Reconnoitering in the Eastern Sierra Nevada & Great Basin by 4x4

Out and About Near Winnemucca, Nevada:
A Quickie For When You've Got Company
A Sonoma Range Circuit Encore

February 17, 2009 – Somber, snow flurries, snow on the ground in my corner of north-central Nevada. The air was chilled, but not terribly so. Big storms were forecasted, yet the television and Weather Service forecasts had been woefully imprecise in recent times – snow flurries, a dusting or two, sun blocked by gray clouds, chilly instead of the real weather forecasted on the Reno TV station. My Tacoma beckoned, sitting forlorn in the drive way. It was way too clean, even though I hadn't washed it since the summer of 2008. Rain and snow launders whites far better than any machine wash can accomplish. Toyota Tacoma TRD 4WD pickups are best viewed dusty, desert pinstriped and a splash of dried mud – and I just happen to like my Tacoma with a splash of mocha. Because that means that I'm still using it for the purpose that I purchased it for nearly seven years ago.

February 17, 2009 – Graham C., my oft traveling buddy over the years since we first met in 2000, and who lives in my former hometown of Big Pine, California, arrived just before noon. Graham had heard about the forecasts for heavy snow that were expected to hit his local neck of the sagebrush belt also, so he left a day earlier than planned. His itinerary included some shopping in Reno for home remodeling supplies the day before he was to come northeast to my homestead near Winnemucca. He packed his dog, Toby, and his gear and head to Yerington, Nevada to overnight in a motel. The following day he spent in Reno – with a detour through the Virginia Range and the city made famous by silver and Mark Twain that the range holds – then he overnighted in Fernley. After breakfast in a Fernley café, a two hour and 75-mile per hour blast northeast across Nevada put him to my house in slightly less than two hours.

Graham had been to Winnemucca before – on our lengthy tour of northern Nevada and southern Idaho in 2001. But on this trip he would ultimately stay in town for a week to get more acquainted with Winnemucca and vicinity to see what my new neck of the sagebrush belt has to offer.

Primary visiting and then running in to town to find Graham a motel took up our time for a couple of hours. My wife then served us a late lunch / early supper filled with pork roast, baked potatoes and salad. That fueled up our desire for Graham to get a quick look-see around my neighborhood. So I fueled up my forlorn and way too clean Tacoma and we left on a late afternoon circuit of the Sonoma Range. It turned out to be a bit of déjà vu.

October 3, 2008 – My wife and I took a circuit of the Sonoma's on a similarly bleak day. On that trip, we turned across the range at Sheep Canyon. However, memories of too many cattle and the ugliness of a natural gas line following much of the trail and tall towers carrying high voltage electricity dimmed my view of following that route.

So, on February 17, 2009, I elected to give Graham the grand tour by dropping a bit further south; Graham and I would follow what was showed on the maps as a canyon named for an animal with more bite – Panther Canyon. Then we'd drop into Ragan Creek and down into the southernmost tip of Pumpernickel Valley and exit via Golconda.

There are footnotes in this article. Clicking on the hyperlinked symbol will take you to the footnote. Clicking on the hyperlinked footnote symbol next to the footnote will return you to where you left off.

Later, as we got into Pumpernickel Valley, that déjà vu would show itself and it would be solidly dusk then dark as we ran northbound back toward Golconda. But no big deal, Graham and I both have a set of super bright Hella off road lights gracing our front bumpers. However, we later found that it truly was déjà vu all over again, and not just in the matter of timing and the countryside.

The pavement of Grass Valley Road ends about 9.5 miles south of the general area of my home at the scenic Sonoma Ranch. In that general area, the populace of the Grass Valley area has been left behind and just a few widely scattered ranches and homes dot the panorama of Grass Valley between the Sonoma and East ranges. The ranges themselves were heavy in snow, the valley dotted with patches under the sagebrush and shady sides of gullies and gulches.

At 23.2 miles into the trip, steam rising on both sides of the road alerted me that we were at Leach Hot Springs. At this point I was 1.75 miles farther south than I had ever been on Grass Valley Road, and the same distance south of where my wife and I had turned to traverse the Sonoma Range last year. Leach Hot Springs were on the eastern side of the road, a series of steaming cauldrons that issued or semi issued forth a hot stream of water, way too hot to bathe in. These were channeled into a central channel, which then flowed freely through a ditch and out across the road into the valley. I did, however, find one circular bathing pit, semi-improved, its bottom a bit rocky, that had a water temperature more suited for human bathing. However, those who do their hot spring bathing in the buff would find themselves in full sight to any passers by as it is only about a hundred feet off the road with no sagebrush for cover. ^¤¤ In the entire area of Leach Hot Springs, the smell of sulfur was heavy in the air.

Continuing down Grass Valley Road, we were very near the point where the Sonoma Range ends and the Tobin Range continues south; their respective ends overlapping each other with Panther Canyon bisecting that confluence. At 27.2 miles from my home, my Garmin eTrex said to “turn here” and so we turned east up unsigned Panther Canyon Road ^$. A few yards up Panther Canyon, we stopped to air down our tires. ^#

Running down Grass Valley Road. In the distance is 9,775 foot high Mt. Tobin.	Leach Hot Springs.	Graham and Toby at one of the springs that make up Leach Hot Springs.
A bathing pond at Leach Hot Springs.	Southbound, Grass Valley Road. Mt. Tobin dominates the scene.	Panther Canyon Road. 8,842 foot high China Mountain dominates the view.

