Misdirection trip – upper Nevada

Friday (Oct 24)

Locked bathroom is a problem this morning. Good thing Ely is quite close, nine minutes according to the Maps app! I leave this lovely, quiet spot sooner than I otherwise might, because all I can think about is pooping.

Happily the only decent grocery store in town is right at the intersection of 6 and 93, so I am able to take care of business and get some food and milk. Then comes a diesel stop, then the cute little Flower Basket shop that has wifi and makes espresso drinks. This was an all around great stop – great espresso and wifi = perfect way to start the day!

When in Ely I have always found a reason to stop at the Hotel Nevada and have breakfast or liver and onions. I never have L&O, it never even occurs to me to have it, unless I am at a crappy casino restaurant, then it is irresistible – go figure. But the last couple of times the service here has been somewhere between indifferent and unpleasant and the alleged wifi never works, and the dining space is windowless and claustrophobic, so I am through with you Hotel Nevada!

So I drove past the Hotel Nevada, straight through downtown Ely such as it is, and started the US 50 grind. Soon was the front side of the gigantic Ruby Mine. Not as depressing somehow as seeing the backside appear miles away encroaching on the pristine wilderness.

My good karma roll continues! I am aiming for the Shaker deli (the Pony Espresso Deli :) in Eureka to get tonight’s sandwich. I got there and the door was unlocked. The very nice man served me even though it was 35 minutes after closing time! Sando (ok), clam chowder (really, really good!), and a jar of pickles(!).

Back on the road, long-ass drive into the sun. A least it’s early enough in the day that it is not lethal. Past Hickison and the long, straight stretch heading into it (I timed it at at least 8 miles or 8 minutes), past Spence Hot Springs, left on 378, better view of the hot springs, right at Kingston.

Kingston was a bigger town than I expected, or more to the point, finding my way to the campground was not a straight shot up the canyon through a little one street town as expected. Also, where is Miles End B&B?

At my campground, early enough to enjoy it! Sitting here with the happy sound of Kingston Creek babbling away in the background. This thing of hurrying up to relax sounds dumb and feels dumb when you’re doing it, but it feels oh so right when you get to the relaxin’ part!

I noticed stairs heading up the side of the valley while scoping the sites, so after “initial relaxation” I motivated to explore a bit. This is why we get to campsites early! There were remnants of crude stone structures, I’m guessing old miners huts. I gave myself some excitement by bushwhacking pretty far off the trail to get over a bluff that I hoped had a good view of the valley. I did, and it did, but it was tricky and slippery getting back. So I had a nice feeling of accomplishment afterwards.

Some noisy off-road dudes came in after dark. The went to the far end of the campground I am happy to report, but it did kind of disturb the perfect peace of the place.

Saturday

Windy and hazy this morning. I have no bars up here, but I remember that the weather sites say that one of these days soon has a 15 degree drop in temp … maybe it’s today. Wonder if the Giants won game Three? [No, they did not :(]

I do find Tim’s uncle’s B&B. I sit outside for a while and contemplate dropping in to say hi. I do not. I should have. I’m just funny about those things sometimes. Now that my water tank is empty a day later, I certainly regret not asking to borrow their garden hose for a few minutes.

Next FAIL of the morning is Spence Hot Springs. I stop at the head of the long, straight gravel road and again contemplate, and again do not. My excuse for this on is that it is Saturday afternoon so it will be crowded … and indeed a hippie-car comes barreling out even while I am sitting there.

So, after a morning full of possibilities, none of which I do, head on into Austin for my boring hamburger at the serviceable but not exciting Toiyabe Cafe.

Another very long driving day, and I am f–ing over 3-4 hours of my day driving. A couple miles west of Austin, I take the left up on 305 up the Reese River Valley. I remember this as being quite pretty the one other time I did it back in 2000, but today it was no more or less pretty than the rest of the valleys I’ve driven in the last week. Maybe I’ve just seen a lot more pretty Nevada valleys since then! It was quite long though, with sudden vicious cross-winds. The weather IS changing for sure. I think the change is making me a little gloomy and disquieted.

I do finally get to Battle Mountain, take a left on I-80 for 50 miles or so to Winnemucca. It is a pretty interesting stretch of freeway, turns pretty sharply north to skirt the Sonoma Mountains, goes past Golconda and other interesting names.

In Winnemucca I drive by the coffee and wifi place, but it’s 4:50 and they close at 5:00, so I punt wifi for the evening and blast on up the hill to Water Canyon to get started on with my relaxin’.

Once I finally got settled down, I really like it here again. In truth it was kind of a drama to get settled. I blame it all on my poor state of mind … and I blame  my poor state of mind on those lame-ass leveling blocks I bought.

