Lakes Basin Caching

For those of you who noticed and wondered, this entry is almost a month late due mostly to Mike’s computer crashing in the middle of writing this story.

Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s not. Today the caching god made us really work for our booty. When planning a day of caching I look for a clump of caches in an interesting location, that way we can visit a new or favorite area and be efficient as well. I don’t care what you’ve heard, it is about the numbers, or more precisely, the number of adventures you have along the caching trail. But today we had to hike or rock crawl to the adventures. It was about as opposite as you can get from urban caching...and we had a ball.

The Lakes Basin area, between Graeagle to the north and Hwy 49 to the south, is a favorite playground for everyone. I know that because everyone was there today. And for good reason. The weather was perfect (a little too hot for Cynthia) and the scenery was spectacular. We started caching around the intersection of Hwy 49 and Gold Lake Hwy, continued along Hwy 49 to Sierra City and then turned around and went up and visited Sardine, Gold and Lily lakes and hiked to two waterfalls. It took us all day to find 7 caches, each one with it’s own story worthy of telling but only two stories will be told today.

Chipps Mine (GC140W2) is at the end of a mile long jeep trail that starts off with a series of climbs up a road that lost all of it’s dirt to erosion years ago. Once we were on more level terrain the surface of the trail greatly improved but the vegetation had overgrown the trail so much we were constantly scraping and brushing the sides and top of the Jeep. But it really wasn’t that bad (actually a great ride) until we encountered a small tree that had leaned over the road.

We were only 200 feet from the cache but I couldn’t let a scrawny tree stop GeoJeep from delivering us to the cache. There was more clearance on the left side so I edged the jeep as far to the left as the jungle would allow and squeezed under the tree. Aside from a quiet scraping noise the jeep passed underneath the tree without incident until...RATS!! The high-lift jack was just an inch or two higher than the top of the jeep and it, and therefore, the rest of the jeep wasn’t going any further. The next addition to the geobag is going to be a chainsaw!

So, we backed up, parked and walked up the road. Where the road turned sharply to the right the needle was screaming to go straight into a thick, dense, dark and scary place. So, of course, being the experienced cacher, I listened to the arrow instead of the little voice in my head. I waved goodbye to GeoJeepette and disappeared into the scary place. Just ten feet inside the dense forest GeoJeepette’s voice was barely discernible and the arrow was now laughing at me as it spun around in lazy circles. I put the useless annoying arrow away, climbed up onto a small hummock and looked around and began listening to the other voice. Above me on another larger and steeper hummock was an old rusted pipe, so chances are the mine must be farther up the hill and that also means that...YES! these hummocks are tailings! The forest had so completely reclaimed the hillside that it was hard to imagine that this was once a barren pile of discarded rock. The youngest of the trees was at least 3-4 inches in diameter and the litter on the tailings was at least that deep. So how old is this mine anyway?

The only way up to the pipe was to walk up a fallen log using the branches of the surrounding trees as support. Once at the top of this level there was a tiny stream of water running down hill. Hummm...sometimes water collects in old mines and trickles out, so if I follow the water... Eureka! After all that, finding the cache was a welcomed cinch. After returning the cache to its hiding place, I decided that I wasn’t going back the way I came. It was an easy decision. I looked around and it occurred to me that there had to have been a way to get people and supplies from the road to the mine and that road/path had to be relatively level. To my left was a break in the trees where the slope of the hillside leveled out so I went in that direction hoping I would find the road. Then it would be an easy walk down to where GeoJeepette was waiting. After 20 or 30 feet, the path grew into what was undoubtedly a road at one time and then, around a turn I was treated to the sight of the road through the trees. Once on the road I didn’t have to go far before I ran into GeoJeepette.

Love Falls (GC1349R) is the second story and you’ll be glad to know it’s much shorter. This cache is located on the Pacific Crest Trail just off of Hwy 49 a few miles northeast of Sierra City. It’s an easy short walk down the trail to the falls. Apparently it’s a popular resting/fishing/swimming spot for hikers because there were several enjoying the scenery and water. We walked across the bridge to the other side and quickly found the cache. I guess the hikers expected us to continue on down the trail and didn’t consider we would be coming back so soon because one of them had striped naked and was just standing on the rocks. She didn’t seem concerned that she wasn’t alone and was the object of much interest. RATS! I was hoping to get some great shots of the falls and now I can’t because no one would believe an old guy in a scary hat would be more interested in the waterfall. What would the other people think if I started snapping pictures? Would they think I was a serious landscape photographer or would they think I was a perv. More importantly, would GeoJeepette believe I was a serious landscape photographer?

