The trip to Jarbidge that didn't happen

[locrwln1]

So Dan and I originally had planned to travel basically from the Black Rock to Jarbidge across the northern part of Nevada staying on dirt as much as possible. We left last Saturday morning and drove up Pyramid Hwy through Smoke Creek to Gerlach. It rained the entire time.

We stopped in Gerlach, filled up and went into Bruno's for a late breakfast. While inside, we watched five guys on dual sport motorcylces ride into town and come into Bruno's, did I mention that it was raining? Those guys were soaked. We decided that we didn't want to get into the desert while it was wet and soupy.

We turned south and drove back to Fernley and headed east on IR80. I called Ali, who was staying at my house and asked him what the weather was looking like. The forecast for Northern Nevada was not good. We drove out to the intersection of IR80 and US 95 on the other side of Fernley and turned south once again.

We decided that we would try the Excelsior range south of Hawthorne. We drove to Hawthorne and it was still raining. We decided to stay in the El Capitan for the night. We got up and headed south of Hawthorne on (I think it's Hwy 318) and turned into the Excelsior's. We spent all day Sunday exploring the range. Saw alot of country, old mines (did some hiking) and even found a spring/pond with Koi fish in it.

Worked our way around the base of the mountains and up to the Silver Dyke mine area. RustyDan knows the area. We ended up setting up camp. The next day we drove up to the mine and proceeded to walk our ass off exploring the area. The main mine area was pretty cool, but we noticed mine debris up one of the canyons, so we followed it. As we were headed up the canyon (to the north), we noticed a mine site in a canyon to the west. We followed the north canyon until we found the site and explored it. The we crossed the ridge and down to the site in the west canyon. The entire area had some of the neatest and best preserved remains of any mine sites we have found.

We completed our hike and headed out of the mountains and down a road that gave us a challenge when we came across a boulder in the middle of a very steep down hill section that would have been extremely difficult to backup. I was able to squeeze around it, but we had to move some rocks and barely get Dan's new trailer past it.

We made it out to US 95, south of Mina and crossed over and headed east. We skirted the south edge of that mountains. We decided that we didn't want to spend any time in those mountains, so once again across country we went in a southerly direction. We came out to US 95, north of Tonopah. We drove into Tonopah and fueled up and did a quick re-supply.

We went east on US 6 for about 30ish miles and turned north into the Monitor Range. I can tell you that they are far more beautiful and amazing than you would ever think.

We spent the next couple of days exploring the southern end of that range. We saw Elk, which is a first for most of us in Nevada.

On the third day we headed north into the central portion. We crossed into the Monitor Valley and came across a road to White Rock Canyon, which was amazing.

We spent the rest of the day working our way out of the Monitors and over to the Hot Creek Range where we say about 30 female Desert Bighorn Sheep. Again, our first real sighting of sheep in all of our travels.

We found a place to camp and called it a night. At this point, Dan was getting low on fuel even with his auxillary tank. We headed up into the mountains and located the ghost town of Tybo. We crossed over the range (rockcrawling over the spine) to get to Kiln Canyon. There were some very nice red brick kilns in the canyon. We headed down to the valley and south out to Hwy 6 and back into Tonopah for fuel. I averaged 8.8 mph traveling where we had been going. There was a lot of slow speed, low range driving, so our mileage was horrible. Dan's of course much worse.

We headed back into the mountains and did some more exploring into the Hot Creek range. We ended up camping at 8000 feet in a meadow full of wild Iris.

We had managed to avoid most of the rain up to this point, only getting a few light showers, well the last night made up for it. We got a ton of rain and woke up to more rain. We packed up and made a run for it. It was snowing up near the pass we passed over to get out. We headed north through an amazing amount of mud to get to US 50, where we met the Ali's and headed into Eureka for lunch.

Darcie and I headed home, while Dan and the Ali's headed east into Ely for continue their journey. In total Darcie and I traveld 1300 miles door to door and spent about 700 of that on dirt, so we were very happy.

Dan will have to fill in the blanks and add his pictures when he gets back.

Here are the pictures:

locrwln : photos : Central Nevada Tour June 2009

Enjoy.

Jack

[450 DUDE]

WOW !!!!!

How do I get an invite for the next trip???
Super nice pics diggin the wildlife and the flora , loving the wild Iris.




I guess a sub tank will have to find a way under my rig.....


Thanks for the pics!
ken

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by 450 DUDE

WOW !!!!!

How do I get an invite for the next trip???
Super nice pics diggin the wildlife and the flora , loving the wild Iris.




I guess a sub tank will have to find a way under my rig.....


Thanks for the pics!
ken

It was kind of a last minute thing, we had originally planned on a trip from Ely to Tonopah with the people from Expedition Portal. The time didn't work, so we had to go a week earlier and because Dan is on a "vacation" right now, he was more than willing to go.

