Friday February 21, 2014 Bagdad area AZ.
Some local Dudes make my day and the police stop me too
This morning I was camped at Burro Creek, near the end of the road. It was cold when I woke, so I stayed in bed longer. I finally reached over and uncovered my propane heater and got it going and took it easy in the sack for a bit longer until it was just a bit warmer and got up and slowly got it all going for the day. I wasn’t in a hurry so I took my time puttering around looking at maps and stuff.
The plan was to go back down Burro creek road, the one I’m on and turn left when I hit road 93, which I think is also called Burro Creek Road that comes in from S. R. 93 and is the easiest way to get back to this spot, as I soon found out.
Anyway, I broke camp sometime after ten and went out through the gate and headed down the road. When I got to the tee I turned to the left, towards Bagdad, thinking it would be a well graded road. Wrong. :O)
Right away the road got a bit rough and I could tell this was a not maintained road, so I engaged the four wheel drive and put it in low range.
This is the start of the not maintained road.
I meet these Dudes
I was four wheeling up a sandy wash, avoiding rocks, left and right and noticed some guys coming down the wash a few hundred yards (meters) ahead, winding in and out of the boulders.
They pulled right up to me and surrounded me. Wow. :O) One of the first things one of them says is, that’s the best tricked out van I’ve ever seen. Ok, I’m safe. :O) They didn’t really scare me they were all smiling so much. They had all kinds of questions about the van and we shot the bull for a bit. They were a bunch of guys from Bagdad, headed for Burro Creek to go for a swim. They told me where their swimming hole was, a place I was, but missed the water. I asked about internet access in Bagdad and one of them suggested the diner, which I did use to post earlier and will use to post this one too, likely.
Anyway, these were some of the jolly-est dudes I’ve run into. They reminded me of my old times running around with the guys just doing stuff and having a great time on our wheels.
At the last minute I told them about my blog and said I should get a picture, but, just act natural, I don’t like posed pictures. I was so busy just getting the picture, I didn’t see any of what they were doing, just clicked a couple times.
We parted wishing each other a great day, smiles all around. :O)
Now that I’ve had a chance to really look at this photo, I’ve got a big smile on my face again. :O)
Thanks guys, it was great meeting you.
Back on the road to Bagdad
Just after leaving those guys, the road turned a bit rockier, obviously this was not a real main road, but still, no problem for the old van, so I continued.
A lot of the road was wash sandy type road, you know, sandy and a little soft in some places, but not too bad. No wash board.
I was cruising along and came upon this trailer parked in the road? Some guys came out from the right and said they’d move it in a bit, they were just checking the camp space out. Note that this is the seven mile marker, coming in from the Bagdad road side. Graded but sandy, not everyone would want to bring their fifth wheel in here this far. Oh yeah, the trailer came in from the way it was pointing, not the way I just came in from, that would of put everything in their trailer on the floor and then some. :O)
The Bagdad incident
When I came off that road, I did a left on 97 and then another left onto 96, I think it was and headed for the town of Bagdad, still a few miles up the road, paved all the way.
I entered Bagdad and saw the dinner just behind those trees in the right of the photo below and pulled on in and checked for open Wi-Fi signals. The dinner signal was open, but weak, I’d forgotten to put the receiver outside the window so it would work better.
I was thinking I should go try the library and just then saw some fire guys walking around the local fire truck in the parking lot, so went over and asked where the library was? They said, follow us, we are going right by it, so I did. I saw a lady standing around outside the library, so I asked if I could get on the internet? No, the library is closed today. Is there any other place in town where I can? No. Ok, see ya and I went on back to the diner and put my receiver outside the van and hooked right up to the internet and did my blog posts. Great.
Entering downtown Bagdad.
After posting my blog I decided to look around town a bit, going up one road and finding mine stuff and turning around and going down another road and finding more mine stuff. I returned to town and got gas and did some shopping at the local grocery. Then I headed out one more road, the one the fire guys took me out and it went to a mine where I turned around again and passed a police car at a stop sign not too far from where I turned around. Bad feeling here, the guy wasn’t there a bit ago? I continued on down towards town being careful about my speed limit and sure enough, he stays behind me while other cars go around and soon there are two of them back there. Darn to to say the least. As far as I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. :O)
Blue and Red Lights
They pulled me over and one of the guys gets out and asks me if I knew what I had done wrong? No, as far as I knew, I had done nothing wrong.
He says, well, do you know that all of Bagdad is private property, the mine owns it all? I say, no I didn’t.
He says, well, I noticed you driving around town in circles and being this is a small town and I know all the cars in it, you stand out. I said I was exploring and that’s what one does.
Let me see your license and do you mind if we search your van. Well, this is too much? Search for doing nothing wrong? I say no search being as I’m a United States citizen and I haven’t anything to hide anyway.
He says, well, how about just open the door and let us have a look around? I say, well ok, as I’m not looking for any trouble and I sorta understand these guy’s small town type action, even if I don’t agree with it.
So he asks me to step out of my van and open the side doors so he could check it out, which I did.
In the mean time I started chatting with the other police guy about where to camp and where was the road I was looking for that went back into the national forest, North out of here. I got a lot of information while the other guy was checking out my kitchen stuff and my van interior design.
I guess he was happy with things as when he came out, he offered, a not so well known place to camp, just outside of town, which was nice of him. I told them I think I’d rather head up to the forest and explore around a bit, so said my good byes and headed back up the road we’d just come down, headed north into the mountains.
One nice thing about my police encounter, now they know my van and I can pretty much go about my business in Bagdad from now on. :O)
Headed into the mountains
This was the first place I stopped after my police encounter. As you can see I’m headed into the mountains. The road is called CR 68 and heads away from Bagdad.
The game guy
Quite a few four wheeler type vehicles passed me going out the road that I let pass me by and I was wondering where they were going? I thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone and see how far some camp spots might be. So, when a guy comes down the road in a truck, I pull over and stop and get out and put my hubs in for four wheel drive and then cross the road and wait for him. The road is narrow and one has to pull over for the other guy. Well, when this guy gets close, I can see he is with the Game and fish department, he should know a lot about the area and he did. I talked with him for a bit and then headed out to find a camp spot.
The road was rough in some places. Most of it was on the scenic type stuff.
Rolling along the road up in the hills.
Some parts of the road where in better shape than others. A nice road to jeep on, only a couple of minor rough spots.
Not UFO’s
I should also warn you that a lot of these pictures are taken through the van windshield, which is very appropriate as after all, this it Bob’s Eyes. :O) And sometimes the windshield is dirty from traveling on these types of roads, with bug splatters too. So no, those aren’t unidentified flying objects you are seeing in some photos.
There was some private property up where the road went through and I had to stop and open and close gates. These are times I miss having a navigator.
Eventually, I started to come into some trees, as in pine trees up there in the hills.
More trees, time to find a place to camp for the night.
I wasn’t too picky for a campsite, just about anywhere in the trees away from other people. Most people camping in these types of places know not to camp near anyone else and avoid doing so. One truck started to pull in and saw my van and backed back out. It’s peaceful, but I think it might get a bit cold up here in the pine trees. Too bad those guys backed out, I had some questions for them. :O)
Camp Pine Trees
I soon found a spot that will do for the night.
I set up and took a little walk around the pine forest, not going very far.
Tomorrow’s plans?
I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring? I’m thinking of going back to Bagdad and publish this blog at the diner and then heading down south towards the Date Creek Area to have a look around. But I could look at the maps and continue on out this road. Right now, I’m headed back to Bagdad where I’m so popular. :O) But that could change?
Had a great day. :O)