Nope.

Another Easy Day ????

Today was supposed to be an easy day of caching before arriving at Northstar for an event. We met Linda and Larry (L3-Geo) at the Donner Memorial Park at 7am and headed out for a “First to Find” at the west end of Donner Lake. Our GPSrs were all over the place in the tree cover, so we finally just started searching in logical places and Larry finally came up with the cache. Sure enough we were first. Great beginning to a great day. Oh, by the way, while we were searching, we noticed we were being watched. We never quite know what to do in those situations so we just grinned and waved. Turned out it was a friend of the owner of the cache.

From there we headed out for a cache that we had tried to find when we were newbies and failed. Little did we know this was only the beginning of a day full of hikes. This hike was a quarter of mile up hill. We huffed and puffed our way there and this time we found it after a short search. On to the next - which in this case was a mile and a half walk one way down the Legacy Trail in Truckee. It was a fairly easy trail but we were in the hot sun the whole way. We managed to find two caches during this hike.

By now it was time to head to the event so we picked up a quick cache near the gliderport and headed into Northstar. It was harder to find the event than any of the caches so far. But we prevailed finally and had a great few hours visiting and sharing stories with our fellow geocachers.

Finally it was time to pack up and leave and find just a few more caches before we went our separate ways. That afternoon, four out of the five caches we found involved uphill hikes. For the young guys they might be easy hikes, but for us old codgers, they wear us out quickly.

The last two caches were in Squaw Valley. The first cache required us to tour the “Squaw Valley Village” looking for clues and information. The problem was there was a “Wine Tasting and Music” event going on and we looked a little out of place in our long pants, heavy boots, and dorky hats. We ignored the strange and quizzical stares. Speaking of quizzical stares, the local resident at the final stage of the cache was really curious.

The second cache was one we tried a while back. This time we knew the coords were off so this time we used our head instead of our arrow and found the cache quickly.

By the end of the day, we were exhausted and popping Advil so we could continue to move. I think we’ll all be recovering for several days.

Friday In Fallon

We’ve been watching the increase in caches in the Fallon area and decided that today was the day for a visit. Before leaving, Cynthia discovered that a day old cache in Sparks hadn’t been found yet so, of course, we made a quick detour on our way out of town. The plan was to go to grab a couple of quick caches in Fernley and then travel south to Silver Springs and pick up a handful of caches around Lahontan Lake before heading into the Fallon area.

That was the plan. After finding the first cache we deliberated about whether we should go for the next one and finally decided, “What the hay”, it wasn’t that far. Right! Why is it that after all the places we’ve been to and all the caches we’ve found we still forget we’re not crows. To be fair the cache was quick and easy to find; but not so quick and easy to get to. The Fernley/Fallon area has two geologic conditions, ancient lake bottom which is now a huge sand pit and steep, rocky hills. If it wasn’t for the very sparse desert vegetation you would think you were on the moon. So, anyway, we knew the cache was in hills, we just had to find a way in. On the second try we found a likely road and slogged through the sand uphill to the rocks. Near the top the road took a steep hairpin to the left forcing me to loose momentum in the deep sand. It didn’t take long before we found ourselves throwing lots of sand around but going nowhere. No biggie, we could just backup downhill, turn around and try to find another road...but then Cynthia politely commented that I wasn’t in low range. Frankly, I didn’t think it would help much now that we were buried but, again, “What the hay”. Damned if that Jeep didn’t jump out of the ruts and shortly we traded the smooth tire sucking sand for kidney bruising rocks.

The rest of the ride to the cache was the longest mile on record but thankfully, uneventful. But there was no way we were going back the way we came! On the way up I spotted a sand slide that went straight down the hill to a ravine and then connected with a pole line road which eventually led to pavement. And that’s what we did. After bumping back down from the cache for a short distance I turned the Jeep off the side of the hill and DOWN. It was surprisingly easy and we were in complete control aside from the occasional sashay of the rear-end. Now that we had spent a couple of hours on two “quick” caches we headed down Alternate 95 to Silver Springs and Lahontan Lake.

Lahontan Lake is not to be confused with Lake Lahontan that existed 12,700 years ago and covered over 8500 square miles of Nevada, Oregon and California. In fact it’s not even a real lake, just a medium size reservoir built around 1907 as part of the Newlands Project. If someone today suggested that the government should spend a boat load of money to divert one river and dam another so that the bleakest, driest, sandiest desert could be irrigated they would be run out of Washington. But a hundred years ago it seemed to make sense. Today the area is a contrast of sand and alkali flats next to verdant fields and diary farms. The complex web of irrigation ditches provides an abundance of hiding places. Fortunately, all the finds were easy and quick.

