Post by LarryS on Nov 16, 2013 11:07:27 GMT -5
Headed out to Last Chance Canyon for 2 days of camping and hounding. Read on the news that all this week was supposed to be an unusual meteor fireball show. Huh, only saw 2. But it doesn’t take much of an excuse to get me out into the desert. We took along our off-road Teardrop trailer that Diane and I built from the ground up 15 years ago. We designed it to tow off-road behind a Jeep and will go anywhere the Jeep goes. Wanted to explore some of my favorite sites but kept Goober locked up inside the Teardrop because the hike would be too rough on him. He was upset! You should hear the unearthly noises he makes when I walk off without him! After I got back, I set up my spotting scope and started looking around the vast number of hills. Found some rock with color way off at a distance. That’s how I scheduled my next day of hounding. Diane & Goober went to bed early at 6:00pm. I planned staying up to the wee hours of the morning hanging out next to the campfire and watch the meteor show.
At 7:00pm noticed movement behind the Teardrop’s kitchen. I left the hatch open, which I normally close at night for reasons soon to follow. A gray fox was making himself at home around our campsite. He was standing behind the kitchen looking up at the counter top. He could smell food. I fed him a ton of ham, 2 hard-boiled eggs, and pieces of beef jerky to lure him in closer. He came within 10’ of me and don’t think it would have taken much more bait to get him into my lap and doing tricks! I’ve had a past encounter with one that sat right next to me, just like a dog. Freaked me out and almost had to change my shorts! What’s interesting about gray foxes is they are very common in the Mojave Desert and they generally don’t come out until later in the evening. And they are the only fox that has retractable claws. We read that they can climb trees just like a cat and we saw this in person during past trips. One trip we saw a family of 4 gray foxes climbing together up a pinyon pine tree just like tree squirrels! I’ve seen dozens of smaller Kit foxes but they generally keep their distance. They're really tiny but with huge ears. Gray’s are crazy! This guy obviously has had encounters with campers before and wasn’t afraid of people. This area is popular with ATV'ers and has many toy hauler/RV campsites. I went to bed at 10:00pm and woke up at 3:00am. Yep, he was waiting for me. I relit the campfire and enjoyed his company. He entertained me until 6:00am at sunrise. Goober was sleeping so heavy, he didn't have a clue what was going on just feet from him, thank God! Teardrop's insulated walls and tinted windows helped. When Goober got up, he went nuts smelling every step the fox made, knowing he was there. All day long he traced the foxes steps. Hum, not a cat, not a dog? What was it? I had to dump Goober’s water bowl out for obvious reasons and poured it onto a creosote bush. Put out a new bowl for him and will sterilize the one the fox used. Just the slight scent of the fox’s saliva made Goober go nuts with that bush!
Check out that fir coat & tail. I love these animals. I had my digital camera set on nighttime shooting and the IR sensor & flash didn’t bother him. Nor did the regular flashlight. He probably had his photo taken before and wasn’t camera shy.
I headed off hiking into a new location. Found an area loaded with tons of jack rabbit trails. All had fresh tracks and there was highways going around bushes. Rabbit droppings everywhere. Lots of bobcat tracks. If you were surviving, this would be the perfect place to set snares.
Poor bunny. I've been to many high desert mountain ranges where they have big kitty tracks, aka mountain lion, cougar, puma. I often feel like this item in the picture and if I don't keep alert, I can end up looking like this!
Found lots of unusual rocks. Some are kind of like Lavic yellow jasper but some had white stringers, globs of white or opaque material. Some with different interior colors. Some had dendritic markings. Really liked the variety and took samples of each variety. Will slab/cab and see how they polish. If they turn out good, I'll be back!
I was starting to get dizzy from constantly bending over and picking up rocks. Both days I forgot my glasses in the Jeep and I paid the price. Standing up, I miss some of the details in the rocks, all too fuzzy. Then I noticed my spit had bubbles in it. Yep, time to set down and drink some water. But here's an example of the yellow jasper with white stringers. Ignore the white bubbles on the right. I was foaming at the mouth caused from dehydration!
Check out this pack rat nest. My Treasure Scoop is 40" long. May not be a pack rat. Might be a new species of desert beaver! Nest was huge. Glad I had my 45 auto to protect myself from him!
While sitting on my lap, Goober took his self portrait. He's such a ham. Here he was jamming to the tunes on our hand crank & solar cell survival radio. He soon forgave me for leaving him behind during my hounding hikes. Unconditional love.
And of course yours truly. My back was killing me. Someday I'll remember to bring my glasses so I can tell the difference between rocks. Sucks getting old!
