Montana Mountain

Hi everyone, hope you've had a great week - our week has passed so quickly I wonder where it went! Last Wednesday we went with our group on our big ride of the week and drove to Montana Mountain. What a beautiful trip. This was a new one for us, we left the Arizonian park at 0900 hours and arrived home about 4:30 that afternoon. We were pretty dusty as it is so dry out in the desert. The weather was gorgeous and hit a high of 84 degrees so wonderful ATV weather. The park we left from is about 500 ft above sea level and when we got to the top of Montana Mountain, we were over 6900 ft above sea level! Was a little nippy up there and you could sure feel the air warm up as we came down the other side of the mountain!

 Here we are just heading out towards the mountains

 We will be heading way up into the distant mountains behind the big ridge in the forefront

 It is an easy drive for the most part as there are ranches back in the hills with cattle roaming in the desert

 We love all the different rock formations. People are always surprised that the Sonoran desert isn't just dust and scrub

 I just love all the different plants, trees and cacti in the desert

 We are very gradually heading up the incline but are still a long ways away from the top

 We are heading for the top of the mountain in the background

 We are only about 1/3 of the way there but already the guys are dusty and dirty. We are the last vehicle in the group so we get the most dust! The ladies needed a cactus break!

 We look like we are bundled up but we need to be like this to protect ourselves from the hot sun and the prickly vegetation that often grows close to the trail

 It always amazes us to see the caves that have formed in the sandstone cliffs - we can only guess what might live in them!

 We are still in saguaro cacti country so we are lower than 3500 ft above sea level. Once you get above that, they will no longer grow

 They are my favourite cacti and there were certainly plenty on this ride

 More interesting sandstone peaks

 It amazes me how green everything is when they had a very dry summer and minimal monsoon rains August/September

 We come around the corner and see a windmill and water storage tanks. The windmill is pumping water from below ground to the tanks to provide water for the cattle grazing in the desert

 We are really starting to climb now and you can see the road behind us and where we came from

 We are seeing the last of the saguaro cacti so must be getting above the 3500 ft

 Looking back from where we came - the views were spectacular!

 Now we are looking up to where we are going

 I just loved the look of this dead ironwood tree with the blue sky as background

 We are getting close to the top and the views just go on forever

 We are at 6900 ft here, and the temperature sure wasn't 84 degrees anymore!

 The motley crew at the top - Molly was taking the picture. Doug forgot to bring his tripod with him. We were lucky this past weekend that he was able to buy a little tripod for $2 at a garage sale and we will just leave it in the ATV so we always have it with us.

 As we came over the hill we were saddened to see there had been a recent brush fire. Acres and acres of land had been burned and it must have been fairly recent as it still smelled strongly of charred wood.

 It looked like a tree graveyard looking over the bank

 It made driving along the mountain side a little more heart pounding when you could see right down the bank where usually you just see greenery!

 The road going down the other side of the mountain was rougher and narrower than coming up

 Looking over the bank to where we will be going to get back down to the valley below

 We are now down the mountain, after some fairly exciting hair pin turns. I didn't take any pictures as I was too busy hanging on for dear life! We are driving along beside a wash where the deciduous trees are just starting to change colours. It was quite striking

 It always surprises me at how much colour there is in the desert at this time of year.

 We are heading back through what we all call "Sherwood Forest" It is actually a very sandy wash with low hanging ironwood and palo verde trees that it make at times feel like we are driving through tunnels

 We had to take our rigid whip off the back of the ATV as it really hits these trees hard and it damages it. We have bought a flexible whip that Doug is out at the RV park right this minute installing. He went out to the park today to do an oil change, put the whip on and secure his tie downs in the cargo trailer so we can haul the ATV to other trail heads.

 We are nearly home at this point and it was a wonderful day and a spectacular ride. We have started a tradition of all of us going out for dinner after our ride. We figure we can work our way through a number of restaurants by the end of the winter season!

 I have Doug busy starting to get my outdoor Christmas decorations together. He was grumbling and saying "bah humbug"

 I am just starting the decorating. I figure it will take us till next weekend to get it all done. Doug's motto is "I'm retired, what's the rush!" I figure the polar bear under the palm tree is a good one

 This is my old dining room furniture and it just didn't turn my crank plus it only had 4 chairs and I wanted six, so I convinced my thrifty husband we needed new furniture. I went on Craig's list and found us a wonderful dining set from an estate sale so this one is off to the Thrift store in a couple of days!

 This is my new set, a big improvement eh? I love it!

Doug can't say I am a big spender - I bought this 7 ft artificial tree that is pre-lit at a garage sale for $5!! The lady had only used it one season then moved to a smaller house and it was now too big. I decided to put it up right away to make sure all the lights worked. They did! I brought my Christmas decorations down to Arizona with us this year so it was great to be able to use them again after 3 years.

Well that's all the news for now - more coming later in the week. We have a new mattress and box spring being  delivered tomorrow and then I can get the spare bedroom all made up, we are going on our ride to Box canyon on Wednesday and I am having my shrubs, lemon tree and 2 palms delivered and planted on Friday. A busy week coming up but what's new!

We've been in Apache Junction a week already!

