Basin and Range Trail Thru Hike 2020 – Section 4: Carvers to Austin

Basin and Range Trail Thru Hike Section 4 Map

 

Video: Basin and Range Trail Thru Hike Section 4

In addition to this trail journal, I also filmed my Basin and Range Trail thru hike. I’ve produced a detailed documentary series (11+ hours runtime) documenting this thru hike adventure, the product of over 1,000 hours of video editing. I highly recommending watching the Basin and Range Trail vlog series for an in-depth look at thru-hiking the Great Basin and central Nevada. 

Basin and Range Trail Thru Hike Section 4 Journal

Day 25 – June 25th: Big Smoky Valley, South Twin River, Toiyabe Range, Toiyabe Crest Trail

Woke at 8. Called the Sundown motel in Eureka to ask if I can send a box. They said sure, so I called my dad to relay the message… Send new shoes to Eureka.

Packed my gear and hit the road around 9:45am. Feeling good physically, better than yesterday. My back is feeling fine now, thankfully. Weather shows afternoon thunderstorms, 70% chance of like 0.02 inches.

The walk out of town along highway 376 was nice, for a road walk. It was really hazy looking today, and the Toquima Range eventually disappeared from sight. Still, the massive Toiyabe Range looms high above me as I walk the base of it north, looking for my way in.

One guy stopped in the road to ask if I was ok. He seemed extremely confused to see a hiker. I told him I was walking 1000 miles across Nevada, I’m good and don’t need any help. I got a blank look. Super confused. I reassured him I’m good, and he drove off, confused. Classic reaction.

Shortly after, I turned down the road that leads to Twin River, start of the Toiyabe Crest Trail. Around this time, the Dark Skies turn to rain. Not very heavy at first. Then some tiny hail. Then thunder. Then lighting. Then windy. Fortunately, I found shelter in the bathroom at the parking area around noon. There was one truck here, but he must be out hiking in this. Yuk!

It seems like were getting more than the .02 inches of rain the weather was forecasting. Constant lightning and thunder, sounds really nasty. I waited out the worst of it here. When the thunder and lightning subsided, I made my move.

The trail climb steeply from the parking lot. However, almost immediately I was rewarded with expansive views of Big Smoky Valley, and great look north at the Toiyabe Range.

Soon the trail leads me to the canyon entrance to South Twin River. Once over the first little hill, I had my first view into South Twin River Valley. Wow! Really, wow! Steep and Jagged rock formations everywhere. Walk 50 ft, stop and look around with awe. Walk another 50ft, and repeat. All while watching your footing on the Steep Hill sides. I could tell I was going to like this place.

The trail sits up high above the river for a bit to avoid a narrow section of the canyon. Before long, it drops down to South Twin river. Similar to Pine Creek in the Toquima range, it was thick, lush and thorny, with steep Canyon walls surrounding you. However, decent trail. Very nice indeed.

The first River Crossing I was able to jump across the river. Certainly the river is up a little bit from the recent rain today, I’m sure there would have been rocks to hop across otherwise. At the second River Crossing, I was not so lucky. I accepted the fact that my feet were going to get wet today and just walked through the river. This would be the 1st of at least 30 River Crossings.

After one of the first couple River Crossings, I was blown away by what I saw. At first, on my left was a giant Rockwall that was several hundred feet high, straight up. And not on a slant or anything, literally vertical. Just a little farther up the trail was an 80ft vertical pillar just protruding from the ground on it’s own. My reaction was probably pretty comical, think I said something like, “are you kidding me?? Come on!” I was on awe. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I walked further up the trail and on one side of the Rock pillar was a cave! A cave in a vertical rock pillar! I thought I was in a fairytale book, things like this don’t exist in real life. Unfortunately the cave was difficult to reach, especially with the wet rock from the rain and my increasingly worn shoes.

More Majestic scenery throughout the next couple miles. What an impressive Canyon. However, vegetation was thick and thorny. It was also wet, so it was a pain to move through.

Through the hike up South Twin River, there were river crossings at frequent intervals. Perhaps there would be less water flowing if it hadn’t rained recently, but chances are, you’ll be getting your feet wet hiking here. 

At one point there was a steep Hillside with loose rock, at the junction of South Twin River and South Fork South Twin River. Looking up, there was a narrow Passage with a large tree. For some reason I had a hunch that there was something up there, maybe a hidden cave, I don’t know. But I felt compelled to check it out. 

