In Search Of Dry Land In The Desert

As we've done for the past few years, we spent the week of Memorial Day up in the far northwest corner of Nevada. Our travels took us into Oregon, too, since we were camped within a few miles of the state line. The desert was wetter than I've ever seen it, almost a green tropical paradise. The rain and snow made appearances on every day of our trip, though...even on the semi-sunny day. The snow kept us low, which was initially a disappointment, but as in so many facets of life that disappointment turned into a positive when we found some really neat stuff we would not otherwise have seen.

The campspot was in great shape...


Our first order of business was to ride up to the plane crash site we'd found last fall and place some new American flags on the wreckage. The old ones were tattered and sad and I figured new ones would be appropriate for Memorial Day. Alas, it was too muddy and saturated to get up there. We turned around here, with about 3000' in elevation to go. The new flags will have to wait til the fall...


We turned around and dropped back down where it was not so wet...


We would revisit this area again later in the week.

You never know what kind of fun stuff you'll find in the desert...




Conditions were really good here...




We could see snow ahead and figured the old iron wood stove in this cabin would be mighty welcome if it got too bad...


We headed for camp after a long wet slog through a low-lying valley. At least it looked like the snow flurries were over...


Considering we'd arrived at camp at 4am the "night" before and had gotten up at 8am (ungodly late for me) I'd have to say the 102 miles we'd put in on our first day in the desert was pretty good

Day 2 on the way...

We had a big day planned for our 2nd day in the desert. We'd plotted out a route that would take us south through High Rock Canyon. Eric estimated our intended route at 175 miles, but since we both have a 200-mile range we carried extra fuel just in case. With winter-like weather and unknown road conditions, we figured it would be the smart thing to do. Besides, it's always good to have a little cushion in case we get lost or find something really cool to check out that is off our intended route.

We left camp at 8am under threatening skies. It was raining on us within minutes. We watched a big tour bus looking rig pass us as we crossed the highway, but then quickly realized the driver was turning off on the same road we were going to take! Not only that, there were 2 more buses coming up behind us...wtf? Turns out that the buses were full of welders going to work on the new Ruby Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline stretching from Wyoming to Malin, OR. We ran into lots of work trucks and all kinds of activity...very unusual for this part of the state! We've done +200-mile rides out here stretching over 13 hours and have never seen another living breathing human. It was an odd experience.

The pipeline is huge...




All the workers were friendly, albeit quite surprised to see someone playing in their workplace...


We made our way down through the Summit Lake Indian Reservation and were greeted with this new sign...


They might want to think about using some of that General Assistance grant money to spruce up their always-funky roads...


Hmm...which option is better, the left or the right?


This valley is usually pretty dry. Not this time!


Looky what we found hiding behind a hill!


The source wasn't too far away...


Ahh...looks perfect!




It was a great spot for lunch, too...


My view from the water...




Ahh...ready to hit the road...


And a funky road it was...


High Rock Canyon coming up...

The road to High Rock Canyon was the only dry road we encountered all week...






The road going in was a little dry, too...



This cave was cool!











This section reminded me a lot of Utah...








The beauty of this area pretty much left me speechless. Those that know me will attest to how rare that is!




There was a lot of this in the canyon...











More on the way...of course!

We headed northeast after leaving the canyon, and quickly came upon an old cabin...


It had a stove and water heater, all one had to do was supply the propane tank. There was running water, too, with a pump outside. I wanted to take photos of the cabin but there was a lady camping there with 3 kids and I felt weird enough walking around in there even though she invited us in. It was a pretty cool spot, complete with creek and horse corrals. The desert dishes up some mighty tasty surprises sometimes.

We climbed up onto the plateau and made our way back north...


We came upon another cabin, but this one wasn't quite as luxurious...







As we headed north, we came upon some more pipeline construction. They were literally tearing down the rock wall which gave the canyon its name...




It was hard to believe that we had to stay on designated routes in the area lest we disturb the fragile ecosystem with our malicious knobbies, yet these guys can throw a little money at the area and plow through it like nobody's business. I could almost understand the reasoning behind that Butterfly chick refusing to leave the redwood tree she'd named Luna. I almost cried watching that excavator come rumbling down the wall, boulders flying everywhere. We talked with the site archeologist for a bit, he was a really cool guy and was wishing he could ride his bike out here to work.

