I’m working on the start of the trip report and will post soon. Meanwhile here are the last few days:
I continued on to the ghost town of Swansea where I spent the night and saw no goblins. The BLM had some nice campsites scattered around town.
Leaving there I took a trail called the Old Railroad Grade which turned out to be the most challenging part of the entire trip: soft gavel wash with big embedded rocks, then a steep rough climb out and tight and twisty stuff for a long ways. It was really more of an ATV trail. On some better roads I made good time to Alamo Lake State Park but it was too civilized for me. Found some lakeside camping on BLM further north. But again the trails down by the water are more suitable for ATVs with some very steep up/downs. Got a nice spot about 20’ above the water but access was poor so I gave up planned paddleboarding. I had a laugh at a guy pulling a good sized toy hauler following me in. He got to the point of no further travel and tried to turn around on a narrow ridge. He was too far away to go and help but I did hold my breath a few times watching him.
Next day I headed out on Alamo Road. I was told it was fast graded gravel until you hit the La Paz County Line, then it was mostly on-maintained. Miles of soft sand cross road washouts but that just makes it interesting. Finally back to Hwy 93 where I aired up then went south to Congress for fuel. It looked like things were happening there unlike the other Congress. Returning north to Bagdad to meet Vince the next day for one more day in the dirt.
Vince was there as promised so soon we were on dirt roads driving through some very pretty country. Vince was searching for some 4x4 trails seen on his map. It had a sign “4x4 Road 1” which sounded promising but it looked like no one had driven it in a long time. We walked part of and decided to run it. Lots of overhanging tree limbs were grabbing at my trailer but after a couple of miles we lost the trail completely. But after stumbling around in the brush we relocated it. But it did not go far before it dead ended at a fence with no gate. Finally we gave up and retreated back to CR-5 where Vince went south to home and I continued north to find a camp for the night. Spotted and old abandoned cow camp and set in a corner of the fence. Funny how often when I find a place to camp in not very happy with it but by morning I’m thinking it was alright. The coyotes singing at sundown and some whiskey added to the charm.
The next days were just traveling home and very uneventful.
Some trip stats:
23 days
2460 miles with 502 on dirt
$1100 spent on fuel and supplies. That number is high because I was getting bad mileage and gas at $2.50 a gallon adds up fast.
Ace
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