Rock was wet and treacherous. I made my way up to the large tree, expecting to see a cave entrance or something. But there was nothing here. I could have kept chasing my hunch up increasingly steep and more treacherous boulder chutes, but I gave up and went back down. The way down provided an amazing view of vertical rock formations throughout the canyon. This was almost worth it on its own, a really unique view amongst all that I have seen on the Basin and Range Trail.

Past a couple of campsites at a trail Junction. They were a long the river though, I almost never camp in these. Too much condensation overnight. Not that tonight will be dry anywhere. Besides, it was still too early, so I kept moving.

The next section of trail was really thick with vegetation. And lots of River Crossings. Jungle-like. Thorny. Everything was wet. I was wet. I was ready to get to camp. I had seen a couple of small caves, including the one in the pillar, and was really hoping to find a suitable cave to sleep in. To be out of the elements, and dry my things off.

To my surprise, I reached a bit of an open clearing with a Rockwall. Along this Rockwall was a small cave, with the grassy Hillside below. From the trail, it looked absolutely perfect. The kind of cave I had been waiting for! I’ve never been able to find a suitable cave to sleep in, at the right time. I climbed up to the cave, and my initial thought was that it was too small. I thought maybe I could set up my tent in front of the cave on the grassy Hillside. Which I certainly could have done. Ultimately, I decided to cowboy camp inside the cave.

The cave was small enough that there were no animals living in it, and no obvious signs of holes or burrowing. The ground was flat, and pretty clear overall. I had space to set up my gear and hopefully let things dry out a little bit overnight. The rain looked like it was over, but who knows.

Day 26 – June 26th: South Twin River, Toiyabe Range, Toiyabe Crest Trail

Didn’t get much sleep last night. My air mattress now has a slow leak, and needs to be refilled every 2 hours or so. It was pretty cool sleeping in a cave though!

Everything was soaking wet from the rain yesterday. And of course, the vegetation continued to be thick. Also, there were a bunch more stream Crossings. At least the stream was smaller now, and mostly I just jumped over it.

The scenery in Upper South Twin River Canyon was much less impressive than the lower portion. It was pretty much just bushwhacking through wet and sharp vegetation. Very frustrating at times. The section of the trail is in dire need of maintenance.

I waited until the last minute to get water out of the Stream before the final climb out of South Twin. There was a lot of cow shit here, and it was fresh too. I know this because I slipped in it. It was that soft. But I didn’t see any cows or hear them. Filtered some water and took 2.5L with me.

The final climb up to the saddle below Arc Dome was a pain. The trail literally followed the bottom of a drainage. It should have followed the hillside and kept you out of the thick brush and rocks. This seemed to take forever. To the south was a couple of mountain peaks covered in fresh snow. I guess that was from yesterday, while I got the rain high elevations got the snow.

Finally up on the saddle, I could enjoy my first long-distance view. Very nice! Arc Dome still loomed above, and I contemplated climbing it. The original plan was to bag it, as an out and back. However, I am behind schedule with the thunderstorm yesterday that I waited out. So after following the trail up to the saddle below Ark Dome, I decided to pass. It was the smart call to stay on schedule for getting into Austin.

I took a break at the edge of some cliffs with rock seats and a nice view. Here, I could take off my shoes and dry my shoes, feet and socks in the Wind and sun. And that’s just what I did. Man what a difference that makes, having dry feet again.

After my break, I was hiking good trail now on the Toiyabe Crest Trail, or TCT. Excellent views, nice solid trail, mostly. It was mostly a climb up a couple of consecutive Hills, and then it really flattened out. A lot like the table mountains in a way. Better views though.

I really enjoyed most of today’s hike. Great views of the Shoshone range to the west and big Smokey Valley to the east.

The trail here was good. Easy to follow, seemed to be well maintained. Not a lot of brush, easy walking, other than the big climbs. Even then, there wasn’t anything too big, couple hundred feet maybe. This added to the enjoyment level.

I only brought 2.5L of water from South Twin River Canyon up to the crest. This decision was pretty short sided, in that I just didn’t want to haul a bunch of water up and already steep and brutal climb to the crest. Of course, I should have brought more. I had to ration my water all day.

One thing I did to mitigate my water problem was collect snow from the cornices at the top of passes and ridges. I filled both of my Gatorade bottles, because they have the wide mouth opening, with snow. Later, I came across another snow bank. Then, I took the water that has melted from one bottle and poured it into the other. I added more snow to the other bottle. In the end, I got about 1.5L of water from these two 1L Gatorade bottles. Not Bad!

