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Jessup Embayment, North Island, Gold
and Silver Mines and on down the whoop-te-doo canyon, 22 October 2007
RonC LR Trek Number 112 - Nevada
– Another MONTE-DISCO PRODUCTION
It’s the day after the LR Rocklin Trek (#111). Phil has to head back to Rocklin
by about noon, so we decide to head out early and do a quick archaeology and
exploration run. By the way; Phil and I have been amateur geologists together
for the past 10 years. In fact, we took every geology course that Sierra College
had to offer as well as oceanography, mineralogy and life sciences.
Ben, Phil and I are up at about 5:45. Showers were all done last night so we’re
at the WigWam for breakfast by about 6:00 and on the road by a bit before 6:30.
By 7:00 we’re already off-road heading out past the Jessup aggregate quarry
towards North Island and the Jessup Embayment High-stand archaeological site.
Ron and Phil in the ’04 Discovery and Ben in the ’04 Montero…
The first quest is to take the steep climb up out of the wash to the old beach
line at 4400 feet at the base of a cliff on “North Island” The cliffs are broken
columnar basalt. In fact someone has been quarrying the columns most likely for
landscaping. The term island is used because this half square mile butte was an
island in Jessup Bay back 12070 years ago when Pleistocene Lake Lahontan was at
its highest elevation and largest extent. The actual high-stand was at 4398.5
feet, but I tend to use 4400 because it’s easiest to track on topo-map contour
lines.
The trail up to the island has degraded quite a bit since I was last here, but
Bens only problem is with a bit of IFS scraping on the rocks sticking out of the
rutted part. Phil collects a few nice specimens while I take a few pictures of
the scenery. After a few minutes we head back down into the “bay” and then it’s
up the wash looking for the trail to the archaeological site.
I locate the trail first try and we climb up onto the bench and head south past
the first playette. There are two gullies crossing the trail to the site that
Ben gets to bash his bottom on again. Eventually we arrive at the big gully
where we park. I’m sure that I could actually drive up the big gully and around
the rock outcrop but I do try to tread lightly. We hike the last 200 yards to
the playette site.
Ben and Phil are pretty impressed! I point out where the camel bones had been
dug out and radiocarbon dated. Near the very end of the last ice-age this
mini-embayment jutted off of the larger Jessup Bay. Lake Lahontan at that time
was immense and had a reach on the order of hundreds of miles. During storms,
waves developed a sand bar across the mouth of the playette and then it had
filled with sediments washed down from the adjacent hills. The camel bones and
many other fossils had been deposited into the little cut-off playette. The
fossils were age dated and tended to agree with each other within a dozen or so
years.
After leaving the playette, we head generally west through the Superior Mining
Claims area and then over a couple of small hills to the north and into the
Central Jessup gold and silver mining area. Central Jessup extends for about
five square miles and is filled with probably 100 or so mine shafts and adits;
all are too crumbly and dangerous to enter.
After Jessup, it’s up a small canyon along the northern edge of the Trinity
Range and we arrive at the Gold Ore Claims. One shack and a powder bunker are
all that remains along with about a half dozen shafts.
We retrace our route for about a half mile and turn south crossing a saddle and
head down an un-named canyon that will eventually bring us back to the highway
in about eight miles. I first ran this trail about three years ago. At that
time, it existed on the map but was not discernable on the ground. During that
first run, I had to continuously monitor my gps to make sure that I was
following the correct wash. I was running it from bottom to top then which is a
bit harder to follow the correct route. Now that Fernley has grown so much in
population; a lot of motorcycles and quads have discovered it. In fact washes
make for rather smooth trails. Once motorcycles use them they are full of dips.
About a mile down canyon, I take a turn to the west climbing up a side canyon.
Only the first ¼ mile has been run by bikes so from that point on it’s just
following the wash. After about ½ mile the wash gets progressively filled with
bigger and bigger rocks. At a fork, I take the wash with the lesser amount of
rocks. Another 100 feet and there is no sign of a trail. A bit of looking around
and I can see where tires have crunched down some mountain mahogany. I carefully
continue driving following where I can see that the brush has been crushed in
the past.
According to the gps, I’m a bit south of the trail but I can still see the tire
damage to the brush. Pretty soon we come to the flat top of a saddle. We’re
looking down into another canyon. We are standing on black basalt desert
pavement, with a view across Fernley Sink. We could probably with some effort,
drive down through the steep rock garden to the canyon bottom. But again, we
would not be treading lightly. Checking the gps; we are about a half mile from
where the real trail should be according to the map.
We turn around and go back to the main canyon. For another two miles or so we
wind down the zig zagging canyon passing aa-aa lave buttes and wash-cut lava
bluffs. It’s getting late so we don’t take any more side canyons although a
couple are available.
Back down below 4400 feet the canyon becomes a wide alluvial fan spreading out
onto the sink. Eventually, we climb out of the wash onto a sandy plateau with a
lot of diatomite outcrops. Then it’s just following mine haul roads back to the
interstate interchange at Hot Springs/Nightingale. We get Phil back to the house
and his car at about 11:45. Perfect timing! That brings us to the end of another
perfect day in Nevada.
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http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc58/fortymile/trek%20111%20and%20112/
The photos with the 112-xx prefix apply
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