We will let you know about the next one.

Thanks on the pics.

Yes, a sub tank is a must. Dan has 50 gal on board, I have 49, he rolled into Tonopah (closest gas) on fumes, I had 1/2 tank in my main left and empty aux.

Land Cruiser 100 & 80 series aux fuel tanks sale! - Expedition Portal Forum

Jack

[450 DUDE]

Jack , I checked the Expo deal , Im thinking those will hang down too far?



I need to talk to you about your set up and thoughts.......


ken

[rusty_tlc]

Looks like a great trip as usual.
You guys followed the road from Silver Dyke north back to 95? Other than the big rock in the road haw was that trail? We're thinking about another trip down there to explore the Pilot Peak area just east of Mina and I'd like to revisit the Silver Dyke mine. When we went there were a couple of guys sheep hunting so we didn't spend a lot of time exploring.

[thumper]

very nice, seeing those pictures made my day here at work. looks like you guys had a blast out there. just one question, the very last picture, is what i think is going on actually going on my boss is wondering why i am laughing lol.

jon.

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by 450 DUDE

Jack , I checked the Expo deal , Im thinking those will hang down too far?



I need to talk to you about your set up and thoughts.......


ken

You may want to pm 24hoursofNevada, he has the 45gal longranger. It is a lot of fuel, and a lot of weight. I had to add airbags to the rear of mine with Slee's HD 4 inch springs. to deal with the extra weight of the tank and 24 gals of fuel. I just saw the advertisement yesterday, so that is why is stuck in my head, but I am not sure if I would go for the 44-45 gal tanks. While the range would be nice, and a good price, that is just too much weight for me. I paid around $1200 from my system from man-a-fre. They never advertise when they have them, you just have to call and keep on them. I got lucky, called out of the blue, and ended up with the last one out of that stock.

Originally Posted by rusty_tlc

Looks like a great trip as usual.
You guys followed the road from Silver Dyke north back to 95? Other than the big rock in the road haw was that trail? We're thinking about another trip down there to explore the Pilot Peak area just east of Mina and I'd like to revisit the Silver Dyke mine. When we went there were a couple of guys sheep hunting so we didn't spend a lot of time exploring.

Thanks.

Yeah when you head up towards Silver Dyke and before you get to the lower buildings, there is a road off to the right, going kind of northeasterly. We took that one and actually camped up at the top in the saddle. The maps don't show the roads connecting, but you just have to cross a small mining cut, easy to do, and then you can complete the connection. The road was good except for that big rock, nothing a single vehicle can't get around, the trailer just added that extra bit of fun.

We were kind of done with that area by the time we were near the Pilot Peak area. Hopefully the next time you head that way, you will have the place to yourselves like we did.

Originally Posted by thumper

very nice, seeing those pictures made my day here at work. looks like you guys had a blast out there. just one question, the very last picture, is what i think is going on actually going on my boss is wondering why i am laughing lol.

jon.

Thanks, we did.

Yes, I thought I had him out of the frame, but I guess not...

Jack

[flexing40]

Man o man. What great scenery and wildlife. How many days and miles was that trip?
Looks like nothing but fun.

Mike

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by flexing40

Man o man. What great scenery and wildlife. How many days and miles was that trip?
Looks like nothing but fun.

Mike

Seven days and 1300 miles...

And yes it was.

Mike, it was great to see pics of the old 40 out on the trail in the Rubicon Thread. Looks the same, which there is nothing wrong with that. Travis is looking good, tell him we said hi.

Jack

[WILLD420]

I spy landing mats in use... Was it a portion of the landscape? I really, really need a couple of those for the front of my trailer, to finish my extensions.

Anywhoo. Nice pics and run. Maybe someday we will be able to go on one of these. I thought by now it would happen, but just not enough days in the month to get everything done.

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by WILLD420

I spy landing mats in use... Was it a portion of the landscape? I really, really need a couple of those for the front of my trailer, to finish my extensions.

Anywhoo. Nice pics and run. Maybe someday we will be able to go on one of these. I thought by now it would happen, but just not enough days in the month to get everything done.

You are correct, the landing mats were lying on the side of the road, so we put them to good use.

I would use something else, those bend very easily, there are better versions available:

MAXTRAX - Sand Ladders/Mats - Expedition Portal Forum

Thanks,

Someday.

Jack

[chicago]

Those are some AMAZING pics Jack.
LOVE those old ghost town. The rains have made for amazing scenery for sure!
I had never ONCE in my life seen a big horn sheep, and you guyz got into a GAGGLE of em. Very cool.
Love the pee shot in front of Spresso's rig. CLASSIC!

K

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Very cool Jack, great shots. It looks like Spresso got some new bling lights.

