Earth Module lands at Chochiti Lake

All plans can be changed.  Instead of El Morro we ended up at Chochiti Lake in New Mexico.  Today we hiked in  the Tent Rocks National monument.  At the entrance we managed to engage a Native American employee in a conversation.  The Kadizzlites as usual were in search of little know Indian Ruins.  Quickly our friend explained the local people did not want that going on.  Also he said it was no the time of year when outsiders would be welcomed into the communities because of spring ceremonies.

We had a great discussion about local history and got to hear the native's perception of the Spanish.  He told an interesting story about a rancher in the area who claimed he owned the land via the Spanish.  The religious land owner wanted to sell the land for a nice price. The Native American we spoke with suggested to the man he give the land back to the local native people.  The man has not spoken to him since.

It is always enlightening to hear the other side of the story.  According to our friend at the gate the local tribes were not real happy about the federal government making their sacred land into a tourist destination.  When we hiked through the scenic area there were many signs instructing people to stay on  the trail, and not to climb on anything.  Of course there were young college kids acting as if the signs were not there. You could see why the locals were not happy.

On the trail we met "T"  hiking with his family.  Kadizzle introduced himself as Lord Kadizzle, but "T" kept calling me Mr. Kadizzle.   After The Commander and Kadizzle were seperated on the trail for awhile "T" said " Mrs. Kadizzle is looking for you".  Had to explain to "T" why she was The Commander and not Mrs. Kadizzle.

Earth Module scheduled to go North today.

Unable to sleep Kadizzle is up pecking on the laptop.  Soon the sun will be up and The Commander will rise with it.  Kadizzle has had his coffee, and when The Commander awakes the truck will be hooked to the Earth Module. 

The plan is to head North up to Flagstaff then East.  Perhaps we will spend the night at El Moro.  El Morro is a small park with some very strange inscriptions. 

Explorers and travelers have known of the pool by the great rock for centuries. A valuable water source and resting place, many who passed by inscribed their names and messages in the rock next to petroglyphs left by ancient Puebloans. The ruins of a large pueblo located on top of El Morro were vacated by the time the Spaniards arrived in the late 1500s, and its inhabitants may have moved to the nearby pueblos in Zuni and Acoma. As the American West grew in population, El Morro became a break along the trail for those passing through and a destination for sightseers. As the popularity of the area increased, so did the tradition of carving inscriptions on the rock. To preserve the historical importance of the area and initiate preservation efforts on the old inscriptions, El Morro was established as a national monument by a presidential proclamation on December 8, 1906.

On the way to our next destination which will be a Corp of Engineers reservoir over near Sante Fe the Kadizzlites will enjoy a fine rest at El Morro. 

Camping south of Sedona has been very pleasant.  Mornings start by watching the hot air balloons arrive while we sit with coffee in the sun.  Next a brief motorcycle trip to the model airplane airport to have a chat with the techno nerds.  Finally some hiking or motorcycling, and then back to the module for the afternoon glass of wine, beer, or whiskey.  It is a tough life to give up, but someone has to explore every inch of Arizona, and surrounding states.  The Commander insist that if an Indian ever built an ancient out house we have to find it.

The Adventure Continues

It is not hard to see why the rich flock to Sedona.  The climate is teriffic and the outdoor life could hardly get better.  Yesterday with the Commander,  Kadizzle found an Indian ruin.  When we saw a grainery high in the cliffs we started to investigate and came upon a good ruin.  This morning the Hot air balloons finally landed right in the front yard of our camper.  Today Kadizzle took another motor cycle ride up one of the worst roads known to man.  It was one of those roads where if you stopped you were doomed. 

When  Kadizzle reached the top the view was magnificent.  The Commander was not with Kadizzle, but she would have insisted we drop into Sycamore Canyon and look for Indian sites.  The view of Sycamore Canyon made one realize how much land was really unexplored around here.

On the way down Kadizzle stopped for a rest and saw a four wheel ATV starting up the treacherous climb.  The ATV did not make it any distance at all and chickened out.  Kadizzle realized the foolishness of going up the mountain side by himself after he got to the top.  There were plenty of hazards and things to go wrong, and it was not a good road for a single person to be on.  As Kadizzle went up he realized he was on another one of those dare to be stupid jaunts.  This was another ride likely to cause a mechanical disaster.  It was another ride where nothing but another motorcycle of a helicopter could get to you.  A mechanical problem would mean the cycle would have to be taken out in pieces.  This recently happened to a friend.  He had to pay someone 300 bucks to go get his cycle with a jeep.

The model airplane airport about half mile away is also good entertainment in the morning.  One gentleman Kadizzle has got to know flys a glider.   The glider gets to altitude with an electric motor and then for hours he just sits and flys the the thermals. It looks like so much fun Kadizzle is very tempted to buy one.

