Sunday June 15, 26.4mi/42.5km

Faulkner Creek (908.1/7400ft) to Spring Valley Pass (934.5/7720ft) (NV)

I slept great next to the sound of the creek, and it was a nice cool morning. I had another mile of hiking in the forest before it disappeared.

I started noticing these little cacti, even though I’m still up high in the forest. The climate of this part of Nevada is intriguing.

Soon enough I was back down at a lower elevation in the sagebrush, beginning my crossing of Antelope Valley.

Just as the forest was ending, I had stopped at Faulkner Creek to fill up my water for the next 33 mi to town. Which was a good strategy, because although the guidebook lists the Hot Spring Ranch as having water, it was closed.

There didn’t seem to be anyone around, and I had 5 liters, plenty of water to hike the 30 miles to town. But it was odd. They actually had Wi-Fi, and forgot to put a password on it, so I was able to check their website and saw that it was no longer available for overnight stays or day use. It was only available for large groups to rent out the whole facility. Darn. I continued down the dirt road, crossing Antelope Valley. I saw no antelope, though I saw plenty of wild horses.

There was another private ranch, where the trail made a big detour around, adding a couple miles to the crossing of the valley.

By now it was getting a little hot, so I was looking forward to completing the valley crossing and getting back into the shade of the juniper trees. I stopped for lunch underneath the shade of a windmill, and I could hear it actually pumping water.

After eating most of the remaining food in my bag, I crossed the lowest part of the valley which was a playa.

There was even a little bit of easy XC hiking, there was such little vegetation on this playa that it was basically walking in a straight line, aiming for “Wood Cone peak” in the middle of the photo.

The end of the valley was in sight as I could see juniper trees nearby. And for some reason, antique junk cars were also nearby.

I took a nice long break in the shade of a juniper tree, enjoying the view back across the valley. It was fun to look at Summit Mountain, which I had hiked across yesterday afternoon.

Most of the dirt roads I hiked on today seemed very remote, I’m sure they’ve seen more hooves than tires. I had a small climb out of Antelope Valley up through a juniper forest and these cool little rock formations.

The rocks kinda reminded me of the ones in Joshua Tree, and they looked quite climbable! I spent the rest of the day hiking in a sparse juniper forest through Spring Valley, which was slowly leading me north towards town. Unsurprisingly, one of the spots the guidebook marked as a campsite was non-existent, so I continued a mile to the next spot which was a real campsite.

I hadn’t seen a single person all day today (or yesterday), so going into town tomorrow will probably feel a little hectic!