We are pleased with the large variety of jasp/ag. Only collected the sizes that will fit in my saw. Going to be fun to see how they come out.
We discussed the idea of staying a 3rd day. Had enough food/water for a couple weeks! But I used up all the firewood on the first night because the fox kept me up most of the night. So we packed up and headed home. BTW, they're finally widening highway 395 between Kramer Junction and Adelanto, near Victorville. Going to be 4 lanes. You wouldn't believe what us tax payers are paying for. The CA environmental tree hugger turtle lover freaks is having the contractor install a 1' high chicken wire fence on both sides of the highway! There's a steel fence post about every 10'. Wouldn't surprise me they install signs at intersections stating "Warning Tortoise Crossing." The Indians use to eat the tortoise. There's probably more today than there ever was. But they claim they're endangered, another excuse to close off huge portions of the desert. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't know someone who had one in their backyard as pets. In my home area, we have an endangered kangaroo rat. Don't know how life would be if we were ever to loose those!
Just as the sun was setting, we were heading south on highway 395 between Kramer Junction and Adelanto and I noticed the left tire on the Teardrop was bulging on the pavement, showing it's raised white letters. These are the same tires that are on the Jeep, BFG All Terrain 5 ply cord, 3 ply sidewalls. Kick butt tires and have used them for 40 years without failure. I pulled over and checked it out. Figured I could make it another 15-20 miles to a tire store, if I could ever find one out there! 5 minutes later it blew. It's so much fun pulling a tire off on the narrow shoulder with no room to work because of the construction going on. Semi's were flying by at 65mph just 5' from me in the pitch dark! Told Diane to harness up Goober and get out in the desert. Ended up finding a tire store on east Palmdale Avenue in Victorville that was ready to close in 30 minutes with a ton of people there. I practically got on my knees and begged for a tire and they took care of us. Had to buy a over priced "Sure Pop" automotive tire but got us going. Then had to go back hoping the Teardrop was still there. Had lots of expensive items inside, including a collector's edition Colt 45 semi auto. Fortunately I installed a rare & unique off road trailer hitch called a Max Coupler where it would make it difficult to steal the trailer. I welded on a 2"x 4' female receiver tube on the trailer as a tongue. How do you couple two female receivers together? With one of these swivel hitches. It rotates 360 degrees, pivots up and down about 240 degrees. Unlike a regular ball hitch, it won't jam when driving steep angles while 4 wheeling. I bent the original 2" ball hitch I originally installed, not to mention bending the 2000# axle. Installed a electric brake 3500# axle, gas shocks, etc so I can continue driving airborne and slamming down. Diane won't let me drive like that anymore. She keeps me under control, most of the time.
As far as the predicted meteor show? Wasn't long ago that the astronomers thought the world was flat. We still had a fantastic time out there. Just waiting for the next silly excuse to head out.
At 7:00pm noticed movement behind the Teardrop’s kitchen. I left the hatch open, which I normally close at night for reasons soon to follow. A gray fox was making himself at home around our campsite. He was standing behind the kitchen looking up at the counter top. He could smell food. I fed him a ton of ham, 2 hard-boiled eggs, and pieces of beef jerky to lure him in closer. He came within 10’ of me and don’t think it would have taken much more bait to get him into my lap and doing tricks! I’ve had a past encounter with one that sat right next to me, just like a dog. Freaked me out and almost had to change my shorts! What’s interesting about gray foxes is they are very common in the Mojave Desert and they generally don’t come out until later in the evening. And they are the only fox that has retractable claws. We read that they can climb trees just like a cat and we saw this in person during past trips. One trip we saw a family of 4 gray foxes climbing together up a pinyon pine tree just like tree squirrels! I’ve seen dozens of smaller Kit foxes but they generally keep their distance. They're really tiny but with huge ears. Gray’s are crazy! This guy obviously has had encounters with campers before and wasn’t afraid of people. This area is popular with ATV'ers and has many toy hauler/RV campsites. I went to bed at 10:00pm and woke up at 3:00am. Yep, he was waiting for me. I relit the campfire and enjoyed his company. He entertained me until 6:00am at sunrise. Goober was sleeping so heavy, he didn't have a clue what was going on just feet from him, thank God! Teardrop's insulated walls and tinted windows helped. When Goober got up, he went nuts smelling every step the fox made, knowing he was there. All day long he traced the foxes steps. Hum, not a cat, not a dog? What was it? I had to dump Goober’s water bowl out for obvious reasons and poured it onto a creosote bush. Put out a new bowl for him and will sterilize the one the fox used. Just the slight scent of the fox’s saliva made Goober go nuts with that bush!
