Wrapping up another Quartzsite winter and on to the AZ Trail.

Gear of Carl Brown, Sr., another AZ Trail Hiker…. now I need to assemble mine.

Yesterday, I joined the Arizona Trail Association and also signed up to volunteer to work on the trail in the Mazatzal Wilderness the first week of May, a week of backpacking and trail maintenance … meals included.  So, it has begun.  All my energies will soon be devoted to training and preparing for the 800 mile long solo through hike in the fall.

There are few places in Arizona more rugged and dramatic than the Mazatzal Mountains.  Massive quartzite cliffs tower above forested slopes and deep canyons are punctuated with seasonal waterfalls.  Between 2004 and 2012, these mountains were ravaged by a series of massive wildfires which changed the landscape forever.  Today, maintaining the over 45 miles of Arizona Trail through the Mazatzal is a constant battle with the recovering forest and the eroding slopes.   The rewards for traveling in this area are unforgettable, though, with sweeping vistas of the Mogollon Rim and the lakes of the Verde River, diverse plant and animal life and unique rock formations that speak to the area’s varied geology. 

First I must wrap up things in Quartzsite.  That means completing my downsizing for this season, selling some things, packing up my trailer, completing a few more misc. projects at the Rock Club, only 9 more days left when Rock Club will be available to use, then it closes until November.

Everyone lines up by the fire station to head out toward Bouse for this trip.  I wear my mask as it is dusty following other vehicles.  Yes, the folk in the Semi truck are Rock Club members.

We get there and all I want to do is take photos of the flowers blooming everywhere.

And the landscape… tall cactus that are decades old and tiny new cactus that may only be a couple years old.

But I never get enough of rocks.  In spite of leaving a pile of rocks out at my camp, I have left more in my friend’s yard.  And then today, I go out on the Rock Club Field trip and come home with a 1/2 of a 5-gallon bucket more of rocks.  I have picked out four to try and do something with at the club and the rest will expand one of the rock gardens I am leaving behind.  I can retrieve them next winter if I like.  Today we went after Yellow Jasper.

The last little stretch of road dropped off sharply, and I foolishly followed the leader down the hill.  When I pulled off the path, the earth sank a couple inches under my van.  I decided not to pull off any farther.  As it was, come time to leave, one lady could not back her two-wheel drive truck up and was stuck. She had to be pushed back as far as was safe and then towed forward to get her back on harder ground.  To do that, I was in the way with my two-wheel drive truck.  They asked me to move it and drive on out, BACK up that hill I should not have gone down.  Jimmying it back and forth, I finally got it pointed OUT, and gave it a try, I got 3/4 of the way up, hit a rock and sank.  Had to back down to the flat area again, some guys moved larger rocks off the road, and smoothed it out some… and I reeved it… and this time made it to the top.

This is looking back down on the rock collection area from the top of the hill.

Next, the guy who pulled the other lady out, came on up… but he had 4-wheel drive.

And finally, the other lady made it up.  There was a lot of clapping and hooting and hollering going on.  In the mist of the confusion, I forgot to sign out.  I had not planned on leaving yet.  Sorry, Tom.

As I headed back out toward the highway, I stopped along the way for more photos.  I surely love the desert.  It amazes me how anyone can say there is nothing to see or do here.

I went on in to Bouse to treat myself to lunch and saw Beth LaFata’s rig at the grocery story so stopped to visit her.  Then as I came past Hi Jolly, I stopped to see Amada and Scott, and another Sharlene…. oh and must not forget Wally.  I love that pup.

Back at my house-sitting gig, I spread my rocks out to see what I had found.  Here they are:  Yellow Jaspers, Red Jaspers, Green Jaspers, and even a Purple one.  I am going to try and work up four pieces before I leave Quartzsite.  Golly, I like rocks.

I am really eager to work this purple and green jasper.

It was a good day.  I am a happy camper.  It is getting hot here.  I am eager to wrap it all up and hit the road.

My plan is to head to the Southern end of the Arizona Trail and hike the area and maybe camp overnight.  Then I will begin driving northward, checking out all the Trailheads on the AZ Trail, all the towns, stores, hiker support services etc. all the way to Utah.  I most likely will make some overnight campouts along the trail, hiking a mile at first, and then two, and working my way up.  I look forward to joining up with the AZ Trail volunteers May 1-7… and working with them and spending my first full week backpacking.  A good way to break in, not only me, but my gear, in the safety of a group.

