…or, a day trip to Winnemucca and back;

After sunrise and a quick stop to drop Willey’s tires at the Gerlach Shell it was east along the High Road, 96 miles from the pavement of 447 to Winnemucca, pavement there beginning a little before 95, both in terms of the mileage and the Highway.  The road’s surface was a little sketchy until Cholona…

After which more insane speeds became possible until stopping at Sulphur to survey the dump, now completely stripped of anything of interest  [i.e.the many vintage abandoned vehicles of years past, a situation sadly endemic throughout the area as scrap prices soar and industrious tweakers become ever more ubiquitous]

…and to observe the ever expanding activities of Hycroft, moving mountains for gold while turning the remaining fifty + miles to town into a dirt superhighway;

So on to Winnemucca, unsuccessfully seeking barn lights though managing to renew our driver’s license, a driver’s license ‘ordinaire’ without that special tracking chip [the “Real ID”] that is supposed to make life in the surveillance state SO much easier…for the surveillors, anyway.

By a bit past noon back on Highway 80 at 80 to Imlay, somewhat [but not much] less speedily across the desert thereafter…

[east and west, north of Imlay]

[southeast and northwest, Imlay Summit]

Turning for Rosebud Canyon…

…lunch looking south from the western side of the Kamma Mountains;

…the Kammas from their northernmost alluvium, the Black Rock Desert from afar, Sulphur again and west on the High Road;

Gerlach gas station redux, a quick visit to Planet X ;

…and home, where the vast roof of the repository stands out gleaming in the afternoon light…

and February dust hangs over Sand Pass Road…

 

M