Twas the night before Covid...

[MojaveGeek]

Finally feeling OK to write up a few words about our "Covid emerging adventure" in 2020.  I had been out in Nevada back country with my friend Jim for close to two weeks, then Kathy was due to fly in to LAS on 13 March.  Jim and I kept hearing snippets of frightening news on the radio, but we were far from other people out there.   Kathy figured that it was probably safer on a plane than at work (a clinic in a community which became one of the state hotspots as soon as there was enough testing to know anything).   I'd spoken with both of my kids (Ben being off at college) on the 12th, and all seemed stable.    His school was saying "we won't be closing".

Well I woke up on the 13th (Friday!) in LV to check whether Kathy's first flight had left the east coast on time and lo, there was an email from Ben's school saying "You have to get out by the end of the weekend".   Skipping details, we picked him up at the airport (LAS) on the way out to DV.   They were practically giving away the seats to fly; I payed something like $100 for a round trip for him with 1 day advanced purchase.   In the mean time I did encounter my first episode of a grocery store in panic buying mode and empty shelves, but we managed to get our supplies for a week out in the valley, with my friend Eric.

Everything seemed more or less normal out there.   First day we hiked Willow / Sidewinder.  That's a great loop and well worth the bit of navigation it takes to connect the two, with a very scenic view out over the valley at the crossover point. 


There were lots of flowers in Willow, but Sidewinder is more interesting.   Been up both before, but not as  the loop.

Next day we went up to Chloride.   I'd asked here about the road and got good advice not to try in just a high-ish clearance vehicle (Outback), but we went anyway, prepared to walk the road as needed.  Indeed, there is a very rocky step a few miles from the old town site that we could not pass, had to back down the grade a bit, but not too bad (though on the way out we did rip out a few of the plastic body panel anchors, so not too good either).   It's better to come in from the Amargosa side but you need a good map as there's a confusing bunch of roads there.   The only other person we encountered had come in that way.

So we walked to the big cliff viewpoint, and then down the old haul road to the Big Bell Mine.  I'd been down that before but had forgotten how unforgivingly straight and steep it is!  We had time to check out the mine for a while, and then followed the very nicely constructed miners' trail, which leads back to the old town site.  That same trail goes down to Keane, btw.


     

Next day we felt like a bit more driving versus walking so went up to Lee Flat, which I love for its solitude (once you're off the road to the Saline) and a well known petro site.


   

After that great day, with nice temps, we decided to get an early start and try to make it over to Big Fall Canyon to see some of the sights there, parking at the big flat area near the mouth of Cottonwood.   Heading over to Big Fall, you can stay high, go medium with a bit more distance, or go low with even a bit more distance.   Eric went high and we stayed medium.  We saw a great deal of nice fossils obviously washed down, but our progress was a bit tedious.



Well, as we learned a bit later on, progress is much faster down a bit lower and despite a slightly longer route, its the way to go.  But in any case, getting over to the Big Fall area as a day trip is going to be a long day.  In fact we were slow enough that it was looking doubtful we'd have time, and with crossing alluvial fans all day not being particularly enticing, we needed a plan B.   Which turned out to be to head over to the Niter Beds, and in the process look at the vestigial old auto road out there.   So, we did.





So we've all seen the Niter Beds out there in the distance.   Once you get there, well they are white and flat.  There some interesting hummocks and stuff out there but we didn't take too much time to explore because storms were building over the Cottonwoods, including thunder.   The further away from them we'd gotten, the more storm clouds we could see.   Wondering a bit if we might have issues crossing the Cottonwood wash if the storm was really bad, we  headed back.   We got soaked in the last 20 minutes or so but overall the timing wasn't bad.

On the way back out, we were quite surprised by all the people dispersed camping along the road.   As in, I've never seen more than 1 or 2 parties and there might have been a dozen.  When we got back to SPW it became clear that the park service had shut down the campground.  And on our doors were notes saying "you gotta go by 11 tomorrow morning".    It was a bit strange that evening.  Some of the staff were clearly making off with goodies like bottled water and TP and linens, but they'd been given zero notice so I certainly don't blame them.

On the way out the next day, we checked out the old road trace that goes from 190 by the Devil's Cornfield back toward the flowing part of Salt Creek, along the west side.   You can see this on the sat image, but can't see it from 190.   I put a bunch of waypoints into the GPS but once on the road, it was mostly followed visually.   There is even an old wooden bridge in there leading to the Salt Creek crossing.  But only one, and its a bit tricky crossing to MacLean Spring - I got one boot pretty wet and muddy.   Gephardt's old book says there was a trading post in there, probably getting water from MacLean.  It is empty and wide in there, very scenic, probably sees almost no traffic, though there was evidence of someone going in a bit on a bike (not a nice ride I'd say, pretty sandy).



The adventure continued a bit, being a bit difficult to get home, with intermittent shutdowns at LAS due to Covid in the ground tower, and most flights getting cancelled, and very eerie empty airports  But we all know how that has turned out.  

So, aborted trip, but we got a few good hiking days in.