motorhomediaries

In the center of town is the very prominent and aptly named Black Mountain.  There is a very popular, and populated, hiking trail up Black Mountain that is only 2.2 miles round trip.  That is very misleading, and we fell for it.  The fact is that it's 1.1 miles straight the hell  UP, 1000 feet in one frikking mile.  And then, of course, that makes is 1000 feet straight DOWN 1.1 miles.  I'm good at up, so I didn't have any problem with that.  Heck, my asthma didn't even act up.  Mark is good at down, so he left me in the dust.  Rocks easy enough to scramble up over, aren't so easy to climb down from with these little short legs.  Tough hike.  Considering we'd done 7.5 miles two days earlier, with some good elevations, we both felt this one.   The cool thing was the families, including tweens and teens, that were on this trail.  BUT, when you get to the topm its all worth it.  And there's a letterbox there.  Woohoo, a prize for getting to the top.

The view from the top.  The valley is a little hazy today.  Apparently you can see Scottsdale on a clear day.  The photo on the left, there is a house on the cliff.  I'd hate to drive that every day. 

We rode into Scottsdale today, on a letterboxing hunt.  7 for 7, woohoo.  Probably one of the most successful days in a long time.  We stayed to backroads, and saw some cools things.  Like malls and chain restaurants and traffic.  AAAAAAAAAAAA.  Traffic.  So, this weekend is a big golf tourney down here and there were road blockages and closures.  We decided we didn't want to go stay in Phoenix for the next part of the trip here.  We're staying Cave Creek.  Oh. we may drive in to civilization next week, but Cave Creek has everything we need for right now.  If I were going to live here, I'd live in in Cave Creek.  That said, the housing prices are not that different from the SF Bay Area.  Expensive area.  But fabulous.  Lots of hiking for the weekend and the week to come.  And two stables who offer sunset trail rides.  We might do that.  We'll also look into the Packers and Steelers Bars for the Superbowl. 

One of the reasons Mark wanted to ome to Cave Creek was because of a landmark restaurant called El Encanto.  Considering the town has only been encorporated since 1986, there are a lot of restaurants that have been here for 30+ years.  This is one of them.  We'll hit the others in due time.  We had dinner here on Date-Night Friday.  Lovely place.  The restaurant is built around a pond populated by a herd of very amusing ducks.   They give out duck food to the kids, who in turn spend the waiting time feeding ducks and thus are out of the way, entertained, and fairly quiet.  VERRRRRY popular with both locals and tourists.  Perhaps Friday night isn't the best date-night in a place like this.  Anyway, we had to wait for a table.  Filed in the time with a truely marginal margarita.  But we were able to eat outside, pond-side, with a nice heater table-side.  Food is good.  Not really spicy, but some good flavors.  The menu is a little chicken centric and I never order chicken out....mostly don't even like chicken unless its me smoking it --- in the smoker, I mean.  So I had to order off the menu.  Mark had chicken mole.  He likes chicken and he loves mole.  Not like the Oaxacan place in San Jose, but decent mole.  We need to find us some Oaxacan restaurant.  But I digress.

Bogart needs a more recent vet's cert that she is 1) who she says she is, and 2) she's healthy, before we can take her to the border.  More recent than the one we got last July.  I think its can be no older that 60 days.  Anyway, avian vets aren't easy too find.  We found one in Cave Creek, just north of Phoenix.  When Mark was spending the better park of every week in the Phoneix area, he came up to Cave Creeek to a renowned Mexican Restaurant here, and wanted to bring me.  So, with two reasons to be in Cave Creek, I figured we'd stay a couple of days in the Cave Creek Regional Park and gthen move down to Phoenix for a couple of weeks.  Letterboxes abound in Phoenix, and its been a while since we've been in a boxing area.  We miss it.   The we get to the Cave Creek Regional Park and ..... well, let's just say that this is our new favorite place.  What a fabulous campground.  I mean, there is nothing wrong with this place, except that its a max 14 day stay.  First of all, you feel like  you're all alone, the sites are so spread out, and  then there are 13 miles of planned hiking trails within the park boundaries.  That's not including the miles of trails that hook up inside the park and go to outside areas.  And that's just walking distance, we can drive to miles more of trails.  Oh heaven.  We may not make it to Phoenix after all.  Oh, we'll take the bike and go boxing in the greater Phoenix area.  But why would we trade this paradise for urban?  Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale/Chandler is a 30 minute ride from here.  And the town of Cave Creek?  I could live here.  This is just darling!

