Craggy Wash BLM to Shea Rd BLM
Shea Rd BLM, ostensibly in Parker AZ but GPS suggests it’s just inside California. freecampsites entry. The road leading directly off 95 is cobbly and rough, but not a beating. After entering the BLM area (or probably just CA) the road becomes maintained. The camping area is just past the cattle guard.
1.5 bars of Verizon (sufficient to browse and do email), zero bars of AT&T and TMO. Zero OTA channels on the scan.
Sandy, gravelly area with many OHVs, but none in my immediate area. Sites are just off Shea Rd but traffic is light.
logistics
The site was packed up yesterday and I was ready to roll. I hit a gas station to fill up and dump some trash, then back to the Kiowa laundry for a load of laundry and use of the speedy wifi. I updated all my devices, downloaded podcasts, pulled down some Amazon Prime video shows (data saver option so as not to Bogart the wifi). Dropped off some mail at the USPS and headed out.
The drive was a nice one, light traffic and 55mph speed limit for most of it. I prefer that since the barn can touch 20mpg at 55mph. And I’m in no hurry anyhow.
I’d thrown my shorts in the wash and so was wearing jeans. It’s a little warmer today (71F) and I resolved to get back into shorts ASAP after finding a spot. Ambient temps here in this campsite are 77F (!), which is excellent for tshirt/shorts/flipflops.
I parked on the north side of Shea facing roughly west; this will keep the sun out of the van’s side door. There is a bit of a cliff to the south (700;?) that will probably eclipse the sun around 3:30pm. Not optimal, but if I can get a full charge I won’t mind too much. {Update: the setting sun actually misses that cliff face altogether, and doesn’t touch the much-lower surrounding terrain until 5:20p!)
I tucked up against a hill where the ground looked firm; it should also help block out OHV noise from the north.
There is some litter; beer bottles, etc. If there is a landfill in town I’ll bag it up and carry it off with me.
There is also walmart, safeway, etc, in Parker proper so I will reprovision there after the 14d is up. Back to Q at that point for water, then BLM camping on the west side of Q probably.
The scriptlet says as of today:
860 days boondocking
822 days on 6v GC2 bank