Saturday, April 25th
We’re having absolutely beautiful spring weather here in Corvallis, so what do we do? We leave town. Why, because we planned to; this was our five-day window to take a road trip. As it turned out, not only did we leave good weather behind, we drove endless miles only to find bad weather. That’s what planning will do for you.
The trip started off nicely enough. We left at 9:00 in the morning and drove across the mountains to Sisters, home of one of our all time favorite bakeries. It was after 11:00 when we got there, but they still had plenty to offer: a chocolate raised bar for M, a chocolate old fashioned for E, and two marionberry scones for another day.
Thus fortified, we went for a hike on the Whychus Creek trail, located just south of Sisters. It was steep in places and gave us quite a workout, but that was fine–sort of. The area is quite beautiful, in a very different way from the wetter forests on the west side of the Cascades.
After the hike we went on to Bend and stayed the night. Our hotel had an unfamiliar name: Home 2 Suites by Hilton–but we liked it a lot. We were on the fourth floor with a beautiful view…
Sunday, April 26th
We had a long drive today, about 350 miles, from Bend down to Winnemucca, Nevada. Traveling south-southeast, we soon left the trees behind and got into sagebrush country. After a while we also left the sun behind and ran into some rain showers. We also encountered an unusual 45-minute delay on Highway 78. We were almost to the top of a low pass when we saw a flagger holding out his stop sign. For the first 15 minutes there was nothing else, just one flagger and our single car. Gradually though, the level of activity increased. As it happened, the delay was to allow passage of two semi trucks towing oversized flat trailers. On each trailer was a giant shiny blue metal box. Each box was roughly 12 feet tall and 20 feet square. In other words, those boxes were big, easily wide enough to take up the whole width of a two-lane highway like Oregon 78. So the procedure was basically to close 15 or 20 miles of road and let the trucks proceed alone to a place where they could pull over enough to allow other traffic to squeeze by, one lane at a time. Then they would close the next stretch of road and repeat. The flagger we first saw was actually part of team of about ten workers who were managing all this, many of them zipping around in unmarked but new looking black pickup trucks that were rushing back and forth on the closed sections. What was the purpose of those blue boxes, you ask? Beats us. It’s not like they were advertising.
Despite this delay, we got to Winnemucca early enough to walk around a bit before dinner. The rain had paused.
At 5:00 we went to our old favorite restaurant to have some dinner, but there we had a shock. Although it was still open, it had gone downhill, way downhill. We did not go in, and instead looked for somewhere else, which turned out to be–quite unexpectedly–a Korean restaurant. Are there lots of ethnic Koreans in Winnemucca? Well, we aren’t sure, but we very strongly doubt it. The owner/manager of the restaurant is a Korean woman who married an American paratrooper while he was stationed in her native country. The restaurant’s name is Koreana, and the food is good.
After dinner we went out to our glampsite in Grass Valley, about 13 miles south of Winnemucca. Yes, friends, we stayed in the “Billy the Kid” glamping tent at Star Gaze ranch so you don’t have to. Our accommodation there was a large tent set on a platform a few feet above the ground. Inside were a queen bed, a wood stove, a solar powered charging station, a propane heater, a couple of board games, three books about old west outlaws, and one BB gun with lots of extra BBs. Toilet facilities were–as one reviewer put it–“interesting but functional.” On the platform outside the tent there was room for a porch with two Adirondack chairs. Also outside, on ground level, there was a gas fired grill, a gas fired pizza oven and a metal bowl fire pit, as well as a rack of hanging targets to test your prowess with the BB gun. There was also a five gallon container of what the hosts called spring water, which was, in fact, delicious.
The bed was comfortable and the bedcovers were thick. The place was cold and rain was pounding down, but we lit a fire in the wood stove and things got toasty fast. (Eventually, when we let the fire burn down, it got colder fast too.) Somewhat to our surprise, we did not perish in the night.
Monday, April 27th
We had opted for the extra cost breakfast and it was delivered promptly at 8:00 from the ranch house a few hundred yards away. For each day we ordered one breakfast sandwich (delicious!), one order of Danish pastry (ditto!), and one large thermos of what the hosts called coffee. It was weak, but it was hot and there was lots of it. The sandwich and pastries also arrived nice and warm. That was a very good thing, as the outside temperature was probably still in the 30’s at this point. We were running the propane heater, but it wasn’t doing much.
