Wandering the Southwest for Four or Five months of Wheeling.

[Mgg253]

I have yet to meet a dog that doesn’t love camping.

Meet Kenya… she puked in my Jeep with 1500 miles on it after her first foray off-road and HATES camping. Of course mama feeding her pastrami sandwich didn’t help her tummy. That said, we went camping with the whole fam, wife and I snuck away after kids were asleep and leaving the tent just a couple inches unzipped was enough for her to nose her way out to come find here people. She hates camping but loves her Mamma (who also hates camping) As much as I try to force her, she’s a Gucci dog and loves the Gucci life.!

amazing trip and pics!

Sponsored

 

[Mx5red]

So after searching on Gaia, I found an area that looked interesting north of Yuma about fifty or so miles. A decent amount of jeep trails, some abandoned mines and plenty of opportunities to get and hike among the mountains. We set off at 8 am with the hopes of scoring a couple breakfast burritos.

Big fail, first restaurant was closed due to family issues, second one was an hour wait to get a burrito, third restaurant was closed. We had to settle for Taco Bell breakfast wraps.

Off we go. We pick up @jlrubeinswaz out by a military base and keep heading north.

After airing down we head off into the desert with plenty of mountain and canyon views.

Iverall the wheeling was more scenic than challenging and it was about 35 miles of off road jeeping.

There was a observation blimp flying that is used to monitor the southern border.

We see a mine to explore, but it had been filled in so no access. Up on the mountain though it looked like it was snow covered or a bunch of white type rocks.

Nothing to see here. All the white stuff is bird poop. . It took over an hour or so to climb up to it and get back down. Good thing the hiking and climbing was fun. Plus there was so good views from up there.

Mr. Business had to engage his lockers a couple of times. It is amazing what he can climb at times.

Bad in the Jeep for a couple hours.

There was a bunch of Buttes and small natural arches along the trail also.

We did find a mine that was fairly large, bat free and as safe as an old abandoned mine can be to explore.

Mr . Business leads the way so he can scare any rattlesnakes, mountain lions or other creepy creatures in the mine. He is part wolf, you know the kind of wolf that likes blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup and whip cream kind of Woof.

Carla was like hey, I am enjoying a bat free old mine.

One of the tunnels had some natural lighting.

Obviously we had quality lights to chase the darkness away.

After five hours of Jeeping, hiking, mine exploration, and lunch, we headed back towards civilization.

Gary led the way out.

We did stumble upon one more mine. Was able to pull the Jeep right up to a vertical mine shaft. The mine was up on a small hill that also had great views of the surrounding area.

@jlrubeinswaz has a very well modded Rubicon.

Gary and jlrubeinswaz are obviously solving the world’s problems.

What an awesome day of wheeling, hiking and exploring that was even made better with great friends.

jlrubeinswaz and his wife are genuine, fun and enjoyable to be around. I am so lucky that I meet some of the best people ever because of this forum. They have enriched our experiences many times over the last few years.

Awesome mine!
And Mr. Business was in his element. Bred for going into burrows.

 

[wibornz]

So yesterday woke up to a great sunrise in San Felipe Mexico. This is just one of the benefits of being an early morning person.

Mr Business was like thank you for rescuing me from the dog shelter. He is a good boy.

There are stray dogs everywhere. There are eight or so hanging out were we are this one loves Carla and Mr Business. Carla is loving on him he is a sweetheart too. To bad he will not fit in out life. Carla will shed tears when she has to leave him behind. He lays at our hotel room door and cries wanting to come in and follows us everywhere we go around the beach.

This ship pretty much stays right there and has not moved in two days.

Mr Business is a rock clim

 

[wibornz]

We wheeThere was two groups wheeling yesterday. The fast group and a slow group. The fast group suffered two flats and do they finish about the same time the slow group finished.

We went out with the slow group. Gary’s jeep is loaded down with a RTT. We still cruised across the desert at 30 to 50 mph so we e still did a good pace.

A quick drivers meeting. Sadly they used UHF radios and not GMRS radios, so narration for us.

They did have a burrito stand set up for lunch while out wheeling and all the food was include with the event.

Mr. Business on guard duty.

I like to climb so up I went to snap all the Jeeps in our group.

We did run along the beach for a few miles. Flew the drone there. Will pull the video of the beach in a bit.

 

[HydroBlue22]

We wheeThere was two groups wheeling yesterday. The fast group and a slow group. The fast group suffered two flats and do they finish about the same time the slow group finished.

We went out with the slow group. Gary’s jeep is loaded down with a RTT. We still cruised across the desert at 30 to 50 mph so we e still did a good pace.

