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Schoolbus Canyon
12 February 2005
Trail boss: Ron Cunningham (Rocky RonC)
Photographers: Ron Cunningham, Brian More, Gary Young
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Five of us; Trish, Brian, Alison, Ben and myself
met at Jake’s Restaurant in the Silverado Casino at exit 48 in Fernley
at 8:00 for breakfast. OK, Jake’s – you owe me one for advertising! At
about 8:45 we headed out to the parking lot to see if any of the rest
had shown up. By 9:00 Gary and his sons, Mike and Greg had arrived; Then
Mike, Ida and Tony; and Tom. We waited around until 9:15 but Keith and
Janice didn’t show. We headed out to meet up with Rob and Bonnie in
Nixon. The sky is foggy and it’s wet and grey.
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| Left Fernley (mile zero) and headed west through
Wadsworth (mile 5) and then towards Nixon (mile 19). A bit past
Wadsworth Rob came up on the radio and fell into the line. We’re now a
convoy: Me and Ben in the Disco; Gary, Mike and Greg in the Disco (big
Red); Brian and Alison in their Freelander; Mike, Ida and Tony in their
Kia Sportage (Kiwi); Trish in her Rubicon; Tom in his Cherokee and
finally Rob and Bonnie in the Cherokee (Cycobuny). |
| We hit dirt at Nixon and headed northeast towards
Winnemucca (dry) Lake. Aired down a couple miles out of town, most of us
only dropping to about 25 pounds, not so much for traction but for
riding comfort on the washboard. At mile 30 we passed the turn for
Coyote Canyon and the red warning sign (Road Closed) and proceeded north
up the east shore of the lake. Off to the north there was a sheen of
water on the lake (not a mirage); the first time in years that I had
seen water in it, due to all of the snow runoff from the record snowfall
in the area since Christmas. |
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A bit further on after a few minor wash crossings
and washout go-arounds we passed by the ruins of the MGL Mine mill site.
We’ll visit that later in the day on the way back. On north we find a
couple of old grader tire carcasses, our marker for the School Bus
Canyon turnoff, and head east up the wash. From this point until the top
of the Nightingale Mountain Range all of the roads are simple following
the bottoms of narrow canyons in the dry washes.
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| About two miles into the canyon we take a short break at
the abandoned school buses (hence our name for the canyon) and watch
Mike play with his R/C 4wheeler. It’s a 1/18 scale Chevy Avalanche:
locked rear diff, locked center diff and open front diff. The tires
would be about 48’s if true to scale – It’s a very good rock crawler,
plus shows no body damage at all when rolled. |
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About a mile past the school bus stop we come to a
climb up a bluff out of the wash. It’s a steep sandy bank about ten feet
high. I give it the old banzai charge and make it up the bank with mild
four-wheel spinning. Trish gives it a run and makes it too. Gary’s turn
and he does it a bit too cautiously and misses the line to the right a
couple of feet. He tries a bit of backing up and going for it again a
couple times and he’s really mired! His rear bumper is buried into the
opposite bank, the back wheels in holes, the front wheels mostly in the
air, his center on the crest and he’s at about a 45 degree up angle.
It’s time for recovery.
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| As Trish’s Rubicon is in front of him, we strap
her rig to his, put her in low range, low gear, both diffs locked and
give it a go. The Rubicon just does a 4-wheel spin in the sand and
Gary’s Disco doesn’t move at all. We disconnect the Rubicon, get it out
of the way and bring my Disco back to give it a try. It’s 1000 pounds
heavier than the Jeep and might do a bit better. We get the same
results. Now Mike suggests that since I’m now buried to both axles, I’ll
make a good anchor point for Gary to try out his winch. That does work,
even though Gary manages to drag me backward a couple of feet while
winching himself up the bank, and pulls his bumper down. The rest of the
rigs don’t have any trouble. They all use the correct line; the slope
has been torn up by the recovery pretty good and they all run it pretty
fast.
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Then it’s off to the wall. The sky has cleared, the
sun is out and we all start shedding jackets. It’s going to be a lovely
day! As the canyon narrows and the altitude increases, we begin to
encounter more and deeper snow in the wash; this could be a not so good
thing. When we arrive at the wall it is covered with snow and ice. All
of us walk around (carefully) kicking snow, checking it out; Lot’s of
snow and ice; It’s pretty ominous looking. I’m the trail boss and it’s
my decision, but I check with Mike and Tom, both of whom have been off-roading
ever since wheels were invented. Their take is that neither is too eager
to slid off the icy rock and destroy their trucks. That’s good enough
for me! We turn around and head down canyon a few hundred yards to the
go-around.
