4 Wheeling Fun

Three day in a row of 4 wheel drive trails! This is a busy group! Tuesday we took the trip to Chloride for more mines and the Chloride murals. Chloride is another mining ghost town, where people still actually live. It's very different from the tacky, touristy Oatman--lots of old, boarded-up buildings, a post office, market, and a couple of little gift shops--not a T shirt shop in sight. Very low-key and friendly, though--if you wanted to visit the museum when it was closed, you could pick up the key at the gift shop and let yourself in! We had lunch at the excellent Yesterday's Restaurant. Everything was fresh and good. My patty melt was on marbled rye and came with a side of sweet potato fries--yum! The murals are up a primitive dirt road a couple of miles out of town. They were painted in the 60's by a local artist named Roy Purcell, and freshened up with new paint a few years ago. They are bright and wonderful, and appear to be a mixture of Indian, Eastern, and New Age symbols, as well as visions of whatever he was tripping on at the time. He supposedly has a great website with photos of all the murals, and some descriptions. Try Googling Roy Purcell and see what comes up.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove a route in Hualapai Mountain Park. We climbed from Kingman (about 4000 feet elevation) to the top of the range at 7100 feet. The route wove around the mountains, up high. You can see our route on some of the photos. Some of the time we were right on the ridge, and could look down into a valley on either side. The views were gorgeous. On the way down, we stopped for a peek at the Borianna Mine, which operated between 1914 and 1957. It was a tungsten mine, and closed when the mill burned down and the reduced need for tungsten didn't make it worth rebuilding. Fires at mine structures were apparently very common. Mills and other structures were mostly made of wood; the fires in the smelters were going 24 hours a day, and so fire danger was exceedingly high.

The photo of all the Jeeps (plus our Samurai) lined up was taken at the Hualapai Ranger Station where we all stopped to "air down." "Air down" means that you let a lot of air out of your tires in preparation for rough, rocky 4 WD drive roads. It makes the going much less bumpy, and I think helps in climbing over rocks and ledges. Once you're finished with the trail, you stop and "air up"--put all the air back in the tires so you can drive on the pavement. We have a cute little air compressor and pump for this that attaches to the engine battery somehow. I'm a bit foggy on the technical side of things, but it works.

Today is a rest day. This is a busy group, and the trails are long--every day has been 7 or 8 hours on the trail. There is a hike (optional) in the Hualapai mountains scheduled for today, but Steve and I will pass. I'm heading off for a Quilters and Crafters meeting from 10 a.m. till noon. There'll be time after that to take the dogs for a good, long off-leash walk before heading to Thanksgiving Dinner with our group at the DamBar Steakhouse.