Oct 1 in Denio; Leg #10

Leg #10: Sat we headed NE of Denio up Cottonwood Creek through some ranches figuring we’d knock out another 5-6 miles that day, watch for buzzards and antlers and who knows, maybe get lucky. We meandered up the creek past a couple of ranches and ended up at a large ranch in the middle of the canyon. The road stopped at a fence into one of their corral. I met a charming middle aged rancher at the door and told her what we were up to. She overcame her immediate puzzlement and came outside to point the way out for us to continue up into the canyon and intersect the state line on their 3600 acre ranch. She asked if we were hunting, I assured her we weren’t, but that turned the conversation to accidents and I conveyed the news Dwane had learned from home the day before while we drove down. Dwane learned from his wife a family known to him had lost their father of three to a negligent hunter. The poacher mistook him for a deer as he was picking brush in the Shelton WA with his family and shot him – twice, and killing him in front of his family. She conveyed how a month earlier she and her family had lost their 4 year old grandson when he fell from the back of a ATV and struck his head. She was obviously fighting back tears as she told me this and I felt my own welling up as I touched her shoulder to express my sorrow for her loss. Of course the emotion of the moment was overwhelming as she told me how 3-4 times a day she just had to stop and cry. I hugged her for a long moment. Life is certainly cruel at times to good people. I enjoy moments like that when you can share a little compassion for a stranger’s trials and perhaps relieve even momentarily a little sorrow. We walked on down to the FJ and I introduced her to Dwane and Dave. She opened the corral and let us ford their creek on the way on up the jeep trail and to the state line about 2 miles south into a beautiful valley that Dave insisted on traversing to the upper end in a box canyon with the birch and aspen trees high above us.


View from the top of the canyon looking back down and North.


We finally made our way back down to the intersect point with the state line. We stood there briefly gauging the 6-700 foot climb were staring at, picture below, before starting up the brushy slope. Took awhile as it was starting to get pretty warm and there wasn’t much of a breeze on this east slope of the hills, but we made it to the high point through the brush and rocks in about a half hour.



View westerly from the top of the first ridge.


View from the top of the first ridge, looking back east at the end of our mountain leg being defferred.

Headed down into the first canyon we came upon one of the older milepoints.

Wish we'd re-scribed so it would legible in the picture. I'll have to confer with the BLM to see if that would be appropriate for the future.

Headed downhill towards Denio.

We walked a lot of sidehill, which I hate, another ridge or two and then down a finger to reach the valley floor where we’d left off months before. Saw a couple of deer and a heard of antelope, but no monster rack with which to claim the $2000 reward. Oh well. That filled in about 6 miles of a 12 mile segment between McDermitt and Denio that hits 8400 ft that we’re trying to work up nerve for. We’ll likely do it next spring as the second to last leg.

Sept in Denio; Leg #9

Leg #9: Well, with the help of our other brother Darrel, secretly named David, we set off for the first installment on our Fall hiking. We got away late Thur, stayed at Dave’s place near LaPine and then headed on down to Denio on Friday morning. Having a support vehicle makes all the difference. We figure we waste 2-3 hours each day shuttling back and forth or repositioning if Dwane and I are alone so it was great to have Dave to drop us off an pick us up. Anyway, we figured since it paralleled State Hwy 140, we could pick off a short 5-6 miles Friday afternoon and save a long stretch for Sat. Dave dropped us at the furthest west point we’d hit last spring when we were snowed out in May at the point where Hwy 140 crosses the state line and into Sheldon Wildlife refuge. You can see the two rogues posing along the hwy before our afternoon trek.

First 3-4 miles was expected to be pretty flat, with a gentle elevation gain until hitting the Daugherty Slide and the basin below for about a 1000’ drop. We hustled right along through the low sage and high desert across a few small gullies rimmed by rock and with Mtn Mohagany patches overlooking. You can see Dwane at our first break on the rimrock ledge in the Myrtle. Was a little warm, but we had a nice breeze and were pretty greased up with sunblock – so it went fine.

Below, if you look close you'll see three different monuments, probably all supposedly marking the same surveyed point on the ground.

This is what the surveyed mile points look like - most of the ones in this stretch of the border are from a 1939 survey. They are pretty close to the GPS stateline I have loaded.

