Feathers, Fur and Honey Making Buzzers...

Up Madera Canyon there remain a few cabins, along with a pair of gift shops and a couple or three bed and breakfast type places.

The fact that there were any buildings left at all actually surprised me. Back in the early 80's or late 70's the Forest Service went to cancelling land leases when the original leases were running out, and forced the owners to not only loose the asset value of their cabins, but bear the expense of tearing them down to boot. I believe something over 50 cabins/homes were removed.

I'm kind of ambivalent about that... I'm for protecting what wild areas we've got left; and this canyon is a beautiful, special place... but, when you look across the valley and see the "Dumps" from three huge pit mines, and read about the contamination of the ground water from the tailings ponds... but then see cabins in the woods torn out because they are negatively impacting the land and other folks use of it... I can only say; "Huh?" It would appear that fairness rides along with the size of your bank account and political power.

Just another example of those gross imbalances I get my feathers all fluffed up about! :)

So anyhoo, when we came back here for the first time since '85 I expected to see nothing of that left.

We went up to one of those guest setups. This'un is called;

*Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon*

They've put out a bunch of bird feeders and a lil' fountain to pull in the birds for folks to watch. You can get a multi-page fold up sheet in their gift-shop that lists all the birds they've seen or you can see in the area...

Not much good for a bird watcher like me... All I know 'em by is there's a RED one... and there's a BLUE one! ;) guess their actual names ain't so important to me as just knowin' they're flyin' about somewhere... and that wild things still exist.

It's a pretty nice sunny spot on a cool spring afternoon. Benches have been scattered all down one side for all the achy boned, grey haired feather hunters to sit in the sun and enjoy a lil'... ahem... wild time. ;)

Just sittin' in the Arizona sun, watchin' the gymnastics of free flyin' neighbors is actually a fairly pleasant time... even for a guy who leans toward tripple digits on two wheels. ;)

If you're visit is timed right... you might even run across one of those lil' Coatimundi fellas. There'us two of 'em playin' around while we did our sun soakin'.

One got down on the ground to raid the seed dropped from the bird feeders... but it quickly skittered back into the trees when the birds spooked from something...

There's lots of other feathered visitors in the canyon... I'm just too slow on the shutter finger to catch most of the little ones... them little buggers flit and flicker faster than I can even find 'em in the viewfinder!

Back at camp we'd had a nice walk in the morning... before these guys drove us out with their unending buzzin' at every opening on the rig!

... and every marker light... You can't sit outside mid day... they won't leave a fella be! (Pun intended!)

You have to exercise a lil' care in Arizona where these things are concerned... They have a dog or person or two every year go over the great divide... sent along by an Africanized swarm... I've no idea how you tell the difference... so I just mind my manners!

Coming down off the ridge in front of our camp we saw this... I forget what you call it... I believe when it's the moon they call it a Moondog...

Sunsets have been pretty tame... and to tell the truth... when the sun goes down, with us being a bit higher altitude... we retreat inside. ;)

Today, it would seem to be a day of chores... the propane juuuuuuust ran out! :) So before the food starts goin' sour and the beer warms up... I'd better get after it!

Duckin' Bees and Javelina Hunters
Brian

One Day Follows Another

Camped in a thin Mesquite thicket... there's time...

... and it's that infernal TIME that is the culprit that cooks up the majority of my difficulties.

Goin' down the road my senses are occupied by new sights, scents, sounds... watching folks and just feeling the wind in my face. It's likely why I'm the most comfortable and laid back in the summer time...

When winter rolls around, the weather tends to slow down the wandering... since maybe two thirds of the country I admire is buried under snow or at least temperatures which my old bones can no longer abide!

With that reduction in wandering... and the things drifting keeps my head busy with... comes the unused time that allows my brain pan the space to cogitate on and weigh all the possibilities; cooking up new schemes gahr-ahn-TEED to produce smoke and sparks and some squirrel-crawled-up-your-jeans hoppin' and squealin'.

