I was minding my own business yesterday (Easter Sunday) when my neighbor Dale asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in his ATV. I said, “Sure, thanks for asking!”
Dale recently bought a Polaris General off-road machine. It is the Hummer of ATVs, with an 82” wheelbase, 38” tires, four seats, all the technology, and cost about $45,000. I felt like Schwartzneggar riding that thing down the street.
Little did I know that our “ride” was to be an expedition with a couple of other ATV pals of Dale. We met down the street in their neighborhood: Brent and Don (who goes by “Jersey”, because there are several Dons on his street). My two new friends also had fancy Polaris ATVs, although not in Dale’s class.
Mesquite is a paradise for hikers, golfers, and ATVers because of the scenic beauty. The town allows ATV’s to traverse several streets without Nevada licenses in order to get to the BLM lands on the city perimeter. On the east are the Virgin Mountains and the Grand Canyon Parashant, to the south are the Mormon Mountains, to the north is the Arizona Strip and Virgin River Gorge, and to the west is the 500’ tall mesa that overlooks the city.
We headed east toward Virgin Peak and veered right up Cabin Canyon. I then found out that our destination was a cell tower about ten miles away at an elevation of 5,400 feet. Dale’s land yacht could barely fit on some of the ATV trails, but the ride was comfortable. “Jersey” led the motorcade: the guy is a speed freak and was often a quarter mile ahead of us. Luckily, Dale’s rig has a display that can track other ATVs, so we knew in advance which way to turn.
Our first stop was Beer Can Fence, which is located in the mountains about ten miles from civilization. It is a popular spot for hikers and off-road enthusiasts, as is evident by the hundreds of aluminum can that are attached to the barbed-wire fence that keeps free-range cattle in their wildland “pasture”.
Many of the cattle that forage in the Virgin Mountain area are owned by the Bundy family. They are famous for fighting the BLM over “range fees”, the nominal amount that the Federal government charges businessmen who use BLM lands to make money. The Bundys, most famously Cliven and Ammon, have gotten into armed confrontations with Federal agents in the past. They just don’t want to pay fees to the Feds because, according to them, citizens already own the public lands. A couple of years ago, Ammon led a confrontation in Oregon that ended in a shootout, killing one of the protestors.
One of Bundy’s cows was grazing on the wrong side of the fence when we got there. Someone had left open the road gate, a very discourteous transgression by some doofus ATVer or hiker. We tried to shoo the cow back through the gate to no avail. She will probably hang out near the gate until one of the ranching crew rounds her up.
While hiking, I have talked to some of the ranch hands about “open range” operations. They tell me that the cattle will eat anything in the desert except cactus, Creosote bush, and Cat’s Claw. The cows instinctively head toward the water trough in the evening, where the ranch hands have left salt and some hay.
From there we headed up to the cell tower. It was a long, windy, and dusty trek. Once there, we had some cold drinks, told stories, and looked at the scenery. Virgin Peak was just east of us and about 3,000 feet above us (we were at around 5,000’).
Funny but true: our cell phones wouldn’t work while standing right under the friggin’ cell tower!
From that point, we headed back down the mountain through magnificent rock canyons and Joshua tree forests.
We met up with some other ATVers at Arch Rock where I took a couple of photos.
Then we headed over to the “Boiler”. This is an old railroad engine boiler that was placed out in the desert by the Bundy’s as a water reservoir for their free-ranging cattle. The big, rusting metal thing looks totally out of place in its desolate surroundings but serves its purpose, I guess.
The BLM lands below the Virgin Mountains have been prospected for spring water for many years by the local ranchers and they are ingenious at tapping into invisible sources and piping the precious liquid downhill to sumps, metal containers and such where the cattle and wildlife like deer, mountain lions, and such can wet their lips.
Thank goodness we brought plenty of beer and soft drinks with us, because it was hot and dusty out there!
What I (and Charlie) originally thought was to be a brief spin around the community turned out to be a 5-hour excursion into the desert and mountain wilderness. It was a great ride and I met some new friends.
A nice Easter present, for sure.