Headed Out for Northeastern Nevada Trip and a Heating Problem

Thursday June 18, 2015 East of Reno Nevada

A visit

My friend Marty stopped by this morning for a visit. We shot the bull for an hour or so about upcoming trips in the future and a lot of other stuff guys shoot the bull about. :O)

He left just before noon, so I decided to go kayaking for the day. But before I left, I checked my email and there was one there from Steve who was going on a trip with me, but he became ill. We were to leave today, but had to postpone it.

Anyway, he said he was pretty sick and had a couple doctor’s appointments in the next couple weeks, which meant he wasn’t going to be able to go on this trip.

Time to go

It didn’t take me long to change gears and finish loading up my van and I was off just before 1PM. In time to miss some of the Sacramento traffic, if that is even possible. And it would put me by Reno after their rush hour, so off I went, headed for Winnemucca, Nevada.

oh, oh a problem

I was doing fine until I started climbing the Sierra foothills and I noticed my temp gage creeped up a bit, so I pulled over into the slower lane and dropped my speed to see if the gage would go down and it didn’t so eventually I pulled off at a park and ride place and luckily found some shade here.

I know better than to take off the hot radiator cap, so I had to nap for about a half hour to let things cool off a bit so I could check the fluid level of the radiator.

The spot wasn’t too bad considering I could be down on the valley floor with the big freeways and in the heat.

In the mean time, I inspected all the hoses and the radiator and water pump, but couldn’t find any place that looked like fluid had leaked out. It was hot enough any fluid that came out would of likely evaporated.

I changed the heater hoses awhile back and haven’t been on any real hot type driving trips until now, so I suspect the problem may be one of the clamps isn’t tight enough. I tighten all the clamps on all the hoses just in case. I was able to tighten two of the heater hoses up a bit, so I’m hoping that’s it.

I was finally able to take the radiator cap off and poured some of my water into it, almost a gallon. Yikes. Any more water lost and it would have been something major. I’m hoping I caught it in time.

I filled the radiator up and then looked again for leaks, but couldn’t find any.

I’m considering aborting the trip, but if it was just a loose hose, I could go on and keep an eye on things which I did. I watched the temp gage rise a bit on each long up hill I did, but it didn’t go back to where it had been, so I cautiously proceeded to head to Winnemucca where I was going to gas up and head out into the desert and find a camp.

Reno was easy

I drove through the Reno area easily as it was now after rush hour especially since I was delayed with the heat problem, but now I was getting tired out. I could make it to Winnemucca, but why?  I’d rather do that in the daylight.

Headed to camp

I knew of a camp spot just north of where highway 95 turns south off 80 and it’s just up ahead. It was five or so miles off the freeway, so I took the off ramp when I got to it.

But instead of going the five miles up the road I saw some big power lines crossing the road, so turned right on a little maintenance road I know must be under the power lines. The road turned out to be pretty good as it also went to an old rock quarry used for the highway, down below.

Anyway, I’m only about a mile away from the freeway and can’t hear it and I hope there are no trains anywhere around here. I don’t think so, but I’ve been surprised before.

This is my view out the van side doors looking to the west just before dark.

And this is where I’m camped for the night looking west. This just be a  nice peaceful spot.

There’s a good wind blowing since I’ve been here, but it’s cooling things down nicely. It’s strong enough to just shake the van a bit.

It all depends on the radiator water level

Tomorrow, I’ll check the radiator water level first thing in the morning. If it’s full, I’m good to go. If not, I’ll have to make up my mind what to do next. If the water isn’t leaking out where I can see it, than it would have to be leaking into the engine which wouldn’t be too good. So, I’m hoping the water level will be full when I check it in the morning. If so, I’ll head to Winnemucca, an hour or so from here. Then I’ll be off, headed to Mountain city and to the Jarbidge area where I hope to camp and explore.

I will post this blog at McDonalds in Winnemucca and then I’m not sure when or where the next one might come from. It might be a several days to a week or so before I get internet access again.

That’s it, another day down. :O)

Update: Water level is good this morning. Great. Sent from Lovelock.