A couple miles in looking back east from the Mohagany covered ridge.

Mile point 272.

Looking west over the last 3-4 miles before the Stateline Cyn.


Saw a few antelope and we spooked a large mountain lion that lept over the fence and ran across our path about a hundred yards ahead of us. Couldn’t get my camera out quick enough to catch it before it disappeared into a 3-4 acre swath of sage brush and grass. Dave had a hunting tag for cougar with him, but we conferred on the radio and decided we’d rather not have to figure out what to do with a large cat for the next 3 days anyway. Besides, none of us really wanted to go into the brushy area and roust the animal. They are apparently pretty common around the high desert as the locals were disappointed later that evening when conveying the story at the bar in Denio that we didn’t get a shot at it. Anyway, labored on along the fence for a couple more hours and came to the Stateline Canyon.

Dropping down into Stateline Cyn - highway runs parallel and about 3/4 mile to the right, or north and drops over Daugherty Slide.

Most of the mile point markers we came upon were fairly accurate per our GPS readings, so we elected to pass on climbing a rock cliff to try and find the one falling in the middle of the last 2 mile segment on the side of the canyon. We scrambled down into the canyon and proceeded to be-bop right along down the dry creek bed through the rocks and brush down to the valley floor. It drops the 1000’ in about a mile. Saw a few mule deer watching us curiously from up on the canyon walls, but didn’t see any other wildlife other than squirrels and rabbits. With our water gone, butts dragging, and sunlight fading we broke out into the valley floor and scrambled to get a hold of Dave on the radio as the sun went down.

Timing wise, it was great and we covered a little over 6 miles. However, the heat took its toll on us and portended what was to come. We loaded up in Dave’s FJ in the middle of the akali dessert valley and he had some cool Mikes Lemonade for us to down with about a gallon of water each. Temps were nearing 90.

Headed on to Denio to claim the rooms we’d booked at the Denio Jct bar, store, restaurant, motel, rv park and gas station. Had a couple of entertaining drinks with the locals, though we were too late for dinner. I always size up these local watering holes when we first walk in. I like to spring for a round of drinks for everyone to break the ice. Never can tell when that same drunk, toothless SOB harassing you for being a city slicker government employee all night will be the one to save your ass when you break down out in these parts miles from anything and anyone. Anyway, a local had a bad break while hunting a week earlier and had a reward posted for some help. Seems he had hit the biggest buck deer he’d ever seen with an arrow, but couldn’t track the animal and lost it in the darkness. Knowing that it was a trophy animal he had posted a $2000 reward for anyone who found and the animal and located the rack for him. He had the GPS coordinates listed for the point where he had last seen it and I confirmed on our maps to find the spot was within a hundred yards of our remaining route on a segment over the mtns east of Denio. So we did some conferring and even though Dwane and I weren’t keen on talking any of the really high mtns, we figured $2000 is $2000, so what the hell.

Sheldon WR 7th Leg, Brrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry - no pictures. I lost my media card from my camera before I could download pics from this trip. I may be able to post some later from previous trips.

