Five days - Three Treks - Nevada

FortyMileDesert

Adventurer
Some photos at:

http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=Rons Adventures/Wonder_plus/

M1-M7 are Ben’s, the rest mine.

Day One (6/3/06) – Wonder, Hercules, Vulture, Jackpot, Project Shoal, Little Yosemite.
Ben is Trail Boss in the Montero Sport
Henry along as co-pilot
Rocky in the Discovery

Up at 6:00, breakfast at Pioneer Crossing Casino Restaurant in Fernley, gas up and Safeway stop in Fallon, then heading east on 50 from Fallon at about 8:00. About 40 minutes later; after passing Eight mile Flat, Sand Mountain, Sand Springs Pass and Labou Flat, we turn off the highway at Drumm Summit, heading north up Stingaree Valley towards Wonder. After about three miles we are on the east side of Chalk Mountain and decide to visit a few silver mines on the south-east slope. Several nice adits but minimal tailings. This must have been a small operation that didn’t last too long.

Another five miles or so and we intersect Wonder wash which runs between the Louderback Range to the west and the Clan Alpine Mountains to the east. Just about even with Crown Peak I spot a small herd of wild horses. On the radio, I call back Ben. He’s really in to wild horses. It’s a small band of six; a stallion, four mares and one foal. A couple of the other mares are pretty broad so most likely about to drop more foals. They’re really healthy as we’ve had two extra wet winters in a row. Nevada is much greener than usual.

Heading through Badger Flat we can see Wonder Mountain in the distance. The site of the town of Wonder is just a flat; nothing left except for the fact that the soil has been moved around. We can see some modern workings (last forty years or so) to the north-west and the earlier workings high on Wonder Mountain to the north. I think that the original workings are circa 1880. About ½ mile beyond Wonder, a side road heads up towards the extensive concrete mill foundations on the east flank of the mountain.

Passing the mill site, we continue gaining elevation, climb around the north side of the mountain and arrive at the main workings of the mine. There are a few very large adits and a huge area of the mountain top has just been removed. From the workings we climb to a ridge to the north to have a look back on the mountain, take a lunch break and check some trails down towards Hercules with the binoculars. The trail down appears very steep and possibly ends at an avalanche. We decide to not venture down that way. More about this later.

After leaving the Wonder Diggins, we returned south and around the towards the west to reconnoiter the modern digs. We found the track frames, clutches, brakes, transmission pieces of a medium sized Cat.; some crusher and conveyor parts and a lot of rock pushed around. From there we continued west and then north up Hercules Canyon just west of Wonder Mountain. There are some extensive diggings on Camelback Mountain and Porphyry Peak to the west. We stop at the site of Hercules and the Vulture Mine. A few shacks, an adit and some broken down ore chutes. A bit further along the trail are some lava tubes in the basalt. It appears that some large animals have denned up in them. Mountain Lion or Bobcat?

Beyond Vulture the road splits; Hercules Canyon north and Geiger Gap west. We take Geiger gap hoping to loop around the north extremity of Louderback Mountain and return back up Hercules Canyon towards Queen Peak. Near the center of the gap we take a trail up a ridge for a spectacular view of Dixie Valley and the Stillwater Range to the west. We hear but only occasionally see Navy fighters dog-fighting above us. Then it’s on down the road to look for the trail north around the mountain.

At about 39-29.00N x 188-06.00W is supposed to be a road going north. We can find the beginnings of a trail that vanishes at a wash. Evidently this trail has not been used for about thirty years since the Navy took over this section of the Dixie Valley and closed it to the public. We are actually on BLM land but the access from the west is closed, thus this road has no useful purpose except to us. Henry gets out and walks ahead for about 1/8 mile and I follow trying to make out the trail. Eventually I can see the trail some of the time if I look several hundred yards ahead and then mentally figure where the trail right in front of me might be.

For about 3 miles I navigate this way on what I call the “Trail that’s Not a Trail”. I finally come to a hundred yard wide wash, Hercules Canyon Creek, which looks as if it’s going to be pretty tough to navigate. Mind you that there have been about thirty winters of snow melt running down this since the last time any motor vehicles have crossed. I can see a notch in the berm of the wash on the far side, but not the trail in the bottom of the wash. While Ben and Henry investigate running up the wash, I carefully cross the wash avoiding any rocks larger than basketballs and eventually make it to the berm. From the top of the berm, I direct Ben via radio on how to get from where he is to where I am. From there it’s a pretty easy drive along the top of the berm back up Hercules Canyon to the intersection where we turned.

Just past the Vulture Mine we turn up a canyon that supposedly goes to the Jackpot Mines. It looks as if this canyon could only go back a few hundred yards. We head up and come to an old ore chute, then up a narrow trail past the foot of a hundred foot high tailing pile, around a hard left turn, crawl up the tailing pile to the top and come to a cabin ruin. To my surprise it looks as if we can squeeze by the cabin and go further up the canyon. Up, up and up; it rises steeply through a narrow slot canyon. The canyon zig-zags for nearly a mile and comes out at a high saddle at about 5800 feet with spectacular views all around. From the saddle a steep trail continues further and we end at a peak with even better views! We take a break and head back down to the Hercules Canyon road.

