cartour 28

La Quinta Inn, Twin Falls, Idaho to Umatilla National Forest, Oregon

Sunday, April 10, 2016

all we are now

Tried numerous paved but perfunctory routes before being turned by 8 inches of old snow. Some of the little towns along the way were places we could maybe stay around for a while.  

Granite - wooden Lil Abnerville

Biked around some town that even had the tidy Grants County Fairground but the town I wouldn't want to really spend a while in. 

cartour 27

Cave Lake to Twin Falls

Saturday, April 9, 2016

10 miles on Emigrant Trail next to Winecup Ranch

Breakfast and drive corolla up gravel until it started to look sketchy and past sign stating road maintained only May to October.

Off toward Twin Falls.

Took lite lunch and a dos equis at Emigrant Trail sign 2 miles off 93 at Winecup Ranch entrance. Longish bike ride into the edge of the hills, jackrabbits plentiful.

Looked in vain for old wine bar in old town Twin Falls; old down dying (again)

Found swank joint on Snake Rive canyon called Elevation 487. Great setting, mediocre food. The wine was a white from the Kim Crawford winery and was real good I thought it tasted strongly of grapefruit.

We decamped so to speak to the La Quinta on Pole Line Road storing the bikes in a room behind the lobby desk which was a relief from humping them up the back stairs as had been the case on so many evenings previously.

the land itself is large

BLM on left, Wincup on right

cartour 26

Cathedral Canyon Campground, Nevada to Cave Lake Campground, Nevada

Friday, April 8, 2016

Ely, NV library - spent a quiet hour

Brooding above Cave Lake.

Good wood.

We breakfast and bike the desert loop trail I had ridden the night before.

State  Highway 93 all day. Steak and cocktails in Ely in the basement of the Palace Hotel. Back tracked to Cave Lake state thing. Good wood but hard weather, gusty, chill, low clouds, old snow, etc. Creepy but nice. We pedaled up a ways on a long gravel road into the hills. A plaque on a rock cliff above the road told of Billy's Rock with a picture of Billy in his gear and his dates. One or more families from Marin County took the site next to us but also below so it was like a stage what with their big old bright prison yard light. But they were very nice; we watched them. An adult female of their group and probably her child or nephew and a nice dog came up and she explained and apologized for the chaos and rumpus and we said something like "Oh, its entertaining!" which I was thinking afterward might not have been the right approach but in the long run it was trivial next to the people/things in the site above us. They never showed a light nor made a sound in their Cruise America RV and left before dawn.

cartour 25

Ely, Nevada

Friday, April 8, 2016 (actual)

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Page, AZ to Panaca, NV

Cathedral Cave, NV

     Leaped on the bikes after a breakfast at the Rancho Grill recommended by the Catalina guy over Denny's and proceeded to something called the Rim Trail at edge of town; not safe for us we realized very soon after starting out. Back to the Safeway. Mild but persistent panic over output of AC in Corolla. Phone calls and off to B and B Automotive for advice. Good guy explained to me about his son who was into championship off road quad-mobiling since the machine he rode was parked next to Corolla (really long-travel suspension). AC seemed to be working after guy put his hand around the cold tube from the compressors. Out of Page toward Cedar City, UT home of Southern Utah University.
     The two-laners we've been using would be a great test bed for the self-driving car. Over great snowy pass and down into the totally bustling college town for a mocha. French Bistro looked okay until S got close enough to read a short typed essay taped into the window presumably by the proprietor about evolution being bad science which turned S right around as though it was the mark of Satan, which it kind of was, you know? Found a huge coffee shop that seemed to cater to the students at SUU and among many, many random postings, quotes and classic photos was a sign saying, "You can't fix stupid." So I guess it was a wash, again.
    There are a lot of the washes, the seasonal flash creeks, around these parts also, by the way. We moved on to Panaco and the Cathedral Canyon Campground in which there was on site left which cost us $27 because it was electrified. Small largely unsung state camp with a strange topography of mud sculptured cliffs and a pleasant bike/hike trail loop often using the wash in the middle of the draw. Firewood the only drawback since it was green which I honestly could not discern not being very familiar with pinon and juniper; S questioned the ranger who showed up next morning, who admitted to running out of the good stuff. Guy two RV's down who said he had radar insisted late in the evening to the single woman sleeping in her car next to us that a big thunderstorm was 50 miles to the south and moving our way probably arriving around midnight. I was totally cool with this news since we had our tent under a ramada and I was losing patience with the fire by that time. S soon down and later me; some rain some time in the night.