It was really interesting hiking today.  According to the trailmap, the combination of trails came to about 7.5 miles.  Some good elevations and great views.  After spending the better part of 2 months in the Mohave desert area, we are now in the Sonoran desert.  What a difference.   The Mohave is rock and sand, with a smattering of plantlife.  The Sonoran desert teems with plantlife. Oh, and some awesome rocks, but its so green compared to the Mohave. 

 Highway 93 from Laughlin to Phoenix is a great road.  A road less traveled, often only 2 lanes, but boy!  Is it in great shape.  We could have made it all the way in one day, but we don't have to so why push it?  We stopped at Burro Creek BLM campground for the night and wished we had time to spend several days here.  Definately a place to return to.  All dry camping, but we can do that for a few days.  But we have a vet's appointment for tomorrow in Cave Creek so we're only at the BLM for 1 night.  I highly recommend this place to anyone who might be passing through this area.

The view from our campsite at Burro Creek BLM Campground.  Lovely place.  Perfect weather. We WILL return here for an extended stay.  Anyone with an RV, camper, or tent oughta stay here.  Several pull through sites for ease.

We enjoyed Laughlin a lot more then we thought we would.  Having the NRA right there plus the river bend park, was an unexpected bonus.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time along the beautiful Colorado River.  Its nice havig both a nice beach AND a pool right across the street.  And being able to walk over and listen to music and dance - a different band each week - and the easy access to a variety of restaurants.  Yeah, it was all good.  We do not gamble at all, so the only money we left behind was for food and drink.  And a lot of entertainment.    Thanks Laughlin, and the Mohave Indian Tribe, for your hospitality.

The beach and pool area at the Avi resort 

In the south end of Lake Mead NRA is the 16 mile long Lake Mohave, with Nevada on one side of it and Arizona on the other.  We hiked both sides this week.  Both hikes brought us to coves of the same name:  Telephone Cove AZ and Telephone Cove NV.  No clue as to why they're called that.  As Telephone Cove AZ has a north and south cove, Mark figured maybe from the air it looks like a telephone?  So he looked it up on google earth, and no, that's not it.  So still no clue.  Anyway, both have lovely, secluded beaches right on the lake.  We had lunch one day on the AZ beach and lunch one day on the NV beach.  No clue to the length f hike on the AZ side.  We skirted the toll both to the park and snuck in the back way.  It was an easy hike, bringing us to the abandoned Katherine Gold mine, and then Telephone Cove for lunch.  I'd say, maybe 6 miles?  The trail on the other side is actually on the map and is listed as being 5 miles each way.  We parked the motorcycle at the mouth of the trailhead.  As we parked and got our gear out, a ranger came by to see if anything was wrong.  We said no, we were hiking down to the lake.  He just looked at us like we were from outer space, asked us if we had water and left us.... obviously thinking we were nuts. 

The NV side wins for beauty, and for level of difficulty.  Its was pretty much all downhill to the lake, which means, of course, it was all uphill back to the motorcycle. 

I've always loved the song Route 66.  I have several versions of it.  Yesterday, we were on route 66 from Bullhead City, through Oatman (neither of which are in the song...probably some rhyming issue) to Kingman AZ.  Oatman, AZ is billed as a historic mining town, a ghost town, and one of the last remaining old west towns.  The only things keeping it from BEING a ghost town is 1) Route 66 goes right through the block long downtown and there are always people driving the road, especially bikers, 2) there are some dining and drinking establishments for a rest along the road, especially for bikers, and 3) the wild burros.  Bikers are attracted to the road and the bars, families are there for the burros.  Apparently there are a couple of dude ranches and hoseback riding there in the "season".  This isn't the "season".  Although we probably could book a trail ride, I saw the horses there.  But the burros are everywhere.  Obstructing traffic, accosting tourists, and wandering in and out of gift and craft shops.  We were there for the road, and we're bikers.  And we stopped for lunch at the Historic Oatman Hotel.  I mention "historic" to my European friends and they always laugh.  "Historic", in this sense is 1902.  That's not very long ago.  I digress.  We ate in the bar because we do that, and there are no children allowed in the bar.  That's how we roll.   There were several mines in and around the Oatman area, which is gorgeous in a rock and mountain sense, that pumped up about $300,000,000 in gold for about 30 years.  The town has been used in several westerns, and Clark Gable and Carole Lumbard spent their honeymoon in the Oatman Hotel.  Frankly, I didn't even know Clark and Carole were married. 

