Hillbilly Gold Mining?

Two of our fellow workampers went up to an old gold mine and got a chance to meet the caretaker.   The caretaker gave them some rocks that he was fairly confident had gold in them.  All you have to do is crush them and pan the crushed gravel for the gold.  Jim had also met the caretaker and actually seen him crush rock and pan out the gold.   We are trying to put together a mining display for the visitor center.  We thought some crushed rock and maybe a little sparkle of gold in an old gold pan would look cool in the display.  So Jim and Bruce, the other guy in the picture, took a post hole digger pounder and used it to crush some rock.  They crushed several nice rocks and we panned them out but no gold just some flour gold that wouldn't get a bee's belly yellow.

Jim had to take a picture of the duck towards the back of the picture.  The two black ducks with the white beaks are Coot.  The other two we discovered are American Widgeons.  We've never seen this kind of duck before.  They came down for the winter.  We get lots of different kinds of migrating ducks and birds and its interesting to try and figure out what they are. 

   

Coyote

Coyotes are all over the place around here.  If you don't see or hear them you certainly see their scat (animal poop).   Most are small and almost look like grey foxes.  Life is tough in the desert so the larger predators tend to be smaller than the ones you find in the northern states. 

We are having a quiet Christmas -- making a turkey and some pecan pie from the fresh pecans I got this spring when we were in New Mexico.  This friday is a full moon and myself and another volunteer are going to guide a full moon hike.  We have 20 people coming out to the refuge to do the moonlight walk.  It's our most popular hike -- always full with a waiting list.  I'm hoping all goes well.  We just walk up a dry wash and talk about the moon and the animals that are out in the desert at night.  We spend a little time looking in a cave (just in the entrance) for evidence of bats and birds and scorpions.  Luckily at this time of year the scorpions and snakes, for that matter, aren't out -- it's too cold.

Wild Horses

 

We were driving north on Highway 95 toward Quartzsite and saw wild horses close to the side of the road.  There is about a three mile corridor where there is some grass growing close to the road and thats where they were grazing.  It seems odd to find wild horses roaming around in such a deserty area.  Horses and burros were left behind in the area during the old mining days.  They have survived and as far as the burros are concerned they have thrived.  The Bureau of Land Management did a burro round up last April.  They rounded up over 400 burros from the area.  The burros are put up for adoption.  They say that there are still over 800 burros roaming free.  There are not as many wild horses.  I have not heard how many horses they think are roaming free.

 

We went to Quartzsite to work on the gold claims.  Our gold club memebership ends at the end of the month so we wanted to work one of the claims at least one more time.  We brought back a 5 gallon bucket of dirt and and so far no gold but we aren't to the bottom yet.  We bought a $25 bag of dirt that is guaranteed to have gold in it.  We wanted to test our gold wheel machine to make sure it works.  We ran the bag of dirt through it and we found lots of tiny gold.  Yes, the machine works so now we know we just haven't found any gold on our own with it.   

Desert Life

Jim rinsed the dust off the roof of the RV so he could spray and mop rubber roof treatment over it.  All of the water around the rig attracted wildlife such as this lizard.  This one was pretty good size, harmless, just looking for a drink.  The only poisonous reptile around is the Gila Monster.   The desert may look desolate but there is a lot of life out there.  It is also very beautiful in a different way from the blues and greens up north.   

This is the start of our 5th winter in a desert area and we really have learned to love the desert.  It is so nice to get up everyday and its sunny, warm and dry.  The temperature has stayed in the high 70's, low 80's and up until a day or two ago was only going down to the 50's at night.  Now it is starting to get a little colder at night -- into the low 40's. 

I took the plunge and went to the dentist in Mexico.  It was a very good experience.  All the latest equipment, very nice waiting area , I saw the instuments taken out of their sterile packaging.  So I had a crown done.  The cost was $250 and its porcelain and matches my other teeth perfectly so I can't complain.

River Queen Boat Tour

The volunteers and some of the refuge staff get to go on an annual commercial boat tour as part of our welcome, orientation, and to show how much we are appreciated.  This year we went on the River Queen Historic Boat Tour.  The boat as seen "docked" in the picture is a jet boat and only needs 8 inches of water.  The tour operator and his mate can dock the boat in the narrowest openings of the weeds along the river.  Here we docked and walked up to an old miners cabin.  We also docked and walked back to where there were petroglyphs and a backwater lake (pond). 