I was feeling pretty tired from todays hike and took a break around 5:30. Ate food, drank a little bit of water and moved on. I was feeling much better, just in time for a great evening walk.

The walk along the Ridgeline tonight was awesome. This must have been up there with some of my favorite Ridge walks of all time. Beautiful scenery, trail stays really high and beautiful sunset. At one of the passes, a road runs up and over. Here, a Subaru Outback was parked. I expected to see someone in the vehicle, but I did not. I assumed they were out hiking, and wondered if I would run into them. I didn’t.

Tonight was the night of the never-ending sunset. It seems like the sun was low in the sky forever. It set in slow motion, and literally felt like the longest sunset of all time. I’m not complaining, this was quite amazing actually. To be able to stretch out such an amazing sunset provided seemingly endless photo ops.

I had been looking for a campsite before the sunset began, but no such luck. Pre-existing campsites are few and far between up here. Pretty much just have to look for a clearing, that doesn’t have too much cow shit. To my surprise, I made it to the next spring on my map. I wasn’t thinking I was going to make it this far tonight, but it was such a great walk that it kept me going a little bit later than usual.

I didn’t actually make it to the spring, I camped on the saddle above it. There was a couple of green patches blow the saddle, but I couldn’t quite tell for sure if there was water. Either way, I’ll check it out in the morning. Not enough light left to do it now.

I cowboy camped on the saddle, having to move cow shit to make room for my air mattress and ground sheet. I probably would have set up my tent, but it’s easier to Cowboy camp when there is limited space such as this. Plus, if you think there could be any wind, it’s lower profile and is easier to ride out the wind gusts. But of course, the winds died down at night like they usually do in Nevada.

Day 27 – June 27th: Toiyabe Range, Toiyabe Crest Trail

Great spot to camp, sun was on me almost first thing in the morning. I heard one animal in the middle of the night, but this is to be expected since I’m on the top of a pass like this. I packed up my gear and headed down to the spring.

Filtered a couple of liters of water at the spring and actually enjoyed the moment. Normally, filtering water is one of my least favorite hiking chores. But on this morning, the Sun was shining and I was out of the wind, warm in the sun and appreciated a moment where I could just sit down in a comfortable environment and relax. While I squeezed a platypus bag, of course.

I couldn’t see an obvious Trail leading away from the spring and back up to the Toiyabe Crest Trail, so I Bushwhacked a bit. Yay, my favorite. Eventually I hit a trail that contoured around the Hillside back over to the main Toiyabe Crest Trail. Whew.

The next couple miles were nice. Good quality Trail. Contoured the hillside for a while, going by a couple of creeks in the drainages. Looks like today will have more water than yesterday.

After contouring around the hillside, I began to notice how much I’ve dropped in elevation. This is never a good thing for the hiker unless it’s your final descent out of the mountains. It just means more climbing ahead.

There were several water sources I passed. At the bottom of the descent was a small Creek. I thought this was the bottom, until I climbed up over another hill and drop down just a little bit farther than the other Creek. Tierney creek, the bottom of the decent, under 8500′.

The trail consisted of 4×4 roads at this point. These were quite steep, and the worst kind. Small, loose pebbles sitting on hard packed dirt. At this slope angle, its a slip and fall accident waiting to happen. I found myself walking among the Sagebrush alongside the road at times instead, less of a slipping hazard. It was also rather hot down low in the valley.

Now the climb up begins. I stopped at a small Creek to eat lunch. I was feeling my blisters now, aggravated by all of the sand in my shoes. Put my sandals on and soak my feet in the creek, and filtered some water to go.

Shortly after my lunch break I saw a pronghorn. Not long after, I saw two more pronghorn and a baby. I wondered, are these called fawns too? Or Pronghornlets, perhaps? Ha.

Some of the best scenery of the day came in the afternoon as the Toiyabe Crest Trail skirts around Toiyabe Range Peak. 

The day was dragging on now, thanks to the increased heat and decrease in scenic views. Cow shit on all the small passes. Lots of it. Pretty uneventful day overall. There were some great views, but they weren’t as constant as they were yesterday, in the Southern Toiyabes. The trail was not as good here either as it was up on the crest yesterday.

