Jeeping with Eric and Ginny

Hi Blog!

We've left the wide open spaces of Wikieup behind up. For the next week, we will be camped at the SARA Park Rodeo Grounds in Lake Havasu, Arizona. We are here to experience the 30th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show. The annual convention features two parts. First, the students get to set off the fireworks they learned to pack -- always exciting because you never know what you'll see. Second, the professional companies put on a show to highlight their latest and greatest creations so they can market them to their customers. Together, it makes for a full evening of explosive fun!

We like to arrive early so we can get set up before the crowds pour in. This gives us a few days to explore the area. We arrived on Monday, February 11, 2019, just in time to celebrate our friend Leslie's birthday with a great meal at College Street Brewhouse. On Tuesday, Leslie and Dave went off to explore pickleball courts and line dancing, while Eric and Ginny went with us to explore the Mohave Wash Trail. Here's our trailhead photo:

The Mohave Wash Trail is a 34 mile lollipop which starts in the Standard Wash right off U.S. Highway 95 south of Lake Havasu. The first eight miles or so criss-cross through Standard Wash and lead to a couple of old mine sites. 

In pursuit of the mines, we went off our route and did a little side trip along Dutch Flat Road. Trust us when we say that there is nothing flat about Dutch Flat Road. We would have loved to include a photo or two, but we needed both hands to hold on! Once we made it back to the wash, we got out and stretched our legs. Nothing says you are a Jeeper like stopping to take pictures of your Jeep!

After a short stop, it was back on the "road" again. In order to get from Standard Wash over to Middle Mohave Wash, we had to climb through some low hills. This afforded us some great wide open views of the surrounding mountains. If you click this link you can see a 360-degree view from the high point of our drive.

As we got out to take in the views, we noticed that the ocotillo in this area had already started to bloom.

We stopped at the entrance road to Middle Mohave Wash to have our picnic lunch. A few ATV Razors sped by, but other than the lizards, we had the trailhead to ourselves. Eric's off road GPS will show multiple waypoints and allow him to track a route that shows as a blue line. Kathy's hiker GPS will also show our track as a blue line on a topographic map.  So if we get lost, we can always follow one of those blue lines back to the trailhead. This helps us feel secure that we won't get too lost.

Here Dave gets ready to read off the next set of waypoints while enjoying his turkey sandwich.

While the boys plotted our course, Ginny and Kathy wandered about taking photos. It didn't take us long to spot the mistletoe! Did you know there are over 1,000 different types of mistletoe? The type we use at Christmas has the nice, broad leaves and pretty white berries. Desert mistletoe looks like a bunch of dead sticks with red berries. There are not many trees in the desert, so a mistletoe has to make due with a bush. However, mistletoe is mistletoe. Time to kneel down and pucker up, boys!

Having satisfied our hunger (Was it for food, or love, or both?  Only we know.), it was time to get back on track.

Wait! Which way are we going?

We had one more hill to climb before coming back down into Middle Mohave Wash. Here's a peek from whence we came.

The Middle Mohave Wash empties out into a broad basin. Our route took us "upstream" to where Middle Mohave Wash meets up with West Mohave Wash.

The further up we go, the closer the sides of the wash get. This is a favorite route for the ATVs and Rzrs. Their small wide tires spin very fast, and so they leave a lot of washboarding in their wake. Jeeps are not as flexible as ATVs. While a Rzr has very flexible, independent crawling suspension and, due to its lightness, can skim across the tops of the ruts, a Jeep tends to waddle back and forth. Eric caught some of our waddling with his dash cam. Click the link to watch us rockin' and rollin' in the Mohave Wash.

As we entered one canyon of Middle Mohave Wash, we encountered this tree standing as sentinel and asking for our border crossing papers:

We made a short stop at an old cattle station and water pump, but there wasn't much to it, so we kept going. We had to drive through a very rocky section to get from Middle Mohave Wash over to West Mohave Wash. Once we climbed over the roughest part, Kathy insisted on getting out to see if any of the rocks wanted to come home with her.

West Mohave Wash had a few more twists and turns than Middle Mohave, but by this time in the drive, we were feeling pretty good. We kept finding the waypoints and making the correct turns.

However, there were certainly surprises, such as this fellow standing in the road.  Perhaps he was hitchhiking, or perhaps he was just watching the passing traffic.  As with all good adventures, you just never know what you'll find.

Before long, we were back in the Standard Wash and driving back toward the trailhead.

Kathy took her turn driving and raced Eric back to the trailhead.  Kathy sped ahead down the main wash, while Eric appeared to lose ground on a side channel to our left.  We were going to fast, we lost track of Eric and Ginny behind us, so we slowed down to let them catch up -- when, just ahead of us, they came whipping back onto the wash in front of us from our RIGHT side!  How did they do that????  Grinning, Eric explained that they crossed behind us and found a shorter route to pass us unseen.  Guess they won fair-and-square.

You'll be happy to know we both made it back to camp in time for Happy Hour!

Thanks Eric and Ginny for joining us on this Jeep adventure.