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!
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!
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