Ran into my first person in almost 400 miles of hiking. A guy named Alex, and his dog. Alex was from Grand Rapids Michigan, now living in Vegas. But he just took an internship in Round Mountain for the summer. So now he gets to explore the mountains here. Alex hiked the PCT in 2018 and had the trail name Nuts. Probably because he went through the Sierras in April and May!

Found a great spot to camp along a Ridgeline Above a pass. Hidden behind some rocks, well protected from the wind. Good thing because it was windy, even after dark. A spring was only a few hundred yards down hill. Found an arrowhead on the pass. A metal sign for the Toiyabe crest trail was here too, the first one Id seen up here.

Day 28 – June 28th: Toiyabe Range, Toiyabe Crest Trail, Kingston Creek, Big Creek

The wind didn’t die down until midnight, so I didn’t get any sleep until after that. Excellent campsite, was pretty well shielded from the wind for most of the night. But the sound of the howling wind still kept me up.

Dropped down off the pass and into a Cirque that was full of water. Filtered 4L last night so I didn’t need any. Stopped to wash my socks in one of the streams, and a mouse hopped away. Today was a really long day. It’s funny now that I write in my journal, I can barely even remember this morning. It seems like 3 weeks ago. The days are just so long out here.

Feet feeling better today than they were yesterday. Holes in my Darn Tough socks are getting big. Good thing I have a couple new pairs in my bounce box waiting for me in Austin.

The climb out of the valley with all the water took a little bit longer than expected but still, I feel like I made good progress. As soon as I reached the top of the pass, I was hit with 40 MPH winds. It was cold too! First thing I did was put on my wind jacket, kept me a little warmer plus I wore the hood to make sure my hat didn’t fly off. It was crazy windy.

Excellent views now that I was back up on the crest of the Toiyabe Range. The kind where it was hard to make progress because I was constantly stopping to re-analyze the landscape, seeing new angles and shots.

The wind was blowing in from the West, so as long as I was on the east side of the Divide, it wasn’t too bad. But without something blocking the wind, it was pretty wild. The hood on my wind jacket was constantly being battered, and was really loud on the ears. And sometimes, some of the straps from my backpack would get blown around violently & slap me in the face. I was literally being bitch slapped by my own backpack.

Once I got a good View to the West, I could see a dried lake bed on the other side of what I believe was still the Shoshone range. The winds where kicking up dust and sand into the atmosphere, with a brown layer of debris hoovering low in the air.

Stopped to eat behind an outcrop of rocks. They really weren’t that big, but they did the job, providing enough protection from the brutal winds to be able to eat without my things being blown away. I was running out of space on both my camera and my phone, so I deleted pictures and data from both so I could continue taking pictures on both devices. Man, I really need to send my bounce box to every second or third town instead of 4 towns, so I can dump media more often.

After my break, it was back into the wind. Now, I had a decent climb up a hill that was totally exposed to the winds from the West. Here, the winds were gusting 50 to 60 miles per hour. Almost blowing me off my feet at times. I would lean into the winds to try and counteract the force, but when the winds died down suddenly, I found myself almost falling over. The winds would come out of nowhere and catch me by surprise.

Some spots along the Ridgeline had interesting rocks. Lots of quartz veins visible. The walk along the Ridgeline today was not all that long, but the views were excellent. The winds were extremely taxing on the mind and body. It really wears you down walking through high winds.

I was relieved to reach the saddle where the trail finally drops down to Groves Lake. This is the official end of the Toiyabe Crest Trail, the northern terminus. I made very quick time of the descent, jogging whenever possible. This has always worked well for me to minimize knee pain. One reason knee pain occurs on downhill sections is that we are trying to walk at a pace that is slower than momentum, and in order to maintain our pace we strain our knees in the process. By jogging a bit, or going with the flow, you can minimize knee pain. That’s my theory, anyway.

Groves Lake was definitely low on water. It’s a man-made lake, with a dam on one end. There was a truck with a couple of guys fishing there. Really nice views into Straight Canyon from the lower reaches of the trail.

When I reached the lake, I didn’t bother going for the shoreline, there was no shelter from the sun or wind. Instead, I found a small patch of trees in the parking lot to take a break under. Ate lunch here and aired out my feet. It was decision time. The original plan was to follow a high route extension that began just a little further north from here. However, with the high winds, that plan is not a good one. Not only do I not want to walk in 50 mile an hour winds, I certainly don’t want to have to camp in them. So that’s out. Good thing I had made a low route alternate before coming out here. I’ll take that.

