Ruby Lee Mill: We are pitifully in the wrong place

I think the reason Moses spent so much time in the desert is because he had someone like us guiding him. 

Once again we head out with our trusty hiking book, GPS, and map, and don’t end up even close to where we thought we were. 

But,  our new word for today is “borrow” as in “borrow pit,” as in what in the heck is it because we are supposed to know because we are supposed to hike ¼ mile to it, and then follow green stakes in the ground at that point which head us toward the .

How can we find the green stakes when we don’t know what a borrow pit is?  I know that seems like an excuse, but it worked for Moses.  I'll bet he didn't know what a borrow pit was either. 

About ¼ mile from the Backcountry board we found a 3 foot indentation about 10 yards in diameter.  A “Pit?”  Didn’t seem like much of a pit, but it was the right distance away.  So we followed a well worn trail which quickly led into a canyon wash.  We were pretty sure this was another hike—the Porcupine wash. 

So we back tracked and headed off in the direction we thought we were to go to find the old mining road trail.  After going the right distance, we though, we entered a different canyon.  

The hike was fun, actually, in that about two miles from the Backcountry board we exited the canyon into a huge desert valley between high hills.  We walked this for another mile, and realized that our goal, the Ruby Mill Site, was probably at least two miles away and not anywhere close to where we could get to.

But luckily for those of us who suck at trail finding, I have my little walking crumb-dropping man on my GPS who faultlessly got us back to our so-called borrow pit and car.  If Moses would have had my GPS and route finding skills he might not have found Israel any sooner, but he could have made it back to Egypt pretty easily.

Here is the map at the trail head:

And here is where we went.  Sheesh....we are hopeless.

  

Addendum:  Borrow Pit:

borrow pit  

Web definitions

 

a pit created to provide earth that can be used as fill at another site.