This weekend decided to head out to Sand Mountain and clear out the caches from there. 11 of them, and a Challenge thing (wanna be virtual) was at the beginning. So, we drove out and headed in. Turns out its $40/week to get in and no there is no daily option. So got the little tag and headed up the sand. First cache was an easy grab after a short walk, but the second one further up into the mountain (actual mountain to the east of the dune) was a pain in the butt to get to and once the, the coordinates were off. But I spent way to long looking and gave up in favor of going after ones I could actually find. An Earthcache was next, followed by four along the outer edge of the sand and one up in the dunes themselves. Thankfully, it had rained a few days ago and the mornings were chilly, leave us with a nice hard pack sand playground! Further up into the canyon where the sand is creeping it's way over into Dixie Valley and we found two more, one of which I made WAY to hard! The second got us down into a bowl that the warming sun and loosening sand resulted in us having to find another way out. Thankfully, I spotted a road to the north so we swung around, came up a different direction and headed off to the last cache. Which topped out in being an FTF, Whoo hoo!
On Sunday, met up with Puzzleman and we headed out to grab a bunch of caches around Lovelock. I needed the south end of the town cleared out and we also claimed the one on top of Lovelock Point. A very steep scree covered slope with loose razor sharp boulders. Ah, but what do mine eyes see upon the imagery?? A TRAIL! Though nearly 200 ft in elevation over the 500 foot distance, the trail was hard packed and easy (relatively) to climb up, I found the survey marks at the top while Puzzleman logged us in. Afterwards we hit one of the strings of caches left over from a Rally a few years ago before heading down I-80 and clearing the ones that are along the road but inaccessible from the road. Damn fence! We followed the old emigrant route and found a bunch of history marketers I had never seen before. We found enough to bring Puzzleman up to his 3499th cache, then dropped into Fernley to grab a puzzle for his milestone. Found a really neat area there as we drove along a narrow canal edge overlooking the trail tracks below. Eek. Glad there was a turn around spot up ahead! After dinner, we split off and I returned home to try and get pictures and logs all updated. I checked Churchill County and have 25 remaining to grab. 5 of which I am convinced are not there. Still, county almost cleared!! 5,023 square miles of cache free success!
So the Washoe Drive Fire was on Thursday and winter arrived on Friday. By Saturday morning, there was a nice coating of snow on the upper elevations and a nice sheen of black ice in the lower valleys. dad and I had a yummy breakfast at IHOP, before deciding to drive north on the newly opened Highway 395.
Crews were still working on power lines and homeowners were milling around their destroyed lots, but because of the snow, passerby's couldn't really see the burn damage. I glanced up into Pagni Canyon and failed to see the southernmost trestle from the V&T railroad. I hope something remains of those historic bridges. After reaching Reno, we took a look up onto Mt Rose and decided to drive up the mountain. While everything was covered, it wasn't actively snowing. So just slow and go all the way up and over and down into Incline. Drove along the shore back to 50, then headed home. I hung out with Puzzleman for awhile before returning home to watch Dragonslayer and have yummy Domino's Pizza!
Sunday, decided to head south to clear out Yerington and Schurz before catching the few stragglers along Hwy 95. Not too impressed with the short trail in Yerington but those are cleared again (later note, the original six of the now 100 long Powertrail.) Plus grabbed a few others before going and playing once again at the confluence tunnel. The highlight of the day was the two caches along the Walker River in Schurz. WOW, pretty location! And the cottonwoods would be gorgeous come summer and fall! Cleared up that town, admired what I thought to be an old depot, but a sign on it indicated a school, before heading north back to Fallon. I had all the ones along the Speedway, so hung out in the Jeep waiting and playing a totally addicting game called Temple Run! Back into town, back home, and another adventure finished.
So, early in December, I start emailing a fellow named Mike over in Livermore from http://offroadexperience.com/. After a lot of fun talking about offroading, the Nevada desert, and a few train wrecks, he invites me out to their company party this weekend. Wo am I to turn down such an awesome chance?
Friday night, I join him, Earl, and Bruce for dinner in Fernley and hang out to continue the conversation until way late. I think I was cross-eyed as I was driving home but was in a totally hyper mood. We were going to roughly head north, to a place he called Schoolbus, and then pop over to Eagle Pitcher. Fun thing was there were a few caches along the way, including an FTF.