Next I continued down Kingston canyon Rd. This was a very well maintained dirt Road, with a little bit of traffic here and there. A little ways up the road I encountered the Kingston Guard Station. This was an abandoned ranger station, housing for the Rangers and some other buildings. From the road I could tell it was abandoned, windows were broken out and one of the doors was wide open. I went in to have a look and was very disappointed and what I saw. The entire place had been looted, ransacked and destroyed. The brick work on the fireplace had been dismantled, beer cans in the fireplace. Anything of value have either been stolen or removed when funding had been cut for this facility. I walked into another building next door, and there was some sort of bird Nested inside one of the walls behind a cupboard. Another building was like a storage shed. There was a can of green paint that had been opened and someone had smeared it all over. Garbage lay on the floor. There where a bunch of shelves, and someone had opened all the boxes and dumped out the contents. There were literally thousands of plastic knives and forks laying around.

It was a real shame to see the ranger station in this condition. It was a beautiful spot, good view. I just imagined the people that worked there for years, the memories they had there. I am trying to imagine what it was like when the place was open. Was there really that much recreational traffic here to warrant the ranger station?

After leaving the guard station, the next Valley up there was pit toilets and a parking lot. Here, I noticed a sign that said TCT. I’ve never seen a map or read anything that indicates the Toiyabe Crest Trail continuing north from Groves Lake, but the sign is here. I doubt much of a trail exists anymore, but its certainly interesting to see the sign. Also in this parking lot, I noticed a bird that kept swooping down near the same tree. After the bird dive bombed the tree a few times, I noticed a fox or coyote emerge with something in its mouth. It quickly moved on to another set of bushes for cover, and the bird persistently continued to try and protect its nest, its young.

Walking the road was fairly Pleasant, good scenery. There were large Green Meadows with tall grass. And when the wind blew, the grass moved like waves in the sea. That was actually pretty cool looking. However, no signs of cows anywhere in this valley. This blows my mind. I guess they are all up in the High Country. The low lands are not good enough for these cows.

Before the climb up the next pass, I filtered 2 liters of water. Now, I could see dust being blown in from the dried lake to the West. All around me it was moving in, seemingly in every direction.

Now I descended into Big Creek Canyon. The road was still pretty good. I saw a couple of car campers along the way, but just the vehicles parked. No humans in sight. After dropping down from the pass, it seems like the temperature had dropped 20 degrees in 10 minutes. I stopped to put on my wind jacket. With all this wind, a cold front is surely on the way.

At the bottom of Big Creek Canyon, I was supposed to take a right and head up North Big Creek. However, I noticed on my map that there was a historical town marked, called Watertown. It looked to be about a half mile away if I just continue down Big Creek Canyon. Thinking it was a ghost town, I decided to check it out. I was disappointed when I arrived to see absolutely nothing there. It was only 10 minutes out of my way each way, so it didn’t set me back too much.

Now I noticed a large dark cloud that had been parked right over the mountains for about an hour now. But it wasn’t any normal dark cloud, it had an odd look to it. Didn’t look like a rain cloud. The weather was just weird today.

I headed up North Big Creek now. It had been 2 hours since I stopped for 10 minutes to filter water, and 4 hours since I had eaten last. I was overdue for a break. There just weren’t any good places to stop. Finally, I just stopped at a small rock to sit on. I ate dinner here, and realized how cold I was. I put my pant legs on, and added a couple layers up top. I now had my hiking shirt, wind jacket, fleece, and rain jacket on. I also switched from my baseball hat to my warm fleece hat. It felt like it was in the low 40s.

North Big Creek Canyon became more impressive as I made progress uphill. A 4×4 Road off shoots the main road into another Canyon. Here, at this intersection, was a Green Meadow. It was lined with trees. I thought this might be a decent place to camp, so I went to have a closer look. But of course, most of it was wet, lumpy, extremely tall, and provided no cover from the wind. I never camp in places like this, ever. But it was worth checking none-the-less.

On the other side of the meadow I noticed a large rock overhang just up the hillside. It looked too interesting to pass up. It was getting late in the day and I was tired, but it was so close that I had to have a closer look. When I got up there, there really wasn’t much to it. Yes it was a rock overhang, but it was on a good slant, and not to deep. Ok, saw it.

Still looking for a campsite, I continued up the canyon. It was about 7:30. The creek eventually dried up as I gained elevation. I passed through a couple of patches of trees that gave me a glimmer of hope, but I did not see anything close to a suitable campsite. Of course, if I weren’t so picky about my campsites, I would have just stopped in some random field with tall grass and pitched my tent. But of course, this would provide no cover from the wind, which is a big concern tonight.

