Sunshine And Solitude In The Desert: Thanksgiving 2012

As is our tradition, Eric and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday out in central Nevada. Friends have been going with us the last few years but we were on our own this time.

Sacramento Valley birds on our way out of town...

We arrived at camp pretty late at night, and this is the view we woke up to...


There was plenty of this before heading out for a ride...





Ready to ride...



Let's head north!






The only tracks were our own...



Change of plans...let's ride it!



Looks more like a road than a trail but it'll be fun anyway...





Hmm...it's starting to look better...









Oh yeah...much better now!











Hmm...



More tomorrow!




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The Pony Express Trail is actually starting to look like a trail! Eric goes first...




We can either go to the right and follow the rocky creek bed or go to the left up the hill and maybe go around it. Eric chose the left. My turn...






It's not so hard to pick up with no 5gal IMS tank and no camping gear...








I was on the verge of falling off but stayed on the throttle til I got to level ground...


Going to the left was smart. We crossed the rocky creek bed again but at a 90º angle and when we came back around we ended up in a nice clearing...



Again, no tracks but our own...





Oh crap...where'd the trail go?


This stuff was really hard to get through. It kept getting hung up on the bars and was dragging our legs back off the bikes. We kept having to stop and extricate ourselves from the reedy growth in order to make forward progress. It opened up enough for photos towards the end...



A pony would make this trail alot more express...


The reedy obstacles thinned considerably, only to be replaced by rocks...Yay!



The trail, which did not disappoint at all, finally opened up a bit and followed a little valley. We came upon some really cool stone buildings. This one was most certainly a Pony Express station, as it is right on the trail and there was a little wooden corral for the horses right before the building...













More in an hour or so!

The road out of the valley ended at a gate near a really cool ranch...


And...we're in!



I wish our garage was this big...






It looked as though there were some preservation measures being taken here, what with the reinforcements on the outside of the stonework and some plates on the pillars inside. I was glad to see it, as so many of these structures end up being nothing more than piles of rocks...



All that wrasslin' on the Pony Express made us hungry. Time to stop for our Thanksgiving dinner...fresh roasted turkey sandwiches, homemade cranberry-orange sauce with walnuts, and chocolate cappuccino...



Nice place to stop for dinner, especially since the shadows were getting long...



We stopped for a cocktail at the International Hotel in Austin, a super-cool funky bar/restaurant/hotel...








The sun was going down and it was getting cold so we booked back to camp as fast as we could, arriving just in time for lovely skies...


Another great Thanksgiving Day filed away in our memory banks


The waxing gibbous moon was much too bright for serious stargazing so we just waited it out in the springs until it set about 2am or 3am. We were rewarded with the spectacular remains of the Leonids meteor shower and were able to catch Venus and Saturn racing the sunrise in the east...


Not much sleep to be had, but there will be plenty of time for that later when we're dead. Another great day was calling. Time for breakfast and then another ride coming up!




WoodsChick

Oh, I'd have been upset had someone stolen my hot tub
We rode for hours once to get to one of our favorite springs, only to get there and find the water level at the source too low to get to the pipe
flowing into the tub. I was not pleased but it's nature...what're ya gonna do?

Thanks, Nephron! Glad you're enjoying the photos. More on the way

We lingered over breakfast, waiting for the temps to climb into the high 20's before setting off. The sun gives our mountains a good-morning kiss...

Our goal on this day was to make it to Eureka, NV via dirt. The town was 90 miles away via pavement and we had a 180-mile range so the world was ours for a day. First stop was this abandoned ranch...

And another glorious day in the desert...

My new Under Armour top doubles as a Personal Locator Beacon and SAR aid...

We met the son of a local landowner while out here, really nice guy. Turns out we'd ridden through his property several years ago. Looking forward to running into him someday and having a nice conversation.
All too soon it was time to go...

Heading east, nothing but blue skies on my horizons...

Climbing into the mountains to the east, we take a look back at where we've been...

The BLM hasn't gotten them all, thank goodness...

Hmm...what's this?


Room with a view...

Come on in, Sugar...

Neat-o sliding window on the wall, old Victoria's Secret catalogs in the bucket...

Hey! This road looks more interesting. Let's go this way!

Back up into the mountains, our soil consists entirely of crushed quartz...


Saw some huge elk in this canyon but the big ones were too fast for my camera. They were so big I thought they were moose when I first saw them! Never have I seen such huge racks on elk.
Almost 9000' in the end of November and no snow...

Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Nevada, eh?

Cactus nestled amongst the quartz at 9000'...crazy...

Heading back down into yet another valley, our long day ended here...

A few more days of riding coming your way!

Another great journey and documentary.

(now if I can just speed up the process of getting a 650..)

Hah! We did Lost Coast for a few years before heading out to Nevada in 2007. We missed last year, and did Lost Coast in 2010 due to sub-zero temps in Nevada. You weren't too far off Did you two take any photos on your ride and dine? If so let's see `em!

Thanks, Dean! I wouldn't mind speeding up that process myself. Hopefully I'll have one in my hot little hands within 2 weeks. Wanna ride the SV?

Thanks, Palmer! Ooh...Sedona! Lots of pretty photo ops out there. Did you take any? I'd love to see `em!

18º at 6am in Eureka, Nevada...

High 20's by the time we reach these off-limits hot springs...

Finally some snow! Too bad we're not going that way...

This little mountain pass was wildly fragrant with juniper and pine...

So much water in Nevada, you just have to go looking for it...

This frozen pond and spring would have been lovely if not for the cows...

Nice Nevada fixer-upper...

The kitchen needs a little bit of attention, though...

The original dwelling was behind the trailer on the other side of the frozen creek...

Well, this looks like a fun route!

Haven't seen too many of these critters...

Our original plans had us going far north, but with a range of only 180 miles we had to alter that a bit. A blessing in disguise, as we got back to camp early enough to enjoy the sunshine and solitude...

Nothing to do now except wait for the moon and stars to come out and work on that bottle of wine...

Speaking of the moon, this guy is seriously hindering our star-gazing. We just wait it out every night, enjoying the daylight-like moonshine and then bidding it goodnight as it slips below the horizon, leaving Jupiter to shine on in its absence...

And a spectacular night it was...


The shooting and falling stars were incredible on this night! I think the 13º temp made the stars sparkle even more than they did before. Once the pesky moon got out of sight the show was on, and it didn't stop til the sun came `round to grace us with her presence again. But first...Saturn and Venus had to do their stellar dance for us...


Alright...let's get this day started!

But first ;-)

One more day on the way!

That would be fantastic, let me know.