Well, we planned and coordinated a 5 day period starting on a Friday thru Tue with the intent of knocking out at least 50-60 miles of the border mostly West of Sheldon Wildlife reserve. We had hoped to get to the CA/OR/NV corner knowing that this was likely the last oppoortunity we'd get till next fall. I reconfigured a small utility trailer I have to carry the mini-bikes so we would not have to constantly load and unload into the camper as we'd done the last time out. Worked out pretty well and we also had room for some of our supplies and pioneering gear in the trailer. We got over early enough on Friday that we dropped the trailer and headed out to knock out about 12 miles along a high plateau called "Big Springs Table", east of Greaser Lake, north of the Sheldon refuge. Weather was threatening, but we were hopeful. Turns out we shouldn't have been optomistic as mother nature did it to us again. We finished the 12 miles in the dark with the snow blowing in our faces as temparatures dropped and bad weather moved in. We loaded up and quickly headed back the 20 or so miles across the high desert on two track dirt roads now covered with 3-4 inches of fresh snow in the dark and nearly whiteout conditions to get back to Hwy 140 at the border crossing point. Timing was critical as we had to cross several alkali lake beds that are impassable when they become wet. Fortunately, it was cold enough and the snow new enough that the moisture had not soaked in and softened the "road" and so we didn't have too much of a challenge. Once we hit the highway, with 6 inches or so of fresh and unplowed snow, we decided to head west and drop down into the Warner Valley, find a place to sleep, and see what the morning would offer us. We went to Fisher Hot Springs at the NE corner of Crump Lake about 11-12 miles off the highway from Adel. Dwane had never been there, so I figured worse case we'd at least get to see the hot springs and take a quick soak, which I did in the dark and blowing snow. Fisher is near an old abandoned homestead and grave site overlooking the low valley. The springs consists of two small creeks separated by 50 meters coming out of the hillside at 123 degrees and a hundred plus gallons a minute each. The creeks combine and flow out into the desert floor towards the lake a mile distant although some of it is piped out to a cattle trough a few hundred meters from the lake shore. The area is a sensitive one and no longer signed by BLM due to vandalism of the numerous petroglyphs on the large boulders which dominate the landscape at the eastern edge of the valley floor. These indian artifacts are thousands of years old and despite the remote location are threatened by the careless acts of folks traveling thru. In the morning we arose, ate something accessible and considered our lot. There was snow on the ground even at this altititude, perhaps 1500 ft below he track of our planned hiking. It was obvious we'd have at least 30-40 miles of slogging thru 3-4 inches of wet snow for the next 2-3 days, something neither of us considered acceptable, so we came up with a plan B and decided the hiking was not to be. We unloaded the bikes and headed off to look at the glass house, which I'd discovered about 7-8 years ago on a small desert hill down the valley and north of Crump Lake. It was about 5 miles distant. The road leads across a few fence lines and desert pastures passing two additional abandoned homesites which we explored. The glass house, as we call it in my family, was built on a small hill in the narrow part of the valley between Crump and Hart Lakes by somebody with a passion for metal art. The entire house is set in a 5 foot deep rock cut about 20 feet wide running north-south across the top of the hill with views of the whole valley and Hart Mtn's west escarpment. The structure is made with 2 inch angle iron and plexiglass panels. It's obvious someone occaisionally uses it - this time I could see the bed had been made and recently used. I've often meant to leave a note to whoever owns it and keeps it locked up asking them to post an explanation for their creation on the inside of the wall as it is certainly a curousity. I don't think there is a well on site, but there is a small solar cell system and batteries with propane tanks. The inside is built with an open dining/entry area, a bedroom area, a bath and toliet all around a central island wall with a large steel fireplace and chimney. The driveway is well graveled up the hill a 1/4 mile to the house from the dirt roads, 15 miles in either direction to get there, and the sides of the cut in the hilltop are landscaped with rock and cemet walls. A huge deck of probably 50 by 75 feet extends from the poured cement patio to the SE. I'm thinking the builder must have enjoyed the stars, or envisioned having star viewing nights. There is metal art around the whole place and integrated into the structure. He/she used probably a hundred feet of 10 inch channel iron inverted with "ribbons" of 2-3 inch flat iron welded on edge to the surface to border the approach from the parking area. The drive/walkway is wired with small led type lights on it. I'd love to know what they were thinking. After poking around there for a few we went on north driving down the two track trail and tried to find the fording point at the north end of this rise where it's possible to cross the stream connecting the two lakes and head out west to catch the Adel-Plush highway by crossing a couple of ranches. We bopped around out through the tule weeds, but didn't find a point shallow enough we were willing to get wet and muddy while crossing. Had a few interesting moments crossing through the reeds and wet marshlands that dominate along the low creek lands. We headed back to the hot springs and took a different track across the pasture and field areas instead of tracking along the edge of the valley and homesites. I wanted to see if it was possible to get near the Crump Lake water's edge, so we explored. What a kick. Other than throwing my chain off twice we had fun blasting through tall stands of dried tule reeds while trying to get close to the lake's edge without ending up in the large muddy flats. Found a point from which I'm determined to try and get my boat into the water in the future and see if there is Crappy in the lake. The only warm water fishing I've ever done was on one of these Warner valley lakes - Campbell, now dried nearly up, a few years back. Black Crappy are as good tasting as bass and a kick to catch if you can find them. I'm guessing since Crump is the first of the lakes it might yield a few, but I've never seen anyone on it. We made it back to the truck, loaded up and headed to Lakeview for food and fuel. Forgot to mention that we had a surprise in the morning when we discovered that three of the sides on the trailer had broken loose and the entire load of mini-bikes, boxes and gear had shifted off center when we'd driven the 40 miles or so the night before. Basically, one bolt kept the whole load from coming loose and being deposited in the middle of the road and leaving us with an empty, small flatbed trailer. We'd likely never have know it happened since the trailer isn't visible from inside the truck while driving. We hit Subway and gassed up in Lakeview then headed north to Christmas Valley. I'd decided to show Dwane "Crack in the Ground", a interesting geologic feature about 8 miles west of the small desert community of Christmas Valley. We drove out to the sight and stayed the night in the trailhead parking area and got up for an early start on exploring the "Crack". This was Dwane's first look at the feature. It's on BLM managed property and consists of a small rift of 6 to 15 feet wide varying from the surface to over 60 feet deep running for a distance of about a mile through a volcanic rock flow. The bottom of the crack is sandy, but requires an occaisional clamboring over boulders or squeezing thru crevaces to traverse the length of it. It's a very cool floor perhaps 20 degrees below the above ground temperature and there are places where it's obvious the natives used to camp and make their fires in its sheltered corners. We explored a while, then drove up over Gren Mtn stopping at the lookout to take some breathtaking pictures before heading back north and east into the Christmas Valley. Neither of us had ever seen the Valley's Sand Dunes and we drove the 10 miles or so over to the recreation area, also managed by BLM. What an awesome place. Large desert dunes with acres of ATV playground. We were not optomistic they could navigate the soft sands, but we unloaded the mini-bikes and at least figured we'd give it a try - what a blast. We were surprised to find that they'd climb even the tallest of the dunes if we avoided the softest areas and hit it flat out. Road around, almost blasted up and over a sand cliff at one point, and headed back to the truck to load up late in the afternoon. Made it back to Crewswell fairly early in the afternoon, so Dwane headed back to Shelton. So much for our hiking till probably Sept. Dwane isn't likely to get any more time off till the fall. We're hoping our Mom, she's taken a fervent interest in our project out of her own sense of jealousy over our explorations, will be able to join us as support for the next hundred or so miles. Riding the mini-bikes is great, but the shuttling eats up so much of the daylight we'd rather be dropped off or picked up by a support vehicle. We'll see.

