Wednesday, February 19, 2014

History and hot springs: a weekend in an unlikely place.

   When I say "Winnemucca, Nevada" what comes to mind? Wait, where is that--the middle of nowhere? Along with others such as nothing to do, dry desert, etc etc. With this in mind we chose the Kyle Hot Springs for a weekend of camping, figuring that there was a high likelihood of nobody else being there. Our favorite, Benton Hot Springs, was all booked for the weekend (Valentine's Day and President's weekend, go figure). And the rest of the Eastern Sierra pools were sure to be jam packed with climbers and vacationers taking advantage of the 3-day weekend. Black Rock was likely inaccessible due to the recent precipitation, although Trego hot springs may not have been out of the question not requiring travel across the playa. Regardless of that we opted to try a new spot for the weekend, hoping it was far enough out there to discourage crowds and yet be a reasonable drive from Tahoe. Bonus features were the ghost town of Unionville just across the valley to check out, and the Humboldt River/Rye Patch reservoir for an attempt at some fishing.
   We drove out on Friday evening armed with reasonably detailed directions, arriving in the dark after a slight detour onto the wrong dirt road. It brought us to the right place anyway, though we circled around for a few minutes looking for the pools until we realized we'd looked right at them upon first pulling in. Two giant sun-baked cattle watering tanks greeted us, looking cracked and faded, along with a wire fence presumably to keep people from running over the pipe carrying water from the source. I was somewhat surprised to not see anybody else, but not completely--it was after all kind of the middle of nowhere! Valentine's Day dinner of Trader Joe's instant curry vegetables and rice was dispatched in a hurry, a bottle of wine and a Pabst (Kit) were cracked open, and the business of soaking was attended to. The night was warm with no wind and the first tub was quite hot, but the second looked a little murky and not appealing so we hopped into the first one. It took perhaps 5 minutes to feel like boiled lobster so much time was spent sitting on the edge of the tub. That evening was not a long soak at all but it was relaxing and satisfying enough to go to bed happily.

Morning skies

Getting good use from the old 3-burner Coleman
   Saturday morning dawned rather cloudy with a slight breeze and a view of the Humboldt Range across the valley. A fishing excursion to Rye Patch sounded like the perfect way to fill a day out here though it required a trip to Winnemucca for a fishing pole and license first. The clouds cleared somewhat, and leaving the valley on Unionville Road we were able to view some appealing ski terrain on Star Peak, the highest peak in the Humboldts. Maybe for a future trip... Once on Hwy 80 it was much farther than we expected to Winnemucca, nearly an hour's drive to get there. A collapsible fishing pole and license were procured, and we debated going to eat at a Basque restaurant for lunch, but decided it was too early and neither of us was hungry enough. Back on the 80 west to Rye Patch the wind had picked up and there was a dust cloud threatening on the western horizon. When we pulled in to the Rye Patch State Recreation Area we headed for the river expecting it to be more protected. It was calm, but no fish to be found, so we drove up to the boat launch at the reservoir for another try.

Down by the Humboldt River below the dam
     A strong wind greeted us at the reservoir, rolling a raft of tumbleweeds across the water and giving Kit a hard time with casting out from shore. Meanwhile I wandered around taking photos, trying to make it look like a neat place to spend time at, and attempting to not lose my hat in the blustery wind. The hat blew off anyway and required Kit to come to the rescue, snatching it out of the water by the bank. A few friendly folks with metal detectors around the boat ramp provided amusement as they uncovered numerous "treasures" nearby. The dust storm encroached and sand blew everywhere, making the fishing increasingly difficult, so we packed it in and ate lunch in the truck pondering our next thrilling activity. 

A windy day at Rye Patch
   We had convinced Kit's friend to come out from Reno for the night, so he was on his way through the dust storm already but wouldn't be arriving for another couple of hours. We ended up stopping at the Thunder Mountain historic site right off of Hwy 80 to take a look at the incredibly bizarre monument. The story behind it can be found here, and none of the pictures I took really did any justice to how eerie and spectacular this place was; just click around on the website. Made entirely of discarded materials found within a 50 mile radius of the site and embedded in concrete, its builder Frank Van Zant "Chief Rolling Thunder Mountain" described it as "a museum, a monument to the American Indian, a retreat for pilgrims aspiring to the 'pure and radiant heart.' " I'll call it a crazy place, worth stopping and taking a look for one driving through on the 80. As odd as it is, it's an interesting piece of history and artwork that is unlike anything else around.
   Following that side trip we decided to see what Unionville looked like, all the way back down toward the hot springs. We expected a cluster of buildings sort of like Bodie that one could wander around and look at; instead it appears as though historic buildings and ruins are scattered about on private property aside newer buildings. There are a handful of maintained buildings in this old silver mining town from the late 1800s, which served as home to Mark Twain for a short time while he tried his luck as a prospector. His old cabin is still (barely) standing in a park toward the end of the main street. A drive up and down the main road and just about everything worth viewing has been seen, although we were tempted to continue on up a poorly maintained dirt road above town to look for mining ruins. The hot springs beckoned and we turned around to make the short drive across the valley.

Cheers!
   By this point a dust cloud had filled the entire valley, somewhat eerily, and we pulled up beside the tubs to wait for Kavour to arrive. He drove up about 15 minutes later and we hopped into the hottest tub right away. Thanks to the wind it felt about 10 degrees cooler, which I found not quite hot enough for ideal soaking conditions. Warm enough to be mostly comfortable yet too cool to get warm enough to climb out into the brisk wind without immediately being chilled. The sunset was absolutely incredible with the blowing dust, clouds, and mountains intermittently visible through it all. I only lasted in the tub until a little past moonrise and got too darn hungry with fingers and toes shriveled like a raisin to boot. I don't know how some people can sit in a hot spring for hours on end without a break to dry out--I turn into a prune and take hours to recover. So I pulled the truck up to the tub and got to cooking up some hot dogs, the dinner of champions. At least I put some spinach on mine...

Super sunset
   The boys stayed in the tub consuming beer after beer while I sat in my insulated overalls and finished off the bottle of wine. At some point a truck pulled up and was driving around in circles for several minutes near the source of the spring. I wandered over to see if they were looking for the hot springs since from our experience they were a bit hard to find in the dark, and we were probably blocking them from view being parked so close. We had not expected to see anybody else out there, and were also sort of trying to block the wind from the tubs. They were four guys going to a maritime school in the Bay Area who had just tried to ski a gnarly line in the Ruby Mountains but had found a nasty pile of avalanche debris covering it; not the best for ski conditions. We all hung out for a little while around the tub until I finally convinced Kit to get out, move the truck away, and get some sleep. 
   Sunday morning was clear but cold and still breezy so we ate breakfast and packed up to get on the road. A quick trip to Unionville to show Kavour the sights and then we decided to try a shortcut on the map to get back to the 80 by going south past Unionville and then west over the mountains. The road was snow-free, smooth dirt on the eastern side of the mountains and then paved going down the western side for access to a big mining operation right off the summit. It cut about an hour off the drive back home, great to know for next time. This would be yet another cool area to bring dirt bikes and go putting around up old mining roads looking for cool things, and Star Peak could be a fun ski adventure under the right conditions. I had a thought about trying to do a Nevada skiing adventure of some sort next winter/spring, finding the highest skiable peak in every mountain range and attempting to climb and ski as many as possible. That would be a big project but not totally impossible and would be something out of the ordinary; we'll have to wait and see what snow conditions and motivation are like next season.
Star Peak