I hadn’t slept all that well, I don’t think the van was quite level, so I’d have preferred to sleep in a little, but the sun was up so I was too. I left camp and continued on the winding road through absolutely beautiful mountains spotted with red rock. I couldn’t wait to get riding amongst scenery like this.
Towards the end of the twisty turns, I came upon a huge quarry, and I mean huge. The highway went right through it, to the point that at times I thought I may accidentally have gotten on to a private road. The quarry was at least a mile wide with multiple excavations, none of which I could see the bottom of. Clearly a non-stop operation, I could see the tiny yellow trucks making their way slowly down and up the side of the massive holes in the ground.
There were a few “scenic” lookouts for people like me to admire and awe at the scale of this operation, which I took advantage of, I only wish I could have found out more, like what they were mining and how many people/places this sort of place supported. It became clear as I drove into the nearest town, Morenci that it was purpose built to support this operation.
Beyond, south on highway 191, I left the winding roads behind me and got onto some straight stuff, heading across the desert to another snow-capped mountain range. Thankfully, I didn’t have to drive over or through this one, but bypassed it. I made a crucial mistake not stopping in the town of Safford for a break because I then had to wait until Willcox, more than 50 miles away and by the time I got there, I was desperate for a bathroom and some food. I filled up with petrol while I was at it and got some more water as usual whenever I stop at a servo. I left the main highway running west and continued south, on a minor highway towards Chiricahua National Monument. This place I knew nothing about and it was well out of the way, so I was taking a chance that it would be worth it.
As soon as I drove in to the park, it became clear it had been worth it. The park protects a huge expanse of towering and balancing rocks, dotted all over the mountains. At the visitor’s centre, I asked about potential hikes and was provided with multiple options. I was full of indecision, returning a few times to ask more questions and find out what would be best. I eventually got a pin for my efforts because I promised to hike more than 5 miles. Woo, free stuff! I also asked about camping since it was likely I wouldn’t be keen to drive anywhere after the long hike I’d decided on.
I drove through the park to the top of the mountain where it was blowing a howling gale (not quite Texas standards, but close) and the sun was peeking in and out of the clouds above. It made dressing for the hike a challenge, so I chose multiple layers, most of which I carried in my backpack. I made lunch, packed my bag and set off from the Massai Point trailhead, which is at nearly 7,000 feet.
The 10 mile hike through the towering rocks was a pretty easy one, without much elevation gain and definitely nothing steep. I did an anti-clockwise loop that took me to Inspiration Point, the Heart of Rocks loop and back out through Echo Canyon. The park loses points for creativity having an Inspiration Point and a rock formation titled Thor’s Hammer. I must have seen a dozen things with these names. This is the only place the park loses points. The field of topsy-turvy rocks were cool to look at from up close and from afar. There were some quirky formations that seemed to defy the laws of balance and with the wind that was blowing I was half-expecting to see one of the famous teeter-totters topple over, as many of their neighbours had done.
I came across a few hikers, but not many. I did help out one couple when they approached me saying, “You look like you know the area.” I was chuffed with that assessment and informed them where they were on the map since they hadn’t much idea and sent them on their way. I felt calm as I walked, listening to music and lost in thought, remembering as much as possible to look up at the formations all around me. When I came through Echo Canyon, I was shrouded by trees and thought that might be the end of the views, but I was wrong, some of the best vantage points of the formations came at the end of the hike.
By the time I got back to the car, it was really windy and the sun had made it’s last appearance more than an hour ago, but it was warm inside the van. The hike had taken me nearly four hours so it was nearly 5pm and so the top of the mountain was mostly deserted. I followed another car down the mountain, wondering whether I’d have any luck at the campground since it had been nearly full when I’d enquired earlier. While the sign at the entrance said “Campground FULL”, I went in anyway. I parked near the group site, which optimistically did not look full and went over to the camphost’s site. I waited while Gary helped out another couple with directions, then asked if I would be able to camp, considering I would be sleeping in a van. He said he’d preferred if I was sleeping in a tent, because that would mean I’d be able to use the group site. I obliged and said I had a tent. He was cool about it, as long as I was happy to pitch my tent, he didn’t care if I actually slept in it or not. This was great news, I was in no mood to drive out of the park and find camp, especially with no phone reception.
