Soldier Meadows

Another weekend, another camping trip. This time it was to Soldier Meadows Hot Springs.




There was a Volunteer even being held there and was a great excuse to get out. We had a great time. Our project was creating rock dams to keep back an invasive fish to swim from the resivior up to the spring, eating the desert dace, an endangered fish.



Nothings better after moving rocks then a soak in the hot springs. Another fun thing was the different arrowheads that people found around camp. They figure they were about 8,000 to 9,000 years old. One guy found one when he looked down to pick up a dutch oven and just noticed the worked rock. Hot Springs were pretty popular will all groups of people.


We had another soak at night and saw a few stars. Jessica got a new tent for her birthday that we had great success with and Sunday we went for another soak. We found a hot springs that is usually kept quiet because it's on private land. It isn't as hot as the others, but it is large enough to do a cannonball in. It made some great pictures.


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Sunday we came back, and started another week. The playa is passable now, but there will be more pictures of that later.

Bog Hot Springs

It's Here!!! That time we call field season is upon us! That means more days out of the office and weekend trips all over the place. The snow has stopped and the nights aren't painfully cold.



This weekend was a Humboldt Boaters trip to Bog Hot Springs. Boaters trips usually involve boats of some kind, but it's always nice to start off the cooler months with a hot springs trip or two.



Calling Bog a spring is a bit of an under statement. In a quarter mile it comes out of the ground and forms a stream of hot water. Probably six feet wide and a foot and a half deep. It comes out of the ground about 120 and only cools off to about 90. Someone has taken the time to form a few pools with gravel bottoms and the big one you can stand in, with the water up to your waist.



It still got pretty cold at night, one thermometer said 19 on Sunday morning. We soaked before dinner, then waited for the moon to come up to get back in for a soak under the stars. It was only 8.30 or so, but my swimming suit was already frozen stiff. So a couple of us decided to go au' natural.




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This next weekend I'm going out to Soldier Meadows hot springs for a volunteer event. Should be a lot of fun and will post pictures!

Humboldt Mines

Last weekend I got to take out my new cross country skis Jessica got me for christmas.


I went over to the Humboldt Range an hour outside town and found some snow on the east side of the mountains. The roads there still had a foot or two of snow which was good, but are pretty hilly which isn't the best for cross country skiing. I managed to work it out.



The views were nice, but by far the neatest was the old mining ruins that were there. First there were a couple of old stone house foundations, then further up the canyon was some infrastructure. There was an A-frame that looked like it used to have a cable that ran to the top of the canyon where the mining was taking place. Up there were scree piles that looked like tailings dumps.



Then up the canyon more there were two huge pits that were mined out. One was a hole going down that must have been a hundred feet deep. I tossed in a rock and it took over a second before I heard it hit. Then there was a lateral mine that was a huge cave. The mouth was only about six feet tall, but it really opened up inside and was at least 20 feet tall going over 100 feet back. I didn't go in, because there were rocks on the floor that obviously started on the ceiling.


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Getting down was a bit of a challenge, but with a little falling I made it. I hope this leads to more skiing adventures before all the snow melts.

Lake Tahoe

Last weekend, Jessica's family was coming to Tahoe and we joined them for an extended weekend.



We left right after work Wednesday, drove to Reno, picked up Jessica's sister, Chelsea, Doyle and their almost one year old, Aden. Jessica's mom and brother John were waiting for us with cold beer in the fridge. It was great to see her family again since New Years in Michigan.

The first day we went to Squaw Valley. It was huge with tons of lifts and runs. Since it was a Thursday, it was empty with no lift lines to speak of. I was excited because I just got new skis last week and couldn't wait to try them out. They were great! The weather was great, it was sunny and in the 50s, really to hot for a jacket. An unfortunate side effect was, I didn't wear gloves, and got a killer sunburn on the back of my hands.




The next day we went to Alpine Meadows and on the first run of the day, Jessica had to stop skiing because her knee was in pain from a fall the day before. The snow was a little tough and icy and grabbed her ski. Later she learned that she strained a ligament in her knee and was off the slopes for the rest of the weekend, bummer. That night, Jessica's uncle Pete, aunt Lisa and kids Adam, 9, and Elena, 5, showed up.



The next day we went to Homewood which is a little smaller, but a lot of fun. I made the mistake of leaving the house without my ski boots, but it was only a half hour later I was on the lift.

Sunday we took the day off from skiing and went sledding with the kids. Then we went to town for lunch and ran into Caitlin Morris, who I don't think I've seen in over five years. After lunch I tried out my cross country skis that Jessica got me for Christmas, but I haven't had a chance to test till now. I left later that night to drive back to Winnemucca and Jessica stayed behind to hitch a ride to Vegas for a conference.



It was a great trip and lots of fun.


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