A Rare Rainy Day

Rain today, so we can stay inside and catch up on the website posts!

img_3956aa.jpg

Rock Art and a View

Another day of geocaching took us by motorcycle a few miles away, then up a mountainside. On the way up we went through a series of rock types and came across this boulder. A thin layer of rock that looked almost like a layer of plaster was wearing away and exposing the raw rock beneath, contrasting it with the desert varnish covering the majority of the rock face.

img_3949a.jpg

We reached the top, finally found the cache then took in the view. We had a great vista of the American Girl wash area. You can see all the ‘snowbirds’ dispersed over the valley.

img_3948a.jpg

A New Hobby!

After using the GPS to find Peter Kane’s waterhole, Robert discovered a new use for the electronic device besides a pedometer. He found Geocaching, a new hobby. Our first day out we had several caches within hiking distance marked on the GPS. We quickly found our first!

img_3924a.jpg

We continued our route and found our second cache within an hour. While we were inspecting the contents another group of ‘geocachers’ arrived (coincidentally from Oregon also). They didn’t have to look hard for the cache since we had it already! They gave us coordinates for another cache we didn’t have on our GPS and we decided to look for that one after we found our third goal. That last cache was a difficult one, we were right on top of the coordinates, but we never saw the container. All in all we hiked 9 miles, found 3 of 4 caches, learned more about the uses of the GPS and had a great time out in the sun.

img_3921a.jpg

Robert inspecting the contents of a cache.

img_3939a.jpg

Mary Jo even got in on the fun!

Peter Kane Mine

Our friends Glen and Barb from British Columbia took us to a remote mine site created by Peter Kane in the 1920’s and 30’s. During the winters of two decades he worked at building a road to his site, carving small caves in the wall of a wash to live, cook and store supplies, and digging his mine. After his equipment was vandalized he gave up and died penniless in nearby Blythe, CA. His meticulous road has survived the decades since, through storm and sun, attesting to his determination and single handed hard work with pry bar and muscle only!

img_3908a.jpg

Barb and Mary Jo in front of one of the many retaining walls supporting the road.

img_3906a.jpg

Two of the three small caves carved into the wash. We finally found Peter Kane’s waterhole, with the help of the GPS. A modern addition to the waterhole is the pipe to a wildlife ‘guzzler’ probably installed by the fish and game department.

img_3910a.jpg

Below the cliff is the original waterhole, a mecca for wildlife and probably the reason Peter Kane sited his mining efforts nearby!

img_3912a.jpg

Rock Playground

Various activities involving rocks! A hike to a mine entrance, a lump of blue kyanite ore from a nearby mine, a rock jungle gym to climb on and through!

img_3897a.jpg

img_3881ab.jpg

img_3917aa.jpg