The Colorado River is a ribbon of blue with narrow strips of green along the water's edge.  Down here there are mountains on both sides of the river and it makes it very picturesque.  The river is so winding that even though we were only 20 some miles from Yuma we were almost 60 water miles from town.   The river is low this time of year with lots of sandbars.  If you want to navigate the river in a boat you need to zigzag from side to side.  The water on the sides of the river are deeper than the middle.   If you canoe, the middle of the river is your friend because if you tip your canoe all you have to do is stand up.

Rob Roy Mine

Jim had to haul a generator out to the Rob Roy mine on the Kofa Wildlife Refuge.  The maintenance guys from Imperial Wildlife Refuge were out at the mine working on reroofing an old building on the Rob Roy property and the generator they had brought out didn't work.  The Rob Roy mine was recently purchased by the refuge.  They like to keep at least one building in useable condition so that hunters and other guests have a shelter to spend the night in if needed.   The Rob Roy was an old gold mine and has all kinds of old artifacts from busier mining days.  While Jim was there the caretaker took some rock and crushed it and then panned it out and lo and behold there was gold in the pan.   Of course, once the refuge takes full possession no one will be able to do any more mining.  
The former owner of the Rob Roy is 93 years old and still owns the King of Arizona mine which is an active gold mine.   

There is a small cemetary close to the mines that dates from the late 1800's.  Back then there were quite a few miners working these mines and they had their families with them.  There are mounds of rocks defining the graves but only one gravestone that can be read.  The rest of the graves probably had wood markers that are long gone. 

More Kofa Cabins

The other cabins we visited while out in the northern section of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge were these two in the pictures.  The top one is called Hoodoo Cabin and was actually built from a kit in 1940.  It was a line cabin.  Line cabins were used by ranchers when they were so far out from home that they couldn't get back before dark.  They had this cabin to sleep in and cook in.  The left side of the cabin with the rounded roof was a full kitchen.  The other side was the sleeping quarters with a wood stove and in the back was a bathroom with a shower.  There is no water to this cabin now but it can still be used as a place to stay overnight.

The wooden cabin is Wilbanks cabin and is built where the old Wilbanks homestead originally stood.  The Wilbanks family lived out here and raised cattle before the big drought that caused the dust bowl.  It affected land as far west as western Arizona.  Its hard to believe this area ever supported a large ranch full of cattle but it did.  The homestead burnt down killing some family members and the rest of the family moved to "town" after the trajedy.  It takes a few hours even now to get out to these cabins and its hard to believe people lived out here and survived. 

Kofa Cabin

One of the first things we did when we got to the refuge was go out into a remote section with another volunteer couple.  The other couple help maintain the Kofa side of the refuge system while we help maintain the Imperial side.  They invited us along to see the more remote section and help them with a few of their duties.  It was quite a ride out there.  There were two major "rain events" this summer and fall that hit the refuge.  The roads in the refuge were pretty much washed out not being much as far as roads in the first place.  Most roads just follow washes so when the water flows through them they get filled in with sand and gravel or just washed away.  One wash had over 8 feet of water in it during the big rain -- hard to believe when all we've seen is dry, dusty washes that look like they haven't seen any kind of water running through in a century. 

We did a circle tour that is less than 30 miles.  It took us all day to complete.  The road that was there last spring was gone.  We were riding in a 4 wheel drive truck with a small backseat so all four of us could ride together.  We were lucky the guy driving was very good at driving off road.   He took that truck where we didn't even see a road ahead of us just rock and steep, deep cuts.

The first cabin we checked was called Kofa cabin.  Kofa is short for King of Arizona -- the name of a famous mine in the area.  This cabin was built by the CCC back in the 30's and this group of cabin builders consisted of native americans.   The cabin is available to guests to spend the night -- just a shelter, no water, no toilet.  There is a water tank in the yard that is kept full by a windmill and is maintained for the bighorn sheep.  The tank is fenced to keep the burros out.  The refuge doesn't like the burros which are non native leftovers from the mining days.  The burros compete with the desert bighorn sheep for food and territory. 

