During the winter my brothers and I go hunting in and around the FMR. The FMR is located approximately 6 miles north of Florence Arizona. Contrary to most maps of the area it extends north another 8 miles. it encompasses about 40 square miles.
Since we started hunting in and exploring around this area we have walked through a large portion of it as you can see in the image below.
The blue lines indicate our tracks taken from our GPS devices. There would be more of them but for the first several month's we were out here we did not have GPS. I then got a GPS and in December of 2005 all 3 of us got GPS FRS radios. On an average trip we each walk from 3 to on one occasion about 8 miles. Generally we walk about 4 miles each time we are out there.
This area in late spring and early winter gets to be very green.
Here is a 360 degree panorama taken from the top of an extinct volcanic fissure near the entrance
We have seen or found a lot of strange things on our hikes. Here's a guy that was flying around in a paraglider.
We find the crumbled remains of old structures:
Mine shafts (some with water):
Here is a Video of the Mine shaft from above that had water in it.
While hiking through what we now know is private property, we found a javelina that was possibly shot out of season.
Quite possibly the strangest thing I found was the remains of a white owl that had been jammed between the limbs of a palo verde tree with it's wings ripped off (weird).
Things that we have found in and around the FMR that we do not have pictures of:
The hood to a truck from the 20's or 30's.
A Bed frame(intact and setup with no mattress).
The head of a pick.
The head of a shovel.
A wine bottle.
Modern hunting arrows.
Pieces from military flare signaling devices.
Parts of 155mm illumination flares.
A fired 37mm practice anti aircraft round.
5 foot lengths of PVC pipe embedded vertically in the ground in random locations.
Bones of various animals (no humans yet).
A rusted trailer (with flat tires) loaded with the gas tank from a car or truck and roofing shingles.
intact, unbent, un-rusted Duct work.
Miles of steel military communications wire.
Spent glow sticks.
An old barely readable wooden sign stating something about "you are now entering a free bird buffet".
In almost every case these items were located at least a mile from the nearest dirt road. The duct work specifically would have required 2 people to carry it.
The PVC pipe is an enigma as we find them in the weirdest places. In one case I was trying to get through some dense brush and trees and in the middle of this area was a length of PVC pipe embedded vertically in the ground.
Animals we have seen:
Rabbits
Jack Rabbits
Javelina
Coyote
Ground squirrels
Owls
Ravens
Mule deer
Cattle
Quail
Dove
tarantula
Animals we have not seen:
Snakes of any kind
Desert tortoise (bones don't count).
Animals we don't want to see:
Mexican wolfs
Mountain lions
Rattle snakes
Some in my family may not be aware that they have an aunt and uncle still living in Mesa, AZ, Betty and Russell Roberts. Betty is the older sister of my father. They currently live in a retirement community near Falcon field. They have a son named Mark. They also have a small cabin in Heber, AZ. The picture above was taken in 1972 in Heber. Betty is extremely nice and Mark has a great sense of humor. I don't know why my mother never liked them. Here is a picture of Betty and Bob taken in 1951.
Ah... the good old days, when men wore hats and women wore gloves. Here is a picture from 1961 of Betty, Russ, and Mark.
The most recent digital pic I have is from 2002, quality is not so good.
