Moments in Dirt and Ink

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Click for map. The Shellback Wilderness has no trails, but it does have a couple spots where it wraps around dirt roads. The longest of these comes in from the north end. The map seems to indicate that it comes off the west end of a frontage road that might be called Old Lincoln Highway. Coming down from the summit, I could see the road stretching south down the wide valley, but no obvious road. For a second try, I turned into the little paved circle of an NDOT outpost. A dirt road curved off the edge of it and two tracks cross Illipah Creek off the edge of that. I wanted to make my way a little way down this dirt road for parking, but the road does turn 4WD in about four feet. I could have just straddled the big holes by the creek crossing through a culvert, but with the weather changing the whole thing just put me in mind of when I just had to park all the way at the edge of a turnout rather than merely off the road leading to the only ...