Denio - 5th and 6th Legs

After making 5-6 miles from east of Denio on Day 5 (Directly above), we set up to knock out some mileage to the west of Denio on Day 6. Figured on doing some of the flat table top desert from about 12 miles to 25 miles west of Denio, but ended up further west where Hwy 140 crosses the line. We dropped the truck near the highway and headed east on the bikes via some desert roads and a few miles along the fenceline. Pretty easy walking along a fence line the whole way back with just a couple of small canyons and plateaus to cross. Saw some more antelopes. We'll have another 15 mile segment to the east we could have done the next day, but the weather closed in and we had a slow leak in a tire when we got back to Denio for the evening. Rowdy bar (Above left) with all the locals yukking it up over the idiot "Valley Boys" walking across their territory. We aired up the tire after dinner and headed to Fields since they have the ability to break down and repair tires. Slept in their parking area and had breakfast at the Fields Cafe. Young former Marine/disabled vet made us breakfast at the cafe and directed us to the tire shed to work on our tire. Ended up being able to get it off and plug the leak without having to break the tire down. Day was shot and weather was turning bad, spitting snow, so we decided to do some exploring and check the forecast for the next day. I took Dwane to see the Borax Hot Springs a few miles out of Fields in the desert valley floor. I've been there many times, but he hadn't seen this site where Borax was harvested and then transported via wagon around the turn of the century for a couple of years to Winemmucca and the railroad. Much of the earthworks still exist where they'd drain water from one of two 10-20 acre warm lakes (Top picture), let the water evaporate, rake up the borax and dry it under large open fires before shipping. There is a fault line about a 1/4 mile long extending north from the shallow lakes where small springs boil up through the desert floor ranging from boiling (2d picture above) to luke warm water. We headed back towards Denio (See the yard art "chopper" pic) around noon to check the weather forecast while eating some lunch. Bad news - snow and rain Friday with only Sat expected to be clear. The Cafe let me plug in to the web to confirm and we decided our trip was about over. We'd met a colorful local the day before who owns an Opal mine west of town, so we decided we'd drop in on him on our way back home that afternoon. We hit another hot spring, Bog Hot (3rd Pic above), on the way and stopped by to tour his "digs" on the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge. Headed on into Lakeview, grabbed a sandwich and headed west to Creswell, arriving just after midnight.

