Moments in Dirt and Ink

 Ryan Creek ; McKay Community Forest: Jan 1  Hammond Trail ; McKinleyville Land Trust and parks: Jan 26  Iaqua Buttes Lookout ; Arcata BLM: Feb 15

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I passed right by Grimes Point on the way out to see the annular eclipse , which quite definitively closes my circle through Nevada that started with the Pony Express and other ruins . (There's an introduction at the Lassen overlook , but that's in California, so that doesn't count.) I wanted to stop this time because there are petroglyphs. These aren't just any petroglyphs, either. Estimated to be at least 8000 years old, they're some of the oldest in the state. There are some that are probably at least 10,500, perhaps 14,000, years old, so they're not the oldest. One of a few information signs at the highly developed Grimes Point Trailhead which includes toilets, covered picnic tables, paved road access, and more information signs. My plan for the visit was to take a turn around the interpretive trail that visits some of the petroglyphs in the area, then head up the Observation Point Trail. There were some g...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) The sun came up leaving my apparently exposed camp in the shadow of the unnamed bulk north of Buller Mountain. I got to wishing this Trail Sense app didn't just tell me when the sun would come up, but would also show where, or at least give me a bearing. Then I could better plan to have a sunlit morning! The morning sun on Corey Peak, the goal for today, and the road to start climbing to it. Other sunlit peaks, short ones in Nevada and tall snowy ones in California. East along Lucky Boy Road to the colored sky. Of course, it's only a half hour to an hour more to get the sun. Still, more pleasant with it. I didn't have all that far to go (7-8 miles total) and all of it on clear road, so I didn't rush the start. The grader parked below got moving toward California eventually. The road wasn't smooth enough yet.

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I stopped by the Mineral County Library in Hawthorne to do a few things on the web. The stop lasted a bit longer than expected because they have jigsaw puzzles out for working. I managed to head out in good time to find a camp site in the light and getting to the top of the top of Lucky Boy Pass took less time than expected as the road was recently graded. What to do with 40 minutes of light? The world was clearly directing me to go find the "Below Corey" geocache . I decided to let it push me along that way since it would mean I at least stepped foot into the forest. Along this road, it is essentially Bureau of Land Management on the north side of the road and National Forest on the south side. Besides, I do like a lonely cache and this one hadn't been visited in 6 years! This is doubly surprising since nearby ones have had much more recent visits. Lucky Boy Pass Road so recently polished...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) The bit of geocaching at the mining areas on the way up to Mable Mountain seemed quite successful, so I set out to find a couple more before stopping by the library in Hawthorne and then finding a new camp with easy access to Corey Peak. They were actually on the menu for the day I drove in, but the faint roads that lead to them proved so hard to see that I went right past before knowing it. With a lot more care, I got stopped in the right places on the way out. Since absolutely no one would care if I parked at the side of the road, I decided against challenging off road parking spots and didn't repeat throwing the car into a sand trap. First up, Lazy Man . I approached it from a hill that had been cut, but not for a road. Buildings and other structures and tailings from the Lazy Man Mine, worked around the 1930s?, lie below. The mine spreads out all around the hill. I headed down the hill, trackless on the south side, to hav...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I headed down the good road from camp to another decaying road to hike the high point of the Garfield Hills. I thought I might go up that road far enough to clear the bit of private property around Garfield Flat, but decided against due to the rocks down the middle and just pulled over to park instead. Was that sand? I got out to verify that yep, I'd done an excellent job of parking, completely clearing the road, and sticking myself into somewhat deep sand. Since getting out of the sand would just mean having to find a new place to park, I decided to leave that task for later. No need for extra steps. I did a pretty good job of not fretting about it during the day as I took off up the road. This day would be road travel past the Bataan Mine , then a bit of the ridge between Mable Mountain and the high point to the day's goal. Then I'd take a slightly shorter route back with more cross country and less mine and road. Some ori...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) If I could figure out a way to make permanent travel work, I'd have turned south to finish wiggling around Nevada. I've not, so I turned north to finish circling Nevada. However, there were still a few days of good weather left, so I stalled out in the Garfield Hills to check them out. Reports for getting to the high point on Peakbagger indicate Garfield Flat Road is rather rough on the east side, where it starts in Mina almost at an NDOT station. I came by the west side, past a tiny NDOT sign stating this road gets "minimal maintenance", and up some wash crossings. It looked like that minimal maintenance was quite recently done. I decided I would go up Mable Mountain. I read it as "Marble" and was a little upset there's no obvious marble like spots on it. There is a marble quarry half a mile down the road from my camp, though. There's no hint of marble on this Mable Mountain. I considered combini...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) I got a late start because, well, it's cold out there. I don't particularly want to deal with the part of the day that's below 20°F, quite frankly. A south facing slope and warming sun can fix it right up in a little time. It's bad enough when water freezes, but when the pancake batter or even the eggs freeze, it is really annoying. When I did start out, it was still too early for a raptor that I kept disturbing as I headed toward yesterday's missed Earthcache . My target, the line of white cut into the desert slope in the distance, more toward the bottom than the top. A disturbed raptor, probably a northern harrier, takes flight from the sagebrush. I disturbed quite a lot of sage sparrows, too. The little flocks would flutter and swoosh and become dark spots on one turn and flashing white spots on other turns. I decided it was time to try to capture a flock with the camera as I walked across the less impressive l...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) I had looked out at the colorful mountains and thought "I want to go there" and then gone off to some mountains that turned out to be a bit south of the ones I was looking at. The Silver Peak Range does have plenty of its own color, it is true, but I still wanted some wandering in the Monte Cristo Range. A little bit, anyway. As I poked at my resources, little Castle Peak and an Earthcache became my main targets. I ended up needing a second geocache to find the road I was aiming at for access. According to the page for it, it's the best road to Gilbert. Graders working the sides of the highway had very much ignored it while they scraped 60 feet clear and contoured it toward a nearby culvert. Once properly on the road, only a few places wanted to rub my car's tummy or were uncomfortably soft. It probably would have been fine on a rough wash entry, but I hit the brakes and backed up instead. I'd just seen a nice flat ca...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) "The Crater" proclaims the map as if, although there may be others around, there's certainly none of this stature. I left my camp just north of (or maybe within) the Silver Peak caldera and headed for it. First I stopped at Coyote Spring (a small swampy area beside the road surrounded by parched land) and the Silver Peak cemetery , then north to The Crater. I found parking along the side of the highway as it loomed at the edge. It looks like there's an even more commonly used area slightly north of The Crater. I aimed to go around it as I had with Lunar Crater and Easy Chair Crater . The road to Silver Peak with some other dark bumps out in Clayton Valley. The Crater rising from Clayton Valley. USGS shows some track roads on The Crater. The one on the south side goes to a "cinder pit". There's an Earthcache for it that happens to mention some trail, too, with a warning against trying those roads no ma...