Sedona

Our next stop on our way south through Arizona was Prescott Valley.  We took a day trip from there and drove over the mountain through a little mining town called Jerome to get to Sedona.  Sedona is known for its beautiful red rocks.  They truly are beautiful from what we could see.  We didn't go to Red Rock State Park or the famous creek where you can slide down the big flat rock like a giant natural water slide.  We did check out all the neat shops and saw all kinds of places where you could buy crystals and have your "aura" checked.  There are many art galleries and tourist shops and interesting places to eat -- all on the spendy side. 

We drove to the Sedona airport to a restaurant that overlooks the runway.  Supposedly you can see lear jets coming in and taking off "part of the rich crowd" that hang out in Sedona but it was pretty quiet when we were there.  Our burgers came with green chili fries -- very good-- not really spicy hot just pieces of green chili battered and fried.  We also saw a restaurant that was serving cactus fries -- maybe next time. 

Prescott (pronounced preskit) and Prescott Valley are popular retirement communities.  The weather year round is pretty nice because the area is at 5000ft.  The drawback to towns that attract retirement crowds -- the roads are busy all the time because no one works.   They are always out shopping and eating.   We did find a forest service recreation area that had gold panning.  We found one little spec after about an hour and a half. 

We have begun our orientation for working at the refuge for the winter and start actual work this first full week of November. 

Petrified Forest National Park

We loved going through the Petrifed Forest.  Its right off of I-40 before you get to Holbrooke.  The Painted desert is on the north side of the freeway and the Petrified Forest is on the south side of the freeway.   Everywhere you look you see beautiful giant pieces of colorful "wood".  It was a whole forest of trees that were buried by a flood and over the eons the wood was replaced by minerals.  All kinds of colorful minerals are in these specimens.  The wood looks like someone came with a chainsaw and cut it up into smaller pieces but it actually broke up naturally and just looks like its been sawed.
We stopped at DoBell Ranch which is next door to the park.  The ranch is privately owned and is full of petrified wood that you can buy for 30 cents a pound.  The national park doesn't allow any collecting so your only choices are to buy it from sellars in town or out at this ranch.  You are welcome at the ranch to go out and pick your own or pick from their piles.  They have a great museum and the granddaughter of the original ranch owner showed us around and was very nice.  There were small pieces of petrified wood everywhere you walked and she kept saying to fill our pockets.  We found a very nice piece (not too big) that we kept as well as a small dinosaur bone and some other free samples of beautiful rocks. 

We left Prescott Valley and stayed in Quartzsite a few days and are now at the refuge for the winter. 

Painted Desert

We left Las Vegas, NM and went through Albuquerque just after the balloon festival so we missed seeing all of the beautiful balloons in the air.  Our next stop was Gallup, NM.  Gallup is one of those cute little Route 66 towns.  Lots and lots of Native American jewelry, art, rugs, etc.  Every shop was full of beautiful stuff.  New Mexico has a law that they have to say in the store if its authentic native american made so if it doesn't say then its not.  What they don't protect you from is whether the stones in the jewelry are genuine turquoise or not so you want to go to reputable stores and if the price is too good to be true then its suspect. 

Our next stop was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  Its two parks in one.  The northern part of the park is the Painted Desert.  It has fabulous vistas of multicolored rock.  It reminded us of the Badlands in South Dakota.  You can actually drive your RV through the park and most of the pullouts for picture taking are big enough for RV's.  Most people drove their rig through but we chose to park the RV in Holbrooke, AZ and drive through with the truck.

We are now sitting in Prescott, AZ enjoying some nice mountain views and enjoying mid 70 degree temps.  

Colorado Springs

We spent a few days in Colorado Springs after quickly going through Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.  We found an old but nice campground east of the city.  We had somewhat of a view of Pikes Peak but there where too many power lines in the way to get any nice pictures of the peak.  We took a ride on the Cog Railway up to the top of the peak.  It was a beautiful day and we go some nice pictures.  We sat across from an elderly couple that were celebrating their honeymoon.  They were a very cute couple.

