Nevada

Dec. 12, 2003

It was a beautiful drive down. The roads were fairly dry most of the way and only put it in four-wheel drive on one pass where it was icy. The pod pulls like a dream and I have enough weight in the truck to get good traction. I packed up a load of stuff to take down to Goldfield and will stash it in one of my cabins. Most of the stuff is nails and VW parts that will come in handy there. I have to rebuild the engine in ‘Orange Julius’ the little VW Thing I have in a shed there. I really need to do some work on a couple of cabins as well, but I am not sure if I want to tackle that now. I did bring down some corrugated roofing that I had left over from rebuilding the greenhouse on the farm. Used or recycled as they say, is common building material in the desert. A lot of the tin roofing has been used several times. I lived in a cabin while I was working on restoring the Belmont Court House that had roofing that must have been reused a least 5 times. At night when looking at the roof I could see stars peaking through the holes. It really didn’t leak much as I remember. It only rains maybe 4 or 5 inches there and most of that is snow.

The road from Twin Falls to Jackpot is always a busy one. It is a major truck route and there are always a few going down to gamble. The road south of Jackpot was dry and in good shape. The moon was almost full and it is always a thrill for me to be back in Nevada, in a big valley and be surrounded by snow-capped mountains. I just had to stop and get out and just stand in awe. Ely needed to get out and stretch her legs too. She found out that a Nevada black tail jackrabbit is FAST. There are a lot of these jackrabbits in Florida that were introduced from Nevada to train the greyhounds. Quite a few of them got away and started a population there.

By the time I got to Wells, the roads were starting to get snow packed and icy again. I spent the night out side of town and went in to the truck stop in the morning to check on the roads. The gal said the roads were good heading south and they were. It was an interesting trip with the clouds hovering around 6,000 ft. I decided to head west on HWY 50 from Ely. That road is known as the loneliest road in the USA. I just love it. There really isn’t much in the way of civilization on the road but it is truly a beautiful route. Nevada is a series of north/south mountain ranges with large valleys between. HWY 50 runs east/west and cuts across these ranges and valleys. The valleys were covered with a light dusting of snow on the bushes and as I climbed the pass the snow got heavier and was coating the trees. It was snowing lightly on the high passes which are around 6,500-7,500 ft. the valleys are around 5,000 ft.  The mountains run around 10,000ft.

Eureka was dead as usual even though it is trying to be alive. They have done a lot of reconstruction work on some of the old buildings and even have a historic walk with numbered buildings. I have never liked Eureka and this time through was no different.

The road from Eureka west was very quiet. I don’t think I passed more than three cars in 70 miles. I did happen upon the highway crew at work patching road cracks. There must have been a dozen of them and I think  all were working which is unusual for State guys. They must have been expecting a big boss to come check on them. …

I have driven by the big sign on the highway announcing the Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area before and this time I decided to take the road in to check it out. It is near the top of the Hickison pass and I don’t remember the elevation but it was fairly high and it was snowing lightly. The road only goes back in a mile to a really nice camping area in the Pinion pines. There is an interpretative sign and a box with pamphlets for the self guided tour. The trail was only a little over a half mile and circled around to take in two rock art sites and an overlook of Big Smokey Valley. Unfortunately the valley view was not available due to the snow but I am sure it is really nice on a clear day. Big Smokey must be a hundred miles long and has big mountains on either side. The petroglyphs are carved and or pecked into a sandstone type rock that is weathered in odd shapes. Most of the drawings are what is called curvilinear, consisting of lines and arcs. The main attraction is a group of drawings that the pamphlet describes the archaeologists calling female symbols. They truly are that. Pussy!!!! I have seen similar drawings on many bathroom walls. Most of the other drawings were lines and squiggles except for one rough drawing of an animal (deer, sheep???). There was one interesting one that looked like Viking ‘Runes’ but I am sure it was only coincidental. I know the Vikings wouldn’t be drawing pussy pictures on the walls…………My friend Pat in Red Lodge was telling me about an old house he was rebuilding/remodeling in Minnesota.  He ripped out a ceiling in the kitchen and found big hand hewn timbers from over a hundred years ago. On one of the timbers was a big beautiful drawing of a spread legged woman. I asked if the owner left it and he said that no, he had a big family, and it was right over the kitchen table and it had to be sanded off. He said it was just a beautiful drawing and what a shame to destroy it. There are a lot of different types of art but it seems like some are timeless. 10,000 years of female symbols…… I wonder if anyone would buy a hair clip…….

