The trip up the road to Sun Flower Flat, Mon. Oct. 22, 12:30 pm.
The roads have gone slimy
At the abandoned fire station after trying the road.
I stopped here to consider whether to go up the road to Sun Flower Flat, which heads to the Jarbidge area.
Below, the road to the Jarbidge area goes across the road and up into the hills in the background. You bet I was going to give it a try, at least.
Up the dirt road I went, the sun was poking out a little, so I was encouraged. The road was fairly rocky, but my tires where slinging mud. I was going ok in two wheel drive, but locked the hubs in just in case.
The Jarbidge area was over in those snow capped mountains. This is the road to Sun Flower Flat.
Below, at first, the road wasn’t too bad, but as I went further north, where it was raining more, it turned to slime.
This is where I decided to turn around and cancel Jarbidge. I just turned around the van. You can see the weather in the background, which is the Jarbidge area.
The reason I turned the van around is the mud was sticking to my tires and being slung all around and it had mostly turned to slime. You can see my tracks where I backed up below, the mud was peeling off the road. The end of the road for me. I also don’t like tearing up roads.
This is what my front left tire looked like, just after I turned around.
I turned around and drove back down to the fire station to think about what to do.
What to do?
Since I looked at the weather for this area this morning when I was in Owyhee, ID., I knew the rain would be in this area for another day and not too good the next day either. Hummmmm.
Looked like it wasn’t a good time to be going to the Jarbidge area, as they have lots of gravel and dirt roads. If you’ve been in the desert when it rains, you know that the roads can turn to snot, fast.
I don’t really want to go down by the Wells, NV. area. I’m thinking I might go over Maggie’s summit and head down to the road I usually use to cross over, the one with Willow Creek Reservoir on it and head back west. If I make it over Maggie"’s summit, the roads should be mostly out of the rain and even more so out of the snow. Only one way to find out. I’m thinking maybe Highway 140 to Oregon might work, if the rains stop over there in a couple days?
Off to Maggie’s Summit
OK, I’m headed south a bit on 255 to the Maggie’s summit road.