My Trails

After several days of relentless wind and heat near Borrego Springs, Richard and Dianna moved over the mountains to an RV park, while I sought refuge in a more protected section of landscape discovered the day before. I’m still in Anza-Borrego State Park only about 20 miles south of Borrego Springs, but a whole world removed from the wind and oppressive heat. It has been a little breezy but nothing like the howling torrent on the other side of the park. The campground I’m parked in, called Blair Valley, is surrounded by mountains on all sides, quite secluded and pretty, and also quite a bit higher and cooler than the flat lands near town. And even though AT&T has been very disappointing almost everywhere I wilderness camp, I was surprised to find I have excellent cell service.

There are some pretty cool hikes in this area. You wouldn’t think to drive through this place – the term ‘forsaken’ comes to mind – but there are some nice places to hike. Last week we hiked through a slot canyon that twisted for about a half-mile along a narrow, sandstone groove cut by ages of seasonal runoff. In some places we had to turn sideways to squeeze through, while the walls towered way above our heads, blocking out the sun and creating a feel almost like a cave. I have not hiked many slot canyons but this hike has given me the desire to do more of it.

I have also hiked to a place called Palm Canyon. It was a nice five-mile walk on easy terrain with tons of people along the way. The trail follows a canyon to an oasis of palms and gushing water that seem quite out of place in such an arid area. I almost didn’t take enough water; I was thirsty when I got back to the visitors center.

I’ll probably be here for a few more days. There are some nice places to explore and the weather is looking good. I will meet Richard and Dianna in Julian this afternoon. The road to get there looks like fun on a motorcycle – lots of curves.

I camped last night on a forest service road a few miles west of Forest Lakes. It was a beautiful area, surrounded by a stately grove of Ponderosa Pine, nestled deep within the Apache-Sitgreaves NF. The campground even had toilets.

I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go on a short hike. Earlier, I had stopped at a Ranger Station and obtained literature on places to camp and one of the brochures showed a trail that looped down to Willow Spring Lake. It looked to be about 7 miles. The temperature was perfect for a hike – low 60’s I would guess – and with the coming storm a day away, implored that I shouldn’t wait any longer.

I’m used to hiking on trails that are well marked. I came to several Y’s and had to guess which way to go. Apparently, I chose the wrong trail because I never did find the lake. After hiking a little over an hour, I turned around and came back, probably covering a distance of six miles. I’m glad to report that I feel good and apparently my knee and foot are continuing to improve.

Today, I’ve been hanging out in Payson and will head down to lower altitude for tonight.

I make lots of mistakes when I write but this word processor isn’t helping any. Now it has removed all my spacing and clumped everything into one paragraph. Even if my spacing is wrong I’m against having the computer change it.

I’ve put 100 miles on the motorcycle already. Roosevelt Lake is long, and I have been to both ends today. I started out in Tonto National Monument where the park service keeps safe the remains of an old cliff dwelling. Looking back at how these people lived and survived gives me a balance when I think of how we live today. Most of the early inhabitants were lucky to live forty years.

The climb up to the site was harder than I thought it should be; maybe I’ve lost some of my conditioning. I was thankful for information plaques along the way where I could rest a few minutes.

When I returned to the Visitor Center I asked the Ranger if there were other cliff dwelling sites in the area, “Oh, there are hundreds of old ruins all over the area.”
“Are any of them open to the public?” I asked.
“They are all open to the public. You can go anyplace on Federal Forest Land. I just can’t tell you where they are.” She smiled.

She did give me a couple of places to look for dwellings down by the Salt River but I drove to both of them and never found anything. She said there were signs but I think they have been taken down for the season.

Tomorrow I will move on to the northeast. I must have a migrational indicator built in – it’s the direction I walked for 6mo.

After completing several modifications to my van, I was anxious to get away for a few days and test everything out, kind of a shakedown trip if you will. The best way to find out what works and what doesn’t is to jump in and try it for a while – that’s one thing I learned on the AT. I decided to take a week and explore the area northeast of Mesa, a diverse land rich in history, surrounded by beautiful mountains, and steeped with culture of the mysterious Apache Indians. I resolved to take my time and enjoy everything in slowmotion. So many times when I travel I try to see too much, and when I move on, I always regret that I didn’t linger longer. This strategy seemed to compliment my current configuration of campervan and motorcycle. I figured I could park the van in a central place and tour short, side trips on the bike.I left Mesa early Monday and drove north into the Tonto National Forest. It was an easy drive to Globe, AZ, where I turned northwest onto rt 188, climbed over a couple of passes where the Apache Trail once followed, and arrived early at Roosevelt Lake.  I purchased a couple of camping passes at the visitors center and drove down to the campground to see what my fee bought. The answer was amazingly good. For $3/night I have my pick of well over a hundred sites, each with a picnic table, shelter, a water source, and a level parking spot. There are flush toilets and showers, too. I wish we could have found accomidations like this on the AT. I chose a site that was secluded but still had a view of the lake and parked for the night. Van camping is so easy. All I have to do is park. There is no tent to set up, no water to filter, no air mattress to blow up, and I don’t have to worry about how heavy the food is I’m carrying. I don’t mean to keep comparing everything to my hike on the AT but I think there is a lesson here – if you can survive and be happy with all your possessions in a backpack, it stands to reason that you can be happy with just about any travel vehicle.I unloaded my motorcycle and set off to see Roosevelt Dam. The weather was perfect for a ride along the lake and I dipped the bike into several campground areas, picnic areas, and marinas along the way. There is one free camping area along the north shore of the lake but it seemed to exposed and barren to justify saving three dollars. Maybe if I was just stopping for the night it would be okay.I’m not one to go into detail about statistics of places I visit. If you are one of those people that remembers how many cubic tons of concrete were used, what the span is, when it was built, how many people died building it, and how many thousands of acres of water it holds, you will have to go online and look it up. You won’t get it here. Lets just say it’s a massive structure and let it go at that.Tomorrow I will hike up to the cliff dwellings.  The neat thing about that is I get in free with my Golden Access Pass.