Tuesday June 10, 19.7mi/31.7km

Kingston Canyon Trailhead (840.7/7440ft) to N Fork Birch Creek (859.0/7300ft) (NV) +1.4mi Austin spur

I didn’t get to sleep until almost 10pm so I slept in and had a late start out of camp. It was chilly in the shade but the day was warming up rapidly.

In less than a mile I passed by this old guard station, which looked like a relic of the 1930s CCC era.

It was a quiet morning of hiking up dirt roads that nobody seems to drive, the only noise was from this very vocal bird.

I had a very gradual uphill hike to a low pass, with heaps of scenery to distract me.

I arrived to a junction point where the guidebook has an option to take an 8 Mile XC route across the top of a ridgeline, but it meant an extra 3,000 ft of climbing and I didn’t want to be stuck up there in the afternoon thunderstorms. So instead I just had a nice relaxing break by the little creek at the junction.

Eventually I left from my little spot and continued up on the rough dirt road, and I only saw one car the whole day. I didn’t hear them coming since they have a modern (electric) car, and they stopped to chat and offered me a cold drink!

Stephen & Zoe were driving back home to Silver City, New Mexico from a “quick trip” they had made up to Fairbanks. Shortly after we parted ways neared the top of the pass and started seeing dozens of these massive insects.

They seem to be some sort of nuisance cricket, they don’t seem to fly or bite. They can only hop. But there were hundreds of them, all scattering out of my path as I walked down the road.

But it was a very scenic descent into the next little valley for Big Creek.

Then I climbed up over another pass and down into the Birch Creek valley. At the top of the pass, I took a break and a large group of a dozen ATV riders came through. They were pretty spread out and each one stopped right next to where I was sitting, while running their loud and smelly exhaust, which was a pretty dick move. The last two riders were better and just continued past, but they also had quiet electric ATVs so they’re probably just more considerate people. I didn’t see anybody else the rest of the day and the descent into the valley was in a cool little Aspen forest.

Since I got lower in elevation, the trees disappeared as usual.

Lots of nice green scenery, and the thunderclouds didn’t seem to be as aggressive today.

I had to get creative to keep my feet dry while getting across the little creek, it was the only tricky crossing all day.

A bunch of tributary streams converged into one main stem, Birch Creek. It started to feel canyon-esque with all of the rocks nearby, I really liked this area.

This spot marked the end of this section in the guidebook, from here I will hike a 9-mile spur route out to the town of Austin to resupply. I ended up hiking over a mile up the spur route before I found a suitable camping spot, so it will be a pretty short day tomorrow morning.

Monday June 9, 27.7mi/44.6km

Marysville Canyon Trail Jct (813.0/8890ft) to Kingston Canyon Trailhead (840.7/7440ft) (NV)

Another beautiful day on the Toiyabe Crest Trail! I left camp at 6:30 and had a few miles through steeply rolling hills on old 4wd roads.

It’s funny that this old road would be steeper than a trail, usually roads switchback up hillsides too. Not this one… Straight up. Paula Abdul style.

I was at a slightly lower elevation now just below 9,000 ft, and I started seeing all these huge leafy plants. I know they will eventually sprout yellow flowers, but none of these had them.

The Toiyabe Crest Trail is generally a well-maintained and well signed trail, for pretty much all 50 miles of its length. In this case it was oversigned, as there was no creek here, and the San Juan basin is one ridgeline over!

A beautiful morning of hiking.

I hiked by a bunch of these signs yesterday but they were all faded, so I was finally able to get a nice photo of a nice new sign for this National Recreation Trail.

The trail would weave around the mountainsides and occasionally dip into small gullies, some of which had creeks and therefore lots of lush vegetation. I loved hiking through the little Aspen forests.

One of the little creeks was still covered in a lingering snowfield, which was easy to walk across, but it meant I had wet feet now.

