Making Highways out of Old Wagon Trails

I just realized this post was never fully uploaded. Not sure what happened but better late than never...





Having a 40 acre gold claim isn't worth much if you can't get to the interior of the darn thing. The desert is such a rugged landscape that there is no way our Titan will be able to blaze a path ahead. Not with creosote bushes every two feet and branches capable of puncturing an off-road tire.... I speak from experience, trust me.
Those creosote's are not to be underestimated.

With only a few precious days on our claim we decided to dedicate two of them to a long overdue chore. It's finally time to blaze a road wide enough for the truck to make it's way down the hillside, safely I might add.

Besides it's 10:00 in the morning and the water is still frozen over... Not much is going to happen with the sluice when it's covered in ice.

Bulldozer Matt making his way down

While we wait for mother nature to thaw us all out from the chilly 15 degrees, Matt and I set to work making a road out of an old wagon trail using hand tools and good old fashion hard work.

Looking more like a highway now

Here they come

Reckon they made it down the hillside

I trimmed back any of the trees or bushes that would add more pinstripes to our truck and did away with anything that looked remotely like it may puncture a tire. All the large rocks/boulders had to go and I was careful to get rid of the cholla cacti scattered all about. The puppies have a knack for finding any stray cacti lurking about.

Matt spent all morning digging into the hillside, widening the trail and then leveling it off as best he could with hand tools. The real test was getting our truck down the new and improved road. It was a little hairy when the back tire started slipping off but between me guiding Matt down and his excellent off-road driving skills( thanks to military training) we made it safely down our new road.

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We celebrated our achievement and last night on the claim by cooking up a spiral ham in my #Griswold dutch oven. As far as cast iron goes, Griswold is the way to go!  I cooked up the ham and taters while our claim neighbors came over with canned green beans from his garden, and corn bread.

We had a feast on our last night surrounded by good friends and delicious food.

Our claim neighbors enjoying a feast