craig333
Riley's Human
I haven't done PVD in many years since I could never get the time off. In spite of having plenty of time to prepare I still wasn't prepared. Got a kind of late start Thursday and headed up 50 to 88 and over to 395. Passes are closed so we looped through Nevada. My goal was to make it Bishop and camp in the Volcanic Tablelands but I ran out of daylight and stopped at the BLM campground near Crowley Lake. The other campers could have been running generators and I wouldn't have heard them from where I was. It was cold there. Very happy the furnace functioned well but leaving town with a 1/4 tank of propane wasn't a smart thing. Lots and lots of vans and pop up campers out and about. Made it to basecamp okay and finally broke out the camera.
Saturday I was signed up for the Historic Run. I turned left instead of right and made it a fair distance before realizing my mistake. I took my best guess which direction they (I certainly don't blame them for not waiting) went and headed out. Fifteen minutes later I see a group of vehicles far out into the desert. It was a bit tricky finding the secret (it wasn't easy to see the turn) I headed out to catch up. Of course by then they were moving again and I missed seeing the china (chinese?) wall. I caught up to the group in time to see the Reilly townsite.
Most of these mining sites date back to the 1890s and we found many interesting things along the road to speculate about just what they were.
Our leader knew quite a bit about the history but we could used an Arky along.
The rock work was impressive.
On to the Onyx mine site.
Interesting story here. The ladies husband is in Europe while she used a D6 dozer to remove 25 feet of overburden to find the Onyx deposit. She calls hubby, come back, I found it. They never told anyone the location of the deposit. This tells the story a little differently. https://deathvalleyjournal.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/onyx-mine/
Then we up to see a cabin way way back in a canyon. Sorry I forget the name and for some reason didn't take any pictures. Its maintained by BLM and you're welcome to stay there (not that I'd want to). Next up we visited a sinkhole.
I'm pretty sure its an abandoned alien complex of some sort. Likely abandoned when the military began regular flights over the area. There is some who disagree. https://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2002/October/Bob's_Findings.htm
Not too surprisingly there were a few burros out in the desert.
This is the end of my photos because on arrival at camp I found both my batteries dead. So I had to head out with a partially charged battery. Unfortunately no photos of some really interesting stuff along the road. Looks like the old guys had to build some sort of impromptu furnace to repair broken down wagons. We went on into Snow canyon and saw some more interesting rock work and stuff only a miner could explain.
Riley was quite the trooper standing up in the Jeep for nearly eight hours. During the raffle he hit the wall and I had to take him back to the camper. I didn't win anything ;( I had enough propane left to cook dinner but as the gauge read empty I didn't run the heater that night. Fortunately it only got down to about 50.
Speaking of propane does anyone have a reliable place to refill along 395?. The big places (amerigas and such) were all closed on a Sunday and the only place I found said their propane guy
didn't show (you need a guy? Its not rocket science). Failing to find any in Bridgeport (but I did get an excellent bacon burger at the burger shack) I decided to just head on home. Always nice to have a dedicated cleaning day.
Next time I'll have a full tank and charged batteries!
P.S. The planes weren't flying. Only a single cargo plane flew over. The crowds at Father Crowley point must have been very disappointed.
Saturday I was signed up for the Historic Run. I turned left instead of right and made it a fair distance before realizing my mistake. I took my best guess which direction they (I certainly don't blame them for not waiting) went and headed out. Fifteen minutes later I see a group of vehicles far out into the desert. It was a bit tricky finding the secret (it wasn't easy to see the turn) I headed out to catch up. Of course by then they were moving again and I missed seeing the china (chinese?) wall. I caught up to the group in time to see the Reilly townsite.
Most of these mining sites date back to the 1890s and we found many interesting things along the road to speculate about just what they were.
Our leader knew quite a bit about the history but we could used an Arky along.
The rock work was impressive.
On to the Onyx mine site.
Interesting story here. The ladies husband is in Europe while she used a D6 dozer to remove 25 feet of overburden to find the Onyx deposit. She calls hubby, come back, I found it. They never told anyone the location of the deposit. This tells the story a little differently. https://deathvalleyjournal.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/onyx-mine/
Then we up to see a cabin way way back in a canyon. Sorry I forget the name and for some reason didn't take any pictures. Its maintained by BLM and you're welcome to stay there (not that I'd want to). Next up we visited a sinkhole.
I'm pretty sure its an abandoned alien complex of some sort. Likely abandoned when the military began regular flights over the area. There is some who disagree. https://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2002/October/Bob's_Findings.htm
Not too surprisingly there were a few burros out in the desert.
This is the end of my photos because on arrival at camp I found both my batteries dead. So I had to head out with a partially charged battery. Unfortunately no photos of some really interesting stuff along the road. Looks like the old guys had to build some sort of impromptu furnace to repair broken down wagons. We went on into Snow canyon and saw some more interesting rock work and stuff only a miner could explain.
Riley was quite the trooper standing up in the Jeep for nearly eight hours. During the raffle he hit the wall and I had to take him back to the camper. I didn't win anything ;( I had enough propane left to cook dinner but as the gauge read empty I didn't run the heater that night. Fortunately it only got down to about 50.
Speaking of propane does anyone have a reliable place to refill along 395?. The big places (amerigas and such) were all closed on a Sunday and the only place I found said their propane guy
didn't show (you need a guy? Its not rocket science). Failing to find any in Bridgeport (but I did get an excellent bacon burger at the burger shack) I decided to just head on home. Always nice to have a dedicated cleaning day.
Next time I'll have a full tank and charged batteries!
P.S. The planes weren't flying. Only a single cargo plane flew over. The crowds at Father Crowley point must have been very disappointed.
