FortyMileDesert
Adventurer
Land Rover Trek Number 98:
Tick Mountain, north of Smoke Creek Desert 31 March 2007
- brought to you by Monte-Disco Productions…..
Ben and I had breakfast at Pioneer Crossing at about 7:00, topped up the tanks at Pilot and we were underway north through Wadsworth a bit before 8:00. The weather is beautiful at about sixty and a wind from the west. Seventy miles later, after passing between Pyramid (wet) and Winnemucca (dry) Lakes along state 477, we arrive in Gerlach.
Believe it or not; here in very remote Gerlach, NV, the price for gas is $.25 less than Rocklin, CA. Just goes to show you how much friendlier Nevada is. About a half hour and 22 miles later we turn off the highway west into the Buffalo Hills, just north of the Smoke Creek Desert.
The trail heads up a ridge and then across a saddle between peaks 6427 and 6274 just north of a deep valley of Antelope Spring and then Trail Canyon. After another saddle we descend into Jones Flat. The flats are grass and sage, the ridges are juniper covered; the ground is red with outcroppings of black basalt. There are a lot of fortress like lava mesas and the trail is full of large boulder outcrops of basalt. We creep along in low range and 1st or 2nd gear. We just cannot travel more than about two miles per hour; as the trail is so rough. Eventually we top out on another saddle overlooking Boulder Flat.
Boulder Flat appears to be a very large, six square mile grassy meadow. As we creep down into the bottom of the flat; the naming becomes very apparent: the whole flat is a boulder field! Now the traveling gets even slower. We take a left fork in the trail that follows along the base of Poodle Mountain towards Button Mountain in the distance. Eventually we stop at a saddle on the south side of Poodle Mountain. At this point we are at an elevation of 6100 feet and perhaps ¾ of a mile away from the top of Poodle Mountain at 6832 feet.
The time is 12:30 and we intend to hike to the top of the mountain for a look-see. Between us and the summit are some broken lava flows, three lava cliffs and a lot of sage. About an hour later nearing the top, we stop for a break at some deer beds under some juniper trees. All of a sudden I spot ticks crawling slowly on my arms! We get out from under the trees very quickly and start picking ticks off of each other. By about 1:45 we get to the top of the mountain and do another tick extermination.
The view from the top is stupendous. We can see snow covered Snow Storm Mountain in California in the distance. I can even see the Sierra Buttes; all white and sparkling! People have built about 5 cairns on top of the highest outcroppings. According to Ben’s gps the top of the mountain is in a hollow between the 5 high points. I keep trying to tell him that Garmin doesn’t know everything.
The trek back down to the trucks take a lot less time than going up; even having to stop several times to eradicate ticks off each other. From the title of this report you might notice that I have renamed Poodle Mountain to Tick Mountain. Back at the truck we start shedding clothes and turn them inside out finding lots more ticks. Amazingly, these guys are really slow. I only find one that has started burrowing. Maybe it’s too early in the spring for them and they aren’t ravenous yet.
After lunch and more tick searching we drive west across the flat and around Boulder Dam and Reservoir to return by way of the other side of the flat. Near the reservoir we spot a herd of maybe 10 antelope and just past them a larger herd of horses. For the next half hour we slowly drive the antelope and horses to the north end of the valley before they all cross over a saddle and drop down into Trail Canyon.
We get back onto pavement at around 4:00 and air back up. There is no way we are going to explore the Smoke Creek Desert as planned; we’ve burnt up too much daylight in the Buffalo Hills. We drove only 22 miles in the boulders today over a period of about 4 hours.
Heading down the mountain toward Gerlach there is a large sand and dust storm blowing along the Smoke Creek desert. We stop for dinner at Bruno’s Café in Gerlach. I’ve heard from others that their home-mad ravioli is fabulous. I’ll give them an OK+. Maybe previous reviewers were just hungrier. We arrived back in Fernley at about 7:00 and about 230 miles.