Eventually I had walked all the way to the top of the valley, and was just below the pass. I had come too far to head back down, so I went up. It was about 8:15 at this point. At the top of the pass, there was a Teepee tent, two horses and several dogs. There was a barbed wire gate here. I stopped at the gate while the dogs went crazy barking at me. I hollered hello a couple of times, but never got a response. I guess nobody was home. I hopped over the barbed wire gate and risked the dogs coming at me. They were actually pretty good about keeping their distance, but they kept barking at me for a half mile. My last GoPro battery had just died heading up the pass due to the cold temperatures, otherwise I would have gotten these events on film. Also, in the distance was a beautiful sunset over the mountains. However, this new view was filled with dark clouds. Looks like rain.

From the top of the pass, I jogged downhill for at least a mile. It was literally a race against time. I had to get downhill before dark to find a campsite, unless I wanted to do it by headlamp. No thank you.

Eventually I reached a spot where the road does a 180 degree turn, with a small patch of land at the curve. This was just above the valley floor. I could hear a ton of sheep bahhing in the near distance, presumably on the valley floor. With the last remaining bits of Twilight, I set up my tent.

Almost immediately after setting up my tent and getting inside, it started sprinkling. Great timing.

Day 29 – June 29th: Toiyabe Range, Birch Creek, Reese River Valley, Stokes Castle

It was actually a very still night. Almost no wind. However, it sprinkled for a little bit right after bed. That didn’t last long. Cold night, too.

My tent was just out of the path of the sun this morning, I was waiting for it to hit my tent but the sound of barking dogs and sheep eventually drove me out of my bed anyway. It was probably closer to 7 when the sun finally hit my tent. The dogs sounded like they were getting closer, and not wanting an encounter with angry sheepdogs, I hurried up and packed things as quick as possible.

At the bottom of the Valley, just below where I camped, there was a creek. However, I wasn’t too eager to filter from it since it was just Downstream from where all the sheep are. And the smell was horrible! So I skipped this water source.

Next, I followed the road for a short ways before my map indicated I needed to climb up hill on a road. This road didn’t seem to exist. So I headed up to Hillside anyway. All of those Terraces I saw cut into the hillsides were actually roads. I hit the first level of the Terrace, and still needed to climb up one more. From the top, looking down, I could see they had a zig zag fashion. I could have just followed a road the whole way up. But, my maps did not show this, it only showed one road straight up the hillside which clearly didn’t exist.

Now following the upper Terrace Road, a large mine came into site. I was on the side that had all of the tailings, which covered an entire Hillside. In fact, I could see a man standing on top of the rest of what was likely the mine. I was going to be walking right through this mine territory, which is private land. However, it’s on a public road, so I shouldn’t have any issues. This was the case. Still, I wondered if he heard me talking to my GoPro. Ha.

While passing through the mining land, there were a couple of sheep on the hillside above me. This was the closest I’ve gotten to any of them. Then the road goes up a couple of Hills. Of course, many of these were steep. This is where it got really cold and windy. It felt like it was in the 20s or maybe low 30s. I couldn’t feel my fingers or my nose. I stopped to layer up again.

Most of the four by four roads went straight up over the hills and they were quite steep. The kind that you could easily slip and fall on, so on The Descent I would just walk through the Sagebrush alongside the road instead. That is, if I didn’t follow a game Trail around the side of the Hill.

All over along the ground this morning were giant crickets, called Mormon Crickets. They are a few inches long and as thick as your big toe. Thousands of them. It must have been their mating season. It was hard to avoid them, a few of them got stepped on, walking under my shoes as I walked.

Eventually I reached my Junction, an even smaller dirt road that veered off the crest of the hillside and took me down to Veatch Canyon. Stopped at the top of The Descent for a quick food break, and a bit of a breather. Took my first gopro time lapse of the entire hike so far here, since there were actually clouds in the sky. Without clouds, there is no motion to capture in a time lapse.

There were some aggressive birds at the top of Veatch canyon. They kept dive bombing me and squawking at me for a half mile or so. The canyon was quite wooded, and the upper reaches featured some jagged outcroppings. Water was barely a trickle at the top, so I had to keep following it Downstream. There was muddy road Crossings though, one challenging one in particular to get around. There was a down tree, and I had to break a bunch of branches and crawl under it on some gravel that kept me from sinking into the mud.

