timh
Explorer
I really like the idea of putting all of my years adventures into one ongoing thread. Obviously I can credit Vermejo for the idea. I do a lot of day trips, camping, dirtbiking, and more so it will be nice to have a place to just throw in a pic or two when I feel the need.
I was lucky enough to have the week between Christmas and New Years off this year again so I took advantage of the time and had non-stop fun!:victory:
Monday 12/26 after Christmas started off with a planned moto ride @ Sycamore Creek north of Phoenix. My buddy Gary was off that day only so we wanted to get a good ride in. It was a good day of riding but we quickly learned that Upper Sycamore is a rather popular shooting spot and soon decided that we didn't feel comfortable riding amongst the insane amount of shooters out there. We packed up about 11:30 and headed back to Tucson and were able to get some more riding in up into Charoleau Gap that afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't stop to get any pics that day.
Tuesday 12/27 was another day for the dirtbike. I met up with kenmoto and we spent the day riding singletrack in San Manuel. A great day of riding but yet again no pics.
Wednesday 12/28: I really needed a day to recoop after 2 hard days of riding so Cayce (a.mus.ed) picked me up and we headed north for the Picacho Mtns in his 80. For once I got to ride in the passenger seat and relax. Luckily this meant lots of pics!:wings: The morning started of great. As we were crossing over the CAP canal we spooked a decent size mule deer buck.
Picacho Peak
Saw an insane amount of jackrabbits that day.:Wow1:
As we continued up a powerline road on the west side of the mountain range we came across a large herd of Wild Burros (about 20 of them). I have seen them in the wild before but never up close. We drove up slowly hoping to get a pic, much to our surprise when we stopped they all made a b-line right for the truck. I wasn't sure what to expect but it turns out that these animals were amazingly curious and friendly. They crowded around taking turns sticking their head in the windows of the truck and checking us out. Soon we got out and mingled with them for a bit. You couldn't make any sudden moves but if we were calm and slow they would come right up to us. The really young ones however stayed well away and behind mom. We wound up spending about a 1/2 hour with them and it was a really cool experience.
After our Burro encounter we were excited to see that the rest of the day would hold. Here we are stopped taking a look at an old stagecoach stop and outpost.
We had come across quite a few dead cows at this point, not sure what was killing them but most had been dead a while. One of them had a couple of Crested Caracara's (Mexican Eagle) picking away at it.
We made our way out into the very dry Picacho reservoir. They have been rebuilding the diversion dam on the Gila River for some time now so The Gila Canal that feeds the reservoir is bone dry. Certain times of the year there is 5-6ft of water where we are in these pics.
Another dead cow. This one looked as if it had tried to cross the canal and had gotten stuck in the mud. This is deep in the inlet canal that fills the reservoir.
We soon left the reservoir and got on the highway to head up the Florence to grab some lunch. We ate on the road and cruised over to the Diversion Dam to see how the work was progressing. It looks like they are almost done but it doesn't appear that they are going to allow access across the dam anymore. We found a spot to cross upstream as the river is barely a stream right now. The trail across the river were rather tight.
After we crossed the river we headed back toward home. This turned out to be a really fun day.
more to come...
I was lucky enough to have the week between Christmas and New Years off this year again so I took advantage of the time and had non-stop fun!:victory:
Monday 12/26 after Christmas started off with a planned moto ride @ Sycamore Creek north of Phoenix. My buddy Gary was off that day only so we wanted to get a good ride in. It was a good day of riding but we quickly learned that Upper Sycamore is a rather popular shooting spot and soon decided that we didn't feel comfortable riding amongst the insane amount of shooters out there. We packed up about 11:30 and headed back to Tucson and were able to get some more riding in up into Charoleau Gap that afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't stop to get any pics that day.
Tuesday 12/27 was another day for the dirtbike. I met up with kenmoto and we spent the day riding singletrack in San Manuel. A great day of riding but yet again no pics.
Wednesday 12/28: I really needed a day to recoop after 2 hard days of riding so Cayce (a.mus.ed) picked me up and we headed north for the Picacho Mtns in his 80. For once I got to ride in the passenger seat and relax. Luckily this meant lots of pics!:wings: The morning started of great. As we were crossing over the CAP canal we spooked a decent size mule deer buck.
Picacho Peak
Saw an insane amount of jackrabbits that day.:Wow1:
As we continued up a powerline road on the west side of the mountain range we came across a large herd of Wild Burros (about 20 of them). I have seen them in the wild before but never up close. We drove up slowly hoping to get a pic, much to our surprise when we stopped they all made a b-line right for the truck. I wasn't sure what to expect but it turns out that these animals were amazingly curious and friendly. They crowded around taking turns sticking their head in the windows of the truck and checking us out. Soon we got out and mingled with them for a bit. You couldn't make any sudden moves but if we were calm and slow they would come right up to us. The really young ones however stayed well away and behind mom. We wound up spending about a 1/2 hour with them and it was a really cool experience.
After our Burro encounter we were excited to see that the rest of the day would hold. Here we are stopped taking a look at an old stagecoach stop and outpost.
We had come across quite a few dead cows at this point, not sure what was killing them but most had been dead a while. One of them had a couple of Crested Caracara's (Mexican Eagle) picking away at it.
We made our way out into the very dry Picacho reservoir. They have been rebuilding the diversion dam on the Gila River for some time now so The Gila Canal that feeds the reservoir is bone dry. Certain times of the year there is 5-6ft of water where we are in these pics.
Another dead cow. This one looked as if it had tried to cross the canal and had gotten stuck in the mud. This is deep in the inlet canal that fills the reservoir.
We soon left the reservoir and got on the highway to head up the Florence to grab some lunch. We ate on the road and cruised over to the Diversion Dam to see how the work was progressing. It looks like they are almost done but it doesn't appear that they are going to allow access across the dam anymore. We found a spot to cross upstream as the river is barely a stream right now. The trail across the river were rather tight.
After we crossed the river we headed back toward home. This turned out to be a really fun day.
more to come...