My final task of the day was to climb up this valley, to the 10,000 ft pass in the distance.

More aspen forests! Actually it’s more like an Aspen grove.

Kingston canyon is the northern end of the Toiyabe Crest Trail.

I stopped by the creek to refill my water, have a snack and wait out the remaining thunder. After a mile of easy switchbacked hiking I was at the top of the pass, the view looking back down what I had just climbed:

The trail stayed up high on a ridgeline and wrapped around a small summit. I should have expected the Eastern sides to still have cornices.

No way I was going to try to traverse on that snow, and it was easy to go up and then around.

I was hiking in the sunshine, but the storms in the distance provided a very interesting lighting contrast.

I love a good ridgeline walk, it was just so good. If yesterday was my favorite day, today was my second favorite. These two rock pillars seemed like sentinels guarding the final part of the trail! Like the ones from the movie, Neverending Story.

Epic views.

Way up here at 10,500 ft, I saw a lonely little flower clinging to life next to a rock.

It was nearing the end of the day, so I was happy to be approaching my planned camping spot at a lower saddle at 9100 ft. Again though, even though there had been trees and bushes all day, there weren’t any here in the saddle. And it was quite windy, making it a pretty unusable camp spot. So I continued three more miles, all the way down to the valley, at Kingston canyon Trailhead.

I did get a special treat watching the full moon rise over Groves Lake.

A few minutes later I was at the trailhead, and camped literally directly at the trailhead, since I promised my feet I would go no further (picture taken the next morning).

There was a nice picnic table here, so I enjoyed dinner sitting at a table and it felt so luxurious.

By now it was 9pm and getting quite cold in this deep damp valley, so I quickly setup my tent and crawled into my sleeping bag with a bunch of warm clothes.

Sunday June 8, 27.4mi/44.1kmSaddle near Pete’s Cabin (785.6/8590ft) to Marysville Canyon Trail Jct (813.0/8890ft) (NV)It was surprisingly chilly overnight, and I started hiking in my fleece and warm hat.In a couple minutes I was at the pass, where there was a great view of Arc Dome, where I would be later today.The trail is also noticeably better on the other side of the pass. Still brushy, but very easy to follow.I just sent it a couple miles down to the Reese River, where the trail got a little confusing amongst all the vegetation and felled trees.Once I found the correct spot to cross, it was easy, and I noticed that beavers had been very busy in this area, hence all the fallen trees.The trail remained along the river for a little while and was pretty green and lush.Pretty soon I turned off the Reese River Trail and started climbing along the Big Sawmill Creek Trail.The first few minutes of the trail were flooded by Beaver activity, but after that the trail generally stayed high and dry away from the tangle of vegetation near the creek. I noticed these neat alpine flowers as I started to climb higher.Unfortunately I also noticed this little guy trying to hitch a ride on my sock.He died a quick and hopefully painful death between two sharp rocks. All that lush vegetation from earlier must be where I picked up that tick. I continued to climb up the Sawmill Creek drainage, where more wildflowers appeared.It was like nature’s own bouquet! And then some corn lilies appeared, which I hadn’t seen yet on this trail.Near the top of the climb, the stream dwindled to a tiny creek, the lush vegetation disappeared, and some small snowbanks remained from the winter.Looking back down on what I had just hiked up:Near the top of the climb, I joined the official Toiyabe Crest Trail, TCT.I continued another 10 minutes to the top of the climb, where there was a junction to the Arc Dome Summit trail.That pointy peak in the distance is actually 3 miles away, so I chose not to do the 6 mile roundtrip side-quest. But I had a nice break at the trail junction, it was even kinda warm, despite the fact that I was at 11,000 ft elevation.I had a nice long lunch and thoroughly checked myself for ticks, and cleaned out my socks and shoes from all the river crossings. After lunch it was a blissful afternoon of walking along high plateaus and ridgelines.Early on, I came to a snow cornice, which was pretty small and easy to hike through.I was actually carrying microspikes, but they would have been useless here as the snow was so soft and slushy there’s nothing to grip on. Looking back to the little snow cornice I had come down:Some clouds moved in and it became a little windy as I traversed the plateau.On the north- and east-facing slopes, there was a surprising amount of snow remaining.It was extremely enjoyable hiking on a nice trail with amazing views all afternoon.Once I dropped off the initial plateau, I was following ridgelines, usually around an elevation of 10,500ft.My Luna bar was absolutely correct today.There are barely any trees up here at this elevation and the ones that exist seem to be very stunted and gnarled.Some thunder-y looking clouds moved in, and I was glad I was hiking around the peaks and not over them.Just weaving my way through more little peaks.It kind of felt like being back on the PCT in Northern California again, or the Richmond range in New Zealand. Lots of nice trail with never-ending views!When I got to my planned camping spot, I was surprised to see there weren’t any trees, despite it being at a lower elevation of 9,500 ft. It was also insanely windy at Mohawk Canyon saddle, so there was no way I could camp there and so I had to continue hiking. 5 miles later I found myself at a saddle near Marysville Creek Canyon, which was at a slightly lower elevation and had trees. Glorious trees! My late 7:30 arrival at camp meant that after I did all my evening chores, the sun had already set, leaving just this deep red sky remaining.This was by far my favorite day of the entire Hot Springs Trail so far! There’s another 30 miles or so on the Toiyabe Crest, so I look forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Saturday June 7, 24.2mi/39.0km