Our plan for the day was to drive down the freeway to Imlay and then take Pioneer Road north into the mountains. We had hoped to go up through Rosebud Canyon and onward to the ghost town of Sulphur at the northeast end of the Black Rock Desert. But it looked like the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. While it was not raining where we were, the skies were heavily overcast and we could see the dark lines of active showers here and there in all directions. Going deep into the back county on deserted roads in bad weather did not seem wise.
In the end we decided to follow the lower reaches of Pioneer Road and gauge conditions as we went along. Pioneer Road–as the name implies–was used by gold seekers and settlers in the mid 1800’s. The main California Trail, which follows the course of the Humboldt River, ran mostly west across Nevada toward Central California. Travelers who wished to go to Northern California had to turn off the main trail near the present town of Imlay. That route to the north is now called Pioneer Road.
The actual place where the two routes split is a few miles north of Imlay. These days there is a natural kind of parklike area there. It’s a nice spot. Only a few people come there these days, but it is easy to imagine it crowded with weary travelers back in the mid 1800’s.
We soon left the river and continued north for half an hour on Pioneer Road, reaching the top of a range of hills, where a small sign informed us that we had reached Imlay Summit. It had been raining lightly on the way up and then at the summit the rain had turned to very light snow. It was charming and pretty, but we turned around.
We did a little more low altitude exploring on the way back to our tent. In late afternoon the weather cleared and the temperature dropped. We had a camp dinner of sandwiches and a can of Amy’s soup heated on the wood stove. Again the tent was fairly warm as long as the fire was going. When the fire went out, we found some extra covers and got some sleep. But the night was colder than the previous night and around 4:00AM, we decided to start up the little propane heater.
Tuesday, April 28th
In the morning the weather was still clear and cold. When we got up, the sun had not yet risen over the small mountain range to the east; so our little world was pretty frosty, probably somewhere around 30F. While we waited for breakfast to arrive, we started packing up. By 9:00 we were on the road.
The day’s plan was for us to begin the long drive home to Corvallis, returning not by the way we had come but by a route a little more off the beaten path. First we got on I-80 and drove thirty miles west to the town of Lovelock, where we filled up with gas. The station had a giant piece of a very old tree out in front facing the road.
Having gassed up, we got back on I-80 for another fifteen miles before exiting at a place called Toulon, the site of a now abandoned mineral refinery. There we turned north and took Ragged Top Road up into the Trinity Mountains. Our reasons for making this turn were simple, as can be shown by the map below.
Suppose you had been freezing to death in a tent just northeast of Imlay in the upper right corner of this map and you wanted to get to Gerlach in the upper left corner, because from Gerlach, you could eventually get to Lakeview, where you had reserved a nice warm motel room. Would you just take the freeway down to Fernley (bottom, left) and then drive up to Gerlach from there? Of course you wouldn’t. That would be crazy. Would you go down to Lovelock and turn right onto a dead end road leading to a mining area? No, that would be foolish. Wouldn’t it be best to go down to the center of the map where those three little lakes are and then turn off onto a scenic route that goes straight up to Gerlach? Of course it would. But wait, you say. Are you sure there’s a road there? Why isn’t it on the map? Tsk, tsk. Of course there’s a road, a lovely road. Just go to Toulon (the one in Nevada, not the one in France) and you’ll find it.
Whenever we came across one of the small herds, they would startle and bound away from us, their white rears bobbing up and down as they ran. But then at a certain distance away they would all stop at once and turn to gaze back at us.
After a couple of hours of lovely views and slow going, we came to the end of Ragged Top Road and got back onto pavement just twenty miles south of Gerlach. In that town–known famously as the Gateway to Burning Man, or, as the locals like to call it, The Center of the Known Universe–we stopped and ate our lunch at a tiny park.
From there we drove north to Cedarville, CA and thence up to Lakeview, OR, arriving there just before 5:00. We were glad to have a heated room and a pretty good restaurant just half a block away. It had been a long day.
Wednesday, April 29th
We drove home via Sprague River, Chiloquin, and Highway 58, which took us to Eugene. And, since we were there, E thought we might as well drop by the Oakway Mall where she might find some extra sunglasses and a new pair of summer pants.
Saturday, May 2nd
Back in Corvallis flowers are popping out everywhere. E went walking at Oak Creek with her friend B. She says she’d never seen so many delphiniums together in one place.
Monday, May 4th
Today E went out for a walk again, this time at Bald Hill with Graham and Graham’s owner. What did she find? More delphiniums!
Tuesday, May 5th
A while back we noticed that a pair of scrub jays had made a nest in our back garden. Now we see that the garden has a new resident.
