Friday, March 30, 2012

Electric Biker Cowboy Finding Camps in the Arizona Bush

Bob Seeger coming through my Ipod ear buds is helping my Trader Joes ultra dark roast get my head going this morning. Bob runnin' against the wind somehow makes the wind I lean against seem softer somehow.

Sitting at the table sippin' the coffee searching Google Maps for our next camp.

It's kind of a paradox. I'm a leather and canvas sort of guy. My first choice is almost always the "old ways". So, It's a good thing I'm blessed with a herd of personalities... Being "Anti-Technology"... when your living is dependent on it... and trying to hunt up camps in unfamiliar... (or at least for the past twenty five years or so) country can cause difficulties for an old rambling, yondering buster! :)

Yeah... so My old fashioned self gets himself chastised and locked outside, while the electronical cowboy side punches buttons and toggles zooms... to find hints of trails and roads into the trees that look like likely spots.

To make it all work I combine that computer search with a selection of National Forest Maps to reveal the land ownership.

Finding a nice spot, only to have some grumpy rancher bangin' on your door at oh-dang-it's-early is less than prime. The NF maps show National Forest, BLM and State lands. Makes for a fairly easy way to locate good "Prospects" and avoid most entanglements with authority types.

I'd still recommend you take it cautious... Sometimes... what looks like a fine wide road from straight up a few thousand miles :) can turn into an axle busting damn-I-wish-I-hadn't-turned-in-here adventure ! So, unless you're certain sure there's a turn around in there... Don't... Go... In... There!

And one last thing kids...

Don't Worship the Earth.

But for all our sakes... Respect it and take care of it. Exercise the old tradition of pack it in... pack it out. If the ground is wet and soft... Don't Drive on it!... When you pick a camp... go where folks have already gone, there's plenty of those places. Please, Don't blaze new trails.

When you're in camp, if you spot a gum wrapper or such... from some careless previous traveler... pick it up. Make the camp cleaner when you leave... than when you pulled in.

Do Not leave your trash blowin' in the wind... unless you wanna run afoul of whacked out, multiple personality, puss gut cowboy bikers! :)

The Dentist called last Monday. They'd had a cancellation and if I could get in the next morning they could get to work. So I did... but they couldn't do it all so I still have to wait 'till Next Thursday/Friday for them to finish up...

We were gonna try and wait it out here in Phoenix till those next and last oral mechanic appointments...

That, is not gonna work. It's already gettin' hot... and 'tween that and the noise of town... I'm bound for the Arizona Bush. Likely tomorrow morning.

I try... but I fail. I simply cannot adjust any part of me to subsisting in a town... it's like sitting on a nail...

No matter how I wiggle and dance... There's just no gettin' comfortable.

So... We'll haul out and hide in country on up past Bumble Bee a bit... and come time for the Dentist to drill more holes in my head (which I sorely need... right?) ... I'll climb on that big Red Raider... and split the wind...

... Giggling like an idiot... that a poor boy like me can LIVE... Blessed with the Absolute Joy of the Open Road... Free as the Wind...

"They can take my Life... But they can NEVER take my Freedom!" HooYa! :)
Brian

1 comment:

Shadowmoss said...

You might want to take something Heidi can drive home from the dentist. My appointments had me seeing cross-eyed from the pain-killers and mental stabilizers.