Slowly moving northward

After an extra long weekend near Wickenburg to shoot the moon I continued moving northward, not far mind you but I’m in no rush.  Don’t have to be at Bryce Canyon until the 11th.

The morning after full moon rise I was up early enough to catch a touch of color at sunrise with a pale moon setting.

Damn wind kept me in most of the day working on the laptop which is slowly sickening including the sticky keyboard.  I’ve been putting off replacement all winter.  And surely it is spring because I saw a little cottontail bouncing around near camp.

Then the day ended with a gorgeous sunset reflecting over Vulture Peak.

Thought about leaving the following day but with the great signal stayed and finished the last post and took care of lots of online business.  Plus going into town meant laundry and shopping, not my favorite chores.  From Vulture Peak I would be moving northward to Congress for a night where there is basically no signal at all.

I enjoyed one night in Congress except for that problem with signal.  But even better was a visit by a local friend.  And more cottontails plus a pretty sunset.

Left after sunrise moving northward into Yarnell where I stopped for breakfast and a brief visit.  Then drove the curvy White Spar Road over the Bradshaw Mountains thinking I’d camp at the White Spar national forest camp.  I’d looked online about reserving a space due to it being Easter weekend and the only option I saw was first come first serve.  I was already questioning my sanity about staying so close to Prescott in a campground over a holiday weekend.  The campground was full as it turns out reservations can be made, way ahead of time.  So I moved on to plan B.

Not far away I followed the Copper Basin Road a short way into the Prescott National Forest to the first designated dispersed camp site I found.  Even saw patches of snow in the forest on some north facing slopes.  A little bit of logging going on in this area to clean up after a fire.

OMG!  I was back in the lovely smell of Ponderosa Pine with no neighbors and only a little traffic on the dusty gravel road.  Even Sierra noted new smells.  Wish I could share that with you.  Bonus I had an awesome signal and Joann lives only a few miles away.

A small creek runs nearby.  I hadn’t seen flowing water in many months.  All a perfect tradeoff for limited view through the trees for sunset.

Rained just a little that first night and in the morning, the delightful forest smell had increased multi-fold.  Around noon Joann came and got me then allowed me to use her minivan while she worked the afternoon.  Nice that I didn’t have to move my rig and loose my campsite.  I went computer shopping and bought a new Lenovo laptop at Staples.  The prices are high when you want speed and storage.  Now I’ll have to spend time setting it up how I want.

I returned a little early to pick up Joann from work and saw a Redtail hawk in a tree nearby.  Only had my phone to take a photo.

Then we drove beyond my camp to an overlook for sunset.  Several people were there enjoying the view over Skull Valley and beyond to the Weaver Mountains.

Joann’s minivan

Hassayampa Bridge

Saturday morning Joann picked me up as we were attending a celebration of life for a friend lost last year.  You may remember my staying with Mary and Jerry last Spring on their 45 acres of Juniper/Pinyon woodlands in Wagner.  Sadly, Jerry, at age 80, was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I left and died months later.

Me with Freddy Reddy, Joann’s puppet

But before that, I had an appointment for a long overdue biannual haircut with my favorite beautician in Yarnell.  Went a little shorter than usual and the hair won’t stay behind my ears but it will grow and in a few months I’ll be hoping I was closer in miles for another haircut.

Joann camped with me that night and we even had a small campfire, my first all season, and we roasted hotdogs on sticks. I hadn’t done that in decades.

And I found out my 5th-wheel has been moved from storage to the park, leveled and the slides are out.  Just about ready for me to move in.

I feel elated! It’s all around me. Online, FB, the people, the air. SPRING!!!!!  I sure hope you feel it too.

But alas, it was time to continue moving northward, or first a little more east.  So on to Plan C, a visit with a friend from my North Rim days who lives in Dewey, east of Prescott.  Because there is strong WIFI there I worked on setting up the new computer, and that’s a slow process.