Climbing up the Sonoma Range, the snow cover turned solid, but never got deep enough for concern. It was obvious that at least one other had come this way before, their tire tracks had melted down to bare but muddy ground in most spots. Snow melt had created plenty of mud under the crusty snow, and also threw in a few fairly deep water crossings. Driving into a few of them grabbed my Tacoma and threw its front and rear ends one way or another; their depth surprised me a couple of times as the front end of the truck dived deep – water, mud and ice sloshed up atop the hood and windshield with each baptism ⁺. Graham and I as well as our respective Tacomas were in our element.

The road soon topped out at the summit, then slightly dropped into the open country at the confluence of the Sonoma and Tobin Ranges. Immediately on the eastern side of the summit, we encountered a closed gate at a point 33.5 miles from my home. My habit is to leave gates as you find them ^*, so after we passed through, Graham closed the gate.

The road enters the watershed of Ragan Creek, which then runs due north into Pumpernickel Valley. At the point Graham and I hit Ragan Creek, we were still way up in the confluence of the Tobin and Sonoma Ranges, with the great wall of 8,842 foot China Mountain ^@ in our windshields. And at Ragan Creek, our route turns north.

Heading up Panther Canyon. China Mountain fills my windshield.	A stop midway up Panther Canyon. View is southwest.	China Mountain and it's “great wall” (the dark band) is the predominate feature.
A closed gate and China Mountain.	The view northward presents Technicolor skies.	Graham closing the gate.
Graham splashing through one of the many mud and water crossings under the snow along the trail.	Northward along Ragan Creek.

Just as the countryside opens up and the road starts to descend into Pumpernickel Valley, a picturesque cabin stands near the road, piquing our photographic interest. Opening the doors of our respective Tacomas, both Graham and I simultaneously caught and exclaimed our response of the aroma – damp sagebrush oh so pungent and sweet!

After a few photos of the scenic cabin, Graham and I pulled away at 5:28 PM. Down into Pumpernickel Valley we went. As we drove northward, déjà vu again: a late model Chevrolet pickup joined in from a side road and stayed in behind Graham. On my previous trip through Pumpernickel Valley last year, two pickup trucks caught up with me and joined me through much of the southern part of Pumpernickle Valley. As for the two gates encountered along the road, on this trip I found them open, allowing free passage instead of me having to play doorman as I did the last time. Our Chevrolet companion didn't stay for our tour very long, he turned off at one of the southernmost ranch houses.

At a point near the north end of Pumpernickel Valley, both Graham and I stopped. And it was at this point we found that déjà vu struck again: a curious circumstance that Graham had noticed and brought to my attention – his left rear license plate light was burned out. It was very near this point that on my trip last year – and at about the same level of dusk – that my left rear license plate light was also found to be burned out. What a coincidence!

The rest of the trip was in the dark – north to Golconda, west to Winnemucca. Gaining pavement at Golconda, both of us elected to bypass airing up our tires – instead we simply traveled at 60-mph over Interstate 80 for the 15 mile jaunt to the Winnemucca exit; all the while we were passed swiftly by even the most laden semi trucks. I traveled with Graham to his motel in town, visited a while in the parking lot as he pulled his equipment and supplies from his camper shell roof top rack ^& to lock up inside the camper shell; then bade him goodnight and finished the trip several miles south of town to my own home.

My total mileage of our Sonoma Range circuit from and to my home was 82.4 miles as per my Tacoma's trip odometer; my truck's ending mileage on the main odometer read 127,350. My eTrex's GPS trip computer log showed with our included short walk to and from the cabin, I covered 82.8 miles, our average speed was a blistering 30.6 miles per hour. And my watch told me it was 7:09 PM. The second circuit of the Sonoma Range was some good, muddy fun.

A stop to investigate the old cabin shown above.	Northward into Pumpernickel Valley.	Dusk is fast approaching as we continue north through Pumpernickel Valley.
Graham's headlights behind me as we continue north in the increasing darkness through Pumpernickel Valley.	My Delphi NAV200 guides me as Graham chats with me over the CB radio through Pumpernickel Valley.	A stop in northern Pumpernickel Valley. It is here that Graham finds that his left rear license plate light is burned out, a coincidence since it was at this approximate location that I found I had experienced the exact same thing some months previous.
Winnemucca in the distance as we approach on Interstate 80.	Downtown Winnemucca.

¤¤ Traffic in this region is infrequent and you would see the dust contrail of any vehicle coming southbound for a long period of time before you'd be caught with your pants down. However, those coming northbound would be hidden until the last second as the road rounds a hill immediately behind the tub. But, in that instance, little exposed flesh would be seen by those passing by.

$ My Delphi NAV200 showed Panther Canyon Road and it was named on the mapping of the unit.

# Graham likes to run 15psi in his B.F. Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tires. He has a set of “Tire Buddy” automatic deflators, which are similar to the Staun brand. I dropped the tire pressure on my B.F. Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tires to 20psi on this trip.

+ I always approach and cross water slowly. The majority of my two-track driving is in low range, 2^nd or 3^rd gear, which translates to speeds under 20 miles per hour. Water crossings are taken at far less speed unless it's obvious to me that the channel of water is narrow and shallow as I approach. Even with extended fender flares on the Tacoma, the tires throw water and mud onto the body, the full width engine and transmission skid plates often channel water forward, which then a bow wake develops and crests over the hood as the grill and headlights then pushes it higher.

*A code of the West – leave gates as you find them. Gates left open may let range cattle into lands they are not allowed; a gate closed may pen them in where there is no feed.

@ Though I'm not positive and have never researched it, I believe China Mountain acquired its name for a dark belt of vertical rock that runs along its length; which for all intents could remind one of the Great Wall of China.

& The rack was designed by Graham and fabbed up in a Bishop welding shop. He uses it to carry extra gas, water, tools, and other supplies in heavy duty containors.