Big Smoky Valley (761.4/5490ft) to Saddle near Pete’s Cabin (785.6/8590ft) (NV)

I left camp at 6:30 and was excited that I only had 6 more miles until water!

There hasn’t been any water since I left Tonopah, so I’ve been rationing my water for the 44 mile waterless stretch. I actually came across some water a mile earlier than expected, so that was a nice surprise.

I walked by some ranches which had a few friendly horses, who were not at all shy about wanting their faces itched.

When I got to the designated spot to get water, the green gate was padlocked shut with a few no trespassing signs. But there was a nearby old stone hut, and I could get to the creek from behind that building.

I was no longer in the big valley, and was now heading up a narrowing canyon.

It was exciting to enter a national forest again, usually that means more trails and less roadwalking.

I passed by some old buildings, most of which were abandoned but one of them was inhabited and the guy came down and asked what I was hiking. He was really curious for details and invited me up for cold lemonade and fruit.

After a quick visit, I continued a couple of miles on a hot dirt road.

Fortunately that only lasted 2 miles and then I was in the Peavine campground, which was nice and shady and peaceful with the flowing creek.

It was also home to plenty of wildlife!

I decided to stop and have an early lunch, it was such a nice spot.

I was there for over an hour and then I noticed that usual afternoon clouds had arrived, so I decided it was a good time to continue heading up the road.

The road crisscrossed Peavine Creek a dozen times, and many of those crossings I walked right through it and got wet feet. As I slowly ascended, I noticed the junipers and pinion pines had returned.

And then the dirt road ended and I was entering the Arc Dome wilderness, on an actual hiking trail!

The guidebook describes this as a nice trail, which is pure fiction. It was easy enough to follow but was a little brushy.

When the trail ventured near the creek or crossed it, the fast-growing willows really crowded the trail and made it hard to see. At one point I stumbled upon an entire cow skeleton, which was shocking.

And a minute later I came across its hide as well. Kinda creepy.

As I continued to ascend eventually the little creek dried up, and the trail was now passing through sagebrush. It was easier to follow the trail but very scratchy.

I had planned to camp at the site of Pete’s cabin, but when I got there it was overgrown and not really suitable for camping. So I continued a few more minutes towards the pass, which I was sure would have a flat spot for my tent. Fortunately, I found a little spot amongst these short little trees just before the pass, even better!