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by chicago

Those are some AMAZING pics Jack.
LOVE those old ghost town. The rains have made for amazing scenery for sure!
I had never ONCE in my life seen a big horn sheep, and you guyz got into a GAGGLE of em. Very cool.
Love the pee shot in front of Spresso's rig. CLASSIC!

K

Thanks, we had a great time taking them. We were talking about the rain, it kind of sucked, but it did keep the temperatures down and very pleasant and of course the cloud cover made the lighting for pictures awesome.

As much as we have been out, that is the first time we have seen sheep and to see that many just made our trip.

I know, he's going to kill me for that one. The worst part is they got even muddier before we got to the pavement.

Originally Posted by 24HOURSOFNEVADA

Very cool Jack, great shots. It looks like Spresso got some new bling lights.

Thanks,

Yeah, Spresso now brings not so much the bling as much as the freaking SUN!!!, those things are incredibly bright. Even in bright daylight, they will hurt your eyes. Very white clean light. They make his headlights look yellow.

Jack

[NVFJ60]

Pictures like these are a detrement to our fine state. They are so nice and the scenery is so awesome that it will make more damn people want to wheel here and possibly move here.

Seriously though. AWSOME pictures. I do a lot of hunting in the Monitors. Its a great place. I have been wanting to do a cross Nevada trip for some time. Like Minden to Delta, Utah or something. This thread makes me want to get the maps out again and start plotting courses. Looks like you had fun.

[spressomon]

Just got back to Reno last night from the second leg of our two-weeker. As Jack stated the trip was amazing. And it kept coming!

I'll get pics loaded, etc. over the next few days. But pictures just don't do justice to the sights we saw. The wildflower display was absolutely incredible and the best I've ever seen in Nevada; rains help for something I guess . Getting to see fine samples of both bull and cow elk, desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn, golden eagles, hummingbirds by the hundreds, and countless more just added to the splendor of this trip. And it was all by accident as Jack mentioned above.

The 'SpressoWagon took on some more lumps; its looking war-torn for sure. But I wouldn't take any of the dents and damage back for the experiences and scenery gained. And as mentioned above I am testing new aux lighting; more to come but they ARE bright!

It was also an incredible trip that defined the overall prowess of the Kimberley Kamper. I even managed to bend one of the fenders which are constructed of uber-heavy gauge steel: No surprise for those that know where we venture .

It was also a trip I shared with a new co-pilot. Actually two new co-pilots. I've been begging my sister and bro'n'law in Denver to send my nephews out for a week or more to play. The first week my almost 19-year old nephew Mike was along for the Central Nevada portion. We all met in Ely at the end of the first week and swapped Mike for his slightly younger brother Nick (17 years old) who completed the second week of our foray with us.

They don't get exposed to anything like this. Safe to say they both were slack-jawed!

More to come....

[chicago]

Originally Posted by spressomon

Just got back to Reno last night from the second leg of our two-weeker. As Jack stated the trip was amazing. And it kept coming!

I'll get pics loaded, etc. over the next few days. But pictures just don't do justice to the sights we saw. The wildflower display was absolutely incredible and the best I've ever seen in Nevada; rains help for something I guess . Getting to see fine samples of both bull and cow elk, desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn, golden eagles, hummingbirds by the hundreds, and countless more just added to the splendor of this trip. And it was all by accident as Jack mentioned above.

The 'SpressoWagon took on some more lumps; its looking war-torn for sure. But I wouldn't take any of the dents and damage back for the experiences and scenery gained. And as mentioned above I am testing new aux lighting; more to come but they ARE bright!

It was also an incredible trip that defined the overall prowess of the Kimberley Kamper. I even managed to bend one of the fenders which are constructed of uber-heavy gauge steel: No surprise for those that know where we venture .

It was also a trip I shared with a new co-pilot. Actually two new co-pilots. I've been begging my sister and bro'n'law in Denver to send my nephews out for a week or more to play. The first week my almost 19-year old nephew Mike was along for the Central Nevada portion. We all met in Ely at the end of the first week and swapped Mike for his slightly younger brother Nick (17 years old) who completed the second week of our foray with us.

They don't get exposed to anything like this. Safe to say they both were slack-jawed!

More to come....

Having the young'ens along is awesome. I bet that is an experience they will never forget and may even spark a new direction for them to pursue. That was cool of you to take me.
The views in the pics looked spectacular. Glad that the new trailer worked out for you.

K

[beno]

Great trip Gents.....

Cruiserdrew and I have been talking about a two weeker across Nevada sometime soon.....

Maybe you guys could lead the group?

[locrwln1]

Originally Posted by beno

Great trip Gents.....

Cruiserdrew and I have been talking about a two weeker across Nevada sometime soon.....

Maybe you guys could lead the group?

Dan and I talked about that during our trip. It would take some work, but we are pretty sure everyone would have a great time and see some incredible country, because like most things, the pictures don't do the places justice. The only problem we kind of ran into was finding a spot large enough for our two camps, much less a large group.