Check out that fir coat & tail. I love these animals. I had my digital camera set on nighttime shooting and the IR sensor & flash didn’t bother him. Nor did the regular flashlight. He probably had his photo taken before and wasn’t camera shy.
I headed off hiking into a new location. Found an area loaded with tons of jack rabbit trails. All had fresh tracks and there was highways going around bushes. Rabbit droppings everywhere. Lots of bobcat tracks. If you were surviving, this would be the perfect place to set snares.
Poor bunny. I've been to many high desert mountain ranges where they have big kitty tracks, aka mountain lion, cougar, puma. I often feel like this item in the picture and if I don't keep alert, I can end up looking like this!
Found lots of unusual rocks. Some are kind of like Lavic yellow jasper but some had white stringers, globs of white or opaque material. Some with different interior colors. Some had dendritic markings. Really liked the variety and took samples of each variety. Will slab/cab and see how they polish. If they turn out good, I'll be back!
I was starting to get dizzy from constantly bending over and picking up rocks. Both days I forgot my glasses in the Jeep and I paid the price. Standing up, I miss some of the details in the rocks, all too fuzzy. Then I noticed my spit had bubbles in it. Yep, time to set down and drink some water. But here's an example of the yellow jasper with white stringers. Ignore the white bubbles on the right. I was foaming at the mouth caused from dehydration!
Check out this pack rat nest. My Treasure Scoop is 40" long. May not be a pack rat. Might be a new species of desert beaver! Nest was huge. Glad I had my 45 auto to protect myself from him!
While sitting on my lap, Goober took his self portrait. He's such a ham. Here he was jamming to the tunes on our hand crank & solar cell survival radio. He soon forgave me for leaving him behind during my hounding hikes. Unconditional love.
And of course yours truly. My back was killing me. Someday I'll remember to bring my glasses so I can tell the difference between rocks. Sucks getting old!
We are pleased with the large variety of jasp/ag. Only collected the sizes that will fit in my saw. Going to be fun to see how they come out.
We discussed the idea of staying a 3rd day. Had enough food/water for a couple weeks! But I used up all the firewood on the first night because the fox kept me up most of the night. So we packed up and headed home. BTW, they're finally widening highway 395 between Kramer Junction and Adelanto, near Victorville. Going to be 4 lanes. You wouldn't believe what us tax payers are paying for. The CA environmental tree hugger turtle lover freaks is having the contractor install a 1' high chicken wire fence on both sides of the highway! There's a steel fence post about every 10'. Wouldn't surprise me they install signs at intersections stating "Warning Tortoise Crossing." The Indians use to eat the tortoise. There's probably more today than there ever was. But they claim they're endangered, another excuse to close off huge portions of the desert. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't know someone who had one in their backyard as pets. In my home area, we have an endangered kangaroo rat. Don't know how life would be if we were ever to loose those!
Just as the sun was setting, we were heading south on highway 395 between Kramer Junction and Adelanto and I noticed the left tire on the Teardrop was bulging on the pavement, showing it's raised white letters. These are the same tires that are on the Jeep, BFG All Terrain 5 ply cord, 3 ply sidewalls. Kick butt tires and have used them for 40 years without failure. I pulled over and checked it out. Figured I could make it another 15-20 miles to a tire store, if I could ever find one out there! 5 minutes later it blew. It's so much fun pulling a tire off on the narrow shoulder with no room to work because of the construction going on. Semi's were flying by at 65mph just 5' from me in the pitch dark! Told Diane to harness up Goober and get out in the desert. Ended up finding a tire store on east Palmdale Avenue in Victorville that was ready to close in 30 minutes with a ton of people there. I practically got on my knees and begged for a tire and they took care of us. Had to buy a over priced "Sure Pop" automotive tire but got us going. Then had to go back hoping the Teardrop was still there. Had lots of expensive items inside, including a collector's edition Colt 45 semi auto. Fortunately I installed a rare & unique off road trailer hitch called a Max Coupler where it would make it difficult to steal the trailer. I welded on a 2"x 4' female receiver tube on the trailer as a tongue. How do you couple two female receivers together? With one of these swivel hitches. It rotates 360 degrees, pivots up and down about 240 degrees. Unlike a regular ball hitch, it won't jam when driving steep angles while 4 wheeling. I bent the original 2" ball hitch I originally installed, not to mention bending the 2000# axle. Installed a electric brake 3500# axle, gas shocks, etc so I can continue driving airborne and slamming down. Diane won't let me drive like that anymore. She keeps me under control, most of the time.
As far as the predicted meteor show? Wasn't long ago that the astronomers thought the world was flat. We still had a fantastic time out there. Just waiting for the next silly excuse to head out.