Hopefully it doesn’t get too cold tonight, I’m camped up at 8,600 ft elevation.

Friday June 6, 25.6mi/41.2km

Lime Wash (735.8/6300ft) to Big Smoky Valley (761.4/5490ft) (NV)

It’s daylight so early now, so I was awake at 5:30 and hiking by 6:00. I had a few minutes of hiking up a steep old 4×4 track which got me warmed up pretty quickly.

The rest of the morning was all XC hiking going up and over the San Antonio mountains. It was never steep but it was almost always rocky. Some of the ridgelines even had neat little rock fins.

I could tell this area was recently volcanic due to the rock type, and I had to constantly step over and around them.

The scenery was beautiful though! I just couldn’t look at it while hiking or else I would trip on a rock.

In the distance I could see a Solar Concentrating plant, I had seen one of these before near Vegas and they are a pretty neat idea for generating power.

They’re surrounded by thousands of mirrors which focus the sunlight on a single point in the center. Neat! Since I was up at 8,000 ft I had views in every direction.

Instead of following the guidebook mapped line, I decided to follow my own line for the descent off the ridgeline. It would result in more of a direct descent and less side-hilling across a slope. Ironically when I got to my exit point off the ridgeline, I came across this cool looking rock.

It matches the photo in the guidebook which calls it “Spur Rock”, and says it’s the start of the descent off the ridge. I’m glad my independently created route agreed with the guidebook text, even though the guidebook’s maps don’t match at all. For almost a mile, I descended down a series of steep gullies.

And arrived at the old San Antonio mining area.

There were half a dozen old buildings scattered about, and I didn’t dare walk inside any of them. The floors all looked like they would collapse under my weight.

The rest of the afternoon I hiked on old dirt roads slowly descending down to Big Smoky Valley.

It was of course very easy hiking, and I got to watch the cloud formations grow and shift overhead as they always do in the afternoon.

Looking north, I could see the Toiyabe mountains, where I would be for the next few days.

Also in that photo is a really faint old 2-track road, or “wagon road” as the guidebook calls it. Initially it was difficult to see and follow, but I got the hang of identifying traces of it and connecting to them. After a few more hours of hiking, flat roads like that, sometimes sandy, I arrived at a spot where I could set up my tent. The last few miles of the day were near a ranch, so I couldn’t camp there. And then for a few miles the ground was extremely sandy, which would be impossible to stake in a tent. But I finally found a nice cozy wash to camp in.

I accidentally hiked a bigger day than I intended, especially given that it took me all morning to hike the 10 miles of XC. But the afternoon miles were easy and flew by.

Thursday June 5, 12.9mi/20.8km

Tonopah (722.9/5990ft) to Lime Wash (735.8/6300ft) (NV)

Sleeping indoors is always a little strange during a hike, I’m used to the mentality ” the sky’s awake so I’m awake”. But the motel room stays dark so I slept in until 7:30, grabbed a second shower, and some free tea and muffins from the motel lobby. This next section is 145 miles long, so I bought 7 days worth of food.

I packed everything up, and it’s quite heavy. This section also starts with a 45 mile water carry, so I’m bringing 7 liters. The guidebook has a source after 7 miles, but it’s a well and I don’t trust man-made water sources as much. Plus the last few hikers have had trouble finding it, and I’m sure I will too. I swung by the Tonopah brewery to rehydrate.

I had planned on stopping by the pizza place for a slice and a soda, but once I was there I noticed they had a buffet so I had to partake.

After many slices, breadsticks, and root beers, I slowly made my way out of town.

It was mostly hiking on dirt roads today through sagebrush, not the most interesting thing but it certainly is relaxing. I spotted these two radar antennas on a nearby hillside, kind of a strange place for them. I wonder what they’re used for?

As the afternoon went on, the clouds started to build up.

After 7 miles I came to the spot where Frazier’s Well was supposed to be. I found an old mine shaft.

