25 years. She has bags of dog treats and takes their photo to post on the wall.  We then continue on our long walk about town.  

We get back to camp about 2 pm.  I find that the free standing solar panel out front was blown over and has a big rock fracture in the glass-like face.  I figure that has broken the function.  But as I test it, it appears to still work.  The batteries went to float charge, meaning they were at full capacity.  So apparently it’s working. We’ll see if that continues. Hoping!

Empire 6, AZT Oak Tree Canyon

 Today was partly cloudy, high 60s, with a lot of wind.  We wanted something new and without going up the heavily washboarded road in Gardner Canyon.  Oak Tree Canyon suited that quite well.  17 miles from camp it had a parking lot right on highway 83.  About a mile to the AZT on an old closed road, according to the map.  There turned out to be a reroute but not of any concern.  We followed the map going up and that did mean a quarter mile backtrack.  

This was more open rolling hill country and was rather green.  In some places it looked like VT overgrazed pasture.  We did 6 1/4 miles and probably could have done a bit more.  The wind was a factor all day.  Steady and at lest 10 mph with gusts to at least 20.  Skye found one pond for a quick dip.  We did not let her in on the way back.

We only saw one couple on the trail today, they were from Wisconsin.  After getting back to camp we grabbed the empty propane tank and went back to Sonoita to the feed store for a refill.  Their price is down from last year.  It was over $4/gal and now 3.69.  New owners too, they’ve rearranged the store.  It was rearranged for new owners the second year we came here too.  Short turnover.

Didn’t get to see the neighbors tonight.  Everyone was indoors.  

Yet another cow pond

The water tank and well that feeds the pond

Skye wanted the branch I was using for a foot rest at lunch

Empire 5, Gardner Canyon, AZ Trail south

 Our friends left this morning, headed to NM.  So then we went on a hike (n9o kidding!) back up Gardner Canyon to the AZ Trail and went south.  A few days ago we went north from the same trailhead.  We had done it before, sometime.  It’s tracked n Carlene’s map but not mine.  But neither of us remembered it so it’s like a new trail!  We remembered a few little parts of it but only maybe 10%.  Great trail.  This side went by a stream, so Skye was delighted.  Then up a bit and followed a contour for a couple miles to another creek.  Again, a happy dog.  Lunch beside the creek was nice.  The map and Carlene’s track showed us going from there down a forest road to where we had parked for a different hike.  But the trail went across that road and up into the forest.  We followed for just over a mile to a small saddle.  By then we were over 3 miles from the truck at 2 PM, it was time to head back.  We had a guess where the trail would go to lion back onto the mapped trail but no time to explore that any farther.  The AZT runs the length  of Arizona for 900 miles.  Of course Skye hit every water spot again on the way back.  She got home still wet and with her coat full of forest debris.  All the brush out here has some form of thorny means of attaching to hair.

Back out on the highway we had two priorities, the ice cream shop and store.  Ice cream first, of course! The shop in Sonoita is excellent and under new ownership.  We had to be sure the new owners we keeping up the high quality we discovered last year.  They are!  Two milkshakes later we were stuffed.  Carlene got her bananas too.

Back at camp we cleaned up Skye as much as she would allow and then went to visit the neighbors.  Mike and Becky are the retired NY farmers.  They had ridden the motorcycles to Bisbee today.  In their super C camper they carry 3 motorcycles and 2 bicycles.  The camper has a lift gate on the back to get all this in and out.  Correction, one moto rides in the bed of the pick up truck.

Three Vt campers

This was the tunnel described above

The Soapbox Yucca, whole and young on the left, dead and falling apart on the right.

Lunch dip

A small young Cholla

Tonight’s sunset spread out across the whole sky

Empire 4, visiting old friends

 This was visiting day.  A nice sunny semi-warm day to go to Hereford AZ to some long lost cowboy friends.  Good Guy & Miss Lainey.  And a bonus to see Deadly Doc who is also living here,  I came across Elaine on FB a couple weeks ago on Wichita Wendy’s page and we set up today to get us all together.  They’ve been out here for 13 years, and Doc for a few years.  

We met up at their house about 10, talked for a long time, had lunch and then Elaine and we went for a hike in Miller Creek Canyon.  Skye had a blast in the creek!

Back at camp 2 friends from Richmond, Stevie and Jayne, and 2 friends of theirs from Barre Town were camped beside us.  We’ve been trying  to get together with them too.  It just happened to occur on the same day!  They have been camping at a state park about 25 miles SW.  We had a good happy hour with them until the sunset made it a bit too cool outdoors and we all retreated to our campers.

Miller Peak

We also saw and heard this Cooper’s Hawk