Spring has arrived in Nevada and this is the time of year to visit some of the beautiful country in the remote reaches of our State. Lisa was on Spring Break and we thought this would be the perfect time to visit our friends Shannon Jackson and Dana Bennett who live in the remote town of Midas, Nevada.
Midas is an old mining town in the center of Northern Nevada about 70 miles from the Idaho border and in the middle of the Owyhee Desert. To get there you turn north off of Interstate 80 at Golconda (near Winnemucca), drive 16 miles on highway 789 till it turns to gravel and drive another 30 miles east to Midas.
As it turned out, our trip coincided with the passing of the Big Boy steam locomotive as it made its way through Nevada as part of Union Pacific railroad's coast-to-coast celebration of America's 250 years of independence.
So, on Monday, April 6th our way to Midas we met Dana and Shannon (and much of Midas' population) to watch the Big Boy pass by Preble Siding where Highway 789 crosses the Union Pacific tracks.
In this image you can see the "Big Boy" celebration tour "coming around the bend".
As the train approached you could see the smoke, steam and both the American and Nevada flags waving in the breeze. The unmistakable sound of a steam locomotive could clearly be heard too.
The Big Boy is truly impressive with its double size of a regular steam locomotive. It has two sets of pistons, eight pilot wheels and sixteen driver wheels. It's so long that it pivots in the middle to negotiate tight track turns.
So cool watching this wonderful piece of American history roll by.
The two of us enjoying our wonderful rural Nevada tour together.
The "Jackson House" that Shannon and Dana put us up in while visiting them in Midas.
Lisa and Chester in front of the famous Midas Saloon.
The old Midas gas station.
Walking through Midas we passed by this arch made of shed horns. One of the many great things to see in Midas.
After spending a wonderful day with Dana and Shannon, we headed further east on another 41 miles of gravel road to visit the old mining town of Tuscarora, Nevada.
The views were amazing as we made our way through spring green country, past remote ranches, running streams, full reservoirs, and a variety of wildlife.
Driving up the road to Tuscarora, Nevada.
Tuscarora is an old mining town that was stood up in 1867 and has know a number of boom and bust cycles common to mining towns. Currently there are only a dozen or so people that live in Tuscarora, but it has an active Post Office that serves the town and neighboring ranches, and is home to the quite popular Tuscarora Pottery School.
At first glance it wouldn't seem like it, but the art and culture of this area is really great as highlighted in this National Geographic article.
The Tuscarora Cemetery.
One of the many abandoned buildings around Tuscarora reminding visitors of a time when upwards of 1500 people lived in this remote town.
The Tuscarora Post Office. We stopped in to mail a post card and the gal running the office was super pleasant like everyone else we had met on this fun rural Nevada outing.
A familiar sight in the backcountry of Nevada. Roads reaching off towards distant mountains, the Ruby Mountains in this case.
Another familiar sight in rural Nevada: windmills and water storage tanks to provide for all the cattle that graze these wonderful wide open spaces.
Ever since the late 1970's, Bob has wanted to visit Tuscarora and this beautiful high country desert after reading an article in the Western Horseman magazine about cowboying in the area. Now we got to do it and it was everything we hoped it would be.
One of the other things Bob has wanted to do for a long time is have the Pronghorn he and his Dad took together in 1973 officially measured to see if it would make the Boone and Crockett record book.
They were hunting near Big Timber, Montana when Bob spotted this very nice buck nearly a mile away. The day was very windy and Bob left the pickup and tried to stay downwind and sneak up on the buck and the rest of the herd. When he came to a rise above where he had last seen him the herd had already taken off and ran to within 100 yards of the pickup where Bob's Dad was waiting. Not wanting to let him get away, Bob's Dad shot him and afterward felt kind of bad because Bob had done all the work and he just got lucky. It was then that Dad made it a point that this would always be a trophy the two of them had got together.
That said, they never did get the buck officially measured and Bob thought it high time to do so. Through his brother Dave, and another good friend from Montana, Bob was put in touch with Victor Clark who lives not far from us in Verdi, Nevada and can officially score for Boone and Crockett.
So, one Sunday afternoon we drove over to Verdi and had the pleasure of meeting Victor and his wife Margie where Victor measured our Pronghorn to see how it would score.
In order to make the Boone and Crockett record book our Pronghorn would have to score an 80. After Victor's careful measuring it came in at a close 78 1/2.
Odds are if we would have measured this buck when it was taken in 1973, before it had all these years to shrink, it would have been in the record books. All good though, it was the time Bob got to spend with his Dad that really matters and now this Pronghorn is now proudly hanging in our house.
For her birthday last fall, Lisa scored all new ski equipment and a three day flex pass at our favorite local ski area, Diamond Peak Resort. We love this resort because it's only a half hour from our home, is never too busy, and has these amazing views.
The two of us on a beautiful March day skiing above Lake Tahoe.
Now that both Hannah and Caleb have moved out of the house and started lives of their own, it's always a pleasure when they come over to visit. Even Chester gets really excited when they come home to visit.
Keeping Chester warm so he can be with us in the cold garage.
Bob and Caleb having lunch together at the Taildragger Cafe after a great time at the shooting range together.
Hannah and Bob at the Douglas County Shooting Range.
Bob always has a fun time going to the range, but it's especially fun when the kids join. This outing was all about shooting the kid's rifles after Bob had done quite a bit of work on them getting them to shoot more accurately.
Bob testing out Hannah's rifle. The work he did on them helped quite a bit and it was a lot of fun testing them out with the kids.
One of the things we picked up while at a conference was an Ollin Phone Scope where you can connect the camera of your mobile phone to a spotting scope. This is a picture Bob took of sparrows feeding on some of the bird feed that had fallen from the bird feeder in our back yard. The system works really well.
For the most part we have had a pretty dry winter, but on February 17 and 18 we had a good storm come through that really helped out. This storm brought us back up to our annual average.
On January 23rd we drove into Reno to meet at Hannah's house and celebrate her 25th birthday. She is such a wonderful person and it's hard to believe how fast she has grown up.
For Bob's 67th birthday we also drove into Reno to meet the kids at one of our favorite restaurants, the Great Basin Brewery. Again, it's hard to believe where the years have gone, but they've all been great.
On January 20th we drove up to our favorite local ski area, Diamond Peak Resort, so Lisa could try out her new ski gear. It was a beautiful bluebird day with amazing scenes like this that you see from the top of the resort.
Lisa and Bob on the top, together.