Sometimes I succeed in fending off the really good ideas that so often prove out to be more akin to; What in the Hell were you THINKIN' Boy? die-zaster-us conflagrations.

Other times... well... Ya'll get the idea. ;)

So as serene and quiet and healing as the Far View camps like this one seem to be...

I've gotta maintain my guard. That Ol' "What if we..." schemin' sneaky bugger is always prowlin' about... hidin' just 'round the corner somewhere... or maybe under a rock...

After stringin' a thousand words or so... took a break from my literary pursuits yesterday afternoon... It was getting on toward supper and I was needful of refreshing my head after a day of fictional disputations. :)

Just below our camp... and back up into the Mesquites a short ways above the road we discovered what some in the desert call a guzzler. 

Arizona Fish and Game built a concrete apron that collects what water falls out of the sky, and likely a bit that comes down the drainage above it, and directs it into a buried tank.

The access to the water is at one end with the rest covered to reduce evaporation loss. There's a corrugated ramp up out of the tank so any small critters that manage to fall in have a way of climbing back out.

Hmmmmm... required Federal aid... Ya know, in the "Old" days... the Ranchers who held the grazing permits, built... on their own nickle... wells and stock tanks, all across the ranges. No state aid, no federal aid... they just did it to improve the land, the range and to care for their stock.

As a consequence, the deer, javalina, coatimundi, cougar, box turtles, toads, birds... every critter on the range benefited. Now... it takes Federal aid... and the Mesquite and the brush, without the balancing affect of cattle, sheep and goat grazing (which replaced ~ buffalo ~ grazing... but is being steadily cut back as un-natural) moves in ever faster, with even fires restricted, choking out the grass and creating ever more plentiful and grievous fires...

Grazing and fire is a part of this land... always was... always will be. Though we can impose our short sighted will for a time... the "system" which dwarfs our own understanding, will re-assert its command... over our protests I'm sure...

ahhh... but what do I know...

*Modern "Ruins" in Arizona*

Just below the guzzler are the footprints of folks long gone... just a few concrete foundations of people who once lived on this land... They had a fine view... Their living here sure don't seem to have done any damage to the land...

Maybe, it could be argued, with an intimate relationship with the land they lived upon... they protected and nurtured the land that supported their families?

*The Arizona Sun... setting on a road into the past*

*along the Proctor Road in Arizona*

We'll be here a short while... and then move on. Unlike those that went before, the only sign of our passing left behind, will be washed away with the next rain.

*a quiet Arizona camp... with far views*

You know what would be a fine epitaph for a man?

"He was a man of many faults and conflicting passions... 

yet he still managed to get a few people to stop... and... Think."

A Stop Along the Way
Brian

RV Boondocking A Bit of a Cowboy Bikers Back Trail...

Dawn in a new camp... the sun just breaking over the Santa Rita Mountains behind us... lighting the peaks to the west...

*Sunrise on the Santa Rita Peaks in Arizona*

Yup... after careful and thoughtful consideration tempered by a bit of fuel cost cogitation...

...we decided to brave the altitude of Madera Canyon; And climb up to the towering heights of 5,000 feet in the Arizona High Up and Lonesome. ;)

The road into this camp might be a lil' intimidating if you ain't been here before...

Along with a shallow ford, you've got to climb over a few pretty sharp humps, maybe three or four feet high... I'd guess  if you're pushin' a forty foot, or even a bit less, rig... you'll high center 'fore you can cross 'em.

Truth be known, gettin' into some of the spots to camp might cause trouble with anybody draggin' a fiver with a Fifth Wheel hitch.  When you're truck leans 6 degrees east... and your trailer is leanin' 5 degrees west... and your hitch only has five, maybe 7 degrees of side tilt... ooooowheeee! You put some torque on frames... for sure and for certain...

... another of the reasons I use the gooseneck hitch conversion setup... no bind... no worries!