We also drove through the Garden of the Gods.  The rock formations there are incredible.  I think this one is called "kissing camels".   We spent one of our days in Colorado Springs getting new tires on the truck and found out that the batteries needed replacing as well.   We hit the road again and now are a little north of Santa Fe in a little town called Las Vegas, New Mexico.  We've got two more weeks of traveling before we get to the refuge where we will be parked for the winter. 

Wild River State Park

We hightailed out of Northern Lights Resort -- afraid it was going to snow on us before we got out.  We got out just in time because it did snow up there a few days after we left.  We stayed a couple of nights at Pleasureland RV --- the dealer where we bought our RV.  We had them put another clear coat finish on the exterior of the RV to keep it easy to clean -- and nice and shiny.  Our next major purchase will be new tires for the truck.  The truck has close to 70,000 miles on it -- its just getting broke in -- but with all the driving we've done on gravel roads, etc.  its time for new tires.

We then moved over to Wild River State Park and got one of the last spots available.  I forgot how much Minnesotans like to camp in October to see the changing leaves.  They were beautiful at the park.  We enjoyed seeing beautiful fall colors the whole drive down from the resort.  We were hoping to get to the Black Hills but with the cold weather we are trying to get south faster.  We are stopping in Des Moines and then on to Nebraska and from there maybe Kansas and/or Colorado.  

Fish & Fowl

I had to post one last fish picture for the season.   This was the last nice walleye Jim caught before we pulled the boat out of the water.  I have been fishing off of the dock at the resort when its nice which hasn't been very often lately.  Its been cold, rainy, windy and sleeting off and on for the last several days.   We still have guests going out fishing in all kinds of nasty weather. 

We have this one very pretty Goldeneye duck hanging around our dock.  This duck isn't interested in eating bread like the mallards that hung around most of the summer.  We had left over bird seed from making pine cone bird feeders with the kids so we fed the ducks the seed.  We had everyone feeding the ducks -- adults and kids alike enjoyed it. 

We are pretty much packed up and ready to head out.  Can't wait!

Fog on the Water

The lake water is cooling off fast but the air temp has been dropping faster.  The fog takes awhile to lift in the mornings.  The fishermen pace the dock until they can see far enough to go out fishing.

One of our workamper couples has left and we are glad we will be leaving in two weeks because the cold is coming.  By Tuesday its supposed to only get in thelow 50's with low 30's at night and a very hard freeze coming tomorrow night.  There go all the flowers -- oh well the deer were eating all of the flowers anyway.  We were spraying the flowers with "deer stop" but it wasn't really working. 

We have had the boat winterized and plan to store it up here since we are coming back to work here one more summer.  It will be nice traveling with just the 5th wheel.   

Fall Colors

Fall colors pretty much happened overnight up here.   The colors along the gravel road from the resort out to the blacktop are beautiful.  Looking at the colors along the shoreline from out in the boat is breathtaking.  Its been dry and cool at night so the leaves turned color overnight and then started to fall.  It won't take long and it will be over.  We don't mind though because we can usually follow fall colors as they happen while heading south.  We have been starting to get the resort ready to shut down.  The big water towers that the kids play on came out of the water.  Otherwise, if they stay in too long the muskrats start chewing on the cords holding them in place in the water. 

We are taking our boat out of the water and having it winterized.  We plan to store it up here for the winter.  We can use one of the resort boats if we want to get out on the water.  It will be vey nice traveling south without the boat.    We hope to check out the Black Hills , Wyoming, Utah and then Arizona. 

Orange

The leaves are turning quickly here.  It's been on the dry side so that is causing fall colors to hit a little early.  We were fishing at dawn and it was a brilliant orange sunrise.  Usually if its --- red sky in the morning -- sailor take warning --- and sure enough thunder and lightening came in.  We got off the lake just in time to avoid the lightening. 

The resort business is starting to taper off.  We have one more full house next week and then it will be getting pretty quiet.  It will then be time to start closing down and pulling the docks out of the water.  We are starting to get "road itch".  We are "itching to hit the road" and head south.