And some old rusted metal troughs.

I poked around the area pretty thoroughly, and didn’t come up with anything that looked wet or that had water. I looked closer at my maps and noticed another drainage just 100 m away, so I explored that and found what I believe was supposed to be the well.

It was a dry metal trough with a black plastic tub that had grass growing in it. But definitely no water. Not even any damp soil. Darn.

I’m glad I carried all my water from the town! Continuing on, the sky seemed to get even cloudier in every direction except for the area I was hiking in. Weird.

After about 13 miles, the easy road walking was coming to an end, and there was a long XC climbing section coming up. So I decided to camp a little early, before I got into the XC section.

Of course, I’m camped in another wash. Better than being camped up high and exposed to wind and thunderstorms!

Wednesday June 4, 5.2mi/8.4km

Paymaster Canyon Rd (717.7/5520ft) to Tonopah (722.9/5990ft) (NV)

I’m usually excited to get up early on a town day, but I stayed up an hour later than usual last night watching some Netflix, so I didn’t leave camp until 6:30am. It was an easy and gradual uphill roadwalk to Tonopah.

Walking uphill to town is quite unusual, and I can’t think of another example trail town where this happens. I was in town at 8:30, but nothing was really open yet so I killed some time being a tourist and taking photos.

It’s a cool old Main Street and a historic mining town.

Some fancy artwork.

I stopped into a hardware store to ask about buying a fuel canister, they didn’t have it but suggested this place down the street.

A-bar-L Western store carried a little bit of everything, it basically looked like a general store but modernized and had Wi-Fi. The owner Paul was super nice, and even though the store didn’t sell fuel canisters, he called his wife at home to bring me one of his personal ones which I bought off of him. Amazing. He also gave me an extra cardboard box, which I needed to ship my ice ax and micro spikes back since I don’t need them anymore. I went to the post office next door and shipped those items away, and having done all my chores in this section of town, I walked to the southern end where my motel and the restaurants are. I was pretty sure the hotel wouldn’t let me check in to my room at 10 am, so I went directly to the Tonopah Station Casino, which had a cafe.

The decor was very old-timey, and it’s Nevada so of course you had to walk through the slot machine room to get to the restaurant.

I ordered a nice big breakfast, it was a small little diner type place with one waitress.

I was still hungry so I ordered more food.
This is what happens when you order a sundae at breakfast and the diner waitress only works the breakfast shift, and has no idea how many scoops to use.

It was a ridiculous amount of ice cream and I felt like that was my big win for the day! Strangely, the only laundromat in town is also in the casino, and the machines are ridiculously cheap only $2. So I hung out for an hour there doing my laundry, and then walked next door to the Raley’s supermarket to resupply. The cashier put my groceries in these old-timey flimsy plastic bags which I haven’t seen in a few years now, so I had to take a photo for novelty purposes.

I finally left that shopping center after noon, and they had a cool map by the front door.

Tonopah is located at my finger, and I’m eventually hiking up to the green section in the upper right corner of Nevada. I walked 5 minutes down the street to the Dream Inn motel, which was the cheapest in town and also quite modern. I had been too warm for most of the past week, so it felt good to just turn the AC on full power and see how cold I could get the room. After a shower I went back out and got another meal, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing watching shows and doing some trail planning.

Tuesday June 3, 24.0mi/38.6km

Clayton Saddle (693.8/5130ft) to Paymaster Canyon Rd (717.8/5520ft) (NV)

I got an early start at 6:30 and finished the paved road walk before the warmth of the day arrived.

After I turned off onto a powerline road, I started noticing all these hoof prints.

They’re much smaller than horses so I’m pretty sure there are burros around. A mile later, I spied the culprits!

Which also meant I was getting close to a water source since these guys never seem to stray too far from water. And I came around a hillside and there was the Alkali Hot Springs!