Jack

[beno]

Originally Posted by locrwln1

Dan and I talked about that during our trip. It would take some work, but we are pretty sure everyone would have a great time and see some incredible country, because like most things, the pictures don't do the places justice. The only problem we kind of ran into was finding a spot large enough for our two camps, much less a large group.

Jack

Oh I think the key would be to keep it very small in terms of group size--5-7 trucks max.

But I really would like to do this while petrol prices are still reasonable.

[rusty_tlc]

Originally Posted by locrwln1

Dan and I talked about that during our trip. It would take some work, but we are pretty sure everyone would have a great time and see some incredible country, because like most things, the pictures don't do the places justice. The only problem we kind of ran into was finding a spot large enough for our two camps, much less a large group.

Jack

I think planning would require some extensive recon. It's a tough job but we know you are up for it.

If you want I know of a few remote places we have discovered that would take groups of 5-6 rigs.

[spressomon]

Originally Posted by beno

Oh I think the key would be to keep it very small in terms of group size--5-7 trucks max.

But I really would like to do this while petrol prices are still reasonable.

So what are you trying to say?! You want to do it next weekend or what?

[rusty_tlc]

Originally Posted by spressomon

So what are you trying to say?! You want to do it next weekend or what?

Get a job already, your starting to piss off us working folks.



You know that's jealousy talking right?

[spressomon]

Originally Posted by rusty_tlc

Get a job already, your starting to piss of us working folks.



You know that's jealousy talking right?

Hey...don't blame me...Beno was sounding like he wanted to do it sooner rather than later with his comment "...to do this while fuel prices are still reasonable".

I was only trying to help in his quest for sooner rather than later .

Let's get it on boyz...I'm starting to run into blankcalendaritus

[beno]

Originally Posted by spressomon

Beno was sounding like he wanted to do it sooner rather than later with his comment "...to do this while fuel prices are still reasonable".

Well I wasn't thinking too soon--more like Spring of 10.

I've got very little time off left on my plate (unlike you Dan )...I've got CMCC in two weeks I have to get to and then SnT in the Fall.

I was thinking like this year's Utah adventure Dan--sort of around the same time as CM10 (though I am not at all interested in going this year and can easily skip it if we are going to be on the trail for 2 weeks in Nevada).

Anyway, just throwing it out there. Nothing conclusive or concrete.

And get a job Dan!

[spressomon]

Originally Posted by beno

Well I wasn't thinking too soon--more like Spring of 10.

I've got very little time off left on my plate (unlike you Dan )...I've got CMCC in two weeks I have to get to and then SnT in the Fall.

I was thinking like this year's Utah adventure Dan--sort of around the same time as CM10 (though I am not at all interested in going this year and can easily skip it if we are going to be on the trail for 2 weeks in Nevada).

Anyway, just throwing it out there. Nothing conclusive or concrete.

And get a job Dan!

I DO have a job...it just doesn't pay anything .

IMO the best months to plan a tour of Nevada (central) would be late April, May & June. This year was an anomaly with the wet cool weather.

Just say when and we'll plan it.

Oh yeah: You can't come if you are worried about pin-striping (or even body damage like this year's trip) . J, D & I have a reputation to uphold...we try to find the most overgrown trails imaginable. But then we get to see some cool sights that few have...

[450 DUDE]

Man I was thinking about this trip as I drove back and forth from SLC. I keep looking at the mountains and the myriad of roads and thinking where does that one go................


ken

bty I managed to avoid the radar gun this time, NHP must take off fridays.

[beno]

Originally Posted by spressomon

Oh yeah: You can't come if you are worried about pin-striping (or even body damage like this year's trip) . J, D & I have a reputation to uphold...we try to find the most overgrown trails imaginable. But then we get to see some cool sights that few have...

This will not be a problem with me or my truck....

[rusty_tlc]

Originally Posted by spressomon

I DO have a job...it just doesn't pay anything .

IMO the best months to plan a tour of Nevada (central) would be late April, May & June. This year was an anomaly with the wet cool weather.

Just say when and we'll plan it.

Oh yeah: You can't come if you are worried about pin-striping (or even body damage like this year's trip) . J, D & I have a reputation to uphold...we try to find the most overgrown trails imaginable. But then we get to see some cool sights that few have...

Fall ain't a bad time for touring Nevada either, unless you are busy scouting and hunting Chuckar.

And yes these guys find the most overgrown and toughest trails in the state. But the payoff is well worth it.

[spressomon]

Ok...this is my first blog attempt. It still needs a little tweaking; but maybe you'll enjoy what is there. Can't quite figure out why some text and some photos don't display even though they do on my pre-publish preview (Alvaro: HELP!) And for whatever reason the link is represented by the "?" below

?