A quick drivers meeting. Sadly they used UHF radios and not GMRS radios, so narration for us.

They did have a burrito stand set up for lunch while out wheeling and all the food was include with the event.

Mr. Business on guard duty.

I like to climb so up I went to snap all the Jeeps in our group.

We did run along the beach for a few miles. Flew the drone there. Will pull the video of the beach in a bit.

I'm not jealous at all!! (I'm also not a good liar).

 

[zouch]

curious what you meant here, since GMRS frequencies technically are UHF...

...A quick drivers meeting. Sadly they used UHF radios and not GMRS radios, so narration for us.

 

[wibornz]

Drone shot along the beach.

curious what you meant here, since GMRS frequencies technically are UHF...

My mistake, they were using HAM radios.

 

[wibornz]

First day run with us at the beach drone shot. This about half of the total Jeeps. We are split into two groups.

 

[wibornz]

They provided free beer, soda, water and food for dinner. Also fires to gather around for everyone to hang out around.

They also had a bar in the town that gave us reserved parking and discounts on drinks..

Inside the bar they had their Baja race trophy truck and a the even promoters vehicles and a slide show running on a big screen.

 

[Covered in Dust]

Today’s adventure was an hour of wheeling across the Desert to the Betty Lee Mine so we could do some more hiking and exploring.

Betty Lee Mine

Mr. Business is a Jeep dog and he has lockers. He can climb just about anything.

I send Mr Business in first so he can scare away the rattlesnakes.

Way back down the valley the Jeeps are parked. Very rugged area. Life must have been very taxing on the miners back in the day.

Carla loves Mr.Business.

Gary my retired Lumberjack pal. He loves to prospect, use metal detector and collect rocks.

Carla and Fary exploring a mine with Mr. Business and I am pulling up the rear.

Telling Mr Business to turn on his locker.

On the way back I took a different trail that did not show much traffic. We came upon a sign that read, “Stay Out, Unexploded Ordnance.” The was a big Black Raven on the sign and as I drove by he made direct eye contact with me. I took the sign and the Raven as a sign and turned around.

These pics are screenshots from the dash cam video.

It maybe easier to see the sign on anything bigger than my phone screen. With the sound on, you wilk her me and Carla talk about it from the dash cam video.

That’s a good hike to the Betty Lee. I did it last year and kept thinking it’s got to be around the next bend. Now I’m bummed I didn’t hike up to the opening. I guess I’ll have to go back.

 

[Covered in Dust]

Retirement isNOT overrated. You can not buy time no matter how much money you have.

Just know the clock is ticking. As we get older, we start to run into “this is the last time I do this” kind of thing. There are things that I did in my forties that I can’t do in my fifties and I am sure that I probably will not be doing in my sixties and seventies.

Don’t let the money chase or the thought of one more year working will change anything. We are at the stage in our life where regret of not doing something weighs more than ever.

I have yet to run into a retired person that said they wished they worked one more year if they managed their life right. Many think that they will run out of things to do. This can be true if you decide to sit on the couch every night. Me, I got in after dark from a difficult hike with 1633 feet of elevation change.

The more you live in your fifties, the more likely you will live better in your sixties and seventies.

I’ve been retired for 16 years now, I’ll be 68 tomorrow. Never regret retiring early. There is always something great to do. I’ve been in over 70 countries, this year I’m spending 3 weeks riding motorcycles in the Himalayas among other adventures. One of the keys is having a great spouse.

 

[wibornz]

I’ve been retired for 16 years now, I’ll be 68 tomorrow. Never regret retiring early. There is always something great to do. I’ve been in over 70 countries, this year I’m spending 3 weeks riding motorcycles in the Himalayas among other adventures. One of the keys is having a great spouse.

I have great spouse covered. She is an adventure girl.

 

[zouch]

gotcha'. (so could have been either VHF or UHF, or possibly even HF. VHF works pretty well in the weeds, even without the benefit of working with Repeaters.)

sounds like a fun time.

My mistake, they were using HAM radios.

 

[wibornz]

2nd day of wheeling…. San Filipe area. Started with a sunrise over looking the water.

Mr Business is waiting his coffee.

My bud Gary. Every once and awhile, I catch him in a picture that says “I never thought I would be enjoying coffee on the beach in Mexico in retirement” look.

The wheeling was pretty easy. More of a nice trail with desert views.

We ended up with all the Jeeps on the beach with this Baja racingTeam museum.

Did fly the drone a couple times. One in the desert

 

[wibornz]

The three short drone videos

on the beach with all the Jeep

Sponsored