Ramada after tent. Also bad firewood.

cartour 24

Ely, Nevada
Friday, April 8, 2016

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 (actual)

 

Down to the White House

     Out of Springerville on the way to Canyon de Chelly and Page, (Arizona, probably).
Canyon de shae or Tseyi is an area controlled by no doubt a fraught partnership of the Navajos and the Federals because I suppose of its astounding existence. I don't know if the Natives would have bothered though if the river hadn't been down in the bottom, likely not. Navajo teens and elders selling jewelry and pottery at the overlooks. Need a guide for all access except one trail from rim to ruin in the canyon called White House (built by the ancient ones before the Navajos showed up). S and I took that. Kids were very serious, the elder sellers tired of the job. Walk to bottom was pretty sweet (two tunnels!). Bought a cold Gaterade from NA near the ruin where all the guide pickups were parked. The orange flavored Gaterade was a more subtle even sophisticated beverage than I remembered from a previous experience a long time ago. Snatches of Navajo tongue were in evidence. One kid I spoke with concerning an etching on shard of some material, rock or clay, had a marble sized pink plastic rose earring that I thought was kind of sharp. I told him so but then didn't buy anything cause we had already gotten some good stuff earlier so it was maybe a wash for him.
     Page in the early dark. Passed a seriously popular converted gas station called Big John's Texas Barbeque on search for a motel. Saw a sign for cute old fashioned motel street or some such and pulled into a Rodeway Inn where S charmed an already super charming dude at the desk (I was watching from the car, not happily) who sent us to the Red Rock Motel on the street of cute old fashioned motels even though the Rodeway had this huge flashing neon sign saying "VACANCY" presumably under the control of the super charmer, I also observed, unhappily. The Red Rock was swell though, under the management of a guy born on Catalina, the island off Los Angeles; it had two rooms and was just a step away from the Texas BBQ. We had the brisket no bun (S) and the pork sandwich (me) (duh) plus some local beer at a table where the gas pumps had been. Salted in the shell peanuts in a bucket. Country western band out there too, fairly enthusiastically wailing away on J. Cash, et al.

cartour 23

Springerville, Arizona
Tuesday, April 5, 2016

   

Silver City public - not a big photographic day

     Said goodbyes to our people at the Gila Hot Springs and redid the long twisty back to Silver City in route to Canyon de Chelly national cliff dwelling. S invited the 29 year olds to Langley. Why just them?
     Back in Silver City things went a little haywire in the afternoon: in the library I was joined by an old woman wearing a cloth over her mouth and nose and one green glove who began to have trouble with her off brand tablet which led to a long series of people trying to help her get rolling past one digital snafu after another with ultimate goal of logging into a genealogy site; she was not the least a crazy but really naive with computers, S went off on bike to get coffee, an assortment of knives and some exercise and I met her a couple doors from the library at a Mexican place where the front door led into the kitchen and the back into the tables, S continued her bike wander so I moved the car under a tree and mounted the bike and visited a vape shop, 3 bike stores and many back streets with interesting old deserty houses finding the city's road layout bizarre. After 2 or 3 hours of this kind of thing including the inevitable ransacking of the car for things hidden long ago we took our two leftover tacos and hit the road to Springerville, AZ and this totally acceptable America's Best Value Inn where we finished those tacos and did laundry. Springerville feels more like the unvarnished West than even the Gila Hot Springs which except for the hot springs was pretty unvarnished.

Sunset on the high desert from the bathroom of America's Best Value Inn room 249

cartour 22

Gila Hot Springs Camp

Monday, April 4, 2016

5 miles up trail Gila dip spot

up one frame from dip spot

up two frames from d. s.

third frame up from d.s.