We've covered the first 50+ miles west from three corners to the base of the Trout Mtns, another 6 miles of the valley floor straddling Denio, and about 12 miles ending at Hwy 140 and the stateline - pushing 70 miles total. Kind of weak as we'd hoped to have 100 miles completed by the end of this last week and we're not sure when we'll get another shot at some miles.

McDermitt Cr Canyon - 4th Leg from Hell

Well, these are the days that try men's souls took on new meaning for us. We'd planned to pickup west of McDermitt and get to the mountain foothills near the Zimmerman Ranch in one day. Saying we under estimated the terrain difficulty would give us some credit for a little intelligence, unfortunately, we lacked any intelligence on this, perhaps the most beautiful leg to date. We struggled. Headed east from the pickup late morning after dropping off the bikes west of the Zimmerman spread and driving back down the hill and out through the sage to intersect the state line where we'd left off. Got a late start as one of the bikes had a small mechanical problem we quietly fixed inside our McDermitt motel room. Anyway, the state milepoints were pretty much where they were supposed to be as we headed west across a plateau for the first couple of miles. We then dropped down into McDermitt Creek canyon and up the other side at an oblique which forced us to start crossing up and down through the side canyons until we bailed out by climbing far enough up the 6000 ft ridgeline to avoid going up and down the last couple of cross canyons. BEAUTIFUL creek and canyon, views of the mountains, etc. Pictures posted. We started down off the ridgeline to drop into the canyon with a nice 2 miles of walking across the Zimmerman valley ahead of us before the last couple up to the bikes. We ran out of daylight about the point we crossed the creek for the last time and hit the pastures/meadows. Walked on in the dark illuminated by a quarter moon for an hour and hit the Zimmermans place about 9PM with it about 20 degrees. We stopped and asked for a little water before trudging on to the bikes in the dark for another couple of miles and thank God they offered to run us up to our end point. Mr Zimmerman drove us up the valley through his son's (Arnie Zimmerman) ranch to our bikes and followed us back down the hill. Ever rode a motorcycle in 20 degree weather down hill on dirt roads??? Even at 20mph we had to stop 2-3 times in the ten miles to let the blood return to our hands and legs. Drove the bikes in the dark out through the sage and found the truck fairly straight away - surprise. We loaded up in the dark and made it back down to McDermitt about midnight. Thankfully the Casino is open 24 hours and even though the restaurant was closed the nice folks on duty made us some great roast beef sandwiches as we continued to thaw out. Our plan was to relocate that night to the Denio valley to the west and decided what the hell - we might as well head that way. Made it half way there to the Willow Cr Hot Spring (BLM) and pulled the bikes out so we could crawl in our bags and get some rest after soaking in the hot spring under the stars for a half hour or so. By then it was about 2 AM. We got up late, late morning, loaded back up, and met our other brother Dave in Denio Jct for lunch. Dave and his wife were headed down to Yuma for a spring break and had swung over east on the off chance they'd catch us. Worked out that way. You see you have cell service all over the valley east of Steens because there's a tower on top of that 10,000 foot mtn. We had just gotten out of the hot spring that morning and were getting reloaded when my cell phone rang and suprise - it's Dave and Linda. Anway, had a good lunch with the locals at Denio as we plotted our next day's debacle. Decided we still had enough daylight that we might as well pick off some valley floor desert miles before dark. We found a power pole just west of Denio to chain the bikes to and headed back east across the desert valley floor in the truck to a start point at the foothills. This time we hit it about right and trudged across the valley through tumble weeds, sage brush and prickly weeds just hitting Denio about dark. Had enough time to jump on the bikes, a little warmer that night but still approaching 35 degrees, and head back out to find the truck in the dark. Next days plan was to pick up some miles in the desert flats west of town.