Hi everyone,
We can't believe we have been here a week already. Boy does time fly when you are having fun! Our trip down was lovely - the weather was beautiful the whole way and the roads excellent. We definitely enjoyed driving in the truck verses the motor home towing the car. It was so nice to be able to drive into any gas station and not worry about if there was enough room to get in and out again! The truck ran like a charm and the gas  mileage we got was way better than we expected!

 Last look at Brown's Bay before we left. Doug took this picture a couple of days before we left when he was out fishing with the neighbour Terry

 The Coho ferry coming into the dock in Victoria. Our ride over to Port Angeles and the start of our trip south

 Our last look at Victoria harbour as we begin our trip

 The old blue bridge across the Gorge in Victoria, span open to let larger ships through

 We are just leaving the harbour and heading into open sea. Ogden Point

 We are now in Washington, heading out the highway to Olympia. The fall colours were beautiful as was the day!

 We are in southern Idaho, about an hour from the Nevada border. Luckily the snow was just on the ground and not the road! It was about -6 degrees and a bit on the chilly side, although I must say it was beautiful knowing we would soon be in a warm climate!

 The next morning, we are now in Nevada and have climbed over the Sierra Nevada's and are down in the valley heading towards Las Vegas

 I love this open country of blue skies, scrub and beautiful mountains

 Doug enjoying this easy driving and beautiful views

 Lunch break at Paranagut Nature Preserve just south of Ash Springs Nevada. I made lunch each morning before we left our motel so we could stop and enjoy the outdoors for lunch. It wasn't quite warm enough to take our sweaters off because of the breeze but wonderful none the less!

 This is how we spend our breaks! We have a beautiful view of our favorite mountains - The Superstitions and we have quail, bunnies and a mirage of birds to entertain all the time

 I was a little worried last spring when the landscape fellow pruned our orange trees as he cut them back so far but we sure have some beautiful big oranges to look forward to in a month or two!

Doug setting up our Canadian satellite dish - now that was fun! We ended up walking around our park looking for another Canadian who had a Star Choice dish and seeing how they had it set. Once we did that, Doug had it angled and working within 2 minutes

 

 I always tell Doug a house is perfect when we buy it and then I make him a "honey-do-list" This was first on the list!! Put new taps in for me. What a job that was. It took Doug all day and were his joints ever sore the next day. The pipes were so corroded due to the hard water that it took him forever to get all the pipes apart as we have a drinking water system, garburator etc all under the sink.

 The end result was worth it though - at least for me!

 The next day we were out to the Arizonian Resort - this was the resort we spent last winter at when we were in the motor home. We stored our cargo trailer with our ATV out there in a friend's site. Didn't cost us anything that way. We had to move it over to the storage area as Mike and his wife were arriving any day now. Doug wanted to get the ATV going so we could go on a ride later in the week.

 Doug in the trailer getting the ATV running after a summer of sitting in the trailer

 He finally got it going and out of the trailer.

 Just looking out at those mountains made me want to get into the ATV and ride. We love it!

 Everything was perfect with the ATV and trailer so Doug was happy!

 Back home and I had to start some painting! The house had just been totally painted inside just before we bought it but the majority of the living space was off-white and I wanted a bit of colour. I just did these walls as I want to wait a bit and see if I like it. So far so good!

 When we are sitting out on the patio having coffee, the quail are usually around. They are such a funny bird to watch. You have to look closely to see this one right at the back of the picture beyond the white pipe.

 Wednesday November 15th we went for our first day ride. Our friends Trent and Ann from Minnesota and new friends Dale and Molly from Lethbridge, Alberta went with us. It was a gorgeous day, don't be fooled by how we are dressed. We need to wear long sleeves to protect ourselves from the cactus and brush that grows close to the trails and also it protects us from getting sunburned. Such a problem eh?

 I have to get those goggles right so I don't get any dust in my eyes. They had a really dry summer and hardly any rain this August/September which is usually their monsoon months so everything is tinder dry out in the desert. They say the cacti flowers won't be as abundant this spring because the cacti rely on the early fall rains to determine whether they flower or not!

 We are heading off into the desert. Ann & Trent are leading and we take up the rear as Dale and Molly are newbies to ATVing 

 Bathroom break and discussion as to which way next!

 Of course the women have to have a chat before we can head on again

 Just love those saguaros and all the different shapes they come in

 It is amazing how well everything grows even though it is so dry out there

 I get to drive a bit as Doug's arthritis in his wrists causes them to ache after awhile. I'll take any opportunity to drive. This was an old saloon restuarant in the desert that is now abandoned. We pulled our chairs out and had our lunch here.

We ended the day getting together in Apache Junction for dinner. Such fun, I love this lifestyle! I am sure everyone slept well last night after all that sun and fresh air. We are planning a longer trip next week to Montana mountain so I'll post more pictures after that. Doug is off to the Arizonian RV park today to help Trent get the lapidary shop set up for the winter. Then it will be working on rocks again. Doug is looking forward to that. I get to stay at home to wait for the pest control people to come and spray both our place and the neighbor's to prevent scorpions coming in your house. We just learned about this the other day. The neighbor is away now visiting her daughter and asked me if I would pay the pest people when they come today and then told us why. For $30 I figure it is worth it! It is a gorgeous sunny day so I think I will take my book and go out on the patio and read for awhile