We woke up at Trego Hot Springs and started the morning ritual of packing the gear up. We are going to head into Gerlach and get breakfast before heading north again.
Alan found this living under his tent when he went to fold it up.
Gerlach off in the distance. If you look close you can see a bunch of 42" pre-coated pipe being stacked on the Playa.
Another close up shot of the pipe.
After eating breakfast one more time at Bruno's we topped the bikes off again and headed north across the Black Rock Desert.
Bike took: .961 Gallons
Total Miles: 1280
On the Black Rock, this Playa is HUGE!
Had to stop and take a few pictures out on the playa.
A few stills from the Helmet Cam out on the Black Rock.
On the other side of the Black Rock we came across this great Hot Spring. A little hot for soaking!
We stopped for a few minutes to check it out. Here's a sign at the hot springs.
And a few shots of the spring itself.
Around the other side of the spring was a soaking tub that someone had set up. You could regulate the temperature of the water with the pipes. Nice!
After leaving the springs we followed a set of tracks that would take us back up into the mountains, unfortunately after grinding up a long rocky mining road we came to a freshly staked Wilderness Area sign. No motor vehicles! Dang!!
Here we are sitting at the sign, planted right in the middle of the road. What does it hurt to follow this road? It's in the middle of know where!
We turned around and headed back down the rocky mining road to the valley below.
After reaching the bottom we headed for Soldier Meadows to pick up a little fuel before heading back up into the mountains again. The weather is a lot better than when we first came through here.
This is Cathy, the owner of Soldier Meadows. We asked about getting some fuel but she said their meter was broken and she wasn't sure if we could get any fuel. Luckily their ranch hand said they had a system in place to measure the fuel so we would be able to fill up. $7.50 per gallon....cheap when your out in the middle of know where!
We headed over to the fuel tanks to get some fuel. He had a funnel and a 1 gallon cider jug for measuring. Pretty reliable and accurate!
We all took 1 gallon of fuel figuring that would be enough to get us to Denio where we can re-fuel again. After getting the fuel we checked out the original Soldier Meadows Army Building. This building was built in 1865 and is still standing! Very Cool!
And a few shots of the inside.
I thought this window sill was interesting, must have been made this way to let maximum light in.
After leaving Soldier Meadows we were quickly back up in the mountains again. Beautiful country!
Mark heading down a trail.
A small cabin up in the mountains. This one had a No-trespassing sign so we just took pictures from a distance.
Soon we were up on a ridge and stopped for a few minutes, that's when we noticed Mark was missing..Hmmmmmm. I decided to head back to see if something was wrong. As I was heading down the valley I noticed his bike laying on it's side near the trail, although I didn't see Mark. When I pulled up to his bike I noticed Mark was laying under the bike, not hurt but couldn't get out from under the bike. I asked him if he was ok and he said yes. Then I asked if the bike was hurting him being on top of him? He said nope. I then said great, I'll get some pics before getting the bike off you.
Fuel was running out of Mark's vent line on the tank so while he was waiting for us to return he plugged it with a couple roots. Did the trick!
I took a shot of my bike while we were there also.
Antelope
An endless playground.
A couple more cabin remains
Great two track. The scenery up in these mountains was amazing!
Craig out having some fun.
Soon we reached the abandoned bulldozer. The view from the top of this mountain is incredible!
Mark up on top.
More dry lake beds off in the distance. Soooooo much cool country to explore here!
Group shot on the Dozer.
Looking over the nose of the dozer, the view the operator had when it came to a stop to forever rest in this spot.
Zoomed in
Uh oh. Weather closing in fast! I was going to take a Panorama shot from this spot but we decided that being on the top of this mountain wasn't the brightest idea in the middle of a storm. We headed back down the mountain and towards Denio Again.
We had planned on finding the B24 Liberator after checking out the Dozer then working our way up to the Alvord Hot Springs for the night. Unfortunately a solid rain storm moved in and wasn't going to let up any time soon. We rode the next 50 miles in the rain to get to Fields OR where we had parked our trucks. With the rain socked in we decided to load up the bikes and call it a trip, we were wet, tired and no one wanted to set our tents up again in the rain. We would grab a famous fields burger and hit the road.
The B24 escaped me yet again...Grrrrrr. I will be back to find it though!
Loading the bikes up at Fields.
Well the kitchen at Fields was closed for the night so we settled for some chips, soda pop and a little Jerky. Mark headed back to CA and we headed back to WA. We arrived home about 2:30am. It rained the whole way home!
Total Miles: 1491
HRS on bike: 111.3
We all had a great time, Can't wait to see where our next adventure will take us!
Hodakaguy
Tom (Hodakaguy)
