In Search Of Water In The Desert: Photos And Ride Report

Thanks for the compliments, Troy. The west is really a special place. Nevada in particular, as most of it is federal land that belongs to you and me. Almost any road or trail you see is open to you unless it is posted as private property...for now, anyway. We are starting to see a lot more carsonite markers with Wilderness Study Area on them. The way I see it, if there's a road there, and people use that road, then it is not wilderness. You'd be hard pressed to find any "real" wilderness as defined by congress (..."untrammeled by man...") in the west anymore, as there are mining and ranching trails and roads everywhere, often leading to structures and mines and blatant evidence of "trammeling." But that certainly doesn't stop the powers that be from grabbing all the land they can and locking it up forever. To designate it as wilderness is disingenious at best...sort of a retroactive wilderness, if you will. I could go on and on here about it, but I'm getting derailed... sorry

By the way, Martin was a boy not a dog. I can't remember his middle name but his last name was Hernandez. I'm guessing he died there? I can think of worse places to be buried, that's for sure



WoodsChick

Yeah, we're pretty fortunate to have both found kindred souls to ride through life with. I don't think I did anything great in a previous life, though...more like I'm gonna have to pay through the nose for it somewhere down the road by roasting in hell for eternity or something

And yeah, I really like my plate



WoodsChick

Thanks, RumRunner

We're already trying to figure out when we can go back...maybe Labor Day?



WoodsChick

You're welcome, Greg. I had a good time doing it...and still have a few days to finish

Nevada is so diverse. Most folks drive across Interstate 80 and think they've seen the state but they are so wrong. There is a ton of water out there, as there are springs everywhere, and it supports a lot of wildlife and even more cattle. Lots of high elevation stuff, too, where there are aspens and such. Nevada only has one national forest (Humboldt-Toiyabe) but it is spread out over the entire state in different districts and is the largest national forest in the lower 48. Tons of good stuff out there one is willing to go look for it.

And yeah, Eric and I do manage to enjoy ourselves as much as we can You only get one go-around on this planet and you've got to squeeze all you can out of it. If I died tomorrow, I don't think anyone could say I wasted any time or got cheated out of anything



WoodsChick

Darn it, Ace...where were you when I needed you??


Thanks for the kudos



WoodsChick

Great Basin is beautiful and remote! We've camped there on our way to/from riding trips in Utah, but we've never ridden the bikes there.

We've explored central NV (just south of 50) fairly extensively and we've done a bit of exploring up in the Ruby Mountains area, too. I could probably spend my remaining lifetime exploring only the state of Nevada and still not be satisfied that I've seen it all. Opportunity abounds!


WoodsChick

That's funny...Eric says the same thing when he thinks I'm not listening

We'll let you know if anything comes of the Labor Day plans.


WoodsChick

Oooh, a beeoootiful ride before Autumn. Post up a group ride!

As we were nearing camp on our way back from the warm springs at the wildlife refuge, we saw a bunch of glistening vehicles in the distance. I was bumming and thinking the worst, that a bunch of RV's had pulled in with a ton of people to ruin our desert solitude (and put the kibosh on soaking au natural) Well, that was not the case. As we neared camp, we realized it was a row of really nice small planes that had somehow gotten into the area we were camped in. A few of them had tents set up under the wings. We realized the next morning, when a few planes came buzzing the camp, that they were coming in and landing on the dirt road not too far from where we were camped! It was fun watching them doing low-altitude fly-bys to check the place out, and then line up with the road and gracefully touch down. They kicked up a ton of dust taxiing to their campspot, but it was so much fun watching them that I decided to let them live. Most folks don't know it but I was destined for a flying career until I failed the FAA physical (deaf in one ear) and was told I'd never hold a commercial license. I'd still like to have a license some day so I can fly Eric into places like this on a regular basis. I'd need a plane big enough to carry a few bikes and some gas cans, though


This is a 1947 Cessna flown by a woman...





They buzzed us a few times after taking off, much to the delight of those on the ground. Eric took these without the zoom lens...





A fellow ADV rider on a GS got a really nice photo of the planes lined up.
He gave me permission to use it so here it is...Thanks, Hootowl



We had a big ride planned on this day, fully loaded up with camping gear and a few extra gallons of gas. We were going down to the Black Rock Desert, and wanted to make it through the mountains to Soldier Meadows. About 20 miles into the ride, Eric comes to a screeching halt, and as I pull up to him I hear his motor revving to the moon. His fuel screw had fallen out. There was no way we were going to find it in the fuel-screw-colored rocks and gravel and it wasn't sitting precariously on top of the motor anywhere, so our only alternative was to head back to camp and cannibalize my 450 that we'd brought for a spare. My 450 saved our ride last May when we were in central NV and Eric broke an oil line bolt, and it came galloping to the rescue once again. We got back to camp, Eric started pulling the 450 and his 640 apart while I drained the fuel from the 450's 3.2gal tank. We quickly realized our day was shot so we changed our clothes and settled into a very relaxing day. It started raining pretty good, with major thunder and lightening up the valley where we were going to be riding anyway, so it all worked out. We started drinking wine in the afternoon and soaking in the hot springs while the rain fell, all the while plotting the next day's ride.

