Harquahala Mountain National Back Country Byway

Last year the outdoor group at North Ranch made a run up Harquahala Mountain and we went along in the jeep as we had no way to trailer our ATVs at that time.  There were probably 40 people making the trip last year, today there were eight of us—what a difference—a good difference!!  Tom and Sandy were our leaders followed by Geri and Larry.  A new to us couple came along too, Dell and Judy. 

The trip to the summit is 10 miles with an elevation gain of 3800 feet!!  The road is rough in spots and very good in other areas.  With all our conferencing talks it took us two hours to reach the summit--

I’m glad I wasn’t riding a mule and although I love to hike an elevation gain of 3360 feet just might be a bit too much for this hiker!

The Harquahala Mountains were mined and ranched in years past—if these rock walls could talk I bet we could hear the old miners talking about all the silver they found!

The old tin building in the above photo is still standing at the summit.  The cowboy just thought he had solar panels, look at all these HUGE panels!  The next photo tells the story for the panels. 

If you look closely at some of the photos you will see we lost the cowboy today—or at least his hat.  It was COLD this morning and very, very windy.  We all dressed in many layers and on the way to the top Michael had to give up and put his cowboy hat away—a first—the wind was just blowing too hard for a hat and he ended up wearing a knit cap I had brought along. 

Who knew you could cook lunch on the muffler of an ATV???  By the time we reached the summit Geri’s sandwich was warm and toasted—

It was a fabulous day even if it was the coldest day we’ve ever been out on the ATVs.  We had a great time and thanks so much Tom and Sandy!

The highway which takes you to Harquahala Mountain from Aguila, AZ is called Eagle Eye Road—here’s the eagle eye--

and every Tuesday in Aguila there is a flea market which also sells produce along with the other junk stuff.  We found tomatoes for $1/basket, bell peppers, 2/$1, a huge bag of oranges for $6—good stuff! 

A very good day in the Arizona desert!

Good Day For Doing Taxes

Want the weather to change, invite friends from Montana for a visit!!  Hopefully by Friday we will be back up to our normal warm temps before Terry and Jill arrive!  It was cool-ish yesterday and last evening began to rain.  Rain fell off and on all night and most of today—heavy rain at times plus it never got above 55 degrees all day—it’s good for the desert!

The cowboy decided a rainy day was good for one thing—doing the taxes.  Emmi and I laid low staying out of his way.  I did help by going back through credit card statements and Amazon orders plus I kept him fed! He made great progress toward being finished with that nasty business!

I finished my first knitting project!!!  Even though it has many mistakes, I am thrilled having learned so much—how to cast off, I’ve never done that, learning what many knitting abbreviations mean—I’m ready to start the next one!!

Our across the street neighbor Jan has daffodils blooming and some of the cactus in the park are showing signs of blooming.

Karen and Steve—the little refrigerator we have in the trailer draws only 200 watts.  It’s small Margy, that’s why we are able to run it on solar although we have a friend, Rollie, who runs a small chest freezer when boondocking on less solar than we have.  The refrigerator gives me a bit more refrigerator space than the RV one does and it also has a separate freezer—read ice cream!!  RV refrigerators are notorious for not keeping ice cream well.  The cowboy is still thinking about batteries, right now he has three old 12volt batteries he brought from the ranch hooked up to the solar. 

Our ATVs are loaded on the trailer—we are off on an adventure tomorrow—let’s hope the sun shines!!

Around The Rocks And More Solar

We are generating power!!!  The cowboy found it very easy to program the MidNite solar controller and before lunch time yesterday he was powering the extra refrigerator we carry in the trailer off the solar system!! 

After dinner last night with the ATV gang we all decided it was time for getting back out on the machines.  Just before lunch today we headed north toward Congress out behind Al and Kelly’s house.  The rock formations and colors are spectacular out there plus there is a forest of saguaros.   

Geri looks as if she is taking a nap, I think if we had been stopped long enough she would have!

And this is NOT a southern belle--

Even Emmi was ready for ATVing—not sure how I managed to catch that tongue in action!! 

The weather was perfect for being out in the sunshine—building up our Vitamin D!  Jackets and vests were the order of the day.

Another wonderful day spent in the desert with great friends!  Back in Congress we stopped at the Congress Junction for ice cream, Larry broke speed records getting back after someone mentioned “ice cream!!”

Working On Solar

For the last several days Jim and Ellie have had visitors from Amarillo, TX—one of Jim’s classmates and his wife.  They were leaving today so Jim and Ellie invited all the gang over for pizza last night to meet these easy to talk to, easy to get along with folks—Renee and Monte—I probably butchered the spelling of their names.  We all took too much food and Jim ordered too many pizzas—needless to say we were just a tad overstuffed when the evening was over!

We are such social butterflies here at North Ranch—we had two invitations for last night and had to turn one down.  Joe and Kathy along with Fred and Nancy were going out on ATVs to a spot in the desert for a happy hour—we ended up going out there in the dark with Larry and Geri after leaving Jim and Ellie’s.  No more food or drink for us two, though—we were still stuffed!

All six panels on the roof and a strange critter’s shadow!

