Wednesday September 30, 2020 Stillwater Mountain Range Nevada
Desert running
This was last nights camp spot at a place by Mountain Wells on a little hill top. A nice pleasant night.
Leaky heater core
After breakfast Marty decided to disconnect his heater as the core was leaking fluid which wasn’t good. The easiest way to fix the problem was just to disconnect the heater hoses which he did.
What’s that
Just down the road from our camp we could see some white rocks around something so we stopped there to check it out. It turned out to be a big water valve from Mountain Wells and the rocks were to protect it. It didn’t appear to be in service anymore.
A main road
We got back on the main road and headed down it for a spell going about 35 miles an hour watching for big bumps. Not much traffic.
We passed by these cattle taking it easy.
We turned up this road and drove a spell until we came back onto a main road.
Traffic not much
We stopped here for a map check and two trucks came by, the only ones we saw all day.
Missed the jets bombing
We saw a big billows of smoke off in the distance where some jets were bombing so drove up this road for a better view and maybe have lunch too. The bombing stopped just as we got up there.
Lunch spot
Marty was ahead of me and drove up into the creek area and radioed not to come up as he was going to have a hard time turning around and getting back out so I waited for him to return and we had lunch here by an old mine.
Wild horses
As we were sitting there having lunch some wild horses came by going to the water in the creek.
Stuck shifting lever
Marty’s van was having a transfer case shifting problem so he had to get under there and work on it so he’d have four wheel drive when he needed it. Always something to do on these old vans.
Hunting a camp spot
Once we left the lunch spot we were looking for a place to camp up in the hills if possible so we took this road that went up into the hills and dead ended up there a few miles ahead. All the trails are made from a bunch of wild horses in the area going to a water hole up where we are going to camp.
Lots of wild horses at the watering hole
This was the old road we followed up the hill and the dust, off to the right is wild horses racing away from the water hole as they didn’t like us much coming into their space.
As we approached the water hole area lots of wild horses were running out away from it as they didn’t like us in their area and likely headed for another water hole.
Water hole
We made camp just above this water hole the horses were using.
Walk to the mining area
After dinner I walked up to where they had done some mining.
This was the ore they had mined and I know not of what it was made. It must have been low grade as they didn’t work this mining area much.
Tonight’s camp spot
It was about a half hour before dark when I came back down from the mining area to our camp site below.
It’s a nice peaceful camp spot with not too many neighbors.
Plans
Tomorrow we are headed for a big mining area in the Humboldt Mountain Range just below Lovelock Nevada to explore around and I’m not sure where this might get posted from or when.
Nice day exploring around the desert.