Lava Beds Trek No. 2
11 March 2006 - - Lava Beds Again – This Time with Snow.
Trail Boss: Rocky in the ’04 Discovery
The Team: Brian and Nancy H in the ’02 Freelander
- - -
Preamble: A four day continuous snow storm in the Sierras led up to the start of this trek. What began as a group of about ten rigs the week before was down to perhaps seven by Wednesday evening when I was last able to check out the 4playora club and MO websites. Checking the various weather reports, I found that there was possibly going to be a window in the weather Thursday morning and that the snowstorm was returning with a vengeance Thursday evening.
I left at about 6:30 am Thursday. Once past Colfax, it was just me, a few other 4wd and lots of trucks. As usual, they were checking the trucks to see that they were carrying chains at Applegate. The signs on the highway and the CalTrans lady on the radio said that chains were mandatory from Nyack to Truckee. This does not mean four-wheel-drive with snow tires. Anyway, I started hitting snow flurries at about 3500 feet. At Colfax it was snowing pretty hard and there was about 3 inches of snow plus that CalTrans special blend of sand and urea on the highway. Everybody but me stopped to chain up. It took less than five minutes to get passed the CHP checkpoint. From then on it was 25 mph on up to the summit.
At Kingvale, it seemed as if there was about four or five feet of snow accumulated and maybe 5 inches on the road. The driving was sweet. I stopped at the Summit Rest Stop to make room for more coffee. Maybe 5 trucks and me there is all. It was about 19 degree outside. At about the Donner Lake Exit the trucks all stopped to remove chains and it was on towards Reno at maybe 40 miles per hour. The road mostly clear of snow but had to be careful of black ice in a few places.
Just past the state line at Verdi, I stopped at Gold Ranch for breakfast. On a scale of 1 to 10, perhaps a 3. Here the sun was shining and it looked like a beautiful day ahead – but there was that big black cumulo-nimbus just behind me, heading east. Then it was on through Reno, Sparks and headed down the Truckee Canyon to Fernley.
As I approached Wadsworth the storm caught up with me; forty mile an hour NW winds and heavy snow. Throughout the rest of the day, Fernley accumulated about five inches of the new stuff. The temperature tumbled from about 30 degrees to about 16 overnight.
Friday morning was bright sun and the temperature shot up to about 36 during the day. There goes the snow! However, I could see several snowstorms passing to the north throughout the day; perhaps from the south end of Pyramid Lake and on up to the Gerlach area.
Friday evening I got hold of Brian H and met him and Nancy for dinner at about 6:30. We finally got hold of Brian M at about 7:15 and found that he wasn’t going to be able to make it. In fact, everyone had bailed out except for the possibility of Tim (Brian doesn’t have privy to the 4playora website – YET). End of Preamble.
PICTURES AT:
http://www.pbase.com/brhunt/lavabeds_camp
AND:
http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=/Rons Adventures/Snowy_Lava_Beds
It’s Saturday morning and I’m up at 6:00am. Lot’s of time to kill as I’ve already packed the truck last night. So I do a leisurely breakfast at Pioneer Crossing (Way better than Gold Ranch-Not as good as Jakes - Nothing to compare to Thunder Mountain Café in Quincy (TM = 9, Jakes=7, PC=6, GR=3). Then I gas up, hook up the GPS and arrange the stuff I want handy on the right hand seat. So I’m sitting at Jakes a bit before 7:30 waiting for the rest of the gang. Brian and Nancy arrive about 7:45 and we wait a bit more for Tim. 8:00am no Tim. 8:05am color us gone!
A bit west to Wadsworth and we catch 447 and head north to Nixon. From Nixon we continue north along the western shore of Winnemucca Lake with the Lake Range to the west and the Nightingale Range to the east. About halfway along Winnemucca Lake we stop at Nugent Canyon at the foot of Tohakum Peak (8182’), the high point of the Lake Range.
We drive up a side road to some tufa formations where I get a chance to explain what they are and how they formed under the surface of the Lake during the pleistocene (ice age) when the lake was about 350 feet deep. By 1932 the lake was only about 20 feet deep and finally there was not enough water flow in the Truckee to support both Pyramid Lake and Winnemucca Lake. At that time the channel to Winnemucca was blocked and all of the water now flows into Pyramid.
We head on north passed the end of the dry lake and are now abreast of the snow covered Selenite Range and where we are encountering deepening snow along the road. At the point opposite the pass over the range it’s pretty obvious that the very slick trail above the Cowles Ranch will be dangerous so we continue north towards Gerlach.
About four miles before Gerlach we turn east onto Route 48, a maintained gravel road that parallels the Western Pacific Railroad to Winnemucca, about 100 miles to the east. The road is very ‘washboardy’. Thankfully, there’s about five inches of fresh powder on top to cushion the jarring affect and fills some of the chuck holes. There are no tire tracks, we get to make them. After about ten miles we reach the northern end of the Selenites and turn south down the Teomile Valley.
The road down this valley is much smoother; it’s on frozen mud, no gravel, no ruts, and no tire tracks. At the low saddle between Dry Mountain to the east and Selenite to the west we pass a truck going north. Probably a rancher going from Lovelock to Gerlach – This road would save him about 100 miles. At one point I hit a slick spot and fish-tail. I recover and decide it’s time to slow down a bit. Eventually we come to the junction just north of Twin Buttes with the sign. Here we turn east.
This road is a bit more up and down and twisty. Time for LO Range and lock in the CDL. At a low spot about five miles along we come to about twenty cattle in the middle of the road, naturally, and at a spot that is a large frozen over mud puddle about fifty feet long. I slow down hoping they’ll move out of the way and I can still keep up a bit of momentum to get through the mud. No way; the last cow still in the puddle waits for me to come to a dead stop and then finally moves on. Its rooster tails and traction control lights – and the truck claws its way on out of the mud puddle. In the rear view mirror I watch Brian bash his way through. OK. We’re dirty now and it’s time for fun.
About eight miles from the signed intersection, and just about two miles from Lava Beds Camp we come to a shelf road down into the Lava Beds Creek Valley. Two weeks ago this was dry and no big deal. Now it’s covered with snow and just a bit intimidating. No problem, we just do it very slow and eventually arrive at the turn south towards the camp.
The trail over the rim into the camp has some very deep wheel ruts which were easy to stay out of when it was dry; not today! My wheels flop right in and I gun it up the hill. I watch Brian in the mirror and can see that he’s dropped into the rut too. Over the radio I let him know that he still has about an inch to go before bottoming on his skid plate. Then over the hump and down into the little box canyon.