Searching for Tim's Cave

Off the highway where the hot air balloons land the Earth Module has come to rest.  Down the road about six miles are the two main Indian Ruins everyone and their grandmother visit when they come to Sedona.

Prior to our arrival the Kadizzlites attended a lecture on Tim's Cave.  Tim is dead, but his brother Andy gave the talk.  The story is long and convoluted, but Kadizzle will try to condense it.  Tim had cystic fibrosis.  Tim died at age 24, but before he died, Tim developed a love for Indian ruins, and culture.  Alex was eight years younger, and his brother Tim was his hero.

In 1991 someone gave Andy the gift of a helicopter ride in the Sedona area.  Five people went on the ride and all the occupants did not know each other.  Since the ride was primarily for Andy the helicopter flew over the Indian sites Tim loved.  As the helicopter was running out of the paid time,  Alex agreed to pay for 15 minutes more air time.

As the helicopter came around the bend near the red rock cliffs the sun was just right so everyone in the Helicopter could see into a cave.  The cave was in a very unreachable location.  In the cave in clear view were three very large pots, and two baskets.  Alex stood on the outside of the helicopter and got a good picture of the cave contents.

Immediately the people on the helicopter reported the find to the USFS.  However, before the Forest Service got to the cave in nine days someone had stolen a basket that was in the cave.  Withing 17 days before the contents were removed someone stole a large pot.  The total value of the cave contents could have been a half million dollars.

In honor of Alex's brother the Cave was named Tim's Cave.  Quickly the FBI was on the case and the person who stole the artifacts was in danger of being caught.  Whoever took the artifacts had to have been tipped off by one of the people on the helicopter ride.  Kadizzles suspects Alex knows who the culprit was but did not say probably for fear of getting sued.  However, someone in the audience blurted out the name.  The stolen pots were returned anonymously through the Hopi Indians and the person was never charged.  Kadizzle suspects it was someone with money and connections who was able to avoid prosecution.

There are more twist and turns to this story and you can get the full story on line.  Yesterday the Kadizzlites set out to find Tim's Cave.  Remarkably the people at the major Indian sites knew nothing about this important find with the exception of one.  It turned out the cave was not where Alex seemed to describe it.  Alex may have been deliberately misleading people to protect the cave.  Also if someone in the audience had shouted out during the lecture " That is not where it is", that person would have given away the fact they may have been in on the robbery.

If you want to see the actual pots in the cave you will have to google image for Tim's Cave.  The pictures cannot be copied. 

Zombies in the forest.

About two weeks ago Lord Kadizzle took a motorcycle ride up a very remote road and finally reached a point where the road was so bad even a motorcycle could not make it.  In a burst of common sense Kadizzle went back. However, the ride did result in the discovery of a trail head.

Yesterday, Kadizzle and The Commander set out to make the hike up 2000 ft in about a mile an a half.  To get started we had to find the trail. By mistake we wandered up the road where Kadizzle had been stymied with the motorcycle.  Six miles into the wilderness a card table was set up where Kadizzle had turned two weeks earlier.  On the card table was a very strange collection.  There were brand new Zombie books for sale,  and the table was covered with a strange assortment of dice.  Additionally there was some pellets that turned out to be Chinese tea, or perhaps something that could be smoked in a bong, who knows.

As we approached what seemed to be the strangest garage sale on Earth the nice bearded fellow in the green shirt wished us a happy St. Patrick's Day.   Quickly we explained the greeting was perfect since we were Quinn's from Ireland.  After some brief chit chat Lord Kadizzle asked about the garage sale.  It was not a garage sale, it was a book signing and none other than Mike Griffiths the famous Zombie book author was there to sell and sign books.  As a special St. Patrick's day promotion we could have a beer and get our picture taken with Mike signing one of his books.  However, lacking $13 the beer stayed in the cooler, and the book on the table.

Mike said sales were good.  A person had accidentally come up the road earlier on an ATV and bought a book.  Six miles away on the paved road it might have been wise to post a sign "Zombie book signing today".   The sign should have given instructions " Just drive until  you are forced to stop, then walk".

Doing research for this story Kadizzle found out Zombies like fresh human flesh.  After visiting the camp of the dead deep in the forest The Commander and Lord Kadizzle set off up the mountain.  The thought of returning to the Zombie camp after the hike for a cold beer was tempting, but it seemed ill mannered to partake of the beer without buying a book, so Kadizzle and The Commander left without proper goodbyes.  Now it all has become clear.  The Zombies knew the size of Lord Kadizzle and how long it would take to cook a lumper of his mass.  If they waited until he came back down the mountain he would be half cooked.  The research also indicated the guy in the green - yellow shirt was Kurt Grabow the famous large format photographer.  Of course if they were going to cook Kadizzle and do an article for The Splendid Zombie Table they would need a large format camera.