I walked back to the entrance of camp and paid my $12 using the envelope system. When I returned to the car, parked at the side of the road, it would not go. It was the same problem I’d had back in Florida when I met Bernie. It cranked with a health battery and starter, but no ignition. There had been little warning. At the top of the hill when I parked up it had struggled a little at idle and same when I started it up again, but it still caught first time and ran perfectly once it got going. Now I wasn’t having any luck. I tried a few times, but nothing was changing. Thankfully I’d parked in such a way that I could roll backwards directly into the group site parking space. After pushing myself back a few metres, a couple of helpers came over to push me down the small hill. I was grateful for that and managed to park myself up in a pretty level spot.
Now what to do. It was 5:30pm and I considered working on it now, or leaving it until morning. First things first, I put my tent up as I’d promised to Gary. Then, knowing I would by lying awake all night wondering about the problem, I decided to get to work with the daylight I still had. My first thought was the ignition control module since the problem seemed exactly as it had been in Florida so I did the usual job of tearing apart the interior to get at the engine. A fellow camper, Andy, came over when I was part way to offer his help and chatted with me while he sipped on a glass of red wine and held my torch for me so I could see. A very friendly man, he worked through the problem with me, validating my reasoning. Eventually, his party called, so he was off to enjoy his dinner.
The other people at the group site also came over and said I should join them at their fire if I liked and I explained that the tent I’d pitched next to theirs was just a façade, there would be no one sleeping in it. By the time light had faded, I’d swapped out the control modules to no affect, cleaned the terminals and connectors and made no change to the problem. I checked that I had spark at the top of the distributor, which I did (I got zapped in the finger in the process). I even checked a few fuses. Not finding the root cause, I pulled out my code reader to see what trouble codes I had. There was more than one and they were different from the usual ICM trouble codes. Interesting…
The light gone, I decided I was done for the day. I would attack the problem with a fresh mind in the morning. I packed everything away, heated up some left overs and went over to my neighbour’s fire, accepting their earlier invitation. Randy and Nancy were super-interesting people. Around the age of my parents, they had three grown up kids and called Minnesota home. We talked about their life experiences and mine, having great conversation that distracted me from my current predicament. They keenly offered help, saying that on their drive into town the next day, they would be happy to help in whatever way they could. Randy is also an engineer from a different field, but understands old cars so he helped me with some brainstorming too. With the fire died out, we called it a night. Walking back to the van, I realised how tired I was. I did the dishes and as I was packing the stove away and pulled the burner off the propane bottle, the bottle spewed out gas, the nozzle obviously stuck down. I tried in haste to put the burner back on to seal the gas but in moving away from the car, I lost my light so couldn’t align the threads. In the rush to get the thing sealed I managed to give myself a frost burn on my middle finger, which bloody hurt! After putting the spewing bottle on the ground, then retrieving it again, I managed to get the stupid burner back on and stop the leak. Not much was going right!
That resolved, I sat on my bed, pulled out a notebook and started writing. I wrote down all of the symptoms I could think of leading up to the car’s failure, I wrote down how I had been driving it lately and anything I’d noticed. I read thoroughly through the different trouble codes I retrieved and flipped through my Haynes manual and car manual to try and figure out a plan. A few pages later, I have a plan of action that will take me into tomorrow. I’m a little concerned about my predicament, but the staff at this park have been very friendly and helpful so far so I’m optimistic they will be willing to help me in my plight. I am forever grateful that the Astro didn’t fail at the top of the hill, which it so easily could have done. Instead, she held out until I was safely at a campground. This will be a challenge. There is no phone reception out here and the nearest town that would have an O’Reillys is more than 100 miles away. Let’s see how we go.