I don’t know who I will be at the end of the hike (800 miles) as I have never met that person before, but I look forward to the challenge of the hike and the changes that are sure to take place in me.

Next post will be about gear that I have and gear that I need for the hike.  I will be posting a wish list on Amazon of items I need that are available there.  Right now I don’t have the funds to buy the gear I need, but during the next six months of training, I will be living as cheaply as possible in hopes I will be able to purchase the things I need.

Certainly would appreciate your purchases through my Amazon Store.  Thank you.

Preparing to Break Camp - 2015

My friends have left Quartzsite and my funds are low due to dental work I got caught up on this winter.  It's time to prepare to leave Quartzsite.  It's going to be a slow painful tedious process.

Work I had planned for the van this winter still needs to happen: 1) replacing the trailer wiring connection, 2) repainting the roof rack, 3) installing a mounting platform inside the van for new t.v.

Other projects are incomplete, like downsizing rocks, although I did leave about 20 gallons of rocks in a friends yard yesterday.  Completing and downsizing genealogical documents and photos I have hauled around in the trailer for six years.  Each and every rock is hard to part with, especially when you find something like this:

It's the lower jaw with teeth of a prehistoric fish.  How cool is that?  I'm told one recently sold for $300.  The money would be nice right now but I think I'll keep it and go back and look for more.

My 10x10 canopy was intended for a shady place to work, but ended up being just a place to pile things.  Working on folding up and repacking this area today.  Wind is knocked the heck out of the canopy tent... and I have grown tired of the noise and jealous of the small camps of my friends.

I have things I did not have when I arrived here in Quartzsite in September. The outdoor rug is one. Now the process of breaking camp has begun and I will need to find places (or make space) for the new things I purchased. There is only one hope for doing so, and that's to downsize.

The little table I built from scrape lumber I had on hand, as a place to put food when folks come over. It has worked well as a place to sort rocks too. It just rests on top of the wheel fender and the two legs will fold down flat. All that was in the trailer when I arrived, so it will take up no additional space when I leave.

Having my friends all leave gave me terminal itchy feet and I want to be back on the road.  Time spent this year at Bob Wells' RTR made me realize I am happier with just the van - camping, rather than this large camp I had this year.  I left my stuff in my large camp and just drove out to RTR for the occasional visit or overnight, just with my van.  It made me feel freer again.

It will take me days if not weeks to get loaded back up and then what?  I can't find things to get rid of, things I no longer want.  I am frustrated by having my only external hard drive stop working and the thought that I may have just lost years worth of scanning really irks me.  That's the genealogy legacy I was hoping to leave behind.  This is painstaking work, a small stack of data and photos takes hours to process and sitting that long gives me a pain in the butt and neck.  I don't know the solution.  Living outside, you can't just spread your genealogy out to sort it.  I may need to rent a room in a town that has a gym and swimming pool, so I can just unload all the genealogy, set up printer, scanner, and two new external hard drives so I can complete this family genealogy project.  That's been on my mind as a possibility for a couple years.  If you want to contribute to the genealogy project and help me retrieve the data off the old external hard drive and purchase two new external harddrives, you may use the Paypal donation button in the upper right corner of this page.

Breaking camp is made more difficult by the fact the trailer and it's contents may be heading to one location for six months and the van, kayak, bike, and things I need will be going with me to other locations for six months. Means you have to think it out well, or do without. What goes where? The process has begun.

My hope now is to process as much rock as I can.  I.E. that mean to trim down all the slabs I have to shapes I want to work with, thus reducing the amount of weight I put back in the trailer.  That in itself will take up most of the "rock time" I have left this season.

My rock work table has remained fairly well organized and I just got it cleared off, and downsized the rocks out there by 50%, a decision made easier by the fact a friend in Quartzsite said I could leave rocks in her yard. So, should I change my mind, I will be able to go get them when I return. I hope to downsize rocks I keep in the trailer to two containers only. Maybe a 3rd for tools and supplies.

My camp feels like a disaster area right now. Wind is knocking everything over. I will need to make one more fire to use up wood I have on hand. I'll take burnables and build a fire after I get through sorting stuff.  I have things I did not have when I arrived here in Quartzsite in September. The outdoor rug is one.  The little table I built from scrape lumber I had on hand, as a place to put food when folks come over. It has worked well as a place to sort rocks too. It just rests on top of the wheel fender and the two legs will fold down flat. All that was in the trailer when I arrived, so it will take up no additional space when I leave.

