10/4/07
Since we had another coolish morning, we headed out early to do a bit of looking around. We decided to head towards the Quartz Ledge gold mine vicinity on FR604, we had passed a couple of roads on previous trips we wanted to check out. The first was FR649, warning signs told us the road could be in rough condition due to monsoon rains, they weren't kidding...it was bbbummmpppyyy but lots of fun. We came to a large dry riverbed and decided not to go any further, we'll wait until our friends are with us before heading that far out into parts unknown. Forest Service signs and maps don't show it as a through road, but judging from past experiences, many times the Forest Service maps are inaccurate, so it'll be worth another trip to find out what's out there. The second road we tried was FR1702, it too was rocky and a bit more than bumpy and soon ended atop a mountain plateau. The scenery was beautiful as usual and well worth the constant bumps. There were some claim markers along the way, there's gold in 'them thar hills' and people are still trying to find it. Next we headed towards Quartz Ledge gold mine, but the road was pretty badly eroded and some rock stacking to repair the road would be required to get back to the mine, we'll reserve the return trip for Winter when it'll be cool enough to spend some time.
Along the way, we heard the unmistakable buzzzz of a Rattlesnake, sure enough, we backed the Jeep up as he gave us another warning rattle and slithered off under a Prickly Pear, we couldn't entice him to come out and smile for the camera, so we satisfied ourselves with a picture of his striped, rattle-clad butt! He was a big guy and wasn't in the mood to be messed with so we bid him adieu and headed home. Another nice trip through our desert.