We ditched the idea of camping, as this was going to be our last day here, but that just meant that we could carry more fuel. We got up before sunrise and pulled out of camp very early, me with 1.5 gals of extra fuel and Eric with 2.5gals. We wanted to make it down to the Black Rock, and we weren't sure if our route through the Black Rock Range was going to be open so we had to be prepared for some re-routing and extra mileage. It was cold that early in the morning but the pelicans didn't mind...



That was a dry lake bed the day before, by the way.


Now the ride gets interesting as we head through the southern end of the Pine Forest Range...




Water is everywhere in Nevada, it just doesn't appear in vast amounts. There was a spring right across the road that was ringed by cows. It was big enough to swim laps in...



Lo! What's this? More hot water? Yep!



Apparently, it's really hot water...




This was a pool downstream from the bubbling source. Our digital thermometer told us it was 108 degrees...totally soakable but we had a big day ahead of us...




This little guy wasn't afraid of the heat...




The water at the source looked like a giant aquamarine glistening in the intense desert sun...



I took a video of the water bubbling but after the last video debacle I was gun-shy and it only lasted about 2 seconds

Anyway, we had lunch here (dry salami, cheddar with horseradish, crackers, semi-frozen 100% Juice Capri Sun) and motored on up the road to see what we could see...

Mostly what we saw were WSA markers standing in our way...



We moseyed on down the western edge of the extreme northern portion of the Black Rock Desert, in search of Lassen's grave and our route through the Black Rock Range. We found a neat accessory for the 610, and I remembered Rajo's words about my 610 looking like it could eat the world...





This whole portion of the Black Rock is mostly wilderness, so we didn't get to venture too far out onto it, but we did get to see some neat stuff. This is a spring that was filled with flowers. This wild rose smelled heavenly...



This corral must have taken a lot of effort to build...






More to come...


WoodsChick

We ran into a bit of a roadblock and had to take a detour. Kind of a funny thing, since these roads are kinda funky anyway, but I guess the original road had washed out so a bulldozer just flattened out a path through the sage brush and voila' ... a new road! This is kind of backwards, as we didn't take photos of the road til we were headed back the other direction, our road through the mountains being impassible.

The regular road, heading for the detour up ahead...




Eric on the detour...






Can you spot me in the middle riding up the hill where Eric just was?






Looking back down at what we had just come up...




This road went on for miles at the top of the plateau...




Back to where the detour started...




Instead of retracing our steps around the mountains, we found a tiny ribbon of dirt that would, theoretically, take us over the mountains. Can you see the smile?...




The road we came in on and decided to avoid on the way back can be seen down below and to the left...



Stunning scenery up here, and tons of wildflowers everywhere! The wildflower photos are all bunched up and will be posted all at once, but in the meantime, here is some of the scenery...



Lunch at 7000'. The Black Rock can be seen in the distance...








Wild irises in the road...






Wild horses are everywhere in Nevada...






More to come as we head down to Soldier Meadows!



WoodsChick

The road over the mountains took us through the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Natural Area, and it was beautiful. Mostly high elevation plateau and canyons with lots of water and aspens and some snow. Lots of pronghorn antelope, too!





We dropped down off the plateau and onto the Summit Lake Indian Reservation...



We blasted past Summit Lake and headed down south towards Soldier Meadows. The road to Soldier Meadows was in worse shape than the road south of Puertocitos...if you can believe that. Slicker than snot for the first few miles, nothing but slidey mud, then rocks and rocks and more rocks. Not too many photos of this section...



We were cruising down this one dirt road, sort of intending on finding a hot springs, when the road dead ended...



As we pulled out the map in order to look for the springs, I noticed some reeds off to our left, and it looked sort of round-like, as if it could be a pond. Guess what? More hot water!! Yippee!!

Here's another one of those attempts at a stiched-together panorama...



The water was a perfect 102 degrees, and the pond was deeper than I was tall...



We fired up the stove, had a nice hot dinner, and hightailed it back to camp, stopping only for a few more photos, putting on our jackets and engaging in some fancy route-finding.

Summit Lake...



The very rare thing in this part of the state...a road sign!




The sun goes down in a hurry when you're a long way from home...




We were in a bit of a hurry to get back, as daylight was waning and Eric's headlight had long since quit working, not to mention we ran into some map strangeness somewhere south of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We rode back non-stop and made it back to camp just as the sun was setting. As we got to camp, Eric nodded to me and we kept going right by the Pleasure Palace, riding out into the ever-increasing darkness in order to see what was out beyond our home for the last week. I think we were both reluctant to stop and get off the bikes, as we both knew this was the end of the trip. We'd been gone 13 hours, and had ridden 200 miles, but it wasn't enough. It's never enough. Before we even had our helmets off we were wondering when we'd have the opportunity to get back here again.

We soaked into the night, talking about what a great time we'd had, and began plotting our next trip. It's never too early to get started on the next adventure


Thanks for allowing me to share our ride with you all



WoodsChick

Thank You for taking the time and effort.

Riding on adventures is one think. Stopping to take pictures cuz you know you want to share with everyone is another.

It takes a lot of dedication...and a understanding Husband to help out.

I'm glad you have both