Saturday morning, I'm loaded up into the Land Rover and we're off down the road up towards Winnemucca Lake. Head out of Nixon onto a road I wasn't even aware of into a mountain range I had yet to play in. We wiggled our way across old flash floods (Mike having been out here so often and for so long that he could tell me when the flood was and what his crew did to get the road back into drivable condition). We then found the FTF cache and continued up to School Bus. Two big old yellow buses from the 40's (?) were sitting there. Formally used as living quarters, then had long been abandoned and some idiots found them and started blowing holes into the entire vehicle. Damn. We stopped for pictures, then off against up a few washes and then to a split, where one road skirted the top of a wash, the other straight into the wash and the "Rock Wall". Of course we went into the wash! I've been with BigTruckCrew and a few others crawling up rocks, even tried my hand at it, but I have to say, that ride up was one of the smoothest I've been on. Then We got out to take pics of the rest on the convoy coming up. First was the red Tacoma with Bruno and his son. Followed by Earl in the white Taco. And last Bruce in his black Cherokee. Afterwards, we continued up a steep long pull from the bottom of the range right up to the ridge. Crossing over the range, we were taking to a hunter's blind where we stopped for lunch. Then down again on the other side of the range, straight into a gully and out into a long flat valley with a sizable dry lake bed. Blasting across that, we stopped at a windmill and played with the three inch thick ice that had formed. Further up into the next mountain range, we stopped at an old site of a bomber crash from the 1940's. We paid our respects, examined the remaining debris, and then continued north to the Velvet Mine and over to Eagle Pitcher, before turning east and dropping down into Lovelock. Dinner was back in Fernley and another long great conversation had that night.
Sunday, after swinging by to say farewell to the guys, I hooked up with Puzzleman who had plans to head out to Yerington and around to Schurz before coming into Fallon. Well, since I was free, we met up, grabbed a puzzle cache we both needed and then opted to switch routes and head into Fallon first. Almost totally cleared out the Carson Sink area for him and I got to enjoy the day bouncing around on the old Pony Express trail down through there. Had dinner at Jerry's and loved hanging out with great company.
Monday, being a holiday, hung out with my Dad and we had plans to head over to Truckee to rescue a travel bug. But I happened to glance at Twitter in the morning and a local Carsonite was mentioning white stuff. Look out the window to see a light coating of snow all over the road. Had to post on Facebook and was promptly harassed by THREE of my so called friends! Course, one accused me one whining, one was my mother (she has the right to harass me) and the third is from Canada where he just LAUGHED over my so called "snow". Sheesh! The drive over the pass was uneventful and beautiful with the snow filling the cracks of the granite boulders throughout the mountain. TB retrieved and we swung up to Tahoe to get pictures before coming back down to go up to Cabela's for lunch. I had an elk burger, yummy!!
Once I got home, I settled in and took a look at the SPOT data I had been sending out all weekend. Then I discovered the Spot Adventures. Well, the results are below. Click on the title above the widget to go to the adventure page itself. But I do love the automatic geotagging of the pictures. I think i will use this page more often, I like the results.
Endless nights under an unforgiving moon. The ceiling offering no protection from the rain within, Staring and searching for that which can never be. Against all that is normal and accepted and assumed.
The trail unbroken save for a single path behind. Footprints alone in the vastness that few can comprehend. Surrounded by others, but a stranger in a strange land. Alone in a sea of friends, a lost soul without a guide.
A companion to face the path ahead, beside and equal. Back to back, shoulder to shoulder, utter faith and absolute trust, That which society denies and cannot understand Close enough to be more than friends, but never more than friends.
Look for the one who does understands, who also does not touch that way For a moment of joy, before a night of sorrow. Never more than friends, but a bond far closer than friends.. Reaching out into the darkness, seeking and finding...
A warm heart with a gentle presence, a cold nose with a steady purr And a hope that sleep comes soon.
Friday popped into town quickly to catch the UFC fight and hang out with Puzzleman again. Silly man, when most normal people would be resting at home, not him! He's hanging out with the rest of the crazies. Sheesh! But on the way in, I grabbed some pictures of the still burning Laurel Fire... a 300+ acre WILDFIRE in December.
Anyway, Saturday and Sunday my Dad and I headed out for some off roading fun. There has been no precipitation at all. Which means the roads up in the mountains are free and clear. We headed up Long Canyon on the western edge of the Stillwater Range. There's a cache up there that hasn't been found since 2008. We were hoping to be the second to find on that elusive cache, but alas, it was not to be. After a 30 minutes search, we gave up and continued on up the road to Wildhorse Pass and around the Humbolt Sink. Got a handful of caches and then home to await the new year. Though I crashed around 10. Ugh.
Sunday, we were back out on the road exploring from Dayton Valley Rd over to Adrian Valley that we explored last week. That was an enjoyable ride and an awesome location to boot. Took a ton of pictures as we made our way over to Hwy 95. Then it was off to grab two new FTFs. While those were fun and successful, the best time was when we found a patch of loose dusty sand and blasted through it with the Jeep. I had a great time grabbing pictures of that!
Monday was just a time to hang out with my buddy and chillax after the stress of the holidays. Didn't do a whole lot, picked up a few caches, and just chatting lightly about flotsam and jetsam.
All in all a great weekend! Hope yours was as well!!