We had lunch in the bar of the historic Oatman hotel.  The restaurant was packed with families.  The bar was lively, there we two seats, the service was good and the fare was pretty darn good.   

Leaving Oatman.  Route 66 was absolutely fantastic.  The views spectacular.  And there was practically no-one else on the road so we could just cruise along and enjoy.   Kingman had nothing to recommend itself, except that its in a song.  I couldn't even find anything to take a picture of.  But the road?  Rocked!  Why do I love Arizona?  The fikkin' rocks!Oh, and the whole no helmut law thing; that rocks too.

 We stopped at an overlook between Oatman and Kingman.  The photo on the left is my snookienookums looking handsome on the BMW.  The photo on the left is the valley looking back toward Laughlin.  If you look closely, you can see the casinos in the distance.  Awesome view.

 Amazing sandstone hills contrasting with the iron mountains.  

 The south end of Lake Mead National Recreational Area is minutes from here.  Who knew.  And the hiking is awesome. 

On the AZ side of the river is Davis Damn, behind which is Lake Mohave.  I never knew thre were two lakes in the the Lake Mead NRA.  Lake Mohave is lovely.  The areas around it are wonderful for hiking.  We visited this side on the motorcycle and will be back for hiking this week.

We did hike the Nevada side of South LM NRA.  Grapevine Canyon, a loose comglomeration of "trails" skirting around Spirit Mountain.  The Yumut Indians, now the Mohave Indians, on who's land we're staying, considered this sacred ground, and beleived their gods lived on Spirit Mountain.  This are is amazing.  And one of the best maintained collection of petroglyphs I've ever seen .... considered one of the largest preserved collections in the Southwest.  I tell ya, some of these things are really way up there on the rock face.  Mark said they musta been real tall of had good ladders.  Ha!  We did about 8 miles RT back to the very end of the canyon.  At the end, we coulda climbed the rock face of the waterfal and kept going but we weren't sure of the time, or how long it would take us to get back.  With the height of the mountains around here, sunset is real early and darkness falls quickly.

Petroglyphs

I'm not sure its in the cards, this trip, to see the north end of Lake Mead NRA, where  Lake Mead actually is.  That's just east of Las Vegas, and we're still vascillating whether we're going to make a quick trip up that way, or start heading south toward Tucson.  We have a week to decide that.  Based on what I see here, though , this is one beautiful park.  We'll bak back to several other hiking areas this week.  With yet more pictures of rocks.

We went hiking today.  Between where we are and the metropolis of Laughlin, is the River Bend State Park.  The park itself is pretty small and admits to only having a 4-mile loop down to the river and back.  BUT, across the "highway" is open land, hills, and quasi trails.  Most of the trails are jeep trails, but there are washes and what is referred to on Atlas Quest as "Social Trails".   Miles and miles and miles of open land.  Ups and downs and overs.  Absolute heaven.

We followed a couple of jeep trails up into the mountains.  The kind of trail that you don't realize how much altitude you've covered until you turn around.  Some great views.   When we hit a point, and turned around, and said OK we've gone far enough for today, we decided to return via this wash with just simply amazing rock formations all around us.  That was great until we came to the end of this particular wash .... a dry waterfall about 40 feet up from where we needed to be.  No, we didn't jump or climb down the waterfall, it was roo smooth, but we did find another path leading further uphill, then down hill.  More like rock climbing down than hiking.  But it was fun, nobody fell, and a little more of a challenge than some stupid trail.  After a couple of deadends, we actually did end up in the right area and made it out of the canyon withou mishap.  I know, Marilyn will be saying "you shoulda had a map, little people".  Yeah yeah yeah.

