Moments in Dirt and Ink

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...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( Click here for the locaiton .) On my way through, I stopped in Silver Peak. The cemetery is very cute with each site picked out in rocks. Someone seems to have added a huge number of wooden crosses to it recently, perhaps to distract from how many of the plots have been left without a name. The cemetery at Silver Peak. Although not marked with names, some are singled out by visitors. Some are given great detail of the outline of their living. The cemetery, Silver Peak, and the lithium mine from the top. Some details higher in the cemetery. *photo album* ©2023,2024 Valerie Norton Written 9 Feb 2024

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) My plan for the day was an out and back to Silver Peak, a little over 3.5 miles distant for the crow. For myself as a land bound creature, it would involve some winding and negotiation of slopes. There are numerous ascents on Peakbagger , mostly involving long 4x4 drives to or near a radio tower south of the peak and a half mile walk up to the top. Some decide it's a bit rough or snowy and they might as well get a whole mile walk in. One sans-4x4 headed up a road a bit to the west that gets up pretty high. I decided on one a little less to the west that doesn't go so far, leaving more than half of the route cross country. But how hard could that cross country be? After a short walk on the good road, there's this pair of tracks heading south. The terrain ahead, but I'm going off to the right. Silver Peak is way in the back and a little further. The road climbs a bit higher than I needed it to, but it's gentle. It ge...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) My initial plans for a western approach to the high point of Rhyolite Ridge may have been foiled (perhaps by my own timidity), but I could still find a way up on the east side to bag this 1000 foot prominence peak. The west side sure looks a lot easier. There is a track on Peakbagger indicating it didn't require any class 5.3 moves or anything, so I set out to make the attempt in spite of all the clearly visible cliffs. Rhyolite Ridge from the east side. Boundary Peak (and higher Montgomery next to it) through the gap. Taller, but not very prominent. The route up is far to the north on little used roads and my little car still has only two drive wheels and 6 inches of clearance, so there would be a bit of walking before the real climbing began. From camp, the roads going my way are inconveniently placed, so I just set out across the scrub. Not a hard hike with a patch of cholla along the way. I got to a rough road and followed it ...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) Corral, it says. Cave Spring, it says. Ruins, it says. There's a couple prospects and a building marked too. Okay map, I thought, we can stop there and see what all the fuss is about. That's quite a few little marks. Cabin, corral, and Rhyolite Ridge. I did find myself deciding that the way up Rhyolite Ridge was up the valley north of the road and pick one of the later minor ridges to the top. The only trouble is the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. (Sponsors of Radio Goldfield , oldies western and a whole lot more. Strongly Appalachian sounding when I first stumbled on it, playing "Christmas songs for folks who don't like Christmas songs" later, and highly recommended.) There's a bit of activity south of the road including "no unauthorized entry" signs and seemed like even more activity north of the road. No exclusive signs, but still worrying. So I discarded actually doing my plan for the Rhyoli...

Tonopah Field Office BLM Location: Fish Lake Valley Hot Well It's really quite nice camped near Emigrant Pass. It wasn't too far below freezing at night and a bit of early morning sun could bring the temperature up quickly. And this morning, I finished brushing my teeth and turned around to find this bunch looking uncertainly at me. A collection of pronghorn with different ideas on which way to run. They milled a bit, took off up the wash shortly, milled about some more, took off down the hill, stopped and milled again. They even vanished and came back. Good thing for them I wasn't really anything to worry about. There they go, up the wash. No, maybe the other way. Returned again from off over the hill. The pronghorn were my first visitors. My tire marks out on the road were only marred by my own footprints. As pleasant as it was, I was ready for the next thing. I pondered returning the way I came rather than brave the rest of this iffy road over the t...