[This next from an email sent Tuesday night but for those of you fed up already with endless pics of endless roads, be forewarned; they be 32 of ’em coming up.]

“So tomorrow I’m contemplating getting out of here around nine and going to the P.O., then from Gerlach north on SR 34 to Vya, northeast on 8A to, just before HWY 140,  34A, turning west to cross the Antelope Refuge [if the weather’s bad I’ll turn back and return via 8A to Long Valley], reconnect with 34 at Calcutta Lake, follow that south to Vya, then west on 8A to 299 to Cedarville, get gas, and home down the pavement [447 once in Nevada].”

…or so I said; seeing full sun after Tuesday’s clouds was sweet indeed and I was out the gate by nine, intersecting Jonboy on his way in to install the repo’s one remaining [only] exterior light.

…then to Gerlach for gas, mail and, discovering I’d forgotten coffee, weighing the options; as returning to Wall would easily add an hour…

I opted for 34, 9:35 a.m.;

9:50; Hualapai, backside of the Granites, pavement’s end, Leadville Canyon and north into larger country where every yellow arrow was cause for celebration as the country opened out…and out…

 

Aside from a lowboy stopped at Long Valley’s lower end the only humans encountered were two Mexicans low on gas with a trailer full of carport parts looking for Summer Lake.  I couldn’t help but they were happy to learn there was fuel in Cedarville nineteen miles west.  Their impression was that Summer Lake was seventy miles from somewhere and I later figured out it might be up in Oregon, seventy miles from Lakeview…but we were at the intersection of 34 and 8A in Washoe County, Nevada, and I turned east, crossing Long Valley and, on a day very different from last year’s slippery one with Kirk and Tom, towards the Sheldon Range, climbing gradually for some thirty of the forty-three miles to my turn…

[with few signs of man besides the road itself]

…then at last a steepish descent skirting Echo Canyon, where was parked a white van neither vintage nor new with luxe leather bucket seats and no one about save a bearded dude upslope among boulders and sagebrush contemplating the long [very long] view east beyond Big Springs Table to the Pueblos, Trout Creeks, Pine Forest Range, etc…

Good for him.

Down the road, past Gooch Springs [there are Gooches still; some work on the local road crew] and three hours since Gerlach, 34A came in at an oblique angle.  I took the turn and climbed west; West Rock Camp, Catnip Reservoir…

Mule Mountain [not shown], Swan Lake [not wet];

…until the old Hapgood Place [1885-1924[?]] aka “Last Chance Ranch”, first Sheldon Antelope Refuge Headquarters [1924 – 1935] and still preserved, its possibly sad history undocumented or contradictory, even the dates.  Lunch [salsa and avocado on flatbread, cheese; no coffee] and exploration;

We continued not much further to the [sort of] current Refuge Headquarters; a substantial stone bungalow built by the CCC in, the cornerstone sez, 1934, rundown garage/shop, small outbuildings and a couple of bulldozers…well, bulldozer and loader.

Everything looking a little forlorn; after that it was a quick run up Bald Mountain, the steep descent to another CCC monument at the Calcutta Lake entry and 34 south into the upper reaches of Long Valley;

…where I decided on an extra forty mile detour to investigate the Barrel Springs road to Fort Bidwell, which proved quite intriguing;

Turning north a big Dodge hauling a horsetrailer blew by me, southbound, only to turn up northbound as I was heading south between Fort Bidwell and Lake City, the switchbacks to Barrel Springs [and the red mud on the other side] being inhospitable, one guessed. In 1984 I’d camped on the overlook, bringing Bryan back from summer camp, while waiting to move in to Beulah Street…in another lifetime.

So down to Upper Lake, Cedarville gas and that long longed-for cup of coffee, mistakenly purchased [for fifty cents!] at Rabbit Traxx, where they seem to make it with antifreeze, mysteriously vile and, even for such as me, undrinkable…a serious disappointment.  Here’s 299 East, heading for Nevada and…pavement’s end. I continued south and out the bottom end of Surprise Valley…

The road home, all paved to the turn, was pretty much empty, as might have been foreseen;

I made it to the gate around 4:40, finding my UPS package dumped at the gatepost. Substitute driver; the regular guys come later, and come in to visit…

350 miles, out enjoying the country yet again…

M