The Mobius Trip

the kind of roads we love,



but had to take a little detour around a locked gate that was a shortcut to Buckhorn Rd.



The Benchmark maps had Buckhorn labeled as a National Scenic route, and it was dirt, so I was keen to incorporate it into our route.



It did not disappoint.

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and were back in the desert.



Our next objective was to get to Buffalo Meadows road,



and we had some great two-track riding, following North Fork Buffalo Creek, to get there.

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in the rhythm of valleys, canyons, and ranges.

When they tell you in your MSF course to "look around the curve", I don't think this is what they mean:



It's hard to appreciate the scale. What, you can't see LDF riding up ahead there? Let me get a little closer:



Right there in the middle of the frame. Would it help if I zoomed in?

Honey, I shrank La Donna Fugata:



It was pretty awesome in there. Just went on for miles,





I'm not sure they believed we weren't lost,



The GPS was coughing up landmarks like Tin Canyon, Stockade Canyon, Wildcat spring, and Eddie's Garden. They were beautiful.

to our left was the North Fork Buffalo Creek,

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where it met the West fork is where we'd pick up Buffalo Meadow's road. I hoped, anyway.

The GPS said up in the distance was the confluence of the two forks, probably that green patch.



Our intended route had us cutting across this field, but the road went to the left. We followed the road.



The mighty Buffalo Creek forks (once mighty?) had carved a nice canyon where they joined.





Crossing the North Fork. Remember, this is wet season. :huh

was a little more developed road surface, but the visuals were no less beautiful.





This guy was walking all by himself with a pretty bad limp.

we could see our next navigational point, Smoke Creek road,



WAAAaaay in the distance.

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We'd follow Smoke Creek to HWY 447 into Gerlach for a fuel stop.



Loose gravel, and straight.





Gas, but no groceries at Gerlach. Not much of anything, really.





at the gas station, we were told that we could find groceries at Empire, up the road. Two miles up and back past our turn off the pavement. Seemed worth it since we were out of water, booze, and food.

was pretty spartan, but we were able to get what we needed. The woman at the register told us about how different it is during Burning Man. We commented that we didn't see much evidence of the festival, that they seemed to clean up and clear out. She said that if you were local you'd notice, and that there were already festival organizers setting things up on the Playa.



Well, we did see a pickup pulling a small camper crossing the playa, but I didn't see much else. We rode along Black Rock Desert on the south side.



I'd considered riding across the playa, but we stuck to the road.



I wasn't sure where we'd get across the Union Pacific tracks.



We passed near Trago Hot springs, but it was still a bit early in the day to stop.

would have us heading east, away from Black Rock Desert onto Pioneer rd., and through Rosebud canyon.

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we started to see historic trail marker signs,



I'm a sucker for these things.



Just to put it in context:

some doughnuts on a dry lake bed... getting sideways...



Pioneer road is notable for



mining operations, both active and inactive, these trail markers







Painted canyon,





more mines,





Imlay summit, and Rye Patch State Recreation area where we hoped we'd find camping near some water.

took us up, up up,



to Imlay summit ahead:





Where we enjoyed the view of the Rye Patch reservoir ahead and below.





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On the way down,

turned out to be a bit of a bust when it came to camping; no shade, hot, dusty. Stagnant water, prolly buggy.

We passed a few more trail markers:



context:



I had to climb to photo this one:



looking back the way we'd come:



The last section to get to our next fuel stop at Mill City looked impassable, so we cut over to the I-80 frontage road. We were debating where to stay the night.



the Devil box had us check out an RV park that looked pretty dicey. We went to Mill City and gassed up, and used the bathroom and figured out what to do.



We'd been riding all day and were tired. There was nothing here that wasn't interstate-related, or derelict casino.

With a flagging morale, we agreed to stop at the first decent cowboy camp, and pressed on.

Said it before but I'll say it again: LOVE THE VIEWS OF NORCAL, NV, SE OR!

Thanks for reminding me of the AWESOME beauty!!

some flatlands on Willow Creek Ranch road, and started to climb,



It wasn't long before we found a flat spot, and decided to throw down stakes.

and then the strangest thing happened...

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it was an annular solar eclipse, which hasn't been seen in North America for 18 years.

The light took on a very surreal cast, color seemed off, and our shadows got blurry,





There will be a total solar eclipse in August 2017, but the next annular one that is visible in the US will not be 'till 2023. How cool is that?

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/16/solar-eclipse-ring-of-fire-coming-sunday/





after about 10 minutes, it was all back to normal.



and we continued about our business, collecting firewood, and setting up camp.

built our campfire,



and cooked our dogs,





and as the sun tucked in behind the hills,



we were visited by a curious herd.



This really was cowboy camping.



Eventually, we nodded off in our chairs, warmed by the campfire and bourbon-spiked hot chocolate.

It was a long day!



But we covered some ground.





Day 9 track .GPX file available here.

Yes, it was a long day, having bad POIs on the GPS didn't help. But as happened every day, the camp that night was perfect.

I've been enjoying your trip report, great as always. Here's the web site of the people who put up those historic trail markers, with guide books on where to find them.

http://emigranttrailswest.org/

That's an awesome link. Thanks!

Today we'd continue east, from the middle of nowhere to east of the middle of nowhere. It was a solid day of primo DS riding. Minimal re-routes, almost zero pavement, and beautiful terrain.

There were a couple of range / canyon crossings that I was a little concerned about whether they went through or not, but they did, and it was good.

We were treated to another killer sunrise:



packed up,



and had wheels rolling easily by 8.