FortyMileDesert
Adventurer
05 May 2007
Nightingale Mountain Loop
Ron C - 2004 Discovery S Trail-boss
Ben H – 2004 Mitsubishi Montero Sport
Brian H – 2004 Discovery G4
Met at Jakes Restaurant in the Silverado and shortly underway a bit before 9:00am after a gas top off. We are headed north from Fernley, through Wadsworth and Nixon to Winnemucca Lake again. I’ve been there many times but have further exploring to do. Neither Ben nor Brian has completely circumnavigated the Nightingale Mountain Range, so I’ll lead them on that. Then I also want to get back and check out the cabin and mine that Trish and I discovered a couple years ago. There are also several side roads leading from the Sage Hen Valley side of the range up to the ridge crest.
We pass through Nixon, cross the Russell Peak high point between Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes, angle north east along the lakes south shore and eventually reach the mouth of Coyote Canyon. Now it’s a five mile wiggle up the Coyote Canyon Wash to the crest at the Jay Bird Mine and the intersection of Washoe, Churchill and Pershing Counties at about 5600 feet.
About three miles later we arrive at the Nightingale Mine and the site of the town of Nightingale. We do a bit of exploring including a crawl/walk down a short tunnel to a cave in that is open to the sky and a pair of tunnels striking off in two other directions. Both tunnels are way too precarious for further exploration.
We leave the Nightingale and head north via a road that I hope will get us to another group of mines about a mile and a half away. Ahaa! The road goes through and we intersect a road to the west that will take us to the Pershing Mine. For your information; all of the mines along this mountain range are tungsten/wolframite that was mined during both the first and second world wars, when the mineral was critical to the war effort.
The Pershing mine consists of several vertical shafts (four on the map).The shaft, closest to the only remaining building, drops straight down, perhaps seventy five to one hundred feet. All of the supporting timber was at one time destroyed by fire. We drive on past the mine another half mile to the crest of the range overlooking the Winnemucca Lake Valley that is about 2200 feet below us. A thin shelf road, running along a sheer cliff for another half mile or so, goes to a mine with a few more buildings on a promontory on the cliff. We elect to not drive this trail. We will come back at another time and hike it first to see if it is even navigable by wheel.
We drive back to the north-south road and head north another mile to another road heading for the ridge top. We head up this one for about another mile and a half and arrive at the Alpine Mine. There are a lot of surface workings, some foundations and one small dugout/cabin with a very large stove chimney. Driving on we visit a small ore chute on a dead end trail. We back track and turn up to another ridge crest saddle. To the north and south are trails too narrow for four wheels, though horses and motorcycles have used them. Another awesome view of steep canyons and the dry lake below are visible.
From THE Alpine; we pass through a low pass and then down the Sage Hen Spring Hollow and back into Sage Hen Valley. Heading north along the mountain-valley slope we encounter a herd of about 30 horses. They parallel our course for nearly two miles, following just below the ridge crest and a quarter mile to our left. Eventually we get just enough ahead of them that they stop and gaze at us from a saddle.
We travel another seven miles passing more westerly side roads. Some we have traveled before; they mostly all lead down into School Bus Canyon and all of its tributaries. At about 40 degrees ten minutes north I look for the faint side trail that will take us to the ridge summit again and that mine from a couple of years ago. I find it and lose it and find it again going through a sandy wash area that has been messed up by quad riders. Sometime, I’ll have to tell you in detail what I think of the vast majority of quad riders. The road finally begins its steep and a bit off-camber ascent for better than a mile to the crest of the range again.
The only standing cabin is still almost as I saw it last. It still has some glass in its windows, no bullet holes and no graffiti. Then it’s out with the hard hats and lights and we take the tour of the safest looking adit. The timber work still looks as good as ever. From the looks of the ore in the vein that the miners had dug through; my guess is that it is a silver mine. After exploring the mine we take a lunch break. The sky is beautiful; the temperature is 43 degrees; the wind is gusting to better than forty miles per hour; we’re at 6321 feet; Burr!
After lunch, we head north again. Just before Stone House Canyon, which threads its way through the mountain, I turn north west and follow the Sierra Pacific pole line road zig zagging its way over the ridge saving us a couple of miles. As we cross the summit we pass four quads. They seem friendly, but I sure wish they would stop making new, unauthorized roads.
Near the lake end if the Stone House Canyon, we decide to see if we can climb that seven foot stream cut that Ben and I descended a few weeks ago. I did it in one pass and a lot of dirt flying. Brian takes three or four passes and Ben, just one. I guess Brian was just being a bit conservative, being that his truck is so new to him. From there, we went along the lake bed a couple miles to show Brian the old Indian caves that we had discovered last month.
Heading down along the lake shore we got to do a bit of technical narrow wash crossings. At one of them we tried it in both directions at Ben’s request, as he wanted to test the Mitsubishis capabilities. Turning around on a narrow berm; Brian high centered his front axle on a tall granite boulder. Both front wheels were slightly off the ground. It finally took the recovery strap on the back of my rig to tug him off. He now has a ¼ inch bend in the steering linkage.
The rest of the trek back to Fernley was uneventful. We pulled into The Pioneer Crossing Restaurant at nearly 6:00. Ben paid for dinner to celebrate my 100th off-road trek in a Land Rover. Thanks Ben. I guess that’s what gave you the luck to win the $800 in the casino.