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| Off we go on the go-around. Last summer there was a bad
spot where you cross a little cross wash while at a pretty severe
off-camber angle. It was pretty puckery! Now it also has a bit of snow
and frozen mud on it. Aw heck, you only go around once! I head across
and it isn’t too bad, easier than it looks. When Trish gets to it she
says it looked pretty bad, but since the tracks of my much taller Disco
made it, she felt better. Back down into the wash above the wall we head
up canyon. This time we take the right canyon fork towards the
mountaintop instead of the left that had done so much damage to our rigs
last summer crossing the dragon’s teeth rocks. |
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| I haven’t been this route before. About one
quarter mile later I come to a track that heads up onto a lateral ridge,
but stay in the wash as it looks as if it might be the better route. I
call back to Trish, “Does this look familiar?” “Yes.” So I keep on
going. The wash gets narrower and narrower, the snow deeper, and I’m
beginning to have doubts that we can get to the top of the mountain by
this route. About ½ mile up I come to a six-foot tall rock, which only
leaves a three to four foot gap in the canyon bottom. Obviously, our
six-foot wide trucks aren’t going through here! The canyon is too narrow
to turn around so I tell everyone that they will have to back up the ½
mile to the spot where the ridgeline trail turns off.
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When we all finally get back to the turn off we
find Mike on his sixth try at trying to get up the steep trail in the
deep snow. He continues trying and each time progresses maybe ten feet.
Trish informs us that the trail gets much steeper further up. No way
we’ll be able to get to the mountaintop this way! Now we decide to go
back down to the canyon fork to go up the left, dragon-tooth fork.
Just after we enter the left fork, Mike reminds me
that we ought to stop for lunch. It’s 1:00 already! Time flies when
you’re having fun!
After lunch, we continue up canyon. It’s about 4
mile sand 2000 feet higher to the top of the mountain and the snow
continues to get deeper. Pretty soon I’m in first gear, low range with
the CDL locked, and the throttle to the floor in order to break trail
through this stuff. About half mile from the top I scare up a couple of
wild horses that stay about 75 yards ahead of me to the top of the
mountain.
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At the top of the mountain we turn left (north)
onto the pole line road that services the Sierra Pacific Power Company’s
high tension lines that continue past the Selenite Range, the San Emidio
Desert and on to the town of Gerlach, at the junction of the Smoke Creek
Desert and the Black Rock Desert. The road, which was freshly graded and
easy last summer, is now buried in drifts and cornices a foot to two
feet deep for the next four miles. Even though I’m going down hill most
of the time, the truck is struggling in 1st gear, low range
to make headway.
We finally reach the point where I can see the mine
and cabins that Trish and I discovered last fall, across a valley and up
to the top of a ridge about one mile to the southwest. It looks as if
we’ll have to do that some other time, as the snow looks heavier in the
almost nonexistent trail that goes across. Now the road forks as it goes
down both sides of Stone House Canyon. The one on the west side that
follows the pole line is very steep and would be pretty hairy in the
deep snow. The one to the east eventually drops into the wide wash of
Stone House Creek. I take that and make fairly good time, even getting
up into 3rd gear as the snow gets shallower and the rocks in
the wash getting smaller.
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| Eventually we reach the turn to the southwest
and the wash funnels through the notch that cuts through the range and
comes out at the lakeshore again. As time is running late due to the
previous adventures, I decide to forego the side trek across the sand
trail to the China Hat Butte and the neat looking side canyons into the
mountain. We head south back towards MGL Canyon. |
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On the way back I warn everyone that the deep sandy
wash crossing is approaching and to get the cameras ready. I’ve crossed
it three times on previous treks and it has always been an adventure
getting up the long, loose, soft sandy slope. Not this time; the sand is
damp and it is a piece of cake. On we go, south down the east shore of
the lake. A couple of reasonably easy wash crossings and we’re back to
the MGL mill and the final rest stop. After some foot exploring, picture
taking, and the traditional group truck photo, we’re on our way again
back through Nixon, Wadsworth and Fernley. We arrive at the Pizza
Factory in Fernley at 6:30 for the semiannual club meeting. The trek has
been 118 miles (82 off-road) and 8 ¼ hours. I’ve only gotten 9 miles per
gallon. The Discovery is not noted for great gas mileage, but this is
much worse than usual due to the many miles of snow I’ve had to muscle
through half of which was climbing steep slopes.
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Till next time, happy trails. |
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"Rocky" RonC |
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