Day 9 Over Spalding Pass and Setting Up For the Drive Home

Monday October 5, 2020 Spalding Road Pass, Nevada

Smoky

During the night the smoke from neighboring state’s forest fires moved in around us.

This was the sun coming up through all that smoke.

Once we got it going this morning we took off down the ridge top back to the main road. I followed Marty who is up ahead there.

Marty was up ahead of me and told me the dust off to the right was wild horses he spooked off the hill on the way out.

Mechanicing and blood

Once on the main road Marty couldn’t get his van’s transfer case back in two wheel high so we had to stop while he worked on it. He got it fixed but in the process poked three or four holes in his left arm that we had to take care of.

Once that was all fixed up we were on the main road north up this valley they call Pleasant Valley.

Break time

We pulled over here to check the maps and take a break for a bit. Smoky eh. I was trying to stop more often for breaks just because we could.

We drove by this big nice ranch just before turning left onto Spalding Road. Trees really make a place out here.

Road work ahead

They keep most of the main roads in fairly good shape out here. The road crew was fixing a spot here.

Lunch

We stopped here for lunch and to check the maps to make sure we were headed in the right direction and we were.

We were on the Spalding road which was fairly rough when we saw these antelope.

Spalding Pass road

The road turned out to be four wheel drive. This truck with a man and a woman in it came down from the pass so we figured we could make it. We didn’t see anyone else on the road all day.

After that truck passed the road got steeper and so we put it in four low and crawled over it most of the way.

We passed by more antelope near the top of the pass.

Top view

We stopped at the top of the pass to have a look around at the view.

There were some tight spots on the road. This is why I don’t have a nice paint job on the van.

Once we got over the top of the pass we went by this mine on the way down and expected the road to improve and it did.

Tonight’s camp spot

We were setting up a camp spot to get in position to start heading  home tomorrow so we wanted to be close to highway 80 but not too close. So we picked this spot to camp, still up in the hills.

Little walk up the road

I wanted to walk out the road we were on a little further so I invited Marty along. He went until the road started to go uphill where he turned back to take it easy at camp and I continued on a half mile or so to some springs were the cows were.

I made it back to camp and we took it easy for the rest of the day resting up.

Plans

Tomorrow we will head to Lovelock Nevada to get gas and get some internet and start on our way home. We decided to only go about half way and camp to make the drive a bit easier on us as it’s a long drive home otherwise for older guys. :O)

Nice day.