Eagle Eyes

Eagles seem to be everywhere these days.  We've seen them in many states and of course its no surprise to find lots of them in Minnesota.  We have watched the nest of eaglets grow up and leave the nest.  They don't get their white feathers until later so you might think they are crows or vultures flying but its immature eagles.  Crows and vultures don't fish for their meals although eagles will eat carion if they get the chance. 

When we clean fish and a walleye is over 17 inches - even by a hair we have to throw them back in the water.  Jim will spend a half  hour trying to revive them so they will swim away.  It doesn't usually work if they have been in a livewell for awhile.  He took one fish out in the boat away from the docks so it wouldn't wash ashore on our beach.  It was probably three minutes after he threw it in the water and started motoring back to the dock when an eagle swooped in and carried the dead walleye away.  It flew right to its nest to feed its young.   

A "House" on the Lake

When Voyagers National Park was formed there were many cabins on the islands that suddenly were now in the park.  The cabin owners had federal leases and when their lease was up or they died they had to give up the cabins.  The owners would strip out and take everything they could and then the park would come in and burn the cabin and any other outbuildings.  Now you can't even tell there ever were cabins on most of the islands.  We found this one cabin on Namakan and saw maybe two others on the whole lake where there used to be many.  There used to be enough cabin owners on islands that there was actually a barge service that would go to the islands and deliver bulky items like big propane tanks or a load of lumber etc.  Now thats all gone.

You can still experience "cabin" life on an island by renting a houseboat.   There are houseboat sites on many of the islands where they can be beached on sand.  There is a fire ring so you can have a campfire on the beach.  A houseboat is nicer than camping on an island in a tent.   You have all the comforts of home - kitchen , bathroom with shower and real beds.   Some of them even have a hot tub on top and a slide off the back to slide down into the water.    

Loony Tunes

Couldn't resist taking pictures of the loon family.  Mrs loon wasn't happy with us getting so close to baby.  We've watched the eaglets fledge and leave their nest.  They hang out along the shore thinking about trying to fish.  An otter brought her two babies to our dock.  They like to swim under the main dock and feast on minnows.  Anyone silly enough to leave a minnow bucket in the water overnight without it being locked tight is in for a surprise in the morning.  The otters can get in them with ease and munch down the whole bucket.  We have also had a beaver that comes in the evening with a branch or two in its mouth and it zips under the main dock with his prize.  We don't know what happens next --- we never see him leave and we don't see a large cache of branches under the dock. 

We also have lots of bats around the resort.  The resort owner has put up several bat houses hoping to entice them to live in them rather than the cabins.  We don't think the bat houses are in the right places because the bats still seem to prefer hanging out around or YIKES in the cabins.  We've had to go in to a cabin or two and capture and "relocate" several bats. 

If you get a chance check out the webcam at the resort.  Type nlro in your web browser and click on the choice that says Webcam- Northern Lights Resort Outfitting and Youth Quest.  It shows a little bit of the dock and some boats and you might get a glimpse of one of us.  We work Fridays and Sundays early and Mondays late.    
 

Hoist Bay

Hoist Bay is in Namakan Lake.  This bay originally had a logging camp on its banks.  It was turned into a resort in the late 30's.  The park service has turned it into a place you can explore, look at the old buidings and have a picnic.  I'm not sure when the resort went out of business but the cabins are still in pretty decent shape.  You can go inside the cabins -- they have been stripped down to the walls.  They have knotty pine covering the walls, ceilings and floors.  They even have electricity that works.  Not sure if the park service is working on doing more to restore them or not.  The other building that looks like an old barn actually was used to store ice that was harvested from the lake in the winter.  The ice was covered with sawdust and stayed frozen for use in the summer.  This building even had a fish cleaning area in the bottom part.   

The other interesting place we found exploring around here was a fallout shelter.  It was built in the ground like a root cellar.  It had a sign over it saying fallout shelter.  You couldn't open the door.  Not sure I really wanted to see what would come flying out of there anyway.  I don't know if it was a joke but the sign looked pretty official --like it truly was a fallout shelter built back in the 50's.  