Wow.  Happy New Year.  It's 2011.  I can't believe that.  I remember thinking, when I was a kid, how old I'd be when the year 2000 came around, and wondering what (being a sci-fi nut) the 21st century would hold.  Well, now it's into the sencond decade of the 21st century.  I find it interesting that so many of the things, technologically, predicted by sci-fi writers about the 21st century have never come to pass, and how many even cooler things have.  Writers fore-saw video phones, and yes, there's skype, but no-one fore-saw cell phones, and text messaging, and social netwroking and that people would sit in the same room and text each other rather than speak to each other.  That was a recent news article, that people are typing not talking.  Sad really.  But, actually I've always preferred to use email than a telephone.  I hate telephones.  And, although I have skype on two of the three computers, have I ever used it?  Once I think.

I digress.  We've been techologically challenged lately.  So things are behind.  Happy New Years from Laughlin Nevada.  We haven't moved far from Lake Havasu, and we're still on the Colorado River.  Neither of us gamble, so you ask: Why are we in Laughlin?  The mountains here are fabulous, the river is beautiful, and there's a lot to do in a town of casinos and night clubs.  We're staying at the Avi Resort and Casino, a few miles south of Laughlin, right on the river and on the Mojave Indian Reservation.  There is hiking along the river, at the River Bend State Park, and slightly north in the Lake Mead Recreation area.    And there are some great motorcycle roads around here.  And dancing.  The Avi has a club with an Oldies Band in it and we are looking forward to doing some dancing. 

This weekend, in Laughlin, there was the Chillin' on the River car show, which we hit on Saturday, and the regional and state Chili cookoff championships, which we went to Sunday.    

The Riverside Hotel was the first hotel built in Laughlin, by Don Laughlin.  Its still has the biggest fooprint in town, is quite nice inside, and hosts the Regional Car Club's annual events.   I don't consider myself  a car guy.  I like certain cars, and hotrods top that.  I've mentioned before that I built model cars as a kid, and the Beatik Bandit was my altime favorite.  But I love rods in general, and going to a "classic" car or hotrod show, to me, is a perfect source of entertainment.  This was a nice show.  Some really cherry cars. 

After a few hours wandering among these beauties, we weren't ready to move on to anything else.  The Laughlin casino, thankfully, is home to a rather nice car museum.  Nothing like the Reno Museum (which is home to my beloved Beatnick) but it is respectable, and better .... its FREE.   

The Chili Cook-off is held at the Golden Nugget each year.  The Regional cook-off is on Saturday, which we missed.  The State competition is on Sunday, which we attended.  This was a kicker deal.  For $2 you get a tasting kit.  At other cook-offs we've been to, that means you get to taste 2, maybe 3 or 4 entries, and then you havta buy more tickets.  This one?  One tasting kit, 40 cookoff entires.  I can't tell you how full I was.  We stasted some really good chilis, some incredibly bad chilis, and some so-so chilis.   Both red and green varieties.  The reds, overall, were much better than the greens.  None of the pork was tender enough, but as the contestants pointed out, they only had 3 hours to cook it and there is no way you're going to get pork tender enough in 3 hours.  None of the entrants we tasted were as good as mine.  But, some very complex and flavorful reds.  Interesting that the beef choices varied from hamburger to tri-tip.  There were a couple of teams from Canada, several from Texas, a lot from California, and a few from Nevada.  Several of these teams were on competition circuits, not just for chili.  One couple we talked to planned to hit the BBQ circuit this spring.  I watch these competitions on the Food Network occassionally, but being there and talking to the competitors is a lot more fun.  We found them very friendly, forthright, and enjoyed conversing about flavors, foods, and techniques. 

Overall, we had some good chili.  But I can't say we had any great chili.  The reds, overall, were better than the greens.  And there was some good flavors.   Winning this competition moves them onto larger competitions.  I'd say they would all be in trouble in larget competitions.  Many had won regionals before, according to the trophies and ribbons at many of the booths.