Wild Burros

Crossing over into California just West of Parker AZ, the sign at the California border did warn that you had to be careful of wild burros on the road. I haven’t had to be so careful of them on the road as in my camp. “Warning, wild burros love carrots.”
I saw them at the crest of a hill and clucked my tongue a couple of times to see if perhaps they were used to being around humans enough that they’d just mosey over looking for food. Yup, fairly domesticated wild beasts.

I am fairly, vaguely responsible about giving wild/feral animals food, but decided that they could help me finish my once-frozen and now thawing limp carrots that I had for my hike. Straight vegatable matter, no other human food.
The most junior member of the group was either volunteered by some hidden pack language that I couldn’t pick up on, or he/she simply wanted to try to get in on the action before the leader decided to cut in. (Does a pack of Buro’s have a special designation, like a “murder” of crows? I don’t really know.) At first the pack leader stood and watched as the others cautiously approached. But, as soon as it was apparent I wasn’t there to dine on buro burger, the leader double timed it over to get the best food first.

They were very quiet and gentle towards me. Taking carrots from my hand carefully; I never felt I was about to lose a finger to those big munching teeth That’s very different from horses I’ve known, and from what I understand the burros in the nearby mining towns can be a bit more aggressive too. Well, the leader was trying to head-butt the other burros out of the way, but no quick actions were directed towards me. If you’ve ever tried to feed greedy, smelly horses, this would come as somewhat of a relief. (Having mucked out my share of stables, I have a thing about horses.) And, did I mention the lack of smell? Very surprising.
Poor junior was relegated to the back, but, I got his attention and threw a couple carrot bits at his feet, so he got nearly as many as the other burros.

Still Wild, or Feral, or whatever.

Even though they were gentle to me, it’s worth remembering that these burros are still wild/feral beasts. They spend their lives in the desert fighting the elements, and the urge to mug tourists, so they’re likely to react strongly to any surprises.
After I had finished my hike in the area (sans the limp carrot lunch) I headed back toward camp via a different route the one I had set out on, and wouldn’t you know it, I surprised the burros in a wash a little way from camp. This is when the leader proved he was the leader. At a fair distance away he charged out of the wash and stomped to let to get my attention. Then he, well… he hissed very loudly. I was expecting a bray, but the sound that he made was more like a large snake hissing.
I stopped, let him get a thorough look at me, and then talking in the same calm voice that I used when I was feeding the group earlier.
His ears instantly zeroed in on my voice like radar dishes, and he shook his head as if to say “oh, it’s you… idiot, don’t surprise me”. When his body language relaxed quite a bit I continued skirting around the group to my camp.

History

From what I understand, these burros are the descendants of animals used in the surrounding mines and were simply released when the mines closed. Having few if any large predators they’ve multiplied in the deserts around the Colorado River Indian Nation and are beginning to be a bit of a drain on BLM resources. If you think that you would like to adapt a burro go to the BLM adaption website

Quartzsite! Or, maybe not

Quartzsite! Or, maybe not.

January 27th 2017:  Arizona! Strike that.  Actually I'm about five miles West of Parker Arizona on BLM land in California (No!, BLM means "Bureau of Land Managment", my political blogs are elsewhere) .  It's a bit hillier here than most of the places that I dry camped in Arizona, and I certainly have a lot fewer neighbors.  I'm in my camper conversion, and I'm comfortable and relaxed, thank you very much.
 
This is a "short term" BLM campsite, 14-day maximum. I had actually purchased a seasonal pass for the LTVA (Long Term Visitor Areas) in Arizona and California, and had stayed for nearly a week in the South La Posa LTVA area.  But as far as the seasonal pass is concerned: that was one hundred and eighty dollars wasted.

Recommendation #1: Don't bother to buy a seasonal LTVA pass.

(At least not first thing.) The choices are:

1) Stay in "short-term" sites for as much as two weeks, free of charge. 

2) Buy a LTVA pass (for a month, I believe) for forty dollars.  The strongest case for this is if you do have at least gray water storage, but don't have a toilet aboard that you always want to use.  Face it, using a good Thetford Portapotti is better than digging a hole for emergencies, but if you don't have a large dedicated bathroom, you want different options.

3) Buy a seasonal LTVA pass, November(?) through April 15th, for $180.00.

My thought was. 'I can just purchase a seasonal pass, find a decent site close to the vault toilets, and my rent is paid through April 15th' (boy-oh-boy, talk about prime real estate).  There's just one problem with that.  Quartzsite is, well how can I put this politely... simply not where I want to be (I had originally just said "shite" here, but I understand I'm making a strong value judgment).  It is an endless chain of flee-market tents full of cheap, badly used, overly expensive, or cheap-badly-used-overly-expensive items.  I'll never understand why older folk have a preoccupation with flea-markets and buffet dinners, but if you're sane enough, or young enough, or young enough at heart, you'll save yourself from that "scene". 

If you still have the burning desire to experience the Quartzsite "scene" because all the other RVers do it, do the following.  Find a local flee market on a hot cloudless day, and loop through it approaching it from different directions until your feet are tired and you consider buying something just to break the monotony.  Now loop through it another twenty or thirty times.  To make it more realistic, run out in cantankerous, probably deaf and vision impaired, driver in an RV a few times. THERE! You've seen the POSITIVE sides Quartzsite. 

The negative parts are that the whole town is so perpetually clogged by visitors (at least during the peak of the year) that you can't expect anything to work as it should, even for a normal small town.

Want to go to the public library and download something you needed.  Ha ha, joke's on you.  The access that you can squeeze out will be a bare few minutes long, and terribly slow, it's only a tease as to what true WiGi connectivity might be like.

Want to grocery shop in a regular store?  Head on over to the Big Market where you'll be treated to tawdry covers of "Cheri" and "Teeny Bopper" magazine among the miles of Miller and Miller Lite beer cases while trying to scrape some regular provisions together.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm titillated by old style porn too (remember when you only got porn through glossy magazines?), but we're talking about shopping for basics here.  This town is simply not where you want to be.  Oops, I'm projecting again.  This town is definitely not where I want to be.  And it's what most of the LTVA campgrounds are centered around.

So, my recommendation is to take fourteen days in the short-term sites. See if there's enough in the area to keep you interested (there's actually some beautiful desert hiking if you're into it, and some aspect of one of the shows might interest you, but two weeks in a dysfunctional town is a looooong time.).  If you find you want to stay longer than that, the LTVA options are still open.

Post Blog, like a Post Script, but somehow different: If you are interested in desert hikes, I'll probably post some pdf copies of occasional travelogues that I send to my nieces with art etc. as a follow-on.  Maybe you'll like them (very short).

Post Post Blog:  Some RVers seem confused about the whole registry thing for BLM land... Be brave.  Just wonder into the campground.  If there is someone there that has volunteered to register you into the campground, stop and talk to them.  They're generally really nice people, and they can tell you what the options are for staying at their campgrounds and others.  Take the easiest option and relax about it for a while.  There's no need to commit.  If you need something different later, then it's still open to you.