Pullin' in to this site, the truck was climbing and leaning left... the 5er was nose down sharp and leaning right... and the only thing I was concerned with was runnin' into my scooter! ;)

With camp set we unhitched and took a quick scout up canyon. The last time we were here to Madera Canyon was in the summer of  '85. It's been a while. 'fore that... it was cowboyin' in the '60's!

Had a bit of a sad moment climbing the canyon too... Some adventurous pilgrim had built a snowman, right directly in the middle of the lane... stick arms and all...

... well... that lil' pile of snowflakes was juuuuuuust a might taller than the punkin's on the truck's axles...

He kinda lost his head and quite a lil' below it as we passed... yup... snow-a-cidal yondering cowboy! ;)

They had a bit more snow here than we'd gotten at the Pima County Fairgrounds... It was pretty plain that they'd even had to run a plow over the trail...

Part way up the canyon is a cabin converted to a gift shop... The place just caught my imagination. Don't it just strike you as having the flavor or some sort of a fairytale cabin in the woods?

Had a conversation with a pair of Canadian couples; The first out of Quebec, and the second from Manitoba; when we got back to camp and were gonna head out on a walk... They asked was there any wildlife around here...

I should smile. You got Coatimundi, Mule deer, rattle snakes, black bear, cougar, birds of a few dozens kinds and sorts including Turkeys... get just south and east they've had Jaguar wandering back across the border out of Mexico... 

The Feds have been trying for some time to inflict Mexican Grey wolves on the folks here... kinda like what they done up Montana way. They've kinda run into an unexpected problem here though. The folks down here are... uh... let's say a lil' less... um... tolerant of Federal Impositions. You might have noticed that in OTHER political disputations.

Well... after several tries... it seems that every wolf transplanted has come down with a severe and fatal case of heavy metal toxicity. Yup... juuuuuuuust a lil' bit of civil disobedience in Arizona.

Some of the other Wildlife 'round here is the sort I'm intimately familiar with...

I'll tell you what... drop a rope onto the calf of one of these eared sows and you juuuuuust might have an experience you can call Western! 

It was just a few miles north of this spot in these same mountains; near what was then the ghost town ruins of a place called Helvetia when I was just 14; I remember racin' up a dry creek bed, tied hard and fast ( a green kids mistake) with an angry bovine of the female variety hot on my horse tail... slingin' a rack just like that one! Yes sir! Western!

But for a Cowboy, this is what makes all the mud and dust; 

The cold and the poor pay...

The broken bones and the long days... worth every drop of sweat.

Fresh calves in the spring time.


Evey winter a cowboy says; This is the last one.

Every Spring he says; One more year.

We walked west from camp up the road to see what we could see...

The sun shining and the dogs able to lope through the grass... the Sierrita Mountains across the valley... the other side of Green Valley.

 

... as always... goin' out... down hill... is always easier than the turn around at the end-O-day and climbin' the grade comin' back. I'm not sure we've fully ree-coo-pur-eighted from that flu! ;)

 

From our camp you look out across over Green Valley... and you see the mines against the Sierritas on the other side...

You can juuuuust see the angle of the dumps of one mine under the branches of the tree on the right... if you zooooooom in and look a mite to the left...

... You'll see the dumps of the mine I spent 'bout 6 years at. I helped pile up a goodly bit of that rock you see in the dumps above... Duval mine. Is where I picked up my wheeze and pro-pen-si-Tee for bronchitis and Noo-Moan-ya. That rocks dust don't do a feller much good. Even if it comes with a fat pay check.

One of those two mines was used as the base camp for the Holnists in Kevin Costners "The Postman". It looks a lot like the pit I worked in... but... I've not been able to get farther than the pit used is/was owned by Park Electrochemical Corporation.

There's a lot of history for me 'round this country... a lot of it I can't tell you about though... The statute of limitations ain't run out yet! ;)

Gonna be settin' right here in my Home Country for at least a week. It feels good.

Another Day in the West
Brian