Toward the end of the day we turned our attention to the caches west and north of Fallon including the area around Soda Lake. Before the Newlands Project imported water to this region, Soda Lake was just a volcanic crater with a dry bed of soda rich sediment. Over the years the water from the nearby canals seeped into the crater and by 1984 the water was over 200 feet deep, long burying an old soda factory underwater. We picked up a cache near the rim of Soda Lake and then headed west on sand roads (no dirt here!) to the last two caches of the day. The first was out in the middle of nowhere at the corner where two power lines met. The next one was 2 miles further down a little sand road leading farther out into nowhere. It was well past cocktail hour so it really wasn’t hard to put this on our “Next time we’re in Fallon” list. We turned GeoJeep south along a power line “road” and let him loose. It didn’t matter how deep the sand was or how many dunes we had to traverse, GeoJeep smelled home and nothing stopped him.

Back in Reno we grabbed a bite at Baja Fresh and then headed home for a shower and a glass or two (more?) of wine. GeoJeep will be back!

The Early Bird Doesn't Necessarily Get All the Worms!!

Over the past few weeks we have been tied to home while our house was torn apart for a water leak. We had workmen here from early in the morning until 3:30pm in the afternoon. All the new caches that popped up tormented us throughout the day until we could finally run out after the workmen left. Then we had company this weekend which also kept us tied to home although our daughter does like to sleep late so we would sneak out (does that sound like an addiction?) very early and return a few hours later just as she was waking up.

This morning the painter was finally done about 10:30am and we began to plan our day of caching. Just about that time five new caches popped up on our geo-notify. In the time it took us to get organized and eat lunch, another new one sounded on our email. We finally were ready to go and at the first cache we discovered we were too late. Another cacher had beaten us to the “First to Find” as he did on every one of the caches except one. This was the one that posted about ten minutes later than the others. We commented on the fact that the “early bird” had rushed out for the “worms” before the last one showed up - hence the title of this blog.

Out of the seven we did today, we were second to find on six and first to find on one. BUT now the construction work is done so watch out!! Well, Mike doesn’t like to get up early usually so we will probably continue to be second or third or who knows, but at least we have a lot of fun!!

Look Out Dixie!!

Sometime last week, while I was vicariously flying in the Google Earth plane, I spotted a strange white splotch on a mountain north and slightly west of Frenchman’s Lake. Upon closer inspection I discovered a road traveled all the way to the top of this mountain. On the topographical map the mountain was identified as Dixie Mountain and there was a fire lookout on top of the 8300 foot mountain. That explains the road and the white splotch was probably the roof of the building. What a cool place for another mountain top cache!

Sunday we packed a lunch and the ammo can cache into the Jeep and took off for Frenchman’s Lake and Dixie Mountain. The plan was to pick up the four caches around the lake and then go up to Dixie Mountain, find a good spot for the cache and see if the lookout was operational. If there was a ranger/rangerette at the lookout we would explain about geocaching and get permission to hide the ammo can somewhere near the top. After that we would then cache our way over to the Gold, Silver, Salmon and Sardine Lakes area.

It was a good plan…if we had had more time. All four caches at the lake required a short walk or hike and the gorgeous scenery demanded our time and the usual photos were taken. Once we were done at the Lake we drove north for a short distance and turned west onto the road to Dixie Mountain. The sign told us it was 8 miles to the lookout and our GPSr’s said 4 miles. We knew then it was going to be a very curvy ride.

Actually, we were surprised at how good the road really was. There were a few rough spots and the usual rock or two that needed to be avoided, but any SUV could make the trip easily. The last hairpin turn led to a small parking area and, from there, a narrow trail took us to the lookout. There were no vehicles but we were pretty sure the lookout was still in use because there was a propane tank near the parking area. Once the lookout came into view from the trail it was obvious it had seen better days. The black lab on the catwalk answered the question about anybody being home. I took the lead and handed the ammo can to Cynthia. I wasn’t sure how black labs react to scary old men carrying ammo cans. Come to think of it, what would the ranger think? Oh well, too late now, we’re either about to be a Scooby Snack or not.