From Hickson summit I dropped down into the Big Smokey and just before climbing the hill to Austin a road heads south down the big valley. Just a half mile down that highway a gravel road heads back east toward Toquima cave. I think that is the cave I visited 25 years ago with an archaeological tour. They had been excavating a shallow cave in Monitor Valley just over the hill. It was really interesting at the time but forget the details now. The people living here go back nearly 10,000 years when there were lakes in these big valleys. The road leads across the valley and just before it climbs very far up the other side (about five miles) a side road heads off north. The county had just been out grading the road and it was the best gravel road I have been on in quite some time. About a half mile down that road I came to the hot springs. There used to be a small cabin here. It was just a frame shack sided with some of that corrugated tin I was talking about. It had a small stock tank inside and a pipe that ran water directly into it. The shack also had a nice barrel stove so if it was really nasty a person could build a fire. The shack was burned down many years ago but now some nice people have fixed up a couple of hot tubs. One I remember from several years ago is made out of rock, which is the first one I jumped in this afternoon. I remember it being much warmer and this time it was hot on top but the temperature was just too cool. I went down to the lower one, which is an eight foot stock tank. Ahhhh just right!!!!! There is piece of 6” aluminum irrigation pipe that brings the water to the tank. Written on the pipe is…

The water coming out of this pipe is 122 degrees

Only let 40% of the water into the tank or it will be too hot.

Thanks

A toker

The water was so hot that if I moved around it was too hot, but if I stayed in one spot and didn’t move it was ok. OK that is for about fifteen seconds and then a quick jump out to cool off. After a good soak I found myself almost as red as my truck. The place is just as clean as can be. There are garbage barrels at both places and there are several camp spots scattered around. I have found that winter and even better, a snowstorm in winter is the best time to hit the hot springs. It is sometimes hard to take off your clothes in a snowstorm, but it is definitely worth it and there is almost no chance of company showing up. It is about eight o’clock now and nobody has shown up yet so I guess I will have the place to myself tonight. It is also snowing big flakes and that should keep the folks in the bars or in their homes for the evening. This is truly one of the finest spots in Nevada and if you ever get the chance DO NOT MISS IT.

I moved the inlet pipe over a little bit as I judged the flow to be 50/50 and when I got up at first light for a morning soak, it was just right. Just right for me is when you are up to your chin, you can’t stay in more than five to ten minutes without getting out to cool off. This spring is a treasure.

The morning view was absolutely fantastic with about 4 inches of fresh snow and about 28 degrees. In the distance I could see a few car headlights on the highway but absolutely quiet except for the sound of the water flowing into the tank. An early hawk came by looking for a meal and was promptly run off by Ely.

On the way down the valley I stopped at the Round Mountain Mine. This mine took down a huge mountain and now are making a big pit where the mountain was. It is really fine molecular ore and they pile the rock up in big piles and use a cyanide solution to get the gold out. I stopped to see if I could get a tour but it was Saturday and tours are available only during the week. On the way down Big Smokey often I could see big plumes of steam from hot springs along the way. Most of them were next to ranch houses and wouldn’t it be nice to have one in the yard????? Oh, yessss it would…..

I stopped in Tonopah to drop off the insulated coveralls that Gary had left at Mikes place in Twin Bridges. Gary is ram-rodding the gathering of several hundred wild horses in the Tonopah area. Gary just got back from Texas where his ex wife just died. She was 52 and just tipped over dead, just two weeks after her brother keeled over and died at a young age too. He has two girls that were living with her and now he will have to be dealing with them. They are almost grown so it shouldn’t be a big deal.

I went on to Goldfield and started unloading some stuff when my neighbor lady came by to check on who was screwing around my place. I have a couple of great older ladies that really keep an eye on what is going on around that end of town. The run anybody off that shouldn’t be there. After a quick check in with a couple of friends I made a run for Silver Peak. The Peak is always the same and a great collection of old shacks and trailers. There is almost every kind of old car and truck around too. The back yards are a treasure trove of antiques and junk. Life is good in the Peak, where anything goes and the bars never close as long as someone is drinking or gambling. I stopped in at Kenney’s bar and the bartender just had to bring out several rifles to show me. It isn’t many bars that you can have a loaded rifle or pistol and pass it around, but that is ok in the Peak. The county sometimes has a deputy stay in the Peak, but it isn’t a popular idea in town. Silver Peak is lower in elevation and has a much milder climate than most of the area. It can get cold and very windy, but not a bad place in the winter. The summers can be way too hot tho…