This last weekend (June 30 and July 1) I went to try to find a couple of 5-acre parcels I bought on ebay
last year.  Right after I bought it, I tried to go see it in my car, but got stuck in some sand and
decided to give up the search until I could come back in a truck or 4wd vehicle of some kind.  So this
time, I rented a 4wd Jeep Cherokee, and borrowed a friend to help drive and navigate.<P>

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Here's a map; X marks the spot.  I was given some very crude directions, a couple of maps, and GPS
coordinates.  The adventure starts by taking Hardscrabble Road west off of highway 191.

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Not too far off the highway, we saw this cowboy tending a herd.
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Then we saw some horses running loose; not sure why.  They moved over for us to pass.
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The government uses posts like these to mark boundaries of sections.  This isn't particularly close to my
land, just one of several "brass caps" that we found while looking for it.
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We got up there Saturday afternoon, and wandered around until it was dark, finding out just how useless
those directions really were.  One "road" ended up in this guy's driveway.  About 20 dogs came out to
greet us.  The guy came walking over, and I cautiously rolled down the window, and explained what I was
looking for.  He was nice, but gave us some more bad directions.  He said that he had lived there with his
wife and 3 sons for 22 years.  He had only a windmill, and 3 solar panels and 2 batteries for power; I
thought that was very cool.<P>
We camped at Lyman Lake State Park for the night, and went back on Sunday morning.  It took us a good part
of the day to finally find a route to my land; but this jeep trail goes through some ranch(es).  I met
the rancher who claims to own much of it.  He wasn't really friendly but not really hostile either.  He did
guess right away that I bought this land on the 'net.  He said "just close any gate you open, and don't
bother my cows."  But I can imagine he'll get tired of folks like me traipsing through his ranch; so I
suspect this land isn't going to be really useful until the county puts in some public roads.<P>
At long last we got to the given GPS coordinates.  I'm not completely sure which corner of my lots these coordinates
correspond to, but I think maybe the southwest corner.  So in this picture I'm standing on what I think is
my land.  But there are no neighbors and no markings of any kind yet.<BR>

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Here's another picture of it.
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Nearby, I found the probable culprit responsible for the juniper logs strewn all over, and the shortage of
nice trees.  But it looks like it's been sitting there for a few years.<P>
I guess ranchers don't like trees, because the cows don't eat them; and/or like to make money selling 
firewood on the side.
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Here's a shot of the driver's seat.
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The Jeep parked at the end of the trail, ready to head home again.  Driving as fast as practical on these
trails, and not making any significant mistakes, it still took about 50 minutes to get back to the highway.
It's quite a trek.<P>
If you also bought land here and think you might be one of my neighbors, please 
<a href=mailto:ecloud@bigfoot.com>email me</a>; maybe we can talk about strategy for getting the county to
put in some roads.