Simultaneously, as the dog charged down the stairs barking, a little old lady about our age appeared above us on the catwalk. She didn’t have a weapon in her hands and the dog was just happy to see us so I knew we would survive. She invited us up and once there I asked if it was OK for us to visit and she said, “Yes”. I asked if she gets many visitors and she answered, “No”. Something in the tone of her voice prompted me to ask, “Do you like to have visitors?” Without hesitation she replied, “Not really”. Apparently the dog was the only one happy to see us.

She did warm up to us a bit after we explained we were geocachers (was that an eye roll?) and that we wanted to hide a cache on the mountain for other geocachers to find. She blurted, “You mean more people will be coming!” The dog got excited but I could tell she wasn’t. So GeoJeepette quickly stepped in and reassured her that only…maybe 6 or 8 people a year would visit. That seemed to settle the rangerette down a bit but she did make it clear that she only entertains guests (not her words) between 9:30 AM and 6 PM, otherwise, she’s in her jammys. I quickly changed the subject to the Antelope Fire that could be easily seen to the north.

The rangerette told us that the Antelope fire was started by lightning and that prompted me to ask what she does on top of a mountain when there’s lightning striking all around her. She told us that the structure is grounded but, for good measure, she stands on her stool. Yes, her stool, but it’s no ordinary stool. Her stool has old antique glass insulators on the feet, effectively protecting the stander from any stray electricity. Hopefully, electrical storms don’t last too long. After taking some pictures of the magnificent view, we quickly said our goodbyes and left. For a moment I sensed the dog wanted to come with us. You couldn’t really blame her; she didn’t have a special stool.

Anyway, we found a great place to hide the cache (we named it “Look Out Dixie"), ate lunch and then headed down the mountain. We picked up a cache in Portola before deciding that time was running out and the precious metal and fish lakes would have to wait for another day.

Sierra Trek

Recently, a cacher added a bunch of caches to his series “Sierra Trek” which is designed to show you a portion of the Sierras and teach you about its history. So, naturally, we were hooked. About half of the caches are along the Henness Pass Road and the others are at Meadow Lake.

Construction on the Henness Pass road began in 1852 and was originally a wagon toll road from Nevada to the goldfields of California. Later, when mining shifted from California to the Comstock the established towns and stagecoach stops made the Henness Pass Road a primary route for miners and supplies. Over time the road was extended and improved and eventually it became a major route between Virginia City and Marysville. At its peak the traffic along the road was so busy that in order to regulate traffic, freight wagons ran during the day and stages ran at night. Once the Central Pacific was completed in 1868 there was no need for the road and it was essentially abandoned. Today Henness Pass Road is one of the last trans-Sierra back roads that can still be driven but there are portions that haven’t been maintained in a hundred years and demand a high-clearance 4X4 vehicle.

Fortunately the Sierra Trek caches are on a section of the Henness Pass Road that is well traveled and maintained. Both of these descriptions are, of course, relative. The caches were easy to find except for the first one. It would have been easy but when we got there our two identical GPSr’s had the cache in totally different location. They were as much as 300 feet off. I went one way and Cynthia went other ways and where they took us made no sense. All the usual tricks and dances didn’t solve the problem so I took out the fresh batteries I had put in that morning and replaced them with more fresh batteries. Problem solved. Now both GPSr’s read the same and both led us right to it. What’s that all about?

While we were scratching our heads over this mystery two guys in a pickup slowly passed us and continued down the road obviously not in a hurry and thus, obviously, not geocachers. We didn’t give them a second thought until we passed them…and they passed us at the next cache…and then we passed them…and they passed us at the third cache. Here at the third cache, right where we needed to be, a man was just setting up his equipment for a long day of target practice. We weren’t coming back here again so we just walked up and told him what we were doing and asked if he would mind not shooting while we were in the line of fire. We were in and out in record time.

At the intersection of Henness Pass road and Hwy 89 was another cache and here we had to decide to continue on the Henness Pass Road or take the Jackson Meadows road, a modern paved roadway. The decision was made for us when we found ourselves on pavement while looking for the dirt. We chose the pavement. Nine or ten miles later we came to the road to Meadow Lake and were very glad we chose pavement. Unfortunately, the road to Meadow Lake isn’t paved but it wasn’t bad for the first half of the 8 miles to the lake. The last half was more typical of a sierra back road but hardly bad enough to prevent trailers and small RV’s from camping at the lake.

Meadow Lake is the site of Summit City, a once booming mining town in the 1860’s. In its heyday there were over 150 buildings and one summer over 3000 people were there. It’s all gone now. The caches took us on a tour of the old town site and cemetery and even up on a very primitive road to the mines. The view was spectacular but unfortunately the camera was back in Reno so there are no pictures. By the time we finished exploring and caching and eating lunch it was time to head back home. Meadow Lake is definitely a must see for any cacher, photographer, camper or 4X4 enthusiast.

