Escape at last
I took my first 2-week vacation since 1988 at the end of September. Best Beloved, the dog, and I went camping. We don’t backpack, but we spent two hours in four-wheel drive to get to our campsite in Hells Hole Canyon. We saw more deer than people on the “road” -- we could drive 8 miles an hour in 4WD on the road, and could walk faster than we could drive on the jeep trail - and nobody at all once we left the road more traveled.
Three of the four vehicles we saw were Arizona Game and Fish officers. The last held two older couples that wanted to know whether the road ever got better, and if they could get down the mountain if they continued the way they were going. I told them no, the road does not get better - ever- and that the only way off the mountain was to turn around and go back the way they came. They were not happy that they had drive the 40 miles to get back to pavement.
The old jeep trail marked on a 20 year-old USGS seven minute map had clearly not been used in years. There were twenty and thirty foot tall pine and fir trees growing in part of the track. We had the place entirely to ourselves aside from the deer, a skunk that sprayed Cerberus, and other smaller wildlife.
Best Beloved pulled out her old army compass and navigated us overland to the headwaters of a stream a mile or so from camp. She missed her target by less than 200 yards. Amazing that, since the terrain was steep, rough, and littered with obstacles that required significant detours. Besides, the last time she did this kind of navigation, she was one of the first female Airborne Rangers in the country and some forty-*cough* years ago.
There was no cell service. No WiFi. No people. It was glorious. Things that I wish we had done differently? Water. It’s always a problem camping in the desert, and can be a problem camping on a mountain. I had a 55 gallon barrel in the truck and hoped that we could stretch it out for two weeks. That’s five quarts per person per day for all uses, including cooking, cleaning, and brushing our teeth. It’s doable, but tough. Cerberus refused to believe that there was a water shortage. I had to make the 10 hour round trip drive to the nearest potable water source to refill the drum once. The creek is just too far to use as a water source.
We need another drum. It will add 450 pounds to the truck - that’s 900 pounds of water alone. That would be an issue in a ½ ton truck, but it’s not insurmountable in the ¾ ton we use. We just have to be very gentle going over obstacles.
I'll post pictures later.
Three of the four vehicles we saw were Arizona Game and Fish officers. The last held two older couples that wanted to know whether the road ever got better, and if they could get down the mountain if they continued the way they were going. I told them no, the road does not get better - ever- and that the only way off the mountain was to turn around and go back the way they came. They were not happy that they had drive the 40 miles to get back to pavement.
The old jeep trail marked on a 20 year-old USGS seven minute map had clearly not been used in years. There were twenty and thirty foot tall pine and fir trees growing in part of the track. We had the place entirely to ourselves aside from the deer, a skunk that sprayed Cerberus, and other smaller wildlife.
Best Beloved pulled out her old army compass and navigated us overland to the headwaters of a stream a mile or so from camp. She missed her target by less than 200 yards. Amazing that, since the terrain was steep, rough, and littered with obstacles that required significant detours. Besides, the last time she did this kind of navigation, she was one of the first female Airborne Rangers in the country and some forty-*cough* years ago.
There was no cell service. No WiFi. No people. It was glorious. Things that I wish we had done differently? Water. It’s always a problem camping in the desert, and can be a problem camping on a mountain. I had a 55 gallon barrel in the truck and hoped that we could stretch it out for two weeks. That’s five quarts per person per day for all uses, including cooking, cleaning, and brushing our teeth. It’s doable, but tough. Cerberus refused to believe that there was a water shortage. I had to make the 10 hour round trip drive to the nearest potable water source to refill the drum once. The creek is just too far to use as a water source.
We need another drum. It will add 450 pounds to the truck - that’s 900 pounds of water alone. That would be an issue in a ½ ton truck, but it’s not insurmountable in the ¾ ton we use. We just have to be very gentle going over obstacles.
I'll post pictures later.