Tuesday July 23, 2013 Sunflower Flat, Mountain city, NV.
Easy Does it today
I woke at Mountain View lake at Owyhee, NV. this morning to a cool day. The water on the lake was almost flat, no wind yet. I was temped, but decided to move on around noon. I did a little exploring on the way out and tried to go another way and thought I was going to get out when I ran into a guy that said no way I could get to Owyhee the way I was going, so I turned around and back tracked. Such is exploring.
I was headed to the Owyhee store to get some gas and see about getting on the internet in town somewhere.
They said the broken line had been fixed from the day before and internet in the valley was back.
They said I could get on at the high school computer building at the high school. I got my gas and left to go find the computer building, nothing was signed or marked in any way, streets, building. So, I stopped and asked a bunch of firemen guys hanging out as there was just a big fire in the area just before I got there. I came down though a lot of it on the way in. Lucky for me, it was out by the time I came over the mountain as most of those roads are single lane without anyplace to pass another vehicle.
Anyway, they directed me down the street to the corner where I went and then still had to look around real good before I found the door in.
I did the post and checked email, then hit the road south, 225.
I went though Mountain City, which you can see below. It’s mostly closed up, real quiet though.
Going south, just below Mountain City, haying.
Not too far below Mountain City, I turned left on a Nation Forest Rd. 016 at California creek. There are a bunch of empty ranger houses here. They’ve closed them down and left the area as far as I can tell.
Any, it’s a good dirt road, even a car could make it in good weather and very scenic to. This is one of the three main ways into the Jarbidge area, so they try to keep it in good shape.
This is the road heading up to the flats, eastward.
Now I’m up on the flats, heading eastward.
There’s a place called Point of rocks, which can be seen in the picture below. It’s also the place where I turn off to the north on Rd. 013, which is sunflower flat area.
This is sunflower flat area, headed north. Good road, no one else on it but me.
I was thinking of camping by Sunflower Lake, but when I got there, the water was real low, as expected and the mosquitoes concerns were on my mind.
This is Sunflower Flat lake, looked like a good place for mosquitoes?
Just before I got to the lake, I saw a cattle working place off to the left, just below the lake dam, so I went back and checked that out. Hummmmmmmm, looked good. :O) See those little white things on the other side of the pond? Bones. OK, so you need good eyes.
I’m parked or camped near the cattle working area and on a little explore walk down by the pond.
These are the bones, looks like from a bovinosourous, a big bull, these things where huge.
This is a picture of the meadow, from the pond area. A lot of spent skunk cabbage.
I went back to the van and got it set up and puttered with getting some of these pictures set to post. It’s not always an easy task, as sometimes most of them are all good and there might be as many as two hundred. It’s always interesting to review the day in pictures, as they remind me what I’ve done and seen that day. Looking though them is like reliving parts of the day that I had already forgotten about.
I made up some dough for tortillas, which I set aside until I felt like cooking some.
Around six pm, I decided a little walk was in order, over toward the area the cattle where hanging out. It was cool and the clouds were moving in which blocked the sun. There was also a cool breeze blowing.
I following this cattle trail down to those trees which also have a sorta creek running though. Some of the cattle can be seen over the tree tops, if your eyes are good enough?
Here is a little closer shot of some of the cattle. There is a big bull in the dust cloud on the left. He seems to be having a dust bath. There is a pond there where they drink.
I had a nice little walk, I was only out about an hour, but the walking was easy and scenic.
Time to cook up some dinner. I grilled some steaks, one for tonight and one the next night, as my cooler ice is almost gone. Didn’t feel like cooking any tortillas yet.
The clouds really came in and blocked the sun out, so it was a cool day, which is always nice in the desert. This is high desert area, around seven thousand feet elevation.
I was treated to a fairly nice sunset.
There were some real nice reds.
The night was real quiet and peaceful, not hardly a sound all night.
My plan is to putter around here until about noon tomorrow, then proceed up the road to the Bruneau river bridge. I’m thinking of camping some place around that area and maybe put my crawdad traps in the river over night?
Another nice day.
Wednesday July 24, 2013 Jarbidge area, NV.