After we got back to Reno we grabbed a shower and headed out to the Reno Flash Mob event at Idlewild Park. We signed the log and chatted with friends and the whole thing was over in seven minutes.

No More Excuses!!

About a week ago a fellow cacher found our Free Fall cache and commented on his surprise to discover it was hidden just like one he planted in April of 2002 as well as it’s replacement “The Blooming Hangout”. He challenged us to find his new one.

Mike and I had decided not to do this cache because it was a two mile hike and Mike’s ankle doesn’t do well on hikes over one mile. But he challenged us!! So what were we to do but look at it again. We thought and we thought – but he challenged us and he could do it at 84. So yesterday we took off early so we could beat the heat (103 degrees) and off we went to the Galena Creek Park to see if we could make it to the cache. Just to warm up we found two other caches in the park before setting off on the two mile hike.

Mike had a backpack full of water and ice packs on his back (just in case we got heat stroke) and we each carried a walking stick because we were expecting to be “bushwacking” for a good deal of the time. To our surprise, there was a trail all the way to the cache. We followed Galena Creek up into a canyon that took us up, up, up. I kept thinking we were at the top, and Mike kept saying there’s always another top. Finally, there was the cache and we knew just what to do to get it. We were very pleased with our success.

The trip downhill was much faster and easier and we were so exhilarated we went on to hike another short hill for a fourth cache.

Now Mike has no more excuses for avoiding hikes!!

And Then There Were Four

Sunday, the day after we cached ourselves into exhaustion in the Virginia Range, we all met at Albertson’s again and welcomed an additional participant, NevadaWolf (Teri). We welcomed her even though her 4Runner clashed with yesterday’s all Jeep motif.

Today the plan was to follow the night course of the recent navigational rally plus pick up the caches in Virginia City that we were too tired to think about yesterday. Our little caravan of three plus one drove down Hwy 395 to the Minden airport where we picked up the first of 30+ caches. The route traced a couple of rough figure eights in an area east of Minden and west of the Pine Nut Mountains and then the route went north to the Carson River and eventually to Hwy 50. Originally, the night rally continued up into the Virginia Range but we had already mined those caches and had no intention of going back up there anytime soon.

What can you say about driving around in circles looking for PVC pipe “bombs” in bushes. Not much. But it was a kick in the pants spending the day 4-wheeling with a bunch of fun people. Near the end of the day Teri had to bail and vehicular continuity was restored. The Jeeps continued on to Virginia City and then on to GeoSpyder’s beautiful home for pizza and beer. The end of another great geocaching adventure.

The Caravan to 4000

Last weekend we led a geocaching caravan to pick up a bunch of caches that were recently placed during and after an annual navigation rally. Saturday’s caravan consisted of three Jeeps (is that a caravan or is it just…three Jeeps?). Two of the three were the usual players, Mike and Cynthia (Geo-Jeeper) and Linda and Larry (L3-Geo). The third Jeep was a brand new Rubicon owned by Jim and Marga (GeoSpyder) and this was going to be it’s maiden off-road voyage! We met everyone in Carson City at 7:30 and headed up Goni Road into the Virginia Range.

Overlooking Carson City and Reno is McClelland Peak and it bristles with communication towers. Goni Road is there to access and service these towers. There is also a cinder mine halfway up the road with all of its requisite truck traffic. A myriad of dirt roads and Jeep trails wander off of Goni Road in all directions and that’s where the majority of the caches were hidden. Now I’m not going to bore you with a description of each of the 29 caches we found that day, but I will tell you of our adventure finding them.

After the first cache we needed to get back to Goni Road but I didn’t want to backtrack down the way we came (I hate to backtrack!) so we took another road that took us in the right direction but promptly ended about 10-15 feet ABOVE Goni Road. As others before had done we just went over the edge and slid down the steep slope to the road below and to a nearby cache. We then continued up Goni picking up a few caches here and there until we reached a dirt road that marked the beginning of the previously mentioned rally. We never saw Goni again…

The dirt road (and a cache, of course) led us to a hill top overlooking Washoe Valley and Reno. The views on this gorgeous summer day were spectacular! But…below us, far below us, two caches were calling to us. The road, no, the trail down to the caches was steep and slow with boulders to navigate around and rocks to crawl over but we all made it to the bottom without incident. The map indicated that we were located at the junction between a siphon and an aqueduct.

