Monday, Tuesday, October 17, 18, 2016 Midas Tuscarora Nevada and Winnemucca Nevada
The snow story
Now that things have settled down, let’s back up a bit to last night when it started to snow big huge puffs of snow. Lots of them.
I was watching the snow on the windshield. It was mostly melting, but then it would stick for a bit. It’s about seven PM, the night is just starting.
I’m parked about a hundred feet off the main graveled road. The part I’m on is dirt but fairly packed for now, but you never know.
I was thinking of moving back to the gravel road where I had checked out a small gravel campsite by the road which would be easy to get onto the graveled road if it snowed a lot and I stayed.
I looked out the van side doors. Not much snow yet, but it was falling heavily. The red glow is my propane heater.
I saw a trailer and a car go out. Smart as we are up near Maggie’s summit. Just below it on the east side.
I found myself putting things away and getting the van ready to move. I decided to at least move it up onto the graveled road bed, but that turned out not to be so easy.
No headlights
I started the engine and no head lights. All the other lights were working. I got my flash light and tried shining it through the windshield, but it was just snowing too hard to see where to go, although I did try a bit, before wising up.
I remembered the hi-low beam switch connector had done this once before a long time ago. I reached down and wiggled the connector several times and the lights came on.
So now I have lights, but notice my red light telling me the alternator isn’t charging is glowing a little, but right now I need to get on the road with heavy snow coming down.
Best to head down the road
That’s not hard to do now that I have lights. A quick decision says head down the road to lower altitudes and the main highway which is paved. I’m thinking, I hope the battery lasts at least until I get down that far. Not sure on the miles, but about forty five minutes of travel and I needed the headlights so I wasn’t sure about the battery, but I do have an extra battery I can switch over if I have to.
Alternator is still working a little
So off I go down the graveled road, barely able to see it as it’s snowing big puff balls everywhere. I’m in four wheel drive just to be safe. I see my alternator isn’t completely dead and is charging just enough to keep up and I make it to the highway where the snow has turned to rain.
Peaceful night
Fortunately, there is a graveled road maintenance area right at the end of the road so I pull in and level out as best I can and spend a nice peaceful night there not giving any thought to snow.
In the morning, it looked like this.
Checked out the alternator problem
Before I left this morning I had a look at why the alternator wasn’t charging right last night. When I wiggled the alternator output wire, I could feel it was a bit loose on the connector, so I tightened it up more and all was good. I will have to do a better job tightening it up when I get home as it needs a real small wrench to hold the inter nut so I can tighten it up right.
Getting internet out here
The rain stopped sometime during the night. I headed up the road about twenty miles to the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. Their computer lab is open on weekdays. I just pull up outside and connect using Wi-Fi and they have a good fast connection.
I check the weather. Some showers for a couple days, then several days of sun. I can deal with that.
I post my blogs and read some blogs and make my plans.
Decided to go back to Willow Creek Reservoir
I decide to take a graveled road that goes around Maggie’s summit and come out on the other side. I will then go to Willow creek reservoir to camp for a couple days before heading for home.
I head out this gravel road and I can see snow in the mountains.
I’m now headed south down along this mountain range. The road is mostly rocky with very little mud. The sky darkened up as if to rain, but it held off, except for a few sprinkles.
I pass by these horses grazing in the grasses. They watch as I pass.
As you can see the road can be fairly rocky which means you better slow down. And it’s not a good idea to get ones tires off to the side as it’s usually soft stuff as compared to the middle of the road, you can see my left tire in the softer stuff.
I hadn’t seen any deer until now. These guys jumped the fence as I watched.
Just past the deer some antelope crossed the road in front of me.
Here’s just a few of them. I’d say a couple hundred of them crossed over and were running as antelope do.
Lunch time
It was noon when I pulled into this spot in the middle of an intersection.The road to the left goes back up to Maggie’s summit and is usually fairly muddy, even snotty. That’s why I came down the other gravel road. The road to the right is paved down to my Midas Tuscarora road which is about thirty miles to the Willow Creek Reservoir where I’m headed.
I had some lunch and a good break before taking off again down the road.
A couple hours later and I pulled into my camp spot by the creek just below the dam.
Walk along the creek
After a nap, I went for a little walk down the creek, not very far and it looked like this.
Coming back to my camp spot just up ahead. I’m headed to the bottom of the dam which is in back of the van.
Walked up to the dam tunnel
I was headed over to that tunnel where water comes out of the reservoir in the summer.
Nests on the left wall
Right now, the water is shut off. The water in the creek is coming from leaks in the rock just below here. I see some mud looking nests on the left wall, so I have a look. It’s too steep and slippery to get up to it, so I zoom in a bit.
Webs too
I see they are swallow’s nests and I don’t really notice the many webs until I look at the pics on the PC.
There seems to be some kind of webs all over the place. I don’t know if they are made by spiders or what.
The day is ending
About that time, the sun was going down. Looking back down the creek to where the van is parked looked like this.
I worked my way back down along the creek looking for critters.
Muskrats
There’s one, but it looks like a stick, but it moves in the water and there’s no current. I watch as it turns and goes under the brush behind it and it disappears as I hear another one splash off to the left and all I see are waves from the splash.
I continue on down along the creek back to the van where I will spend the night and maybe tomorrow.
The adventure
It’s been a good adventure even though the weather has messed up my plans. The adventure is the going and the doing, more than accomplishing the plans. Maybe next time the plans will work out, but either way, there’s always the adventure. :O)
Tuesday the eighteenth
The temp said thirty degrees F. when I woke and looked at the temperature gauge this morning so I lite the heater and stayed in bed until it warmed up a little.
Looked at the faulty dimmer switch
After I got it going I decided to head on out toward Winnemucca by at least noon and I was off around eleven, but not before having a look at the faulty headlight dimmer switch.
Looks like it could use a new connector as this one is fried, but I can make it work for now.
The dimmer switch with the burned connector pulled off.
Cruising and stopped for a short break
I took my time cruising down the gravel road and stopped here for a short break and to check out the creek which is off to the left, another camp spot of mine. It was cloudy with some light showers on and off.
The mining haul roads were mostly dry and in pretty good shape, although one had to be on the watch for big chuck holes once in awhile. The new van front springs worked out real good as I gave them a good test on this trip. I don’t think they bottomed out once and I hit some pretty big pot hoses and just real bumpy roads.
I’m taking a break where the mining haul road turns to pavement and not too far from Winnemucca, which I will shortly drive to to post this blog.
Winnemucca
I plan to gas up and do some shopping then head west on highway eighty to where highway 95 from the south meets. I have a camp site just north of that intersection where I will stay for the night and continue on home sometime tomorrow morning.
It’s been a good day to be in a van as there has been a cold wind blowing so it’s not too nice outside.