PHOTOS: AA prefix:
http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=/Rons Adventures/Tick_Mtn_-_Nightingale
Tick Mountain, north of Smoke Creek Desert 31 March 2007
- brought to you by Monte-Disco Productions…..
Ben and I had breakfast at Pioneer Crossing at about 7:00, topped up the tanks at Pilot and we were underway north through Wadsworth a bit before 8:00. The weather is beautiful at about sixty and a wind from the west. Seventy miles later, after passing between Pyramid (wet) and Winnemucca (dry) Lakes along state 477, we arrive in Gerlach.
Believe it or not; here in very remote Gerlach, NV, the price for gas is $.25 less than Rocklin, CA. Just goes to show you how much friendlier Nevada is. About a half hour and 22 miles later we turn off the highway west into the Buffalo Hills, just north of the Smoke Creek Desert.
The trail heads up a ridge and then across a saddle between peaks 6427 and 6274 just north of a deep valley of Antelope Spring and then Trail Canyon. After another saddle we descend into Jones Flat. The flats are grass and sage, the ridges are juniper covered; the ground is red with outcroppings of black basalt. There are a lot of fortress like lava mesas and the trail is full of large boulder outcrops of basalt. We creep along in low range and 1st or 2nd gear. We just cannot travel more than about two miles per hour; as the trail is so rough. Eventually we top out on another saddle overlooking Boulder Flat.
Boulder Flat appears to be a very large, six square mile grassy meadow. As we creep down into the bottom of the flat; the naming becomes very apparent: the whole flat is a boulder field! Now the traveling gets even slower. We take a left fork in the trail that follows along the base of Poodle Mountain towards Button Mountain in the distance. Eventually we stop at a saddle on the south side of Poodle Mountain. At this point we are at an elevation of 6100 feet and perhaps ¾ of a mile away from the top of Poodle Mountain at 6832 feet.
The time is 12:30 and we intend to hike to the top of the mountain for a look-see. Between us and the summit are some broken lava flows, three lava cliffs and a lot of sage. About an hour later nearing the top, we stop for a break at some deer beds under some juniper trees. All of a sudden I spot ticks crawling slowly on my arms! We get out from under the trees very quickly and start picking ticks off of each other. By about 1:45 we get to the top of the mountain and do another tick extermination.
The view from the top is stupendous. We can see snow covered Snow Storm Mountain in California in the distance. I can even see the Sierra Buttes; all white and sparkling! People have built about 5 cairns on top of the highest outcroppings. According to Ben’s gps the top of the mountain is in a hollow between the 5 high points. I keep trying to tell him that Garmin doesn’t know everything.
The trek back down to the trucks take a lot less time than going up; even having to stop several times to eradicate ticks off each other. From the title of this report you might notice that I have renamed Poodle Mountain to Tick Mountain. Back at the truck we start shedding clothes and turn them inside out finding lots more ticks. Amazingly, these guys are really slow. I only find one that has started burrowing. Maybe it’s too early in the spring for them and they aren’t ravenous yet.
After lunch and more tick searching we drive west across the flat and around Boulder Dam and Reservoir to return by way of the other side of the flat. Near the reservoir we spot a herd of maybe 10 antelope and just past them a larger herd of horses. For the next half hour we slowly drive the antelope and horses to the north end of the valley before they all cross over a saddle and drop down into Trail Canyon.
We get back onto pavement at around 4:00 and air back up. There is no way we are going to explore the Smoke Creek Desert as planned; we’ve burnt up too much daylight in the Buffalo Hills. We drove only 22 miles in the boulders today over a period of about 4 hours.
Heading down the mountain toward Gerlach there is a large sand and dust storm blowing along the Smoke Creek desert. We stop for dinner at Bruno’s Café in Gerlach. I’ve heard from others that their home-mad ravioli is fabulous. I’ll give them an OK+. Maybe previous reviewers were just hungrier. We arrived back in Fernley at about 7:00 and about 230 miles.
PHOTOS: AA prefix:
http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=/Rons Adventures/Tick_Mtn_-_Nightingale