Queen Valley ride 3-4-13 This was just a 1/2 day ride, but it was fun to see the new area.

 A few of us took a ride today in the Queen Valley area SE of Phoenix, AZ.

 The group consisted of two Side by Sides, a TW 200, and a WR 250.

 Randy was driveing the orange Artic Cat while Tim and his son Ethan were in the RZR.

 The spring run off has water in this little retention pond.

 Trails everywhere out here. Tim says that one could take a different trail every day for the rest of your life and never ride the same one twice. That could be a mis-quote! lol

 There is a lot of work being done in the area. It appears they will be running some cattle out here soon.

 The rock buildings are what remain of an old stage stop.

 New watering trough fed from the well under the windmill.

 The rafters are about to collapse. A little timely restoration work would go a long way toward the preservation of the local history.

 The fireplace is somewhat modern.

A new holding pen has been built for the cattle operation.

2-28-13 Four Peaks AZ ride with Jay

 Ready to unload at the staging area. Jay and his rig are parked behind me.

 Those are the four peaks that we will be riding near.

 This is the Beeline Hwy that took us from Phoenix to the staging area.

 This is a new road to both of us so Jay is consulting the GPS.

 Getting into more snow the higher we go......

...............but the view is awesome!

 We believe the El Oso Mine is nearby, but debating if we should continue due to the snow looks to be getting deep up ahead.

 We thought this might be the trail to the mine, but it wasn't.

 We did see a few mine audits, but don't believe that any of them were the El Oso Mine.

 This little lake or pond was frozen, but starting to thaw.

 Jay is 65, and I'm 64. We hike four miles up this steep trail trying to find the mine.

 ....of course those were old man miles and only about a half mile in true measure.

 Across the trail from the frozen pond was this wooden foundation that was probably an old miners cabin at one time.

 A great view of Roosevelt Lake off in the distance.

Maybe a forest service fire watch tower.....then maybe it is just another alien telecommunication transponder.

I broke my toe on a rock like this one, but it was on the other side of the trail.
That balancing rock looks like it could break my head. I think this is going to be the last time in the Bradshaw's for awhile. As the weather is warming, I think I will start visiting some of the higher country. Stay tuned.

This time I actually found the gravesight. It looks like it gets visited once a day or so, but people seem to be respectful and not leave their trash there. I decided to stay and have lunch with Issac, but he seemed to have lost his appetite.

Today I went back to see if I could fine the gravesite of Issac Bradshaw the namesake of the Bradshaw mountains. On the way there, I was able to locate the site of Copperopolis, a mining town that had a postoffice for one year back in the 1800'sThere wasn't much left and I didn't actually walk down to the place because I didn't want to climb back out. I left there and headed toward the gravesite about a mile or so away. I came across this well but it is obvious that it was at least upgraded after the discovery and development of PVC pipe.

As the sun was setting, the mountains come to life in a different way. I like it.
Now the story of the toes. I said earlier that I hate the soft sand. I'm riding along about 25 mph or so and things aren't too bad until a little rut had me correcting  the bike to keep from going down. That correction caused this boulder to get in the way of my foot. I could tell it went into shock but there really isn't a lot one can do for these things so I kept riding. About an hour later, it was coming out of the shock and I figured I broke two toes from the feel of things. After getting home and taking my shoe off, I think I did :(  Oh well, I hope it doesn't take as long to heal as it did when I cut the top half of my big toe on the other foot off. Now that hurt for a long time.

Hey, the last time I was here, I was totally lost and hating the soft sand. This time, I knew exactly where I am, but still hate the loose sand. I'm not sure what this shed is used for, but it does appear to still have some activity there.

Today I was attempting to make to the Bradshaw gravesite and the sparse remains of the old mining town of Copperopolis. Starting out at 2 PM just didn't give me enough time, but according to my gps I was within a half mile of Copperopolis and less than a quarter mile of the gravesite. Unfortunately, I was running out of daylight and really needed to get back before it got dark. As it was, I barely made it.