Desert! Duck Ponds! Ammo Cans in Bushes!

We are here in Reno experiencing the “wilds” of Nevada from the “comfort” of our bouncing jeep! We spent Friday driving here and finding a few geocaches along the way. Of course we had to climb a mountain for a couple of caches as soon as we arrived.

The big day was actually Saturday, Marcy 31. We left Cynthia & Mike’s house a little before 6:30 AM. Our goal: to find as many geocaches as we can in and around Fallon, Nevada!

We planned to meet up with another geocacher, Teri (Nevada Wolf), in Fallon and then hit the geocaching trail. But first, we had to stop and grab a cache on the corner of McCarron and Northttowne north of Reno. The cache is appropriately named “McNorthtowne”. It was under some rocks at the base of a sign right on one of the busiest corners in the area. Fortunately, at this time of the morning on Saturday, very few people were out and about. We knew where to look so we waited for a break in traffic, walked up the rock hill, grabbed the cache, returned to the sidewalk, signed the log, and then waited for the next break in traffic to return the cache. In the scheme of things, it was a quick grab and we were soon on our way to Fallon.

As we headed east into the sunrise, I was reminded of our other trips in Nevada. I had forgotten how blinding that sun can be as you head right towards it. Every once in a while, the road veered a little north or south and we got a reprieve from the blinding brightness. I knew it wouldn't last long; just long enough to remember some of our previous journeys through Nevada.

At home, Spring has hit full force. Blossoms on some trees have come and gone while others are just starting to show their spring faces. Here, in Nevada, it is the tail end of winter. The countryside is rather barren. If you look hard enough, you can see some green just starting to show on the trees. The weatherperson promised a nice day (in the high 60’s/low 70’s, and he/she turned out to be correct. There was a little ice in the shady spots, but as the temperature warmed up it surely melted.

At 7:15 AM we were turning south off I-80. Finally, I could see again! I had thought for a while that I would have to take an early nap just to get the sun out of my eyes! Shucks! Just a short distance and we were heading east again--right into the rising sun!

We arrived at Safeway in Fallon at 7:54 AM. Teri was sitting on the curb, coffee in hand, waiting for us. We grabbed coffee from the Starbucks inside Safeway, made a pit stop, and headed out. Cynthia and Mike were in the lead, Teri rode with them, and we brought up the rear--as usual. We were at their mercy and followed wherever they led. We had the information loaded into our Topo Map program so we sort of knew where they were headed--we were tracking our route--and the caches were loaded into our GPSrs. We were ready to do some caching!

We found our first Fallon cache at 8:30 AM. It was a tupperware like container at the base of a tree under some bark. It was in a little out of the way park. This park is not the type of park we are used to seeing. It was a gravel patch surrounded by a fence. I didn’t have time to look around so maybe it is actually a trail head to somewhere else. Visualize: four adults, holding funny looking devices in their hands, heading towards a corner of the fenced area. Actually, we were racing to the corner of the fence area! Good thing no one else was in sight! If anyone had seen us, they would think we were crazy--really crazy.

Eventually, we were out in the middle of nowhere/somewhere completely surrounded by sage brush. Way off in the distance we could see some beautiful brown rolling hills. Our next few caches were out in the sage brush--usually ammo cans in bushes. That seems to be the standard for Nevada caches! We also spent time driving across the playa of Nevada. Could we really be on the moon? It certainly resembles my impression of a moonscape. There is a little more brush here than on the moon. Occasionally, we ran across what Larry refered to as a “Volcano hair ball”--a lone rock in the middle of nowhere!

And sometimes we even found a windmill. We spotted one that was not functioning the way it should. The blades were a little dented and some were actually broken. I guess they still need the water as there was a generator nearby working away and a huge tank providing the necessary fuel.

We spent some time around the Sand Dunes and the Sand Flats.--incredible spots. One of our favorite caches, however, was The Peek-a-Boo Cache. It was pretty neat. As we approached the location in our jeeps I spotted an eagle soaring overhead. There were several nests up on the cliffs above us. We kept watching but the eagle never came back while we were there. Or, he/she may have been watching from the cliffs above. The cache itself was in a rock with a natural “through the rock” cave. We had a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside from up there.

Our next destination was Dixie Valley. We went from high to low with views of the valley and views of the hills. We even passed through a “cow resting place”--lots of cow pies and some huge troughs of stagnant water. And we took the long and dusty road--following the power poles through dry washes and cross country. At one point, I was the official range gate opener. Actually, Mike had to help me open the gate and Larry had to help me close the gate. At one point I ended up on the wrong side and had to start over. Life is hard out here in the middle of nowhere!

Even out in the middle of nowhere, we were surprised that we had not seen any animals and we thought that was a little strange. Then, way off in the distance, we spotted some cattle--4 or 5. We had decided it was too dry for any animals out here, but looks like we were wrong. Wow--suddenly, we spotted a whole herd of cattle! Maybe we were definitely wrong (did I say that). We just hadn’t driven far enough away from society. These animals obviously prefer the wide open range to the more populated areas.

Talking about less populated areas, Box Falls was quite a cache and quite an experience! I think we were all crazy and the pictures will never do the real event justice. Cynthia climbed up and approached from the top and could only look down at the cache. Teri, Mike & I approached from below and did a little rock climbing. Larry got about halfway there and then he waited in case he needed to run for help if the rest of us got in trouble. I got almost to the end and then chickened out. Mike had the camera so he took a picture of me at that point. I tried to take a picture of Cynthia but I only had my cell phone and Cynthia was too far away. Larry got some shots of her from his angle. Mike and Teri actually made it to the top and held the cache up so I could see it. Now, we had to get down and that was just as much “fun” . To return, I same down the safe way but kept my bottom low for balance. Mike came down backwards--he doesn’t have much of a bottom so he didn’t have any problems. Cynthia walked gracefully down from the top.

Teri, now Teri, she was the crazy one; she slid down the dry waterfall. I tried to take a movie, but when I started it, she hesitated and it stopped recording before we really got much of the slide! She screamed a little and landed on her hands at the bottom but she survived. I probably should admire her but you won’t find me following in her shoes on that move!

And, believe it or not, there is a duck pond in the middle of the “desert” And a tank or two! And some upright and fallen trees! We even saw some cattle up close and personal on our way in and out of the duck pond and tank caches. I did take pictures of the duck pond, but I didn’t have time to stop and take pictures of the cows. Clouds were starting to roll in, the wind was picking up, and we were losing our daylight!

Our final cache before dinner was a typical Nevada cache--an ammo can in a bush! After replacing the cache, we headed for the Middlegate Station. It is a place that is beyond description. Once inside, you would swear you were back in the days of the old time western. You know you are not, however, when you start reading all the signs posted in the ladies room. I guess they have similar signs, although gender specific, in the men’s room. People were congregating in the powder rooms just to read the signs. Restrooms aside, they do make the most wonderful hamburgers! They cook them one at a time and you can’t be in a rush, but they are truly wonderful hamburgers. We had a great dinner!

We returned home after 9:00 PM. We did manage to pick up one cache on the way home that was hidden on a historical marker. It was pretty dark but we didn’t let that stop us. It is easy to find a cache in the dark when you have surrounded it with headlights!

We spent today in the Carson City/Minden/Gardnerville area. Yes, we were climbing mountains again. Yes, we found several caches. Yes we had fun. Yes our muscles are sore. Yes we are tired. Yes we are moving slowly. Yes we will need a day of rest tomorrow--maybe.