Eventually I reached a spot where I could filter water. Still, it was very shallow. I have only drank about a half liter this morning, and had maybe a quarter liter left. I was hoping to make it into town, just hurry and get there. To be honest I was still feeling a bit out of it, a bit miserable from the cold although it was warming up a bit now. I just wasn’t feeling the same high I normally get when I walk into town.

As soon as I dropped my pack to filter that water, the urge hit me to take my morning shit that I skipped. I was hoping to make it into town. After taking a shit, Filter in a liter of water and eating a snack, I was feeling infinitely better.

The canyon opened up just a short ways after my break. Now, I had a great view of the Reese River Valley. And I began to feel that great feeling that I often get walking into town after completing a section. Still, I had a ways to go. Another hour plus of walking. I reflected on the true meaning of freedom. We talk a lot about freedom in America, but relatively few truly experience the freedom that one feels on a long adventure… no job, obligations or connections to the outside world. Simply wake up and experience whatever the day has in store for you. That is true freedom.

I really enjoyed the walk on the dirt road along the base of the mountains that butt up against the Reese River Valley. There were many mining claims here, past and present.

After a couple miles of ups and downs, and more mining relics, I reached Stokes Castle. This is one of the most photographed landmarks in Nevada. It’s a three story medieval style castle, built in 1897 by a railroad Tycoon for his sons. It was fenced off, but there was a couple of holes in the fence. Of course, I went inside. Who can resist an abandoned castle?

It was a short walk down to Highway 50 from here. Loneliest Highway in America, my ass! I think that title goes to Highway 6, between Ely and Tonopah. Highway 50 was under construction, and the road that I walked out of the Hills took me right into town. Basically dumped me off into a gas station parking lot, with two cops parked talking to each other. The highway was down to one lane, with a construction worker car that would drive through the one lane with the traffic following. Nothing about this strikes me as lonely.

Cozy Mountain Motel was only a block away. Super convenient! As I was reading the sign on the front door, that had my name on it, the door opened. It was Cassidy, whom Sarah, the owner told me about. She is going to be hiking the Washington section of the PCT this August. Inside the extremely small Lobby, we chatted for quite a while. There were many rocks and minerals up on the windowsill, and quaintly decorated. I like this place already.

I’m my room, my two packages were waiting for me, with a personal note from Sarah. She had gone down to Vegas for a few days with her boyfriend, and would not be here. That was a great touch, and made me feel very special. The room was small but very nice. You could tell the walls used to be wood paneling, And they painted them white. The beds had upgraded Linens, same with the towels, and nice vanity in the bathroom. Nice little upgrades that make a big difference, certainly stands out from all the motels I’ve been in Nevada so far.

First things first, took a shower. The color of the tub hid most of color of the dirt I washed off, but of course I knew it was there. I opened my bounce box, started backing up my SD cards, and got wifi going on my phone. Called Dad, got caught up on things.

Cassidy’s shift at the motel ends at 4, and then she bartends at the owl Club down the street. It’s pizza night, so I’ll be there! I walked in just before 5pm, I was the only one there for a while. The first person to walk in the door with an older guy, with a Sonic the Hedgehog shirt on. He was the owner of the place, popping in to check on things. An Irishman, with a thick accent. Pretty comical guy, even if you couldn’t always understand him. The dynamic between Cassidy and him was funny.

The pizza was delicious. And they had Louisiana hot sauce too, which is my favorite on pizza. Almost nobody carries Louisiana hot sauce, so I liked this place based on that alone.

Other people began to trickle into the bar. First was the two surveyors that were also staying at the Cozy Mountain Motel. I saw them pull in as I was on the phone with Dad. They probably overheard me giving The Rundown on the last Section, but they asked what I was doing in town anyway. So I got to tell my story once again. One of the guys was from the Ruby mountains area, and had spent a lot of time in the mountains growing up. Nothing extended, But he was still pretty interested in what I was doing. We talked about rocks, Gold, mining.

Next, a couple of Road workers showed up. They have the reflective vests still on. They were doing shots of Fireball. I commented about how Fireball seems to be the most common liquor bottle found along side of the road, which got a few laughs.

