Public Lands Day 2011

 We ended up being able to go to Public Lands Day on Saturday at Great Basin National Park. We got there a little later, but just in time to meet up with a new friend, Evan. Evan and Desert Boy quickly formed their own group to go visit the educational stations. They started with grinding corn in a mano.

 Then we checked out the sun through the solar telescope. We could see several sunspots and also some flares and a prominence. I learned that a prominence looks similar to a sun flare, but has a very different origin.

 Next we visited Ranger Joseph and learned about soundscapes. Desert Girl was willing to participate here, and she was awestruck by the neat sounds that he played.

 The kids had fun trying to guess what the different sounds were.

 Then we met up with Archeologist Eva and found out how Indians hunted and how they made their hunting tools.

 The whole group was enthusiastic.

 Nearby Melyssa was at the pictograph and petroglyph station. Desert Girl had so much fun with the stamps.

 We listened briefly to the wildlife talk, but the little ones were having a hard time sitting still, so we didn't last long. I wanted to touch the furs they had with them, but will have to do that another time!

 The station to make seed "bombs" was just what the kids needed. We put soil and seeds on some clay and rolled it up into a ball. We'll toss it in the yard and hope to see some flowers and Basin Wild Rye next year in a new spot.

 School kids were bussed in from Ely, and some folks were cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Yum. It wasn't time to eat yet, so we could go over to the last station, snakes.

 This was a favorite station of lots of the kids, as Bryan let the kids hold the snakes.

 Evan really got into it, and eventually Desert Boy was ready to hold a snake.

 Evan looks so comfortable with his new neck accessory!

It was a fun morning, and we look forward to spending more time with Evan and his mom. Hurray for new friends!

Wheelathon--Will Desert Boy Make It All Eight Miles?

 On Wednesday, the local schools held an annual fundraiser called Wheelathon. The Kindergarten through second grade kids ride eight miles, and the third through sixth graders ride sixteen miles. I had called the elementary school teacher to make sure it was okay for Desert Boy to ride, and she invited us to come to her classroom a little early. We took Ernesto and his mom, too, and the preschoolers had a fun glimpse of what school will be like next year.

Finally it was time to start. The kids all got on their bicycles.

 Then we had to take a couple photos.

 These girls don't seem to sure that this will really be a fun event. But the wind was at our backs and we had a slight downhill, so I was feeling optimistic, despite the overcast skies.

 Getting into position!

 Some of the kids were so ready to go!

 And then we were off! I was really wondering if Desert Boy would be able to make it the whole eight miles. There is a snack stop every mile, where all the kids stop and eat and drink and wait for the entire group to arrive. I knew that would be a big motivator.

But I also knew that we took the training wheels off Desert Boy's bike only about a month and a half ago. He's been riding okay, but not super. He often would get distracted and crash. And he didn't know how to start very well by himself. And he kept begging to have the training wheels put back on.

I had talked Chandra, who has four athletic kids, and she advised me to bring the training wheels, but see if he could do it without. "He can learn to ride in eight miles," she said.

I liked that advice, so we went with it!

Desert Boy made the first mile just fine.

 After snacks, we got back on and rode some more. Desert Boy wasn't fast, but he kept pedaling his tiny bike with the 12 inch wheels. That's a lot of pedaling!

 We eventually met up with the older kids coming the other direction. They were riding into the wind first, and it was slowing them down a lot. We all assured them that riding the direction we were going was really nice, and they would have an easy ride back.

 The bigger kids also had a variety of bike problems. Some of the bikes get taken out of the garage once a year, for the Wheelathon.

 John had volunteered to be a chaperone. He said it was harder riding slow than fast!

 Ernesto did a great job of plugging along. His biggest problem was he got so warm from riding. He took off his sweatshirt but still was so warm.

 Bill and Marj were volunteers manning one of the snack stops. They had a lot of free time to read and relax while they waited for the older kids to get back to them.

 Even though there are mountains around, the road is straight and flat, making it easier to ride. There also are a lack of trees along the route, and no houses or buildings, so restroom stops are nonexistent. Fortunately that didn't turn out to be a big deal.

 As we approached one snack stop, we saw a structure up in the air. It turned out to be an orchard ladder, and we enjoyed some freshly picked peaches.

 The peaches revved up the bicyclists, and they were ready to go again. They had collected pledges for each mile they rode, so they were doing their best for the school.

 Before we took off from the peach stand, I climbed up the ladder to get a fun shot of the riders.

 Desert Boy riding with the teacher. We were a bit of a parade, with the bus and a few vehicles following us.

 Desert Boy showing his determination (and his shoes on the wrong feet, which he would not switch.)

Both Ernesto and Desert Boy made it! Good job preschoolers! They're showing off the marks they got at each mile. They think they are big stuff now.

It was a fun ride, and we're already looking forward to it for next year.

Mount Moriah

 After breakfast at Cleve Creek, we packed up our gear, headed across Spring Valley and headed up Fourmile Road to go join friends and family. Desert Boy really wanted to go play with his cousins. I wanted to see some of the beautiful northern Snake Range. We led the way for some friends who hadn't been up the rocky road.

 I had to stop a couple times for photos. Yelland Dry Lake bed wasn't dry--it had some water in it, reflecting the clouds.

 

The rabbitbrush was blooming, along with a few other flowers, but the peak flower season was over by a long ways.  The air was cool, but the aspens still all green.

 

When we got to the camp, we found that most of the adults had left to go hiking, but nearly all the kids (with a few adult supervisors) had decided not to go hiking, but rather hang around camp.

 Sam looks like he's mastered the art of hanging out!

 Desert Boy loved his hot chocolate--one of several that day. Then he disappeared into the woods with his cousins and friends to play shoot the animals and who knows what else.