Ash River

We took a pontoon ride with the other two workamper couples.  We went to the Ash River.  The Ash River dumps into Namakan right at the border between Lake Kabetogama and Namakan.  We used to stay at a campground on the Ash River about twenty years ago.  There are also several resorts and a houseboat rental business on the river.  We stopped at a resort called Ashkanam.  They have a bar and restaurant right on the bank of the river and a nice dock.  

The ride over to the Ash River was a little rough with some pretty good wind but we were fine because we were going with the wind.  We lucked out coming back because the wind had died down by then.  It is a very nice perk to be able to use any of the rental boats when they are not being rented by guests.  We just have to pay for the gas.  Unfortuanately, now our boat is in the shop -- the motor needs work- and all of the resort boats have been rented for the week so no fishing for now.  We are hoping the motor problem is simple and covered by the warranty.   

Ellsworth Sculpture Gardens

We went over to Ellsworth Sculpture Gardens.  It is located on the northside of the lake.  You can only get the the gardens by boat.  The park service has a tour boat that makes a stop here and have a staff person on site to help you understand the work that went into the place.  The gardens were created in the 40's by Mr Ellsworth who loved to carve stone.  He carved many different shapes out of the rocks around his property.   There are rocks that look like animals and others that look like furniture made for the Flintstones.  The flower gardens are not tended anymore so there are few flowers but you can still see where all the flower beds were. 
It is a large area to walk through and the paths go up and down and wind around and at every turn you see something different.  Some of the sculptures are hard to decifer with the weather wearing away at them.  The bugs were bad when we were there so we had to keep moving but it would be nice to go back in the fall and spend more time.

Water Birds

We've been fishing our little hearts out.  Some days we catch a few fish and on the hot days with no wind we cruise the lakes.  We have seen all kinds of wildlife cruising around.  Lots of pelicans but according to the park ranger they don't nest here.  The pelicans that hang around here are immature males not ready to mate yet.  The other ducks we see a lot of are mergansers like the ones on the rock.  We also see a lot of golden eye ducks - they have dark heads with a bright "golden" eye. 

We are enjoying our work.  Saturdays are the toughest day cleaning cabins and sprucing up the grounds but the other three days we work are pretty easy.  We just help folks with their boats and clean fish. 

We saw the northern lights for the first time last night.  We are hoping tonight they will be even better.   They didn't have much color just a light green and only danced a little bit.  The solar flare/sunspot activity isn't at its peak yet so they may get better.each night for a few nights.

Voyager's National Park Campsite

We checked out a few campsites that are on the islands out in Lake Kabetogama.  This one was on one of the Grassy Islands.  It was very nice with a grill, picnic table and food locker (to keep the bears from getting your food) and also a nice tent pad in the grass.  This site was nice because you could sit out on the picnic table and catch a breeze which helps keep the bugs off.   The other thing that most camping sites have is a wilderness toilet.  It's an outhouse without the house.  You don't need the house because these are all in the woods at least a hundred feet from the campsite and very private  -- but bring your own toilet papet.

Our resort is called Northern Lights Resort and Outfitters.  The only outfitting we do is rent canoes and kayaks to those who want to go camp on the islands for a few days or a week or two.  We don't have much else that you would need to actually camp.  You need to bring your own tent, sleeping bags, stove, food, etc.  There used to be a guy who had an actual outfitting business on the lake but he retired and no one else was interested in the business.  Its too bad because we get a lot of requests for this kind of service. 

Around the Resort

We had a nest of baby robins next to us.   They grew up very fast and were gone from the nest the day after I took this picture.  There are more nests around the lodge with one full of flycatchers and another robin nest.  There are so many birds around the resort and in the woods all around us that they make quite a racket in the morning but its a nice way to wake up. 

The resort has 12 cabins and the one in the picture is called Teton.  It was completely remodeled over the winter.  They had to keep one back bedroom in order to remodel it otherwise the codes have changed and they wouldn't be able to rebuild in the same place.   The guests who have stayed here in the past have all been really impressed with how nice the "new" cabin is.  It has a loft and big open living and kitchen area with a nice gas fireplace.  It also has beautiful granite countertops and the stove is in the kitchen island.  It has a screened in porch as well as a deck that wraps around half of it.  It would be a beautiful lake home.