Two thousand feet above the Zombie camp Kadizzle smelled the bacon he had seen Mike putting over the fire.  With just a small twist of fate another hiker could easily have smelled the bacon from Kadizzle.  The author explained to Kadizzle earlier that the very camp they were sitting in was part a novel he had written.  After our close call we both realize these are not novels he is selling but historical accounts of hikers they have ensnared. 

Dare to be stupid

Today Lord Kadizzle took the mother of all motorcycle rides with his brother in law Ned.  North of Roosevelt Lake we headed deep into the wilderness.  This in and of itself may not have been brilliant, but as we went further and further into the heart of no where Kadizzle began to realize he was playing a classic round of dare to be stupid.

Kadizzle's motorcycle had suffered a set back two days earlier.  After assembling and dissembling the carburetor three times, Kadizzle finally figured out what the problem was with the carburetor.  The float was broken.  With some of the most ingenious repair ever thought of by man Kadizzle sutured the carburetor back together with wire and it actually worked.  Well, it worked almost the way it should.

Now, Kadizzle is busting into the middle of no where with a motorcycle that may quit or fail to perform adequately.  This could have several results.  The motorcycle and Kadizzle may end up 15 miles into the most inaccessible part of AZ in a hundred miles stranded for the night while Ned goes for help.  The motorcycle may stall out going up a 45 degree boulder strewn road.

As we get farther and farther into no where we begin to realize we may be lost.  We may be lost even with a topo map and a GPS.   Some of the roads we are on are not on the map.  We might know exactly where we are, but we have no way of contacting anyone or getting out.

The good news is we are in some very nice country.  We are getting to see sights few people ever do, but will we ever get out and report our adventure.   Near the end of the ride we do have cell service and Kadizzle leaves a message for The Commander that we will be back late or perhaps never.

After 27 miles of the worst roads on the planet that looked like something from the Mexican death drive, we made it back to the place we started.  The Commander returned from her hike with the pick up and took us back to camp.  We won this round of dare to be stupid, and Kadizzle does not need to play again for some time.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, would you, could you be my neighbor?

It is a beautiful day in the campground.  The sun is shining, in the distance snow is on the mountains, and it is warm enough to sit here with the door open.  Humans are strange.  Humans that live out in the open become friends much more quickly than those cooped up in their compounds.  When you wake up on a sailboat and peak your head out to see your neighbor ten feet away it is far different from living in an urban house with a wall around it.  When you live in a camper and wake up to see people outside all around you, it is a different more friendly world.  People walk over and talk, people stroll by and say hello.   If you act like you have a mechanical problem with your RV or truck men will show up instantly to talk and help.  If someone notices you have a problem they are instantly willing to help.

In the old days people used to live in houses that invited guest.  Houses had front porches and sidewalks in front.  As people went by you talked and interacted as you sat on your porch.  Those days are gone and most of us live in isolation.  A great virtue of living the RV life is all the wonderful, crazy, and interesting people you meet.  Pull into a campground, and you will have ten new friends by the time you leave.  Some of these people will be friends for years, and you will often see them down the road.  Humans are tribal by nature,  and part of human nature is to cooperate and get along.  The way we live today destroys our good instincts.  Now we wall ourselves off, we invent ways to keep from interacting, and we ignore those around us with problems.  If you want to go back to the time when people interacted on the plaza go on the road, hike, camp, move among people that live outdoors.  Your life will be richer, your days will be brighter, your knowledge will increase, your mind will expand.

More rain in the Desert.

Rain in the desert is different from rain on the prairie where we live. Although one would think the sandy porous desert would soak up rain, it really doesn't seem to work that way. In no time water starts running everywhere. One thing you realize quickly in the desert is what a sudden rain can do.  Rain can start rocks falling, rain can make most country roads impassible.

One danger in the desert is rains that occur miles away. You can be in the sunshine miles away from a storm, but if you are in a canyon,  or a stream, water may suddenly rush upon you, and you have a real problem.

Yesterday as we drove back from Payson to Lake Roosevelt in a downpour you could see how each stream reacted differently.  One stream would be dry, and the next a quarter mile away would be a raging torrent.  If a stream stretched up towards the mountains and had already been saturated with snow melt it ran full.  If the stream was short with a small drainage it stayed dry. 

If mother nature sticks to the plan and warms things up the desert should bloom. Hopefully we will get to see some spectacular flowers.  On the other hand the rain probably woke up all the rattlesnakes.  This will make hiking a much more tense endeavor.  The Indians say that about a week or so after the lizards start to run about the rattlesnakes show up.  A rattlesnake that has not eaten for all winter may be in a bad mood.