1. Drive all the way to the end, try to camp at the spot on the turnaround, try a six-block pyramid to level me (6 = 3 2 1, duh). Pieces of 3 or 4 blocks shatter. I am still no level, and I am not liking the spot, so I save all the blocks I can and pick up most of the plastic shards, since they are pretty sharp and dangerous to tires.
2. Drive downhill to the place I liked most going up. A couple has just parked there to walk their dog. I ask them could they move because I want to camp there. Some combination of me not asking right and the dude being an attitudinal little fuck led to words being exchanged “in jest”, but they did move. Turns out a cute and very hungry little black cat lived at that site. Also, I tried my levellers again and they exploded and failed to level me again. I just couldn’t handle it, the cat was really bothering me, I know I’d think about it all night. But to save face I couldn’t move until they came back from their walk. We all made very nice – I felt like a shit, and I’ll bet the nice girl made the dude feel like a shit too – a lose-lose situation, sigh…
3. So, they returned, I packed my chair and my even more destroyed six leveling blocks, left the black cat behind and went down the hill to a perfect wide-open spot where I was level without my stupid blocks and had a spectacular view of the huge I-80 valley. I was finally “settled” in a satisfactory way, and the rest of the evening was pretty great.

It rained a lot that night, and the wind buffeted the ole van pretty hard. I love rainy, windy nights in the van! Now that the weather is definitely changed rather than changing, I’m cheerful again. I guess I don’t like falling barometers.

I got poor radio reception, but pretty good 3g bars on my iPhone, so I followed the Giants game 4 on ESPN Gamecast, and made a pretty fun evening out of it. It was such a ripping positive experience because They Won!!! There was the joy of the win, then another hour or so of prowling the web for happy talk about the win. I believe that’s a win-win!

Sunday

Woke up happy with dancing Giants in my head! It is a sparkling morning! I’m now on a normal, non-degenerate human schedule now, where I feel sleepy at a normal time and I stir into activity 8:30 or 9 AM as opposed to 11:30 or noon. Come to think of it, this almost doubles the amount of daylight I experience on a late-fall day!

I read even more Giants happy-talk, piddled and fiddled around until noonish when I coasted down the hill. The one breakfast place I like is closed on Sunday, so I decide to privilege my wifi need over my food need, and spend an hour or so in Delicisio Coffee, with their bottomless (good) coffee and slow but steady wifi. Made for a happy start to the day. Then I had a casino FAIL which led to a way below average lunch special at the Winnemucca Casino. Finally then I’m heading outta town, due north across the railroad tracks, under the interstate and over the Humboldt River at 2-ish.

It is super, super pretty after the rain. Taking US 95 north out of Winnemucca, when you pull over and look back you have a huge panorama east down the Humboldt Valley with I-80, the railroad track, and the hills and mountains beyond. I can see almost the exact spot where I camped last night maybe 22 miles across the valley in Water Canyon. The air is crisp and clean, the scudding clouds make shifting patterns that play off the huge expanse of terrain I’m looking at.

After I pull out of the valley the scenery reverts to more standard spectacular northern Nevada mountains and valleys. At about 40 miles my road, US 95 veers left (west), and the road to Paradise Valley splits and veers east. It sure looked like paradise today! I’ve never had occasion to go there, but it’s on my Nevada bucket list :)

Another 60 miles gets me to the Denio Junction. I remember a memorable interlude the only other time I pass through here, so I slowed down to eyeball the place. What do I see by a dripping water faucet just hanging by the road just screaming “use me!”. The nice fellow said I could fill up, but I could not help but notice that the nice fellow was standing behind a cozy bar with the Cardinals-Eagles game on (it is Sunday afternoon after all!). So I filled my tank with water then spent some of my precious daylight on having a Sierra and watching a bit o football. Finished by beer by by 4:30, the game was still in doubt, but I was ready to meet the wilderness.

I’m mellowed out by the beer and the change of pace of hanging in a dark room and watching tv for 1/2 hour. So I enjoy the really epic landscape up here. The east part of Sheldon sits on a high mesa, which I now drive up.

My campground is at Durferrina Ponds, which is a surprise valley full of marshes.

Sheldon has many really cool spots, and this one of them! I had trouble getting settled again. The trouble was all in my head, it is just a flat, not quite level area, yet I had to park, walk around, park again, etc three times until I settled on a good spot that actually was level. 

I almost always park facing the sunset, but tonight I got it into my head that it would be clever to park facing sunrise. Sunset will be over in 1/2 hour, and the van will warm up quicker tomorrow with more light coming in. I dumb idea. I spend the rest of daylight on the other side of the van, and I am facing the other two campers, rather than away from them. But it was all good. I do my shower and shave thing as soon as I arrive. Then, exploring the place at leisure I discover the bathhouse and have a rueful chuckle with myself, I could’ve showered and shaved in comfort like a civilized man!

Ah communications! I get absolutely no phone reception in this remote corner of the state, but after dark I got almost perfect reception for KNBR 680 the Giants flagship station. So I listened to my beloved Jon Miller, Kruk and Kuip, and the kid narrate a 5-0 win in game 5 of the World Series. So the G’s have to win one of two in KC next week and they’ve done it again! As long as I had the radio cranked up, I reattached the phone to listen to music during breaks. It was fun. I could do this every night, but almost never do. It does noticeably drain the battery though. I had about 12.2 amps by 10:30 where other nights I would have 12.6-12.8. But that’s what batteries are for!