Back around a hundred or so years ago, Virginia City needed a plentiful supply of clean water and none could be found. So someone came up with a plan to transport water fifty miles from Marlette Lake, near Lake Tahoe, down and across Washoe Valley and then up to Virginia City. And all done without pumps. Imagine a “U” shaped tube with one end higher than the other. Now pour water in the high side and watch it go downhill and then uphill and pour out the other end of the tube. We were standing at the spot where the pipe from Marlette Lake emptied the water into the old aqueduct that carried the water to Virginia City. Very clever AND it’s still in use today (minus the aqueduct part).

The other cache down here was on a road that roughly paralleled the old aqueduct. This road was so flat that I thought at first it was the aqueduct. That thought disappeared when we found ourselves at the brink of another very steep slide down to a ravine below…and the cache. So, of course, we had to do it and down we went. Once down at the bottom we could see that the road continued up the other side and it was so steep and slippery that there was no way we could have made it up and still be married to our lovely wives. So we headed back the way we came. Still…I bet Jim’s Rubicon could have done it. Someday.

Once back up at the top (which top? There were so many), we headed roughly NNE to the summit on McClellan Peak (see, another top). We started the descent down the other side and quickly encountered a beautiful aspen grove, and a cache. It was too early for lunch so we reluctantly continued out into the bright sunlight. It didn’t take long to reach the place where the old aqueduct dumped into a large open square pit where the water was stored for Virginia City. Nearby is today’s version of a water tank. At the tanks we turned and headed down the aqueduct road in the opposite direction and picked up two more caches. Now we had driven along all of the aqueduct road (twice), found all the caches along the road and managed to avoid the aforementioned suicidal portion.

Back at the tanks we continued in our NNE direction picking up two more caches along the way. After slowly negotiating a very rough, rocky and barely discernable road we found ourselves at the junction of Jumbo Grade and Ophir Grade. Almost a hundred years ago there was a railroad running along here connecting Virginia City with Washoe Valley. Just west is the site of Jumbo, a Virginia City wannabe that never lived up to its name.

Again, we continued NNE up even higher out of the high desert into a more alpine setting. We stopped and had lunch under some real trees, not like those scraggly pinion pines below. After lunch we climbed some more along a narrow rocky trial that was washed out in places but still navigatable.

Our goal were caches around Ophir Hill, a 7782 foot mountain, not “hill”, overlooking Virginia City. One of those caches was on top of a smaller 7445 foot mountain known as Middle Hill. To get to Middle Hill we had to drive through a sheep camp with the trailer and accompanying dogs on one side and a herd of sheep on the other. Both the dogs and us were watching to make sure the sheep didn’t decide to panic. Beyond the sheep camp was hardly a trail leading straight up to the top of the “hill”. It looked like three, maybe four Jeeps could fit on top so we all made a run for it only to discover the top was already occupied by some bikers. Fortunately, we all fit with room to turn around and we were able to snag the cache without anyone being the wiser.

After crawling down Middle Hill and through the sheep camp we headed to the top of Ophir Hill and, unfortunately, down the other side on the steepest, rockiest and scariest road we have been on. We knew the cache wasn’t that far down and, indeed, we all made it down okay but the ladies did emit several short high-pitched squeaks. After finding the cache we could have continued sliding down this road into Virginia City OR we could retrace our route all the way back to the tanks. We chose life and headed back the way we came.

At the tanks we turned east and wound our way down to American Flats picking up a few more caches along the way. Once down on the Flat the road turned south. Off to the east you can see the concrete skeleton of an old stamp mill that is now the recipient of urban art and home to late night “parties”. On the south side of the Flat we stopped at a cache called “In View of American Flats”. I specifically mention that one because it was our 4000th find. After a short celebration we continued south heading through a canyon and hillsides recently burned by a wildfire. Once out of the canyon civilization came into view and after picking up a cache it was just a short ride to Hwy 50.

We were all tired, dirty and sore from bumping and lurching for the last 8 hours but, BUT, there was one last cache to get before we called it quits. At the point where we came out onto Hwy 50 it was just a quick jiggy jog across and onto Highlands Drive. At the end of the pavement we found ourselves on part of the old Virginia and Truckee railroad (minus the rails and ties). Originally, the railroad was built to run from Virginia City to Mound House and then points east. Later they extended the railroad west to Carson City and then to Reno. After an easy run out about a mile we stopped for the cache and headed back to Hwy 50 and then on to Carson City for some dinner before going home to Reno.