Days 040-045 – 7/3-8/11 Jefferson Summit to Blackrock Station

Distance > 80 Miles; People Met = 16

Most of the people we met during this stretch occurred the very first day after our delightful camp spot near Jefferson Summit … lots of people out recreating during the 4th of July weekend.  There will be a feature on this day, called “Trail Angel Day,” in the Nevada issue of our newsletter.  That was the highlight of this stretch.

We have one hard fast rule as we walk across the country:  hike 5,000 continuous miles.  The American Discovery Trail serves as a guide, but we knew there would be deviations from the start.  One occurred on our detour over Donner Pass.  Others are bound to happen as we try to follow an east-west guide that provides waypoints for GPS while hiking west-east using old school map and compass.  When I get a Forest Service map corresponding to a section I note the main destinations in our ADT guide and plot the most logical route to get there via the map.

The most logical route to me, a hiker, usually involves hiking trails.  I’ve learned there are not really hiking trails in Nevada, but horse trails disguised as such on the FS maps.  As I came to understand this, finding the trails when they kept disappearing became much easier.  They were never going to go where a hiker might want.  No, they were going to stick to the river bed through “hell and high water,” er, “vegetation and high water.”

River Canyon Vegetation

Thus our first three days out of Carvers, like the two heading in, were spent with wet feet from continuous river/creek crossings.  I made an adjustment to our route by picking FS roads away from river canyons, an odd thing to do for “dry” Nevada perhaps, but we had plenty of water bottles with us.  In a few days we discovered from a ranch owner that another ADT traveler had used this same route on horse.

ADT First Alternate Route

Well, “dry” Nevada proved to be as much of a myth for us as “sunny” California.  The rest of that stretch featured afternoon thunderstorms.  That alone would have been merely a nuisance and not that unexpected for a desert, but a few of those thunderstorms turned into lasting rain into the night.

ADT Afternoon Storms

The first time we camped early for these storms was by coincidence.  There was an outhouse at the Willow Creek trail head.  As long as I chased the five or six spiders on the toilet seat away this became a haven for my intestinal disorder.  We waited out the thunderstorm, set up our tent, then enjoyed listening to the return of the rain from safely inside.  I’m sure the flowers enjoyed them as well, and we’ve seen plenty of those.

DT Blonde Beauty

Having done this once we knew what to expect.  When the third afternoon storm came we first sat on our packs with parkas on and tent rain fly surrounding us.  The initial storm passed but we knew with a glance that it would come back with a vengeance.  We camped early again.

ADT This One's Gonna Last

Camping early because of storms three times put us behind schedule, and I had a speaking engagement with the Ely Lions Club.  I made one more route adjustment, probably the first of its kind ever by an ADT traveler.  It is not unusual for someone on the ADT to start hiking along US 50 because Nevada is too dry.  We started hiking along US 6 to make up time because Nevada is too wet.

ADT Standing Puddles on US 6