Pouring Rain in the Desert

A tiny leak in the Earth Module is driving The Commander wild.  The window needs a little caulking.  The monsoon has hit and it may rain an inch.  Hopefully the net result will be blooming flowers everywhere in a few days.  Rain dramatically changes so much in the desert.  All the stream come alive.

Yesterday we were way up in a mountain valley.  The road we were on was exactly like some of those Mexican death roads you see on travel shows.  The road was chiseled out of a shear cliff.  Today the road would be suicide.  Rocks will be rolling down everywhere. 

On our trip yesterday we noticed one lonely camper in the mountain valley where we started our Devil's Chasm hike.  If the poor guy did not get out yesterday he will probably not get out for some time.  Rock slides will surely block the road today.

Pissing Off the Cowboys

Kadizzle and The Commander had a great day up Cherry Creek.  The Commander has been requesting for two years we visit Pottery Point.  With the Yamaha loaded on the Toyota we blasted our way to the water crossing at Cherry Creek.  We unloaded the motorcycle and headed to Pottery Point. After finding some nice pottery shards we went on up onto the treacherous road and saw some incredible scenery one would never think existed in Arizona.

On the way back some cowboys were moving cattle. Trying to be good motorcycle people we stopped so as not to spook the cattle.  The Commander got off and approached the cowboy, no doubt to inquire about the universe, but The Commander ended up sending the cattle back down the road.  The other cowboy was up on the hill trying to get one stray back in the herd.  The  fellow on the hill apparently thought his partner was inept because he could not see what caused the problem.  Some terse words were heard.  Eventually the cowboys got things under control and we could pass.

Who was after these people?

Devil's Chasm is aptly named. If you make it to the Indian ruin and back the devil will be in your joints, your back, and the soles of your feet. With Ruth and Rodger the Kadizzlites headed up the ravine. The group reassured themselves the hike was not that far and could not be that hard, but when you gain 1,000 feet per mile that changes everything.

As you go farther and farther up the steep sided canyon more and more you begin to wonder why anyone would chose to live here. The only logical conclusion Kadizzle can come up with is someone or something was after these people. There is speculation all the Indians of the southwest were under siege by something and moved into very defensive positions. The Devil's Chasm site certainly lends credence to that idea. Anyone who attempted to attack the Indians that built this site would have a very nasty battle on their hands. One of the first major obstacles is a very large boulder that blocks the entire bottom of the canyon. The only way past the boulder is to go through a hole that just barely accommodates Kadizzle. One Indian on the upper side could defeat an army on the lower side. As each enemy came through the hole it would be a simple matter of bopping him on the head with and Indian bopper.

To get to the Indian bopper hole you must use a rope.  The picture features The Commander climbing up to the Indian booper hole.   About two hundred yards after the first obstacle you encounter another waterfall.  Again you must rope your way up.  The pools in this canyon are among the most spectacular you will see in all the southwest.  The hike would be worth the effort just for the water features.

After some more climbing you can finally see the ruin.  As always the last part of the climb is straight up.  A serious danger in this part of the climb come from rocks above. If the person above dislodges a boulder and it rolls down the trail you may become history.  Last year a boulder came rolling down at Kadizzle and almost required a change of underwear.  The was about the size of a large truck tire and flew through the air about three feet in front of his lordship.

Finally at the ruin site you have to wonder " What in the hell were these people thinking?".   Who would make this insane climb and the build a dwelling on the edge of a cliff?

At the site the view was incredible.  The gang spent some time examining the ruins then headed back. 

 

Update

Ruth and Rodger have joined the Kadizzles at Roosevelt Lake.  The net result has been some serious hiking and exploring.  Today we went to a town called Young.  Young can be reached from our current camp site by going through the absolute middle of no where for about 75 miles.  On the back from young we revisited a waterfall we found last year.  Since boulders had fallen onto the road in many places the driving was tricky.  About a six hundred pound boulder appeared to block the road, but we managed to squeeze by it.  This was one of those mountain roads where if you go over the edge you are dead meat.

The gang thought we knew where to find an Indian site, but everyone was too tired from the day before to make the climb.  Yesterday we did an eight mile hike.  Yesterday's hike started at a hippie compound way up in another part of no where.  We drove eight miles up a dry creek bed until we got to the start of the trail.  At the beginning of the trail was Peter Bigfoots  ranch.  Peter Bigfoot teaches the old hippie skills from the sixties.  The Commander engaged Peter in conversation and found out our daughter's friend had stayed there for a couple years.

The Reavis Gap hike went through some nice terrain and followed some good creeks with running water.  Rodger and Kadizzle used our new filter to replenish Kadizzles water supply.  The cold water was tasty after the long hike.

Tomorrow the gang will attempt to find a very nice set of Indian ruins at Devil's Chasm.  It will be another hard eight mile hike.  To even get to the hike we will have to drive 23 miles on terrible roads. As a back up we will take the cycle.