At one point, the sheriff walked in. If there was ever a stereotypical small town sheriff, he looked exactly like what you would imagine. Big guy, probably 6’3″, late forties, khaki colored uniform, aviator sunglasses and a light colored cowboy hat. I’m not sure why exactly he walked in, Probably just out of boredom. He gave Cassidy a little bit of shit about burning some of the pizzas, crack some jokes and then walked out after about 10 minutes. As he was walking out the door, which stays wide open for all to see, a semi truck flew down the street at a speed far exceeding the 25 MPH limit. the sheriff’s reaction was priceless… he stood in this middle of the street with both hands on his hips and said something to the effect of, “boy, I know you didn’t just speed through my town”! After a moment, he ran into his police truck and began to chase after him. Not in my town, boy Classic!

I walked back to the motel just before 9 and continued backing up my SD cards throughout the night, anticipating a long process That I didn’t want to consume the entire next day. I’ll tell you what though, that bed felt amazing!

Day 30 – June 30th: Zero Day in Austin, NV

On the chair outside my motel room, Cassidy had left me two breakfast burritos, AND a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce. So thoughtful! As I ate them on the motel porch outside my room, There were several chickens in the parking lot, and they were begging for my food. Sarah The owner keeps the chickens here, and has about 30 more across the street. They hang out in the parking lot pecking away At whatever they can find. They use them for eggs, and the plan is eventually to harvest the meat. Although Cassidy says Sarah probably won’t be able to go through with it, as all the chickens have names now. I had a few crumbs left on my plate, which I donated to the chickens. They eat bacon and even egg, apparently!

Most of the day was spent doing chores, mostly dealing with the Micro SD card backups. I started going through the video footage, because I couldn’t resist. Good stuff. But also, I wanted to make sure that all of the footage was indeed backed up on my WD Passport hard drive. Since I had no idea which cards were which, it was hard to verify that no data had been skipped. So I began to organize it all… created folders for each section, then moved all of the Footage Into the appropriate folder, verifying that no date had been skipped. When did the same with all of my Still photos. Then backed up my Garmin GPS. Then my cell phone. Then moved all of my Photos and everything else that was on my Phone’s SD card Over to a larger SD card. The 32 gig card with almost full, So 64 gigs should do it Until the end of the hike.

I guess it should come as no surprise, but on my zero days I find myself very tired. Not physically tired, but sleepy tired. I could barely keep my eyes open as I worked through my photos and videos. I spent pretty much all day on this.

Washed my clothes, and found the leak in my thermarest air mattress. I filled up the bathtub and dunked the air mattress. There was a pinhole leak on the bottom of the mattress, probably why it was so slow to leak… weight presses down on the hole, causing it to leak very slowly. I used my patch kit from my bounce box, so I still have the one I carry with me while hiking.

I had planned to go up to the Owl Club for dinner but just felt like staying in. Terminator was on TV, so that played in the background well I did other chores an updated my journal. I ended up going up to the gas station to pick up a chicken sandwich and a bag of chips. I had my neck gaiter on for a covid mask, and As I was walking out, the sheriff walked in. He made a joke with the guy behind the counter, asking if he was okay, if the place is being robbed. Kind of a ballsy move, but I used my hand to make a pretend gun and pointed it at the sheriff, which got a laugh from him. Man I love Austin.

I had planned on leaving tomorrow, to head to Eureka. However, it’s only 91 miles, I only need four days for that. I had originally told the Sundown Motel and Eureka that I would be there on July 6th. If I leave on July 1st I’ll get there the 4th, and I know there won’t be any hotel rooms because Eureka just a big July 4th event. So I called the Sundown motel and ask them if they have availability for the 5th, which they do. So now I plan on staying in Austin until the second, and arriving the fifth in Eureka. That makes sense.

Day 31 – July 1st: Zero Day in Austin, NV

When I woke up, I went outside and on the chair outside my room on the patio was another breakfast burrito plus the box I was expecting, containing my two new Anker battery packs. The one 20,000 mAh battery I am currently using is not enough to keep my electronics charged through a full section.

Today was mostly more town chores. It’s amazing how long this stuff takes. Charge the new battery packs (like 12 hours), clear micro SD cards, save Caltopo layers to cache, post office etc.

Sarah, the motel owner, returned from Vegas today, so I finally got to meet her. She had hiked the Washington section of the PCT and the El Camino Trail.

Went up to the owl Club for dinner with Sarah and Brandon, her boyfriend. Cassidy was cooking chicken wings this evening. Sarah suggested we go to Spencer Springs tonight, but I mentioned that I was hiking there tomorrow and camping there. So she said she would come by tomorrow night, and we can have a soak. Perfect!!