December 23, 2003 night camp

About a half mile up the wash, there is a nice camp spot that some nice folks left a large pile of two by four scraps as well as a few old pallets that were cut up just right for the large campfire ring that is here. There is definitely a storm  coming in and  there is just a hint of small rain drops in the air. There is a gusty wind brewing and the first fire of this trip is very welcome. I don’t usually burn lumber scraps but when out in the desert and someone hands you lumber scraps…. Make a fire!!!!!

It is always somewhat scary to be camped in a wash in the desert when rain is in the air. I have often seen it dry lower in the wash and have a huge flash flood come roaring down. In fact I was out on my motorcycle between Goldfield and Silver Peak many years ago. It started to spit rain and since I only had on a tee shirt and  jeans I parked my bike near a large culvert and crawled in. I was in there a couple of hours and even took a nap when I heard a big noise. I crawled out to see if someone had stopped on the road but there was no one there. When I bent down to crawl back in  the culvert, I noticed that there was a huge wall of mud and sticks roaring down the wash and into the culvert. I had to ride home in the rain on the bike and I don’t think I have ever been so cold. I got a really bad cold after that one. I have the truck pointed up a little ridge so incase it does rain and comes whooping down the wash I may be able to get out of it’s way if I hear it in time. With my hearing, I may just ride it out in the pod…. I wonder if the pod floats?

I have had to move into the pod and with the door open I can still watch the fire and feel the heat. The wind has calmed down and it is sprinkling now and this laptop was starting to get wet. I am listing to a fm station and was surprised to hear Art Bell as the announcer. I remember him saying that he had bought a radio station in Pahrump and this must be the one. He is doing all the ads himself and so far the music has been easy listening (at least for older folks).

December 24, 2003

This morning the orange sun was coming up under a sky full of washboard clouds. It made everything glow a red color. The ground was damp but if I scraped the surface the moisture only went down an inch or so. After breakfast Ely and I decided to go for a bike ride up the road toward the mountains. The road climbs gently at first and I could make it maybe a mile before I had to get off and walk the bike for a while. It was that way on and off the bike until the road finally petered out in a sandy wash at the foot of a dry waterfall. I decided to keep going on up and it was quite a climb indeed. Ely was a whiner and I accused her of being a ‘pasture grass flat-lander’ and told her she would never make it to ‘rock hound’ status if she kept it up. She did fine on the hills but when it came to rock climbing she was a quitter. Finally as I was on a fairly steep rock face inspecting it, as it was made up of a conglomerate of small geodes, when Ely went shooting by me on her own way up to the top! I guess her Icelandic Puffin hound blood finally kicked in. After that initial fear, she was fearless in climbing in the rocks. She was suffering some in her Montana –30 below coat. I think she needs to be shedding some of it.  [

We kept going on up to the top of  the hill going through several different types of rock. We found some small caves with nice south exposure but didn’t find any signs of habitation. On the way up we came across several piles of rocks made by others who have ‘claimed’ that small peak. We kept going on to the top where we found two Bench Marks put in by the US Costal and  Geodetic survey in 1926. At the high point marker was a large can painted white upside down in the rocks. I dug it out and found inside anther can with all the technical info on the site. It was a log of all the different times that survey crews had come up there to check on the site. It said that it was 3041 point something feet and was on the highest point on a malapi range of hills between Shoshone and the Funeral Mountains. I think Shoshone is about 1500 feet so it was a pretty good climb. It said it was about 24 miles south of Death Valley Junction and  4 miles west of Shoshone. The site had been visited in ’52, ’72, ’92, and again in ’96 by some people from San Diego who left a note saying it was “ VERY VERY WINDY”. Today it was quite calm and I could hear the cars on the highway below more than 5 miles away.

On the way up I was wishing I had brought along a water bottle. Actually I was thinking I need to make a small pack so Ely can carry a couple of water bottles for us. On the way down Ely found a small tinajara (sp? I forget the spelling, but it is Spanish for a rock depression that catches water when it rains). I let her have that one, as I don’t like drinking out of the same bowl as the dog. I found the next one and it was in a perfect polished rock bowl and was very clean. I have often drunk from them and so far have never been sick from it. If I was in an area where there were more people I might not. We celebrated the water find with a few almonds and some roasted cashews.

There are quite a few desert holly bushes around here and I picked up a small branch from one and along with a couple of candles will  be my desert Christmas decorations. We were both bushed when we got back to camp and I think we will just stay here for another night, as it is such a nice camp. The hot spring will be my Christmas present and I wish all my friends could join me.