HUMBUG Creek!

I was heading up towards Humbug creek in my quest for water today.

So far the lifeblood of the planet had beckoned to me... then ran off into the distance like a Saharan mirage!






I was beginning to think  the only water my hands would touch today was from my canteen...

I wondered about this short cut-off trail earlier in the year on my way up the Crown King road.





We Capricorns are nothing if we are not determined, stubborn as the proverbial goat, my friends would say...

I passed on Betty's Trailrides on the way up... as far as I'm concerned, it's tough enough staying out of trouble on a bike, much less on a four legged creature with a brain of it's own.

Besides, you break a leg on old paint and "they shoot horse don't they"  out here?!

As always I am in awe of the seeming never ending vastness of the desert. Of course that is just an illusion. In realty, the desert is getting more polluted by the year.

The road into Humbug is really nothing more than a series of undulating rock shelves.  Fairly easy to pick your way on a single track vehicle but would be more of a bumpy E ticket ride in a rugged old CJ Jeep.

The sign at the top of the terrace leading to the creekbed is shot full of holes of various calibres.

Thinking a .303 can carry for well over a mile, I look across the canyon. 

Yep pardner, that'd be about right...

Needless to say... there is not a single drop of water in Humbug Creek.  Not that I was expecting any, after all... with water levels so low, it was no surprise.

There was some green vegetation in the otherwise dry valley, sucking whatever moisture it could from the ground. If you were to dig, you'd likely find something down there.

I was happy I had the bottle, at least I wasn't about to die of thirst today.