The cowboy is anxious to see if those solar panels are going to work—he spent some of yesterday and most of today running and hooking wires to the combiner box and the controller.  He checked the output of the panels with a volt meter late this afternoon when the panels were not in direct sun and was pleased with the outcome. 

I sure am glad I married a handy cowboy!!!  We are still debating batteries—what brand, type and how many.  We would love to try lithium but are just not sure the investment is worth it at this point in time. 

The cowboy’s supervisor—you can see in this photo why every time we take her to our home veterinarian, he recommends orthodontics! 

Flank steak on the grill with roasted potatoes, squash and asparagus for lunch then an exciting trip to the Wickenburg dump—oh, joy! 

Today is Lonn’s birthday—happy, happy birthday Lonn!! 

My sister complained today that there hasn’t been very many photos of Lora Elizabeth lately—guess this grandmother is falling down on the job!  Laci is great about sending photos almost daily—yesterday we received a video showing just how much Lora liked pears—NOT!

Solar Stuff, Anniversaries and Cows

Yesterday was Joe and Kathy’s 52nd wedding anniversary—late afternoon several of us gathered at Fred and Nancy’s to celebrate this momentous occasion! And happy belated birthday Nancy! 

The cowboy’s brain has been working overtime with this solar project.  He spent yesterday plotting wiring routes and making shopping lists for more supplies.  Today we went to Wickenburg and surprisingly he was able to find most of what he needed!  He spent the afternoon running wires from the four panels he has installed on the roof—he cut a HOLE in the roof of our trailer!!—to inside the trailer where the combiner box and controller will be located.  He’s like a kid in a candy store! 

I love Buggy Barn patterns—seams don’t have to match, if the pieces don’t line up correctly, whack a piece off and make it fit.  This is what you come up with—cows, yep, squint hard and you will see a funny looking cow!

I have two cows finished, seven more to go! 

Our mail came today—pony express was slow from Montana to Arizona this time, took more than a week for the box to get here.  Lots of tax stuff came—guess that might be the cowboy’s next project??

It was a beautiful day here, a little windy but such pleasant temperatures!

Going Solar

Over the years we have talked solar versus running the generator.  When boondocking we’ve found it an easy business keeping our batteries charged running our smaller 2000 watt Honda generator a few hours daily.  We try to use polite generator hours and only use our big onboard Onan generator if I want to bake something in the convection oven—we don’t have a propane oven.  The time just seemed right for going solar—we are in Arizona where we could obtain the panels Michael wanted to use without paying huge shipping costs to Montana.  The price of solar has decreased year by year—it was time!  And there is no sales tax on solar equipment!!

So Friday morning, way too early, we left North Ranch heading to Flagstaff, three hours one way!  It was cold and windy in Flagstaff and their mountains have snow!!Our destination, Wind & Sun—nice, helpful guys!!  The cowboy wanted to use Kyocera 255 watt panels—we decided to use the cargo trailer as our solar system and will mount six of these panels to the roof of this trailer, giving us 1530 watts of solar power.

 All loaded and ready to head back down the interstate.  The cowboy is very anxious to get started with this project and was out there early Saturday morning drilling and bolting before we took off on the ATVs.  Today he also started early and after lunch Joe came to help him lift the panels onto the roof. 

We are using a Midnite MPPT controller.  Four of the panels are on the roof, mounted in place.  Multiple trips to the hardware store are probably in the plans!  We are both excited about this step and looking forward to some boondocking! 

New Trails On The ATVs

At least the trails were new to Michael and me!  Joe and Kathy had ATV troubles last week, received a new part and Joe has them running again.  He wanted to go out today and test his repair job.  Sounds like a good excuse to us!  Fred and Nancy led the way and off we went.

Judy asked in a comment the other day, “do you normally take established trails when out on the ATV?”  And the answer is yes, always!  The Escapees North Ranch park is surrounded by BLM and state land.  The land has been used for mining in the past and there is still lots of hobby mining going on.  The land is also leased to a rancher and we see herds of wild acting yearlings almost every time we go out.  Mile after mile of trails crisscross this land and those are the trails we use.  We are not the kind of ATV folks who rip and tear across the land—we poke along, stop to look at rocks/cactus/birds, take a picnic and just generally have a great time!  It takes us five to six hours to go thirty miles round trip!  Fred and Nancy carry a five gallon bucket and one of those “pickers” with them stopping to pick up every bottle, can or other trash they see.  Today they came back with a five gallon bucket full of trash. 

We even have a “southern belle” traveling with us!  I guess Kathy thought it was a little hot today which it was! 

Water in the Hassayampa River

A little barrel cactus getting a good start hiding beneath a mesquite tree.Strange place to build a house—most definitely in the flood plane!  We stopped here late afternoon beneath a bunch of huge, old cottonwood trees—a very welcome respite from the sun!

Back at North Ranch we all rid ourselves of some of the dust and headed to the Congress Mercantile for dinner.  The rest of the gang had not eaten there before and pronounced the hamburgers delicious and huge!  The cowboy and I had pizza.

It was a spectacular Valentine’s Day!