Wednesday, Feb 12th 2025, 0710-1730
Signal Peak Wilderness boundary to end of section 3 \ beginning section 4, outside Tonopah, mm65
25 miles.
It was another big day full of many twists and turns. The landscape changes so dramatically in 25 mi, even in 10! I left my cozy little wash and soon was following a series of dirt roads. From quite a distance, I could see a series of railroad cars along a set of tracks. Soon enough, I was looking for a way across or through these. From what I’d read from others’ blogs, parked rail cars here were a constant…though they did move periodically since the cars I saw were different from previous pictures. It was a simple thing to clamber in-between cars. I could have made a camp inside had I wanted to, since I noted that none of the doors were locked. But no thank you.
After more miles on dirt roads and even a bit of open creosote playa walking, I came to a cow trough with good reliable water. The cows were also walking towards the water at my pace and so we all arrived at the same time. They were very courteous to let me go first, so I grabbed water as quickly as I could and kept walking, filtering as I walked. As soon as I left the corral, they ran in to drink. Poor things, besides starving to death, they had to wait on me before quenching their thirst. There is absolutely nothing for them to eat out here. I’m not sure why cattle ranching is still a thing in the desert.
There were more dirt roads to navigate as I worked my way across the valley to the next set of mountains, the Saddles. I passed through an easement on private property with many aggressive ‘no trespassing’ signs…good thing I didn’t need to knock on any doors for water! I passed one sketchy-looking boondocker RV that reminded me of a popular TV series…can you guess? Then there was a bunch of activity along a pipeline road. Workers were staged at intervals, seemingly working on the pipe. They stared as I went by and I didn’t like the attention, so I just walked quickly with my eyes averted down. I was worried someone might say I couldn’t be on the road, but they just waved hi.
I was happy to make a turn on another road and head north for the hills. I came to my second cow trough for the day and collected enough water to get me through the day and night plus part of the next. Since there were no cows around, I took my lunch break there. As I was sitting in the shade, down in a wash, a truck pulled up. It stopped and turned around, then stopped again. They seemed to be looking at me, but didn’t get out or say anything. Weird.
I hurried on, grateful to cross country to some really remote and unused old roads near the southern end of the Saddle mountains. That was where I started finding the coolest pieces of Chalcedony. It’s similar to quartz but had really cool colors and swirls. I couldn’t help but add a few choice pieces to my already heavy pack. There were millions of such rocks.
My rock-hounding really slowed my pace. Eventually I made it to the base of the mountains and needed to go up. But first I took a detour to check out some cool petroglyphs. Then as I was working my way cross country to a rough cairned trail, I was surprised to look up and see 2 other hikers! Wow. They were the first I’d seen since Waterman Peak on day 5. I followed them on the cool and scenic trail as it sidled along the base of the rugged peaks.
The trail ended at a BLM RV pad, where the couple had their fancy trailer and Lexus SUV parked. I came in hot on their heels, hoping for a possible invite to a beer, or at the very least a cold coke. Instead, they went straight into their trailer and slammed the door shut. So much for some camaraderie with my fellow hikers. And I wasn’t even wearing my crazy serial killer mask! Perhaps seeing me climb the ridge from out of nowhere scared the crap out of them. Who knows. People out alone in the desert can be weird 🤪.
I continued past a myriad of boondockers, all locked up in their cozy abodes. I needed to find an abode of my own for the night and had settled on the section end as a decent goal. Who knows what I would find there…for sure a loud I-10, but I figured a suitable wash would turn up eventually. Actually, one of the smartest things I did before the hike was download imagery maps. I could easily see where washes existed just by looking at my Caltopo app. Of course some ground-truthing was always needed, as I couldn’t tell if the wash would be sandy or rocky…or full of trash.
Not surprisingly, I passed a lot of sketchy areas rife with trash, burned items, and target ranges…all the typical things you find on the outskirts of town. I crossed the dirt road leading to the interstate town of Tonopah. I had no interest in visiting the ‘town,’ as it was reported to not have much and smell like chicken shit from the nearby egg plant. No thanks. Sure enough, my target for the end of the day worked out perfectly. I found a palo verde and sandy spot that gave me just enough cover to hide from the road. Besides, with it just getting dark, my trusty camo tent blended right into the night. Another dandy day in the desert. Zzzz .