Pipeline on the left...


Beautiful rock wall on the right...


We spotted what looked like a road heading up the side of the rock wall and headed on over to investigate...


This road absolutely rocked...no pun intended! There were some fairly large rock step-ups and some roly rock sections, too. Suffice to say my Up-tite skidplate was earning its keep.

Once up on the plateau we discovered a wonderful springs...




The springs was flowing a huge amount of water and there was an enormous boulder (think 2 VW vans) with a nice firepit at the base of it. Lots of firewood on hand and the nice level grassy spot with a view for miles looking towards the sunset had me making a mental note for bike camping in the fall. I really wanted to camp right then and there but we had no gear with us. Just as well, as you will soon find out...

The road across the plateau was long and rocky...






Anybody remember the Stolpa story from about 20 years ago? Young couple and infant from Castro Valley head to Idaho in the winter, take a "shortcut," get stuck in the snow and end up holing up in a cave real close to here. The guy ended up walking 40 miles to Vya in the snow and lost his feet but everyone survived. We wanted to check it out but were running out of daylight. We decided to come back later and look for the spot.

The views dropping down into the valley were pretty spectacular...



We had some more water to plow through...
(this is actually a video but for some reason it downloaded to Photobucket as a .jpg)




We watched a beautiful sunset and then booked all the way back to camp in the near-darkness...


Remember me telling you that Eric had estimated our route at 175 miles? We varied from the route a little bit, but we pulled into camp with 174 miles showing on the clock...pretty good, eh?

We partied a little with the drunken pilots and crew (remember them from previous years?) and then hit the hay after plotting out the next day's route. Too bad it was not to be...

More later...

Don't worry! It was only due to snowstorms, torrential downpours and a barrage of ice pellets

Yeah, the weather was pretty crazy, alright! And yeah, the sign wasn't too friendly, was it?

No high speeds involved. We got to about maybe 60mph or so on one of the main roads (they're all dirt out here) but that's only for about 10 miles or so. We were gone a little over 12 hours so that averages out to a measly 14.5mph That leaves lots of time to take photos, pick our way through rocky two-track, study the map, wander around caves and soak in newly-found hotsprings It might look like a barren wasteland from the outside, but once you're on the tracks and poking around there are tons of little surprises that pop up in the least likely places. It's beautiful wide-open country.

The tribe out there probably gets bothered more than they would like by unprepared travelers. There are no other homes or easily-accessible ranches, no services of any kind (the closest is probably Gerlach, NV which is 60 miles down a funky dirt road) and the closest place to get gas would be our campsite about 70 miles to the north It's pretty desolate country, which is precisely why we like it. The tribe also has some fantastic lands with streams and trees and whatnot, and they are very protective of their fishing and hunting rights...can't really blame them for that.

Yeah, not exactly southern hospitality, eh?

Thx once again Woodies. Great write up. And tons of amazing pictures. The last one of the sunset is a keeper.

The next day we woke up to this...


It just got better from there. More snow, rain, sleet, ice pellets the size of M&M's, howling wind that had our +9000lb van rockin' and reelin'. We spent most of the day drinking hot chocolate, playing with all of our various and assorted maps and highlighters, and just goofing off in general.

The sun came out later in the day...


So we soaked a bit...


An older gent arrived in a big ol' mega-duty pickup truck while we were soaking. We talked to him a little bit and it turned out he was the owner of the land we were on. We'd always known it was private property, but it had been used freely by the public since time immemorial. Very nice guy! Lives not too far from us in the Bay Area and says he's not particularly fond of the desert, but is really glad we were enjoying it. We got out and talked to him for about 45 minutes. Interesting guy! The skies darkened, the wind picked up, the ginormous raindrops started to fly, and we endured Round 2 of the beginning of summer in the desert :rolleyes We did a little bit of maintenance on the bikes and were asleep before it got dark out.

The next day we were up and out of camp before dawn, only to be greeted by more of the same...


We weren't cold or wet or anything, but it was impossible to see...




We changed direction when it looked like we were heading into the thick of it, and we managed to escape the snow. Even though it followed us throughout of the day, we managed to stay one step ahead most of the time...


These guys watched Eric open the gate...






There were so many flowers blooming up on this blustery freezing plain, and the rocky ground was so wet water would ooze up around our boots when walking through it...