Breaking camp seems to be more on my mind these days than doing rocks or genealogy.  My plan is to make one last trip to Florida and the southeastern states when I leave here.  I won't be in a rush... I'll have to pace myself with incoming paydays and outgoing gasoline expenses.  I am also taking my bike and kayak and plan to kayak as many places in Florida as I can as I make a loop around the whole state.  Will be stopping to visit friends before returning to Arizona. 

Now I just realized I have lost the card out of my cell phone.  I went to copy some photos a friend sent me, of me working in the Rock Club Lapidary Shop, and did not have the option to save the photos to the card... because the card is missing.  What the heck.  I am not having a good season.  First my slide and photo scanner stopped working, then I lost $950 by trusting a dentist in Mexico, then the external hard drive dies, and now my sims card is missing.  Think I'll go back to bed.

It’s true, you can’t go home again…

Kayaking on Lake Union, Seattle.

God I love my blog… a place where I can say whatever I wish!!!

I’ve spend time this summer reconnecting with my kids and their families… at least giving it my best shot.  But I feel disconnected. 

Revisiting places (right photo, house on right, used to live there) I have lived in the past sometimes brings good memories, but mostly bittersweet memories… and really, who needs that?  I’ve spent a couple days in West Seattle where I used to live and found myself thinking about people I knew here, thinking about getting in touch, driving past where they used to live, looking them up online, sending emails to some… but then just parking someplace I felt safe and enjoying the waterfront instead of making human contact.

I was even able to locate on line a good friend of mine from the past (college in Indiana) who moved out here in the 80s? I think, and sent her an email but have not heard anything.  Come to think of it, most of the people that I knew here, I really have nothing in common with, except our lives crossed paths briefly back then.  I guess I am just curious but don’t seem to have any steam to actually follow-through on reconnecting with them again. So here I sit a few blocks away from the lighthouse on Alki Point, West Seattle, just wondering what I will do next to pass the time before my plane leaves for Alaska on 8/19.

Maybe I am just becoming an old hermit or ol’ crone for real?? I had even added some new events, pages, people to my Facebook but realized this morning, that all that just seems to be cluttering up my life, so I am in the process of removing them for now.  I’ve lost desire to be with people who either don’t like me or don’t want me around.  There is no fun in that for me. 

Left: Richard and me in Europe (Chris behind me) in 1968.  Right: Richard in 2013.

My son is so exhausted from overwork and too much partying(i.e.fun) to have much time for me, though he has spent some quality time with me and made me feel very good.

Left: Tori and me in 1991.  Right: Tori in 2013.

My granddaughter, Tori,  has shown little interest in me or my life for over a decade now, though I am hoping she will give me some quality one-on-one time before I go to Alaska.  I sent her this message:

Is there any chance of you giving me any one-on-one time before I go to Alaska to kayak? It would have to be fun/good for both of us... and if you think it's something that just can't happen... of course with all that you are doing during your visit, I would understand, I am o.k. either way.

Maybe I have nothing left in common with my own relatives/ descendants except that our lives crossed briefly for a short time????

Kayaking with my son, Richard Bailey,
on Lake Union, Aug. 7,2013 (houseboats in background).

But I am here now, I am available now… my kayak is here now.  All anyone can do is be available… for a short time!  It doesn’t get any better than that!  Others lives seem so structured and they have so many rules to live by… makes me very happy I have simplified my life.

I’m really ready to get on up the road, visit other “vandwellers,” see Alaska, have a nice leisurely drive down the WA-OR-CA coast, visiting more friends and vandwellers on the way and then returning to my winter home in Quartzsite AZ to relax, to make jewelry for the winter and to attend the annual Rubber Tramp Rendezvous there in Jan. 2014 where I will get to reunite with my tribe… people I have developed life-long friendships with, people with whom I do share many common interests.

Left is a ring I made last winter, right is a ring that was my mother’s which I am going to duplicate this winter.  Looking at the two of them, I realize mine is much higher quality than my mom’s.  She probably spent a lot for her ring, but mine only cost about $15 in materials, and I cut and polished the stone myself, and did all the silver work myself.  Once the duplicate is done, I will send my Mom’s ring to my sister in Florida. (My mom’s was not even Sterling Silver and mine is.)

Also this winter, I plan to begin dancing again to get in better shape (I stopped dancing the year my granddaughter was born – 1991, because my knees were so bad and unstable).  I have to begin seriously training for the Arizona Trail which I will hike in 2015… 820 miles from Mexico to Utah.  I am very excited about this next phase of my life.  I feel 20 years young than I felt 10 years ago.

Yes, my feet are itchy again.