 

Some of the teenagers emerged from the teenager tent for a short while.

 Desert Girl managed to accumulate an impressive amount of dirt. Finally she conked out and Chandra and I left Brian in charge of all the kids and headed out for a walk.

 Mount Moriah is in the background, and I had never noticed the neat looking ridge leading to a minor peak. I will have to get up there some time to do that hike!

 Chandra and I wandered on all roads, across a meadow, and came across this road. It was so tempting to keep following it. I think it goes down into Negro Canyon and out into Spring Valley. Hmmm, another hike for another day.

 

We took off uphill and found this aspen grove. The medium-sized aspens all looked fine, but the young ones were all dead. We went a little farther and then took a short-cut back to camp, which really was a short-cut. (Some times my short-cuts don't quite work out right, but this one did!)

 The kids were still all being good and Brian didn't even have to get out of his tent. :)

The kids were having a grand old time. They were making up all sorts of games, and Desert Boy came home with some new sayings.

After the hikers got back, we all gathered around the fire and then started cooking dinner. It was a nice, relaxed time, just what I needed!

Cleve Creek Canyon

 Friday night I took the kids to Cleve Creek Recreation Area for a night of camping with coworkers and friends. I was looking forward to exploring the area, as I hadn't seen much of it previously. It's located in the Shell Creek Range in White Pine County, Nevada. We accessed it via Spring Valley, off paved Highway 893. Then we turned onto a good gravel road for two miles.

The campsites were beautiful, with big shade trees, neat fireplaces, and the sound of the creek soothing our senses. It was time to relax and eat some delicious food!

I didn't try to take any photos, as the light was soon dim and the kids were a handful. At nine they wanted to go to bed, so I took them to the tent. Then they resisted going to sleep long enough that I was tired, too, and just stayed in the tent. It was probably a good thing, as Desert Girl started getting fussy at 3 a.m., despite the surprisingly warm evening. By 6 a.m., I had decided we had better get out of camp or everyone would be upset with us! So we piled into the truck and headed up the canyon.

The road forded the creek several times, so I was glad we had four-wheel drive and high clearance, as the creek was still running high. In fact, according to the nearby USGS gauge, it was about 13 cfs. The long-term record on this creek made it a study site for University of Nevada-Reno scientists to study the climate of the area, comparing pinyon pine growth to streamflow. You can see the interesting abstract for their article "A 550 Year Reconstruction of Streamflow Variability in Spring Valley, Nevada, USA" here.

I was very intrigued to see that most of the water in the creek was coming from the north fork of Cleve Creek. The road stayed to the west fork. I just had my Nevada atlas and not a more-detailed map, so I didn't know too much about what I was getting into. Sometimes it's more fun that way!

The atlas indicated pictographs, but we never could locate them. Instead, we did find an old cabin with tailing piles nearby. We got out to explore.

 We wandered around a bit.

 Near one of the tailings piles we saw an old mine entrance and this sign explaining about the importance of bats.

 A bat gate and culvert had been installed above the old mine entrance. According to the Geology and Mineral Resources of White Pine County, Nevada (Smith 1976), the Cleve Creek or Kolchek District was small and centered around the Kolchek mine. Miners searched for gold beginning in 1923 and found enough to construct a 4-ton amalgamation-concentration mill. Mining didn't last long, and the 15-person district soon was forgotten. In 1951, when tungsten prices were high, miners returned. They didn't find a tungsten ore body until 1953, but they did make a few shipments of gold in the meantime. The total recorded production of the district was 234 tons of gold ore containing 86 ounces of gold and 363 ounces of silver and 32 tons of tungsten ore.

 The single cabin was the only building we saw in the area, and the sun was just rising high enough to light up the canyon beyond.

The kids were taking their time, which gave me the opportunity to shoot some additional photos as the first rays of sun light touched the cabin.

 It would have been a beautiful place to have been a miner, at least for a few months each year. The rest of the time it would be beautiful but cold!

 While I was searching for other angles, I noticed some bees clinging onto this grass. I'm not sure what they were doing.

 One more cabin photo! I liked the old trees nearby. Most were poplar, but there was one locust.

Then we continued up the canyon on the rough road, rarely reaching 10 mph. It was 6 miles from the campsite to the end of the road. I hiked up what looked like the most-used route (it couldn't really be called a trail, as it was fairly indistinct and there was no trailhead, sign, or map). I soon reached the wilderness boundary marker (but it didn't say what wilderness).

I'm guessing this area is used by hunters more than any other interest group.

I scampered up the hillside to get a better vantage point. Two other vehicles were sharing the parking area with us, and one had passed us as we had been exploring the cabin.

Here's part of the road, where the tributary creek has jumped its channel and flowed down the road for awhile.

On the way back down, we stopped at the Kolchek Trail 078 trailhead. I'm guessing the trail goes back into the side canyon behind the Kolchek mine, but there was no map at the trailhead and my map didn't show a trail. If you know, leave a comment!

There were several side canyons that looked fascinating. A good excuse to go back and do more exploring. The fishing is also supposed to be good, but we hadn't brought any gear.

While some of the rock looked metamorphic, I also noticed quite a few limestone cliffs, and some had holes in them. Hmmm, caves?

The zoom showed that these holes might go back a body length or more. The kids weren't interested in checking them out. I don't know why not!

By the time we got back to camp, everyone was up (and some had left). We went over to join them for breakfast.

The kids and I had grits for the first time. I have learned to appreciate that camping is all about the food, and I sure enjoyed the culinary experience!

Desert Boy and Erik had a serious conversation. Desert Boy was certainly serious about how many marshmallows were in his hot chocolate.

Nice hair, eh?

The adventures continued soon after...