Gentle Jeeping on J-B Ranch Road

Pictures:
Crossing Campaign Creek
Fall foliage
Mama Moo and her twins
Jumping Cholla cactus with bird's nest
Jean, Larry & Ralph exploring the area.

We're all a bit knocked out from our last Jeep run so we decided on an easier, more gentle run today, mostly looking at the scenery near home.

There are supposed to be some Indian ruins somewhere up in the foothills, but we didn't manage to locate them today, I'm sure we will at a later date.

The ride was a nice one, perfect cool temperatures and Arizona's version of Fall foliage added to our enjoyment. We stopped along the way to say Hi to a Mama Cow and her twin calves, they looked bored, so we moooved on.

We've ridden this trail many times before, but we noticed the terrain had changed considerably after the monsoon rains of this past Summer had enlarged washes and relocated quit a few boulders. It's an ever-changing desert so each time we return to a previously run trail, we can see the changes. The desert never disappoints us with her diversity, there's always something new to see.

Cabin Search Along Cherry Creek

Photos:
Crossing the creek.

Checking out an old car rusting away in a dry wash.

More spectacular scenery. The haze seen along the mountains comes from "controlled" burning by the Forest Service.

Whew, what a trip! Five and a half hours of washboard road and spectacular scenery. We were told about an old cabin on one of the backroads to Young. We've been on the road before but the summer monsoons had taken their toll and left the trail washboardy and pretty rough, still, it made for some pretty good Jeeping.

The directions given to us were vague, (as always) so we didn't find the cabin we were looking for, even so, the scenery alone made the trip worthwhile. We'll have to pin down the location of the cabin a bit more closely and return another day to find it. We did find a few more trails we haven't seen before, so it looks like the area will be ripe for exploration. There are quite a few old asbestos mines in the area as well, so it'll be fun to locate them and hopefully do a bit of mine exploration.

This afternoon was comprised of resting our old bones, napping and eating. It takes us a bit longer to recover from a trip of this kind, but by tomorrow, we should be back to "normal" and looking forward to returning to the area again in the near future.

Getting Ready For Winter

Another perfect day in Roosevelt, Arizona
The old dead cedar tree will make good firewood
That's about it for today, we'll be back for the rest of the tree.

Our neighbor, a terrific guy and real old-time western rancher, told us we could cut down a dead cedar tree on one of his properties. We're thrilled to get the firewood. Firewood is at a premium here in the desert and all too often it requires driving a long distance to forage or cut wood within the Tonto National Forest. Permits and time restraints imposed by the Forest Service can be a real pain as well as being an added expense.

We drove out through the desert this morning to the ranch property to begin cutting the old dead cedar tree. It smelled terrific while we were cutting it (like the inside of a hamster cage, sans the hamster) The day began clear and cool in the morning but soon warmed up to be a bit too hot to finish off the tree.

We'll go back even earlier next time before the heat of the day begins to get uncomfortable. It won't be long until Winter is upon us and we've got our woodstove fired up. We're sure looking forward to colder temperatures ......

Rockhounding at Quartz Ledge

There's the Old Peep's Jeep waiting faithfully

One of the dry washes we walked while rockhounding

The quartz outcropping in the center is where Quartz Ledge gets its name.

We headed out this morning for Quartz Ledge, it's an old abandoned gold mine located in the Tonto Basin Area. We've been there several times in the past and it's always an enjoyable Jeep ride. The mine itself is closed off, the entrance looks like it was purposely caved in to keep people out. It's too bad, because it would have made for some interesting mine exploration.

We decided to walk the dry washes surrounding the mine, yes, we did keep an eye open for gold, but unfortunately, we didn't find any. We did find some really neat rocks to add to our cactus garden. Lots of pretty quartz, loaded with quartz crystals and some other rocks that looked like they contained a bit of fluorite, judging by the purplish blue colors running through them.

On the way home, we stopped at Butcher Hook Restaurant for lunch....groan...ate too much...please pass the TUMS!

The apples are always sweeter on the other side of the fence

The mountain views are spectacular

Jean and Larry enjoying the warm sunshine

and sweeping vista

Larry chomping on an apple

There's Larry climbing up to get some apples

Reflections of Autumn

I don't know why it is, but for some reason, apples on the other side of the fence are always better than anywhere else. Today we went for a ride up into the mountains, nothing particular in mind except to enjoy the crisp, cold, alpine air. We weren't disappointed. The air smelled of Pine and Autumn leaves...and apples! There's an old ranch on top of the mountain, we've been there before, it's a nice ride and an easy trip. At one time the old ranch was known for having the best apple cidar vinegar anywhere but nobody tends to the orchards anymore and the only interest nowadays comes from the elk and deer who frequent the old orchard. Larry braved the barbed wire fence (and the "No Trespassing" sign) and went to get us a few apples. Gosh, they were good, cold, sweet and juicy! We all remembered the days of our youth when grabbing apples from someone else's orchard always seemed like such a fun thing to do. Maybe we're going through a second childhood, but for some reason, we all had to admit, these were the best apples we've had since we were kids.

There's a lot to be said about life's simple pleasures.

Jack Shoe to Thompson Mesa

With cooler temperatures finally here, we all decided we needed a break from our home improvement projects, so we headed out for a Jeep run with Larry and Jean. We've been to this area before, but this time we wanted to venture a bit further to check out the ruins of an old homestead we'd heard about. The trail was pretty good, very rocky, very bumpy, but with caution we did it without any damage to either our vehicles or our nerves. To our surprise, wildflowers were blooming along the trail adding to our enjoyment.
We found the old homestead, there isn't much left except some stone foundations but the views in all directions were spectacular.
On the way back down the trail we stopped to visit with a horse and a couple of mules, they reported, "all's well", so we proceeded home.



This is the dry wash we had to cross
Very pretty!



A dessert watering hole. Lots of pawprints all
around the pond. Javelina, coyotes and cattle
visit it often.


Some of the stone ruins of the old homestead



We stopped to chat with Mr. Mule


After getting the "all's well" from the horse and
mules, we headed home.

I wish I was a Geek!

Gosh, trying to set up a new Journal is almost more than this poor brain can process. I don't know if I'll be able to transfer my old pictures from AOL Journals to this one. Living here in the boondocks as we do, we've got a really slow dial-up connection and I'm not sure if I've got the patience nor the motivation to go through the extremely lengthy process. I'm thinking it might be easier to just start anew with photos and forget about the old ones. Heck, at this point, I'm still not sure how to put photos on this Journal but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.


To those of you who follow our Journal, please bear with us...eventually we'll get it right