Hiking with the Usual Suspects to the Stone Cabin

Camp Counselor Kathy announced last night at the Usual Suspects Happy Hour that we were going to take a desert hike today to while away some time as we waited for Tony and Dee Dee to arrive at Boomerville.  Promptly at 10am, as soon as our generator was finished its morning charge, we ventured next door and picked up those friends who were interested in the hike.  George and Nan had other things to do, But Dick, Gaila, Mike and Judy were all game.  So off, eastward, into the desert foothills of the Plomosa Mountains we hiked.  Down wash and up flats, in and out of the cholla and saguaros we tramped.

Kathy had it in her mind that she would find us the gravestone of Elizabeth M. Mullen, which we had discovered on the same hike we did with other Boomers a year ago, described in our blog entry for that hike.  Our group stood in respectful silence for a few moments before passing on up sloping flats:

The entire area is littered with beautiful quartz stones that have washed down from the nearby mountains.  David happened to spot a huge, squarish quartz rock that had sheared along two parallel planes to make three bookend-type pieces.  However, as Mike pointed out, it was levitrite ("leave it, right?") and, dutifully following the "Lucy" rule, David left the beautiful stones to decorate the desert where he found them:

We also ran across a chubby little barrel cactus, just peeking out of the cobble bed of the wash.  From the perspective of our approach, it looked almost perfectly spherical, and stood out with its gorgeous scarlet hues against the green-and-grey desert background:

Our merry band trekked onward, up into the hills, passing several intriguing cairns, to the petroglyph rocks pictured in our blog entry from a year ago, and on up to the BLM road that would take us to the stone cabin.  We paused for a group photo as we waited for a 4-wheeler to pass:

Soon after this, as we neared the "Spanish Wall," also discussed in our earlier blog entry, Mike and Judy decided to head back to camp while the rest of us hiked on up to the Stone Cabin (Gaila snapped this shot):

Just as we neared the top of the grade where the Stone Cabin sits, we ran into George, who had decided to join some mountain bikers on an outing up to the same area we were hiking.  Here is George as he welcomes Kathy to his biking domain:

George was biking with other Boomers, and one of them, Connie Farley, took a great selfie of the bikers and hikers together, to memorialize this historic encounter:

Reaching the Stone Cabin, Gaila, Dick and we rested, rehydrated and ate some snacks, pausing, of course, for the obligatory selfy:

David poked around a bit while the others snacked, and found this very recently constructed mining claim marker.  By its markings, it denotes the corner of four claim sections.

The view west from the Stone Cabin shows a panorama of the valley below, dotted with thousands of RV's boondocking in the desert in anticipation of the big RV tent show which starts this Saturday:

We decided it was time to head back to Boomerville, but not before Gaila noticed a pretty little cholla forest off the road.  We felt they were so cute, they had to grace the end of this blog entry.

And so it is the end of this blog entry.  And, in honor of A. A. Milne, whose birthday it is today (according to our sister-in-law Risa), just as Christopher Robin and Pooh discussed at the end of one of their journeys, we contemplated moving on:

Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's paw. "Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I - if I'm not quite --" he stopped and tried again - "Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?"

"Understand what?"

"Oh, nothing." He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!"

"Where?" said Pooh.

"Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.