Just a bit past Hercules we come to the bottom of the avalanche like trail that we could see from the Wonder Mine. We decide to climb it from the bottom and see just how far we can go. It starts out easy following a wide wash. After a bit it gets narrow, windy and steep. Pretty soon we come to the avalanche area. It’s not an avalanche at all; just a loose gravelly steep section. It requires LO low but the trucks pull it steadily; not even much wheel slippage! Pretty soon we top out at the Wonder Mountain Mine.

Now it’s time to retrace the fifteen or so miles back to highway 50. We reach the highway at about 4:30 and Ben suggests that we’ve got enough daylight to take Henry to Project Shoal and Little Yosemite. Off we go.

As I mentioned in the last report I did; the GZ (ground zero) road up to Project Shoal has been graded as the EPA has been drilling new test wells to ensure that any radioactive isotopes are not leaking away from the sight or migrating into any groundwater. I’ve been there about six times now over the past four years. Kinda’ ho-hum, but you need a fresh dose of green glow on the bottom of the truck every so often. We stay just a few minutes and head for Little Yosemite.

The trail to the granite spires gets worse every time I go there. I suspect that a couple more years and someone will blaze a new trail to the top. By the way, Ben gets a nice photo of a small rattlesnake near the fork in the GZ/Gote Flat trails. We spend about a half hour hiking around the granite and then head back towards Fernley.

We arrive in Fernley a bit after 8:00 pm and enjoy the traditional dinner at Jakes.
 

FortyMileDesert

Adventurer
Day 2 and 3

Day Two – (6/04/06) Eagle Peak, radio towers, horses and great views.

Same group as day one.

It was breakfast at Chukars, then head south on 95A to turn off just before Silver Springs. About a mile in and just before climbing the mountain, we come to a new posted, “Absolutely No Trespassing” sign and the name of the company that owns this bit of wild country. Only 95% of Nevada is public land; a bit is private. We continue on but decide that from now on we’ll come up through Talapoosa.

The views are just as spectacular as ever, the smaller of the two bands of horses was on the ridge and for a change we didn’t freeze to death up there! We wandered around a bit, took some pictures and headed down. Incidentally; from there you can see Pyramid Lake to the north, Fernley and Fernley Sink to the north-east, Fallon and Carson Sink to the east, about six ranges of mountains to the south-east and south, the Sierras (about 60 miles away to the south-west and west, and the rest of the Virginia Range to the north-west. We went down by way of Talapoosa and Silver Springs and I said my goodbyes to Ben and Henry as we approached Fernley. Total run time about 6 hours.

Day Three - (6/7/06) Fireball Ridge, Nezelda, Tolbert Canyon

This time it is just me. I had spent two days investigating local sources for wrought iron patio fencing, water softener and reverse osmosis systems and just finding stuff in Fernley and Fallon. The reason for the water treating equipment: though my place in Rocklin has some of the finest water on earth; Fernley has the worst.

Anyway, Wednesday, I decided to make a trip out into the desert to bring back some rock for improving the landscaping in the back yard. I folded up the rear seats in the back of the Disco; put in some old carpeting to protect the carpets and side panels, and brought along just the barest of survival gear (I was never going to get much further than about 12 miles from a highway.

I headed out I80 to Bradys Hot Springs, turned off the highway and headed north towards Nightengale. About 6 miles up valley I turned west towards Fireball Ridge, Tolbert canyon and the Nezelda Mining area. It’s about 6 very slow going miles to the Fireball Pass and Nezelda. I took a couple of side trails out to some mine tailings and adits and started loading on rocks. After scouting around Nezelda a bit, I headed towards Tolbert Canyon looking for the road that is on the map.

I found it! This is the third time I’ve been to Tolbert and I finally found the road. It’s very faint and has been used very little. After following the trail for about half of a mile I came to a dry arroyo about six feet wide and maybe five feet deep. I scouted around and found a spot that I was about 20% sure I could cross. Being as I was alone and didn’t want to chance a walk back, I turned around and headed back to Nezelda.

On the east side of the Fireball Ridge I scouted a couple small side canyons that dead ended. I managed to pick up a nice variety of paving stones. I filled the back of the truck about a foot deep – Maybe about 20 cubic feet of rock. Perhaps it was 2000 pounds. I kept measuring the spring drop until the Rovertymes had dropped about 2”. Then it was back towards Bradys Hot Springs. I took a trail that was about 2 miles shorter across the valley. Yep, two miles shorter but oh so much rougher! With the extra weight in back and lots of washes crossing the trail at right angles, I had to stay in LO low and never went faster than about two miles an hour. Got back to Fernley after about a five hour run.
 
S

Scenic WonderRunner

Guest
Looks like a fun trip.....FMD......!

Thanks for sharing.....and in Total Detail!

Great job!
 

Scott Brady

Founder
Rocky,

Thanks so much for posting your adventure here. Do you mind if I make an official adventure article from the two postings?

Several of us had a blast in Northern Nevada at the NVTR rally. You have nearly endless tracks to explore :archaeolo

And if you have a moment, maybe start a thread in the Rover section on your Disco. It looks like an awesome machine!
 

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