The pool on the right was the perfect temperature, while the one on the left was way too hot. There are ways to adjust the temperature, but it takes awhile and I didn’t plan on being here for more than an hour. It was a nicely constructed site with lots of little signs and walkways and posts for hanging shade tarps.

The outflow of the hot springs was captured by a little rectangular pool, where I grabbed 3 liters to get me the 24 miles to town tomorrow.

As I was packing up to leave, a woman pulled up in her conversion van which had clearly been constructed to live in. She was super friendly and explained how she’s taking a 2-month detox, and will be living out here at the hot spring and eating all sorts of overly healthy sounding things I’ve never heard of. She gave me some nice ginger tea, some powdered lemon juice for flavoring my water, and some sort of dehydrated sea saltgrass.

The first two things were delicious. The third one, not so much. I said goodbye to Allison and also to my burro friends as I left the hot spring.

The rest of the day was pretty much all walking dirt roads, most of them small non-drivable roads.

The landscapes out here really are huge and while there’s not much to see up close besides sagebrush, the distant views are really cool. After a while though, I put on some podcasts and enjoyed the afternoon, just easily hiking to my planned campsite about 5 miles before town.

As usual, it’s always a little windy out here so I was fortunate and found a small hill for a windbreak. And even better, there’s a wash at the base of it. Camping in washes is basically my default option in the desert, they’re kind of perfect for camping as they’re usually mostly level and free of spiky plants.

Monday June 2, 26.4mi/42.5km

Cave Spring (667.4/6160ft) to Clayton Saddle (693.8/5130ft) (NV) -3.0 mi vehicle

This summer daylight seems to always wake me up at 5:45am, which means I’m hiking by 6:30. I poked around the area a little more, just to make sure I didn’t miss any water sources. All dry. I did find this neat mining shaft, which for some reason they call a cave.

It was a nice cool morning on a gradual uphill, and I only had a mile and a half of hiking until the Coyote spring water source.

Unfortunately when I got to that water source, it appeared that the metal tanks had been removed, and all that remained was a silty and muddy cow pond.

I thoroughly investigated the area and found some new looking piping buried under bulldozer tracks that led right to the pond. Someone must have reconfigured the water setup here, bummer. There was quite a bit of cow poop around, and the water had a weird ammonia smell so it’s probably at least 20% cow piss. I grabbed an emergency liter, but didn’t run it through my filter since that would probably kill the filter. It’s only 12 miles to town, most of them downhill, where there is good water. The rest of the roadwalk was uneventful except for this little guy was sunning himself in the middle of the road.

I easily finished the gradual little climb and took a nice long break on the pass before starting the descent. There was a cool breeze and some shady junipers that beckoned to be sat under.

Initially the descent was steep…

And then flattened out, while the small town of Silver peak came into view.

Silver peak is a tiny town, and home to the country’s only lithium mine. I assumed they would make good money mining a rare element, but the town looked like a disaster zone of shipping container homes, rotting RVs, and just generally junk lying around.

But I got a photo of the town’s famous directional sign.

I’m heading towards Alkali Hot Spring. By now it was about noon so I went to the town park and took a break in the shade of the pavilion.

It was a pretty nice spot, with picnic tables and benches and even outlets to charge my phone. There was a school group using the adjacent pool, so I had access to the bathrooms there and refilled my water bottles. One of the adults in charge of the school’s field trip was also the grillmaster, and asked me if I would please make room for all the kids when they got out of the pool to eat. I moved to a further picnic table and he gave me a nice double cheeseburger with bacon and jalapenos. Amazing.

Eventually the school group left to go home, and I had the shady pavilion to myself. I took a couple hours break and waited out the hot weather. I would have been tempted to use the pool, but it’s privately owned by the mining company and the school group locked it up once they left. On my way out I stopped by the fire station and got more water.

I started the 5 mile roadwalk through the lithium mine area, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about, as I could see the brightly colored evaporating pools all morning from above.