We dropped down into the valley where it wasn't so windy, and Eric did a bit of impromptu maintenance on his chain guide...


Time to climb back up into the wind...


One thing about the relentless rain and snow...it provided some very tasty conditions!

The roads out here don't see a lot of use...


No tracks other than our own...


The big girl goes down on her own in the soft mud...


I bet they were wishing they had decent dirtbikes in 1927...



More on the way...

The Stolpa Rescue Site was very near here, but we never found it...at least I don't think we did...I'm sure it isn't marked...we dropped down to check it out anyway...


Heading back up...


Nothing more glorious than a dirt road with no end in sight...unless it's heading into more snow, of course...


We found a cozy little spot for lunch on the edge of this gorge...




It was a good place to be when the snow started swirling over the edge because it flew right past us.

We decided to bail before giving Benchmark Atlas reason to add the "WoodsChick Rescue Site" to their next printing run. By the time we got out of the gorge the snow was flying completely horizontal...


Not a bad place to experience a milestone of sorts...


Gee, good thing we don't need shelter from any snow or anything...


Watching a herd of wild horses from the mine...

Room with a view...


I gotta go potty but it's snowing again...


The road out of there was a little primitive...




But it did take us right by the herd of wild horses I'd been watching earlier...


The entire ride back was in heavy snow and rain. I didn't take my camera out because I didn't want it getting wet. Besides, you couldn't see much anyway. I didn't take it out til we reached the bottom of the valley and were riding through the ponds...


We got back to camp and the drunken pilots (they've been coming there for years and were really helpful when Eric broke his shoulder out there last year) had a rip-roaring fire going. We stopped to warm up and have our celebratory "end of successful ride" shot of Scotch. The drunken pilots had obviously had a full day's head-start on us. This is why we call them the drunken pilots...


She flies the shiny aluminum 1946 Cessna 140. I would have taken more photos but my camera was wet from being in the elements all day and the final run to camp in a downpour, rain cover be damned. Our day ended early after a long hot soak and a bottle of red wine.

Last day coming up!

Hey, thanks for wading through all the photos!

Thanks, Dude I'd like to take credit for the sunset shot but I'm afraid the credit lies with my new camera...and Eric It even has a setting for "Food."

Our last day to ride started pretty lazy. We hung out with the pilots (they were stone sober) and crew around their campfire. The pilots always party hard but when it's time to fly they're all business. We watched them go and we got buzzed pretty good by the both of them...


We suited up and headed into Fields, OR. for a killer bacon cheeseburger and a chocolate banana shake. This place is a must-stop if you ever find yourself in southeastern Oregon...


The mountains were covered in snow...


See the face?








You gotta admire the ingenuity of people in the desert...


Portal to the center of the earth...


Portal to relaxation...


Not quite boiling, but close...


Mud bubbles and burbles...


Formerly a desert, now a lake...


We bombed back to camp amid raindrops the size of baseballs. Desert weather tends to be extreme, no matter what the season.


WoodsChick

We got back to camp in time to enjoy the evening, something we hadn't managed to do all week...


Ribs cooking over the fire as the sun goes down...


Speaking of the sun going down...


We fired up the citronella candles, even though it was too cold for bugs...


And settled in for a long evening...


Man, I love this place...

Just when you thought there would be no more hotsprings () we found this one on the way home. Travertine is very noticeable in the desert, and this dome was easily visible through the binoculars...








This water was hot, hot, hot! It was bubbling up from the bottom and looked pretty deep. Very neat-o stuff, and in a beautiful part of Nevada, too.

We headed south towards reality, and considered ourselves pretty lucky to have had such a good trip despite the crazy weather. I wish we could go back in a few weeks, as the desert will be absolutely stunning, but it'll probably have to wait til the fall. That's ok, though...something to look forward to!

Thanks for wading through all my photos, everyone!

Do you mean the range behind the travertine hot springs in the last post? That is the Santa Rosa range. Granite Peak, at 9732', is the tallest mountain in the range.
60mph isn't very fast on the road we were on; it's kind of like a highway out there, wide and graded. Last fall Eric and I had a drag race on the dry lake bed that is now a wet lake and I backed off at 106mph. I just wasn't comfortable going faster on a dirt surface that could have changing conditions.

Thanks, Xcuvator! We were talking about you when we saw the excavators out there taking down the rock walls.