Sunday June 22, 8.0mi/12.9km
Harrison Pass (1030.0/7250ft) to McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) (NV)
I got pretty lucky for picking a random hotel, the Holiday motel was pretty decent for $79 and even had free laundry. In the morning I went down to the Maverick and got a couple breakfast burritos, then after doing laundry and shower I packed up and went to lunch at the only place nearby, Dairy Queen. After lunch I started hitching back to trail which I knew would be a tough hitch. I started hitching at noon and took a couple hours to get the first ride which got me 5 miles out to Spring Creek. From that crossroads I waited another hour to get my second ride down a rural road, to the tiny hamlet of Jiggs, which is basically just a bar and community Center.
The driver Jay was really nice and agreed to drive me all the way down to Jiggs when I offered to buy us a round of drinks at the bar. He’s a local but hadn’t been there in years and thought it would be nostalgic. I let him order for both of us, and I was surprised and a little frightened that he ordered us shots of Fireball. But a deal is a deal. After washing the taste out of my mouth with a Coors beer, I stood out front and started hitching for my third and final ride to the trail at Harrison pass. Within 5 minutes a guy working at the silver mine picked me up, and Franklin said he could drive me halfway there before his road split off. But after being my usual friendly self for 5 minutes, he agreed that he could drive me all the way to the pass since he had some extra time. It was 5pm and I was back on trail!
The hike started off easy enough on an old 4wd road, with some cool rock formations to look at along the way.
After a couple miles the old road ended, and I was at the official trailhead for the Ruby Crest Trail.
This seemed like the most useless sign I’ve ever seen, since there was no junction nearby. Yup, it’s a trail!
The weather has been a little chilly the last few days and once I rounded the mountain I was in the wind again. But I could see for miles!
The old road got more and more overgrown, and it felt more like a hiking trail.
I love these little Aspen forests.
The Ruby Crest Trail is a National Recreation Trail, but some of the signs looked like they could use some maintenance or replacing.
Great views to the Northwest all the way back to Elko, where I had come from.
Once I rounded to the north side of the mountain, the vegetation changed and became almost all aspen forest.
Since I got a late start hiking, I only covered about 8 miles before ending my day at McCutcheon Creek.
It was a beautiful spot, and there was even plenty of running water nearby to fill my bottles. And falling asleep to the sound of a creek is always a wonderful end to the day.