I got about 2 miles into the roadwalk and one of the mine’s security staff stopped to chat with me. He was quite friendly, but said pedestrians weren’t allowed to use the road. I had been forewarned by some hikers ahead of me this might happen, and I even had email confirmation from the Esmeralda County roads supervisor that this road was a county-owned road, and indeed open to pedestrians. We were chatting for long enough that his supervisor pulled up also, and after a brief polite discussion, I got a ride through the mine area. I was kinda bummed that I missed 3 miles of the trail, but I view the gap like the boat ferry on the PNT or Te Araroa. Necessary to get across. The rest of the afternoon I followed a powerline road, and was glad to be walking in the direction that I was, since behind me looked quite dark and stormy.

While in front of me it looked okay.

I joined the deserted paved road for a short bit, and even started seeing Joshua trees again, cool!

Once I arrived at a low pass, I ducked behind the hillside to setup camp where I would be shielded from the wind.

After I set up my tent and finished dinner, I noticed the wind had died anyway, so it should be a good night of sleep.

Sunday June 1, 28.1mi/45.2km

Trail Canyon Lake (639.3/8050ft) to Cave Spring (667.4/6160ft) (NV)

Today was a pretty easy day of hiking, and I covered a bunch of miles even with a few long breaks. I left my campsite at 6:30 and had a quick descent through the riparian brush.

Once I was below about 7,000 ft, the terrain reverted to the sagebrush landscape.

A few miles later and I left the Inyo National Forest, and was shocked to see this monstrosity of a house.

I was listening to audiobooks all morning and then the next thing I knew I had crossed highway 264, which meant I had covered 13 miles and it was only 11am. Dirt roadwalks are pretty cruiser.

It was kinda a primary dirt road, so a car would pass me every 20 minutes or so and most of them stopped to offer water. One guy from the local electric co-op even offered me all these electrolyte mixes, and some cold bottled water.

All my water was kind of hot, so it really was quite a treat. Just like yesterday, around midday the clouds started to gather and get dark and rumbly.

I quickly hiked past a rapidly building thundercloud, and made it to Fish Lake Hot Springs in the early afternoon.

It was a nice little constructed tub and I had a good long soak in the perfectly hot water. The tub drained into a couple of ponds, so the first pond was warm water and the second pond was cool water.

After an hour, I noticed a couple of tanker trucks had pulled up and were pumping water out of the pond.

Not sure if that’s legal or if they had a permit, but the guy was interesting to talk to and said it takes about 18 minutes to fill his 2,000 gallon truck, which he’ll then drive to the local mine and spray down the roads for dust control. He seemed concerned that I was drinking the water, because apparently it’s full of parasites, but my water filter is supposed to remove most biological contaminants. The next round of thunderclouds was moving in so I decided to hike on, initially on a brief XC segment.

And then the rest of the day was on a dirt road.

It was a relief to hike out of the wide open plain and back into the mountains, where I was no longer the highest point under a thundercloud.

At the end of the day I came to Cave Spring, which after much searching, I determined to be dry.

Both of the troughs were dry, and neither of the blue handled spigots worked either. I traced various pipes and tubing lines uphill, and found the source of the water inside of a cliff. But it was dry.

There is another spring in 1.5 miles that I’ll hit tomorrow morning so I’m not too concerned. I headed back down the hill and explored the little cabin that was nearby.

It looked like it had been recently fixed up inside, with a fresh coat of paint on the walls and a nice wooden ceiling. The cabinet even had a bunch of spices and water bottles.

I decided to set up my tent at a flat spot a couple hundred feet from the cabin, which should be far enough that no mice are tempted to come over here. At the end of the day the sun broke out of the clouds, and there was a neat lighting contrast between the dark sky to the East and the lighted cliff.

And a few minutes later a rainbow came out!

Watching the sunset made me realize how huge the terrain is out here.

Most of Nevada is so remote!