Photos at:
http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/ind...Nightingale_Circumnavigation_05-05-07/&page=1
Nightingale Mountain Loop
Ron C - 2004 Discovery S Trail-boss
Ben H – 2004 Mitsubishi Montero Sport
Brian H – 2004 Discovery G4
Met at Jakes Restaurant in the Silverado and shortly underway a bit before 9:00am after a gas top off. We are headed north from Fernley, through Wadsworth and Nixon to Winnemucca Lake again. I’ve been there many times but have further exploring to do. Neither Ben nor Brian has completely circumnavigated the Nightingale Mountain Range, so I’ll lead them on that. Then I also want to get back and check out the cabin and mine that Trish and I discovered a couple years ago. There are also several side roads leading from the Sage Hen Valley side of the range up to the ridge crest.
We pass through Nixon, cross the Russell Peak high point between Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes, angle north east along the lakes south shore and eventually reach the mouth of Coyote Canyon. Now it’s a five mile wiggle up the Coyote Canyon Wash to the crest at the Jay Bird Mine and the intersection of Washoe, Churchill and Pershing Counties at about 5600 feet.
About three miles later we arrive at the Nightingale Mine and the site of the town of Nightingale. We do a bit of exploring including a crawl/walk down a short tunnel to a cave in that is open to the sky and a pair of tunnels striking off in two other directions. Both tunnels are way too precarious for further exploration.
We leave the Nightingale and head north via a road that I hope will get us to another group of mines about a mile and a half away. Ahaa! The road goes through and we intersect a road to the west that will take us to the Pershing Mine. For your information; all of the mines along this mountain range are tungsten/wolframite that was mined during both the first and second world wars, when the mineral was critical to the war effort.
The Pershing mine consists of several vertical shafts (four on the map).The shaft, closest to the only remaining building, drops straight down, perhaps seventy five to one hundred feet. All of the supporting timber was at one time destroyed by fire. We drive on past the mine another half mile to the crest of the range overlooking the Winnemucca Lake Valley that is about 2200 feet below us. A thin shelf road, running along a sheer cliff for another half mile or so, goes to a mine with a few more buildings on a promontory on the cliff. We elect to not drive this trail. We will come back at another time and hike it first to see if it is even navigable by wheel.
We drive back to the north-south road and head north another mile to another road heading for the ridge top. We head up this one for about another mile and a half and arrive at the Alpine Mine. There are a lot of surface workings, some foundations and one small dugout/cabin with a very large stove chimney. Driving on we visit a small ore chute on a dead end trail. We back track and turn up to another ridge crest saddle. To the north and south are trails too narrow for four wheels, though horses and motorcycles have used them. Another awesome view of steep canyons and the dry lake below are visible.
From THE Alpine; we pass through a low pass and then down the Sage Hen Spring Hollow and back into Sage Hen Valley. Heading north along the mountain-valley slope we encounter a herd of about 30 horses. They parallel our course for nearly two miles, following just below the ridge crest and a quarter mile to our left. Eventually we get just enough ahead of them that they stop and gaze at us from a saddle.
We travel another seven miles passing more westerly side roads. Some we have traveled before; they mostly all lead down into School Bus Canyon and all of its tributaries. At about 40 degrees ten minutes north I look for the faint side trail that will take us to the ridge summit again and that mine from a couple of years ago. I find it and lose it and find it again going through a sandy wash area that has been messed up by quad riders. Sometime, I’ll have to tell you in detail what I think of the vast majority of quad riders. The road finally begins its steep and a bit off-camber ascent for better than a mile to the crest of the range again.
The only standing cabin is still almost as I saw it last. It still has some glass in its windows, no bullet holes and no graffiti. Then it’s out with the hard hats and lights and we take the tour of the safest looking adit. The timber work still looks as good as ever. From the looks of the ore in the vein that the miners had dug through; my guess is that it is a silver mine. After exploring the mine we take a lunch break. The sky is beautiful; the temperature is 43 degrees; the wind is gusting to better than forty miles per hour; we’re at 6321 feet; Burr!
After lunch, we head north again. Just before Stone House Canyon, which threads its way through the mountain, I turn north west and follow the Sierra Pacific pole line road zig zagging its way over the ridge saving us a couple of miles. As we cross the summit we pass four quads. They seem friendly, but I sure wish they would stop making new, unauthorized roads.
Near the lake end if the Stone House Canyon, we decide to see if we can climb that seven foot stream cut that Ben and I descended a few weeks ago. I did it in one pass and a lot of dirt flying. Brian takes three or four passes and Ben, just one. I guess Brian was just being a bit conservative, being that his truck is so new to him. From there, we went along the lake bed a couple miles to show Brian the old Indian caves that we had discovered last month.
Heading down along the lake shore we got to do a bit of technical narrow wash crossings. At one of them we tried it in both directions at Ben’s request, as he wanted to test the Mitsubishis capabilities. Turning around on a narrow berm; Brian high centered his front axle on a tall granite boulder. Both front wheels were slightly off the ground. It finally took the recovery strap on the back of my rig to tug him off. He now has a ¼ inch bend in the steering linkage.
The rest of the trek back to Fernley was uneventful. We pulled into The Pioneer Crossing Restaurant at nearly 6:00. Ben paid for dinner to celebrate my 100th off-road trek in a Land Rover. Thanks Ben. I guess that’s what gave you the luck to win the $800 in the casino.
Photos at:
http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/ind...Nightingale_Circumnavigation_05-05-07/&page=1
