Tuesday, February 19, 2013 (La Posa South LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ)

It was a cool morning, especially with the wind, as we loaded up the quads for our ride today.  As usual, just as the weather warms up, another cold front is coming through bringing wind along with a little rain tonight/tomorrow.

At 9:30 Earl, Alison, Art, Jan, Fred and Teri came by on their quads...time to head off. There were 8 of us on 5 ATV's.  We headed west out of La Posa South, across the highway, through the LTVA to the wash...and rode to Tyson Wells, the original site of Quartzsite.
There was a couple of geocaches hidden in the area, so Steve and I immediately went on the hunt.  The hint for the cache said that it wasn't in the cave.




Everyone else is waiting for us down below...

As we learned on our hike of Palm Canyon back in Borrego Springs, the holes on this rock are called "morteros".  They are made by women grinding seeds in the same place for centuries...the grinding sticks they used are called "metates".

We were having trouble finding the geocache, so Alison came up to give us a hand...she found it in a spot that I had walked right by...sheesh!

The second geocache was on the other side of the wash...it took a bit, and with some guidance from Earl, we finally found it.  We figured that the compass on our GPS' needed to be calibrated, so we did that and they seemed to be much more accurate after that.

After that stop, we carried on to find the old gold mine that was way up this mountain...

Steve went inside the cave and took this picture looking out...








Cool colours...last year there was a birds nest in this hole.

That's me at my quad...taken from inside the cave...

While he was doing that, I went on the hunt for another geocache above the cave.  It wasn't long before Steve was helping...found it!






Now, I just had to get back down...it was a little steep!

I backed my quad into the cave...for a picture...(also a good way to turn around since we were at the end of the road)...

...then we were off again...

Lots of ups and downs and curves on this ride as the trail wound its way through the mountains and canyons...

Another stop...and another geocache inside an old dynamite storage area!

A wee bit of a rough spot here as we climbed this hill...

Great view behind Art and Jan as they make it up...

Another stop...and another geocache...

A rough spot in the valley...

...followed by another climb...

Lunch time!  And a very cool place to stop...out in the middle of nowhere...too funny!

Alison and Earl...

Fred and Teri...

Art and Jan...

After eating, Steve went up the hill to take pictures...

While I walked up the hill to track down another geocache, Steve and Earl were playing some games...

After a nice rest and lunch, we continued on with our ride. Yes...another stop and another geocache...amazing how Earl, our ride leader, manages to stop near geocaches! (He has pretty much found all of them in this area!)

More dips...

...and beautiful scenery...

Up we go to this beautiful viewpoint...

Oh...and there was another geocache further up the mountain.  A bit of a hike up (and back down) but we found it.  It hadn't been found for quite awhile...a pack-rat had been making a home around it.



Down we go...that's Quartzsite off in the distance...

It was going on 3:30 by the time we got home...an excellent day!  The sun was still shining at this point but the blowing dust was heading this way.

After getting cleaned up and putting our stuff away, Earl and Alison joined us for a cocktail. We sat outside for a bit but then the wind just got too strong...and cold, so we headed inside.  A little while later, Sue and Bob also joined us.
Unfortunately we both forgot to take a picture of everyone...sheesh.

There is definitely a storm moving in...Steve took this picture looking out our back window...the sunset breaking through the dust...