Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the tag “NF-493”

03 May 2018
4 Comments

NF-493 Campsite #2

Looking down “my driveway” reveals the town of Cottonwood, Arizona.

It’s sometimes difficult to drive solo off-road with a stock vehicle more suited to sloppy construction sites than rough trails. You know that, regardless of cause, if your rig is disabled or stuck or damaged, what is an inconvenience in town can pretty quickly become at best an epic financial tragedy out in the boonies. At worst, it can become a survival story, particularly when age or disability enters into the picture.

Naturally, I try to err on the side of caution, despite my determination to enjoy camping in the sticks. Despite that caution, I’ve still smacked the Mighty Furd’s running boards on rocks, grounded out both the bike rack in front and the cargo box frame in the rear. Each time was a “What?? Seriously? On that? It couldn’t have!” moment of disbelief. That’s significant because there’s no way to simply remove and toss any badly damaged assemblies in the back of the truck and continue on. Without a spotter, there’s no failsafe way to estimate whether you’re going to just clear an obstacle, or contact it badly enough to cause crippling problems. Thus I can’t recommend that Read more…

Posted in Campsites and tagged ,
02 May 2018

Deer Weather

Through a screen, darkly. The iPhone I used to capture this seemed to think I wanted to focus on the window screen, but hey, it’s a photo.

I moved back to NF-493 in Cottonwood to better get through a cool spell and rainstorms, which is better than cold and snow. At the moment I write this, it’s just past noon, and the outside temperature is 44 degrees F. The predicted high today is 55, but that’s for the lower elevations of Cottonwood itself, and I don’t think I’ll top 50 right here.

I decided to hit that isolated spot further up on NF-493, a quarter mile past where I stayed before. It’s a fab spot, but I gotta tell ya, the entrance to it is a tricky devil. I made it in after adding a rock or two to the climb, both to ease the “bumpage” and to save the tires from sidewall threats. A narrower rig with less overhang would have a somewhat easier time of it. I hope to cover that and a true view of this campsite in a later post, if the opportunity presents itself. Yesterday and today are very rainy, keeping me from wanting to Read more…

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20 Apr 2018
3 Comments

A New Campsite

Not much of it is level, but finding “the spot” should be possible.

Nope, I haven’t relocated to the campsite in the photo above, but I did simply find it on a walk. It’s actually a good-sized circle where only a little bit of is level enough to use for vehicle camping. But it should work. The issue is getting to it. It is a short but isolating distance off NF-493, 0.6 miles past where my current campsite is. That makes it GPS: 34.709066, -112.073265 and is visible on Google Maps. What it offers is mainly solitude. It’s in the high ground of a valley, so it should stay usable if it rains. It has a pleasant if unspectacular view in all directions. It is technically accessible by 2WD, but you do need Read more…

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