Camped in a little meadow by a bridge that crosses the Bruneau River, near the ID, NV. border
Another easy does it day
I got up this morning about eight and went outside to see I had some company that arrived early in the morning.
A cowboy and his horse and dogs parked not too far from me and were headed up to the ridge top behind me. What a job, just ride out with your horse and dogs to check on the cattle in the hills.
After I got going, I decided to go for another little walk before I left today. I walked down in the meadow to the left, past the little pond.
I’ve jumped a lot of grouse while on my walks in this areal. I think I saw about twenty last nigh and about five today on this walk. It would be a great place for a guy and his dogs to do some hunting. Easy walking too.
This is the view looking back up the hill where my van and the cowboys truck and trailer are parked. It’s just a view picture, so you’re not supposed to see everything in detail and up close. :O)
When I got back from my walk, I rested up, then made some tortillas to eat.
About noon, I was on the road, headed for my next camp. This is what some of the road looked like.
On another part of the road, I spied these horses, they didn’t seem wild, or they would have bolted and been gone.
I was just puttering along, no one else seemed to be on the road. I stopped at Burnt Timber Creek for a bit to eat and a rest. A few rain drops were falling, but drying as quick as they hit.
I knew there was a water spring coming out of the hill somewhere along the road, but I couldn’t remember where. I and some others repaired this spring and got it going about twelve years ago. A pallet along the road someone had put there marked it for me. Just as I was going to pull over two guys in a county truck come by and there isn’t much room to pass. The only place in the whole road I want to stop and someone comes by when I haven’t seen a sole all day? That happened at this spring once a long time ago, something about that spot in the road.
Anyway, I filled up five gallon jogs of water and headed on out again.
Just past that, I ran into some Chucker families. There are always a lot of them in the spot for some reason.
Just before I got to the bridge over the Bruneau river, I passed a couple young cowboys on horses herding some cattle. I stopped to talk with them a bit. I said, Hi, how’s it going. He said, How’s it going, have any beer? Turned out they were a couple young kids about nineteen or twenty working for a guy back here. They were moving some cattle over to the Diamond A Ranch where I was headed.
I said they have it good around here doing what they are. They said it was great, you can drink beer and do what you want. I said yea, there’s no one around to say you can’t.
I passed them and said I’d see them up the road by the bridge over the river where I was thinking of camping. This is the bridge over the Bruneau river.
I parked and climbed up on a rock on a hill and waited for them to come with the cattle. While waiting I checked out the creek under the bridge for some possible crawdad traps.
The cowboys with the cattle showed up.
They had some trouble getting them to cross the bridge which would be in front of my van in the picture below.
This is the cattle drive going past my van. The dogs in front of the horses sure checked my van out good too.
They headed up the road towards the Diamond A Ranch. The little valley to the left of these guys is where I had my eye on to camp.
Close up shot of the cattle drive as it goes up the hill. A lot of fun, but hot and dusty too. 
One of the guys, Irwin, road back to get the truck and trailer which was parked near the bridge. He’s a fine looking young cowboy for sure.
As he rode by I heard him shout something like darn mule and he was off for a ride, but he seemed to be able to handle it without much difficulty..
When he came by with the truck and trailer he stopped and talked some some more, before I said good bye and headed up the little side road to see if it was a good camp area or not.
At first I thought I’d just rest here and move back to the bridge, but after I settled down I decided this would be a good camp for the night.
Below is my Bruneau River Bridge crossing camp site for the night, about a quarter mile from the bridge.
I rested up and then decided to go for a little walk around the camp area. I walked up the river just a little ways and found this beaver dam and den behind it.
I then walked down river about a quarter mile or so and took this picture of the river.
This camp spot would do nicely. When I got back to my van I rested up again and then got some dinner together, then sat outside in my chair sorting photos until it got dark.
Tomorrow, I plan to go up near a place up the road called Rolland to see if I can get across the Bruneau river on a trail I know about, but have never checked out before, because I always thought it might be too rough, but until one looks, one doesn’t really know for sure. Maybe I can find a nice place to camp there too.
Had a real nice day.
