Sunday March 9, 2014 Near Fallon Camp
I had a hard time making up my mind
I had some time to think about things last night. With the weather, it’s cool out and cold at night. Worse than that, the dirt roads around here are already a bit wet from earlier rains and just a little more rain could turn them to real muddy fast and it’s supposed to rain on Monday.
What to do?
I decided to go north up the main road, 226 a little further to the Midas, Tuscarora road and see if I thought it was open, or closed with snow? With all the snow I see around here on the mountains, I fully expected it to be closed and I would have to back tract to Ely to get out of this area in the direction I needed to go, West to home.
Van’s making a weird noise
I headed up the main road when my van made a weird noise which seemed to be coming from right in front of me. It sounded a lot like a snow tire making a lot of noise on pavement? It was quite load and only did it when I was moving. I stopped a couple times to check to see if my four wheel hubs where both not engaged and checked the front drive line to make sure it was in neutral and not turning. Everything seemed ok, so I got back in and drove it some more. Could it be the speedo cable? Speedometer looks ok. It just kept it up so I decided the only thing to do was drive it and see what happens.
About a mile or so more down the road I noticed my speedo needle was bouncing around with all the noise. A ah, the speedo cable. It got a bit worse, then started to clear up. Maybe some frozen water in there?
Anyway, I was glad that’s all it was.
Taking a chance on the Tuscarora Road
When I got to the Tuscarora Road turn off, it looked real good. No snow.
Should I take a chance and head on out it? It might just be blocked with snow way out there? I decided to take a chance, after all, part of what I do is explore and this sure rated high in that category.
I do have some experience with this road. My friend Marty and I took his similar van through this road one winter and it had a foot of snow on it, sometimes almost two feet. We only ran off the road once and we made it, somehow? :O)
So this looked like a piece of cake and if I ran into snow, I would turn around, I learned my lesson last time.
This is the start of the Tuscarora road, which goes almost to Winnemucca where I’m headed. And I’ll stop at the Willow Creek Reservoir.
Most of the road was in good shape.
I think this was the worse part of the road, no problem.
Willow Creek Reservoir
I arrived at the Willow Creek Reservoir and parked in my camp spot. No one else was at the reservoir, real peaceful.
This is my camp spot that I’ve used before.
I thought I might stay the night here and took a couple hours to think about it. It was cool out, so I decided it would be better to get closer to Reno for the night, so I steadied the maps. That would give me a shorter shot tomorrow for the last leg of the trip home.
I found a place, maybe to camp, where Highway 95 south leaves highway eighty. I’d just take the road to the right at the off ramp and see what I could find.
It started to rain lightly as I approached those snow capped mountains.
Once I got past the snow capped mountains, it cleared up to just clouds.
Made it to Winnemucca
I made it to Winnemucca at a leisurely pace, gassed up and posted yesterdays blog at McDonald’s. I was thinking maybe I should just shot all the way home tonight in the dark? Do I want to? As I drove down highway 80 west I thought about it and decided the best thing to do was to look for the camp at the highway 95 turnoff and continue home tomorrow in the morning, as the traffic should be lighter with people at work and all. It’s about seven hours or so from here to home on the Russian River.
Camped out
I made it to the camp turn off road and followed it up into the hills for a couple miles and found this camp spot on an old mining area that has been reclaimed. I’m on BLM land according to my maps and I think this area is also open range which means you can camp if you can find a spot.
My camp for the night.
I’m glad I decided to camp and rest up instead of fighting traffic tonight. It’s a peaceful spot and as long as it doesn’t rain tonight the dirt I’m on will stay firm. I don’t see any rain in sight, but one never knows.
So, tomorrow, early, I will point this van west in the direction of home.