      Really fine outing today after the morning soak on foot 8 miles to a remote pool on the Gila River under towering cliffs. Lunch and a dip. Few hikers; I liked the couple with the snake bite gaiters and the nice pair of cattle dogs. Good section down in a deep canyon with a tiny tributary of the Gila.

     Hustled back in hopes of catching the Doc Campbell Post store open. Made it but Doc was mostly interested in selling souvenirs not food and really down on credit cards. Got two cups of ice cream and couple diet cokes plus a dozen eggs. Made coke float - real good.

     Kiwis on Surly bikes were there; discussed several important matters including Subaru autos; see previous heart break note.

     Emily the slender intense one looking for work was there also and when a forest service truck came up she leaped into action chatting them up re employment. Shared carrots and her issues regarding work search in the wild. Store had wifi and an impressive collection of stuffed animals. No alcohol though.

      Later, post soak, juggler gifted us with two brews; said he had been on the road for 17 years. Young couple next to him and us were also nomads, the guy a fly-fishing guide his girlfriend a food service manager at dude ranches. The latter move every 6 months to the next outdoor work opportunity; they were 29.

Yep

Looking at at least 3 k worth of machine here.

cartour 21

Gila Hot Springs Camp

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Silver City to Gila cliff dwellings 

In the dwelling

     Taking the bike out the back door of the motel 6 got in the way of an angry young woman with abrasions on her face. Similarly the night before at the Tre Rosat there was a hulking fellow bundled in layers of long worn coats nursing a mug of coffee concerning whom S ultimately asked if his bill could be added to ours which waitress seemed to accept but it never showed up on our ticket; that sort of thing was there in the background to the charming old west restoration for us passers-through that Silver City was working.

     Anyway they had cheap gasoline and we got a bunch of it and headed up New Mexico 15 to the ancient cliff condos of the Mongollon people; too bad we didn't get a bunch of food.

New Mexico 15 was a narrow, swoopy little thing that in 28 miles and two hours got us to this private campground beside the Gila River with 3 beautiful hot pools for the strange, even uncanny price of $6 per person per night. The place was run by a very hands-on woman in jeans and a cowboy hat named Carla. There were also maybe 100 goats half of whom were way capricious kids gamboling and throwing their little heads this way and that as little goats will. Fortunately all these were fenced.

     The guests at this never-never land camp were also interesting in their diversity and laid -backedness: next door was a family of traveling entertainers (I saw he juggled; not sure what else or what the wife and two little girls did), one night in the southernmost hot pool we listened while two animated young women in bikinis chattered on a really disparate number of subjects from the importance of following your heart to the problems one faced trying out the hula hoops at Walmart, a slender and intense young woman looking to find paid wilderness work, a couple New Zealanders on really nice bikes riding from Los Angeles to Florida who said Subarus were garbage, breaking our hearts and trampling on our recent car dreams.

      One of the many good things about this camp was that with the shared pools we met and chatted with many fellow travelers which doesn't happen in the state parks for instance since often the only community location is the toilet.

     The cliff dwellings were well supervised but resonant with the old people who built and used the nifty habitation for a generation and moved on.

     It was however another 3 coat, 2 pants night for me; I believe S has a better sleeping bag. 

Nighttime temperature datum

Hot pool at Gila Hot Springs Camp - one of three

cartour 20

Silver City, New Mexico
Saturday, April 2, 2016

Cottonwood, Railroad Park, Wilcox, Arizona

     Trying to remember yesterday this morning lounging about the Motel 6; always difficult. Small roads, small towns of southeastern Arizona as mentioned. Tombstone more anomalous than tertiary what with the tourist trade but we didn't linger just the random sanican on a back street for me and out the back o' town on an even lesser road than the last according to map but it, as has been true, was smooth and swoopy . Drove northeasterly all day with a very pleasant interlude in the town of Wilcox which was incredibly bright: white sun, white vehicles, white pavement, low profile and not a lot of trees although the ones in the lunch spot in what they called Railroad Park were stunning.
     Hit the library and the Safeway, both comforting and satisfying in their ways except the bread selection was poor, at the Safeway. Got a Safeway card anyway. Went across the street after lunch in the park (see above) and straight into a wine shop. Courtly wine woman had terrible allergy but was inspiring and deeply into the vintages. Left with a bottle of something Rhone.
Entered New Mexico.
Arrived Silver City and began looking for bookstore cause S wanted a topological atlas of the state. Bookstores inaccessible so tried booking a room at the historic Palace Hotel; full. Cut to the chase and hit the Motel 6 for $50.
Savings on room resulted in dinner at Tre Rosat. Chose the Moroccan pizza with harrisa paste?
S mentioned evidence of human suffering at Walmart where she had shopped earlier, picking up such items as new earbuds and recently off-patent antacid for me (I had a little pain) and, yes, the topological atlas of New Mexico!