McDermitt - 3rd Leg

We made it down Friday evening about dark, had dinner at the McDermitt Casino (Some pretty good fish and chips and friendly service), and headed out to the point we'd started from about 20 miles west of the state line. Got there about 9:00, found a spot for the evening a mile or two from our attack finish point, and camped overnight. Next morning we were able to drive a mile or so north to the planned finish point for the day through a foot of snow because it had frozen up overnight and we were able to drive across the top few inches of the snow. The point we picked was actually a half mile south of the fence line we wanted. Unloaded our two mini-bikes and headed east to the three corners start point. Interesting three sided monument out in the middle of nowhere. This point was established back before 18880. Most survey markers are from 1911-1922. We left the bikes and headed west. Pretty level and desert terrain for the first 10 miles or so. We started climbing a little and began crossing some really pretty canyons and small streams. Beautiful country overall and the weather was great. Sunny, but cool. Saw several herds of Antelope sprinting across our path or away from us. End of the day wasn't so fun. Last three miles or so were across snow fields of a few inches to a foot or so and soggy desert bottoms. Got muddy and wet as we slogged along expending about 3 times the effort of climbing small hills. Made it to the truck about 7PM intending to drive back to three corners and get the bikes. We made it about 2-300 yards and buried the truck in the snow. Just too soft at above freezing temps. We shoveled, jacked, hauled rocks, etc for an hour so until conceding we were not getting out easily until it froze up again. Camped for the night and got an early start at it in the morning. Used my four 2X6 planks for my bunk to put under the tires after we jacked it up clear of the deep snow. Had to do it a couple of times to get some momentum going forward until we got down the road into shallower snow. Drove the 20 miles on out to the corner and picked up the bikes and headed back into town for lunch. After lunch we picked up and headed west of McDermitt to the point we'd left off the first weekend. Since we'd gotten such a late start we planned on only 4-5 miles continuing west and thought we'd check out the next days end point. Drove all the way 2o miles west of McDermitt, met a charming couple at the end of the road at their farm near where we figure we'll have to wait a couple of months as the route climbs to nearly 8,000 feet and there's tons of snow up there. The Zimmermans have been married some 67 years and their son has the other ranch further up the valley. Nice couple - we stopped by to explain we'd be leaving a rig near their ranch and driving across it up into the BLM lands at our end point. They were all friendly and helpful with directions, suggested we camp at their place and leave our rig there - wish we had. Anyway, we had a few hours of daylight left so we drove back towards town and found a beautiful canyon that intersects the line about 4 miles west of our attack point. Left the truck, jumped on our 196cc "Hogs" and headed west to the start point. The bikes make 23 mph, 24 down hill, and they don't pull up very steep hills. We struggeled to get up jeep trail to above the cliffs we'd left off on back in January, but made it by walking beside the bike and its spinning tire while climbing the hill. We headed from milepoint 195 westward back to the truck. Beautiful day. Made it to the truck with enough daylight to be able to drive back towards town and crawl up the rocky hill to retrieve the bikes. Spending tonight in the Hotel. Figured after two nights - three days we were getting gamy. Tomorrow we complete the last leg still possible at these altititudes below about 6500 feet out to the Zimmermans and then we'll relocate over to Denio.

PART TWO

We'll we're headed down to McDermitt this Friday and taking a week to get as many miles as we can under our belts as the weather seems to be clearing most of this week. We expect to hike the first segment from the state corner 25 miles westward and then another 15-20 miles west from where we left off done this weekend. The segment between McDermitt and Denio will be tough logistically and physically and we're likely to skip the middle 15 miles until the snow melts as it includes a ridge of nearly 8,000 feet in altitude. We're taking my larger camper shell and two off road type mini-bikes I picked up a couple of weeks ago. We'll likely sleep in the camper and use the mini-bikes to shuttle from start to finish or vice versa. We actually figure we'll use the bikes to get to the start point because we'd rather ride in my truck in the dark after walking 15-20 miles than ride the mini-bike back to the day's starting point. We're hoping to get at least a hundred miles done in the coming week and get close to Goose Lake, but we haven't recon'd the area west of Denio so there's no telling how much snow is in that country. We'll have to leap frog the hundred miles or so around to the Denio valley and work from there probably on Monday. Wish us luck - we'll be posting pictures as we can.