Running washes

Don and I got to go wash running today.
He arrived Tuesday and leaves tomorrow, so today was for jeeping! We went north of Oracle and explored a wash that did, indeed, cut unobstructed through the mountains behind the old Tiger mine. I fully expected a fence or two to keep us out of mining property, but there was no fence. The tracks in the wash showed it to be a pretty popular short cut from Mammoth. The rocks in that area deserve further study. I don't even know what all they are. Then we followed a gas line north until we came to another wide flat wash. Don guided me over a 3 foot drop that is the only obstacle in that whole area. He also opened about a dozen gates. We got our wheels wet in the permanent water of Camp Grant Wash before heading up into the hills to come in behind an old lime quarry from the San Manuel days. The grass is greening up nicely all over the area and young cows are out on it. Two of them ran from us up a narrow part of one wash for half a mile before finally turning into the brush and letting us go by. The older cows just stare at us as we go by. We did see one llama-mule deer mix. It was a muley, but when she stopped to stare back at us with her ears straight up she looked a lot like a llama. We saw a lot of zone tailed hawks paired up, as well. And of course plenty of red tailed and unknown hawks. It was a glorious weather day.