No walking and no biking but a good day nevertheless. I'd say Wilcox, Arizona was the highlight although there were more churches than I would have liked.

Wilcox library

Wilcox library solarium

cartour 19

Wilcox, Arizona
Public Library
April 1, 2016

Patagonia Elementary and Museum

     Slave to the blog now. Tertiary roads and towns today but yesterday was a concentrated bike of Patagonia and surrounds. Back streets and the museum/elementary school. Eventually down a dirt road to the creek and cottonwoods conserved by the Nature Conservancy since 1966. Biked through the trees by the clear stream on the old railway route. Must have had lunch. Off to the 17 minutes away Patagonia Lake State Park where we had made a reservation couple of days before, or was it weeks; have to check with S. on that. Slotted into #14 ten feet above the lake. Set up and unwrapped the firewood, juniper pieces about 2 feet long and very pungent. Tried a trail after Keven the visitor center woman in the camp told me there were no legal bikeable trails around. As trail rounded end of lake it entered a cow hangout that S. found unpleasant. Looked good except for the cow shit but we turned back after a while to head to the Wagon Wheel Saloon mentioned earlier for dinner with the locals raucously at party.
     Two shots of third tier up from house tequila for me after some negotiation on the matter of hard liquor and 17 minutes of driving back to camp the upshot of which was S would drive and implicitly I would have two shots of the slightly high-tone liquor. One of the raucous stopped over to chat, name of Lars. Lars involved in local politics by virtue of wanting to quit his long term organization of the 4th of July events in Patagonia and the subsequent anxiety about who and what would happen after his exit form these duties; it got ugly. S. was sympathetic. S. said the tequila (she allowed herself one) had finally driven the stench of cow pies from her. A good but not great night in Patagonia. S. also wanted credit here for her earlier swim in the lake which is now given although honestly I can't see how it was that big a deal but I didn't do it so have no standing.
     Fire was worth it even though I dropped the top of the fire paste tube into the flames. I napped earlier probably while S. swam but the both of us passed a restful night.

Note: "Ovens of Patagonia" best cinnamon rolls and bread.

Patagonia Main Street

Old Patagonia train station

Creek and Cottonwoods as it once was more often around about

Immense old broken thing

Pretty but poopy although you can't see the pies so well but trust me

Patagonia Lake very sweet and, as mentioned, S. went in

cartour 18

Patagonia, Arizona
Thursday, March 31, 2016

Some of our new friends

Classic breakfast of fried bread, fried hard-boiled egg and Nando sauce; delicious as ever. Two hour bike ride on the 21 mile loop of Ajo Mountain Road, Washboard gravel but cool and exhilarating. Stopped at the Why Not market in Why for ice cream bars and diet coke which we deserved 100% also. Back on the occasionally necessary I-8 to big old Tucson and right on state route 83 and 82 into Patagonia to check it out and visit with Penny and Rob recently of Langley. Area has transformed from Sorona desert to something closer to southern California landscape. P and R treated us to a night in their guest house high on a hill overlooking the village. We went back to the saloon in Patagonia where S and I had earlier stopped in for a margarita. Good visit with P and R mostly on Langley issues including discussion about the chicken, duck, pit-bull dude off Bayview Road and what might be done. Also a good story about a single Quechua Indian woman and child who spoke neither Spanish or English who somehow made it from the border to relatives in Alabama.
Good tubbing and sleep and we deserved....

Patio Cabot