Ragged Top Run - 21 Nov. 2004

By MuddyOval member RonC

RAGGED TOP RUN

Saturday. I have finally got the grandson interested in a bit of off-roading. I guess he’s finally succumbed to the stories that the granddaughters have told him of all the fun they’ve had. Anyway, on Saturday I took him out on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation and did some very mild off-roading. Later in the day we crossed the lower end of Winnemucca Lake and up Coyote Canyon to the Nightingale Mine. Yeah, you guys have heard about this place a lot. It’s just that it’s so close to the house in Fernley that it’s a good place to get new co-pilots used to what I do on weekends.

It was cold! It was 14 degrees and windy up at the mines. We did some very mild exploring of the less dangerous tunnels and he was really into it! The rock at Nightingale is very crumbly and the tunnels are dug too close to the surface so not many can be explored for fear of cave-ins. We explored a few side roads off the main trail returning back down Coyote canyon and didn’t find anything too exciting. He’s hooked and can’t wait for tomorrow when I’ve promised him some cool mines.

Sunday morning we meet Trish for breakfast at Jakes Restaurant in Fernley at 8:00. She’s the lady with the ’04 Rubicon. About 8:45 we’re on our way heading east on 80 towards Lovelock. About thirty miles out we turn off at Jessup. Not much at the turnoff (actually nothing). We head north on a well-graded road towards the Jessup gravel quarry. We pass on through the quarry, not lingering, lots of heavy earthmoving equipment and no-trespassing signs. About six miles northwest and then west and we arrive at the Jessup Site. It’s miles and miles of diggings, tailings, vertical shafts and danger signs. We do a lot of hiking around but cannot get underground. All of the mines appear to be vertical, very deep shafts with ancient wood shoring. I don’t do those.

Our plan for the day is to continue heading north up the Copper Valley, Granite Springs Valley and Sage Valley towards the Seven Troughs Range and the ghost towns of Vernon, Tunnel Camp, Mazuma and Seven Troughs. There are no direct roads shown on the map, so this will be true exploring. We don’t really know if we’ll ever get there this way.

According to the map there is a road that heads north from where we are about a mile and a half then east for about two miles and intersects a northerly road. I find a road at approximately the right place and off we go. We follow it a bit and it begins heading west – Not the way I want to go. We find a very primitive trail east and follow that. It peters out and becomes just a sandy wash heading almost the way I want to go. Pretty soon we’re just driving washes – no roads at all. A couple places are a bit iffy but we just keep plowing along to avoid bogging down in the sand. About half an hour later we hit the northerly road almost where it is supposed to be on the map.

Heading north we find a mine and a couple of standing buildings at the top of a saddle overlooking the Copper Valley. The place isn’t on any of our maps. There are two standing buildings, one a house, the other an office. Next to the office are the ruins of an ore chute and a mill. Up the hill are a couple fallen buildings and a powder bunker.

Off we go again heading north. About four miles north there is supposed to be a road heading northeast towards the Copper Queen and Hard to Find mines. I turn onto another very primitive road and head east. It soon turns into another non-existent road and we’re following washes again. Eventually we come across an east west running good road at approximately where the Hard to Find Mine is supposed to be (per the map). No mine but we find another little bitty trail heading up a Canyon towards the summit of Ragged Top Mountain.

Ragged Top is a well-named landmark. We decide to see how far up the canyon we can go towards the mountaintop. Very soon the trail disappears and we’re again just following a wash up the canyon bottom. This is really fun but the wash ends at about 5800 feet. The top of the mountain is at 6348 feet. After a rest and some on foot exploring we head back down the canyon to the road.

Back on the road heading northwest I spot some tailings. We turn off cross over a knoll and there it is, Hard to Find Mine. It covers only about ½ square mile. No shafts that we want to venture into – all very deep and dark. To the amateur geologist the tailings are wonderful! We found specimens of malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, and bornite, even some small garnet clusters. My grandson, Scott, is getting anxious, “When are we going into some mines?” I’ve already given him the myths about the Tommy Knockers while we were at Nightingale yesterday so that will not be a problem.

We head out northwest again looking for a cross road that will take us around the northern end of Ragged Top and to the Ragged Top Mines. After about three miles we intersect it and head northeast. This road is a service road for an adjacent natural gas pipeline. The road is absolutely straight for about four miles and has no regard for ground contours and crosses all of the washes running off of Ragged Top at an acute angle. Scott thinks it is way more fun than some of the rides at Disneyland.

Pretty soon we get to the top of a ridge just north of Ragged Top and can see the mines to the south. We drive by some of the closest mines, which have some inviting horizontal adits. However, we spot an interesting narrow canyon running into the side of the mountain and decide to investigate that first and catch the mines on the way out. 

The road goes through a tight deep gorge following the creek bottom and after about 100 yards opens up into a broader valley. On we go following the creek bottom trail until we reach a fork. We then take the wilder looking left fork that appears to head towards the mountaintop. It turns out that that is the best choice; up we go towards the mountaintop. About a mile later we end up at a steep slope about 150 yards below the crags at the top of the mountain. We get out and ponder whether or not we should hike that final stretch of 45-degree slope over the loose talus. The decision is, “If you can’t drive it, the heck with it.” Besides, it is about ten degrees below freezing and the wind is about 30 knots.

After a brief rest and some picture taking, we head back down to the mines. Two of the adits look safe to enter and we do so. The first one is tall and wide enough to walk through comfortably; we follow it for about 75 feet to its end. Scott is ecstatic. The second one is a bit more cramped and winds around several corners. Eventually we come to a cave in. Scott is a bit uncomfortable now and is in a big hurry to exit. After a bit more exploring we head towards the summit of the pass just north of Ragged Top.

The view at the top is great, we can see the tops of the Sierras, which are about 80 miles to the southwest. Being as it is now after 2:00 we figure there is no way we’ll ever get to the Seven Troughs Range in daylight. We decide to head towards the St. Anthony Mines that we had visited the week before and do a more thorough search of the area.

The road from Ragged Top back down to Toulon is about seven miles and drops about 2500 feet but it is easy going as it has been recently graded. I guess some remote rancher somewhere west of us must have a lot of clout with the local road maintenance crew. After reaching Toulon we cross under the highway and follow the gravel road along the northwest side of Humboldt Sink about seven miles to a tunnel under the highway again and then north up St. Anthony Canyon.

We start at the mineshafts at the highest end of the canyon and work our way south towards the lowest tunnel that we had explored last week. We are able to enter several that are solid but stay away from several stopes that are large wide veins that have been dug out from under vast cap rocks that are supported by masses of 12 x 12 timbers. It takes us about an hour and a half to finally get down to the previously explored adit. Scotty finally gets to see real bats sleeping away the winter clinging to the ceiling. He’s turned into a chatter box, excitedly telling us all about how he’s going to really impress his fourth grade class next week telling his adventures. ANOTHER OFF-ROAD ADDICT HAS BEEN BORN!

Now it’s almost sunset and we’d like to take the trail further along the edge of the Humboldt Sink to where it hopefully intersects with highway 95 rather than backtrack to Toulon. Mike has warned us that we don’t want to attempt it at night.

Mike is right. The trail turns into alkaline mud and sand, crosses many washouts that take a bit of looking around to find safe crossings. Trish and I keep a good spacing between the two vehicles in order to make sure that only one of us gets mired at a time. No problem, we make it to the highway with no catastrophes.
Then it’s on to Fernley for a good meal and a gin-and-tonic at the Wigwam Restaurant. Yeah, I know, to you easterners that name sounds a bit tacky, but for those of us in Nevada, tacky is the norm.

Photos to be added later.