You might ask why go to Winkelman, AZ. It is northeast of Tucson, about 70 miles. Well they have alot of old towns along this route of Hwy-77, 70, and 177. You might remember that I found Duncan,AZ this way on route 70.
A friend of mine from Deming told me about Winkelman and said it has a nice RV park next to the river and a great 9 hole golf course to play. I found the RV park. But it isn’t a RV park. It is a city park and they don’t allow ATV’s. (What else is new?) So needless to say even though the atv is on a trailer they said no way.
Just for your information the city park was the town of Winkelman (founded 1914), and is (no more). In 1991 the Gila river over flowed its banks and drowned the town. About 200 people moved out of town, not to come back again. This place is a Copper Mining town and that’s about all that’s left (Theirs one bar called the Nugget ). It has a sister city called Hayden, (founded 1909). When you go through Winkelman and blink, your in Hayden, If you blink again your out of town. Population for the two towns about 2500.
You guessed it. We went right on through to Kearny,AZ. population about 2000, Established in 1958. Has two gas stations, one cafe which serves only breakfast and lunch. One fast food hamburger place, one library, court house, an ELK’S lodge, with one RV park and a golf course. The RV park is very small so we are parked at the Elk’s lodge here. ( No hook ups, but that’s fine). This town is also a mining town and was moved and renamed in 1958. It’s original name was Ray. All that is left of Ray is hole in the ground located about 1/4 mile southeast of here.
Kearny is laid out like a clam shell laying next to a hill. And to get in or out of town you drive straight up and straight down. I would say the grade is about 70%, its steep, but short. The three buildings on the lower left of the picture is the ELK’s Lodge (Center), Library (above right), and gas station on lower left. From those three buildings moving right are the golf course, airport, and the cemetery. The distance from the ELK’s to the cemetery is 1.5 miles.
Since we are staying for a couple of days, We decided to take the ATV out to the desert and play for awhile. The desert road is dirt and well maintained as you can see by the picture above. However you do have trails that the truck wouldn’t like.
As you can see the route we took was about 40 miles round the desert. We started right and went completely around to the loop. Now I’ve always thought I was pretty careful to have everything I need before I go on a trip like this. Like water for Tiger and extra food for him. Not this time, I left the truck parked and left a full gallon of water in the truck. I also carry a gallon of water on the ATV. But I didn’t check it and it only had about 2 cups of water in it. I also carry 2 (16oz.) bottles of water for me. Yes they were full. But not for me to drink, Tiger needs alot more water than I do. I also have a plug-in on my ATV for my GPS, But I left the cord with the truck. Now we didn’t discover the water shortage till Tiger needed his first drink. ( about 4 miles in). I discovered the GPS cord missing when the thing shut down because of low battery. (about 20 miles in)
Now I’m worried because I had marked the truck with the GPS and the route to get back to it. I sure am glad I have a good since of direction. I remember parking below a radio tower and went ahead and finished the loop. (since we were half way or better.) We could not see the tower, but knew it would show up sooner or later. I knew we were on a loop. One thing for sure I’m making a list of what I need because at this age the memory is shot…LOL
By the time we got back to the ELK’s we were ready for a cool one. And Tiger was happy to just sleep for a couple of hours. The ride was about 6 hours and hot, he rides on the fuel tank. How he hangs on amazes me. We both thank our special Angel for help on this one.
Till later from Tiger and Stu
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