A few shots from work.

[MisterE]

I've been in Fallon!! 8)

Looks like the ultimate in solitude. Puuuurfect!

 

[loneredtree]

E: Fallon is a little big for me I prefer Austin. :roll:

 

[Harlock999]

Kyle's been out in the bush too long, gone native, Apocalypse Now/Mario Grandi style...

 

[J Soshae]

It sure sounds like hard work. On the upside, you must be in good shape with an exercise program being provided by your company. :cheers:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Rob, because it's been said my expertise in that area is somewhat lacking. I could have thought of you brothers and taken plenty of pictures of her, but the creep-factor would have gone through the roof. I guess she's alright looking, skinny, in-shape, small cha-chas, kind of pretty in a nerdy sense. :lol: Fill in the blanks if you're likin' the menu.

Austin is a much cooler place than Fallon. Fallon's just a cowtown, Austin's a real mining town and pioneer stopping point.

So, I'm back in town until Monday, but rather than the gal, you can look at my ugly mug instead.

 

[DrT999]

Nice vista behind you

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Nice vista behind you

It's part of the basin & range system in Nevada, and that valley behind me is one of the shorelines of the long-gone, massive, prehistoric Lake Lahontan. It's pretty much sagebrush, sand and petrified fish crap down there. :lol: Oh, and a few snakes.

 

[smokinbriar]

Nice pics,thanks for sharing.

 

[loneredtree]

As I drove back and forth across 80, I have wondered what it looked like on top of those the ridges. Thanks Kyle.

Why is the trail so worn? Or, why the traffic?

 

[MisterE]

The 40 mile desert is closeby Fallon, isn't it??

In Jr. High, as part of our "Donner Party" study, our class spent a weekend in the 40 mile desert. Plenty of water and vehicles of course. For a place so desolate it is very beautiful. One of my highlights was finding a Civil War era army uniform button in the sand there. 8)

 

[Blackhorse]

MrE -

Always amazing what schools will do in the pursuit of education. I used to work for the District in Ketchikan, Alaska and for "Outdoor School" as a part of the Jr. High curriculum...get this...they dropped kids off on selected islands closed to town (within 5 miles) with the clothes on their back and only what they could put into a No. 10 can. The kids were there, alone, for three days prior to pick-up. And I won't say 'rain or shine' since it only ever rained there...Ketchikan annual rainfall average is 12 + FEET. They never lost one, so I guess it was a 'success'.

Yikes!

 

[George Kaplan]

Blackhorse, I would have LOVED that at that age! Actually, it still sounds like fun, though sleeping on the ground doesn't agree with me as well as it used to.

 

[MisterE]

Cheval-

That sounds like a terrific experience for those kids. Being Alaska, those lessons were probably valuble to to learn.

Today everyone's so afraid of being held "accountable" that things like that don't happen that way anymore. Well, not without an inch thick book of waivers and swat team surveilance. My son went to go visit a farm (yes, goats and cows) with his class recently. The adult to children ratio was 2:1 and we had to fill out a whole packet of forms. :roll:

 

[docwatson]

Kyle,
Thanks for the geo lesson and the great pics. I've never experienced that area of the country and find your messages very informative. Don't you wear snake boots with leggings when traversing those rocky snake laden areas?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Ltree: it's just some dirt bike trail. I'm not sure why people go up there. The view? *shrug* There's not a lot to do out in that area. :lol:

Mr E: The "Forty Mile Desert" is just a stretch of Lahontan that goes from east to west (or vice versa, if you will)... Fallon is kind of a stopping point along the way. Alfalfa loves growing on the alkali flats, so it's pretty green from the Newland's Project of the late 19th/early 20th century--a lot of agriculture. Look up "Hearts of Gold" cantaloupe...some of the best musk mellons ever come out of Fallon.

BH: My father kind of did that to me as a kid, let me run around the desert without a second thought. Now look at me, makin' a living doing it. :lol: Pretty cool.

doc: It's why I share this stuff, many people here probably have never been out west, and northern Nevada is about as desolate and wild as it gets. I have pretty nice shin-high Redwings boots that a snake won't be able to bite through. If he's really determined and goes for my knee, well, I'm kind of screwed. :lol: I do so much traversing when on the job snake boots and leggings would be more a detriment to me than protection. When it's 90°+F out (like it will be this week--getting hot early this year) you want lose fitting and lightweight clothing. It ain't the snakes that'll get you, it's the intensity of the sun. You'll dry out like a prune if you aren't carrying at least a gallon of water, and that's on top of the rocks, claim stakes and hammers I need. I'm so happy in that picture because I could take my pack and my tool belt off for a bit. :lol: Those breaks are golden--you feel like you're weightless.

8)

 

[George Kaplan]

I think you're now the only person I know who say they literally staked a claim! That looks really great out there, Kyle. Of course, the grass is always greener in your neighbor's yard, even when it's sage. I miss my forestry days with my job. I don't know how I let them convince me that supervising production at three different saw mills was better than entry-level timber prospecting, but the pays better. At least I get a lot of pipe smoking time in log yards. I've been to New Mexico and Arizona, but never Nevada. Looks like a lot of room for a man to think out there. Ever read any Edward Abbey?
So what's your typical loadout for a job like that?

 

[Kyle Weiss]

GK, I'm pretty sure timber prospecting is similar in many ways to minerals prospecting (which I also do). It's a friggin' blast. I love working in the resources industry...

...wait, staked A claim? I got fifty of these suckers to complete by the end of this coming week. :lol: Fortunately I was able to bring a cob and enjoy the top of that hill. Nevada makes you feel alone, insignificant, vulnerable, and therefore, simple and humble--and finally, thoughtful. A complicated man's dream, in all honesty. Bring a pipe along and it's better than church. Well, lame churches anyway. :lol: You get what you need out there.

Loadout includes whatever stakes we need (in this case, 256... 16 bunches of 16)...stakes are 2" x 2" x 4'. We take two gallons of water per person per day in the back of the F150. Two spare tires, five gallons of gas, survival kit (shovel, axe, first aid, water purification, etc, etc), some kind of firearm, rock hammers, stake hammers, two-way radios (I also have a CB in my 4runner when I'm on my own), flagging, aluminum tags electrical tape, black markers, all the paperwork we need to post notices, some food for the day... it's pretty straightforward. Usually this stuff gets done with ATVs but it's hard to find them for rent out here, so we gotta hoof it ourselves.

Claim staking is not my expertise, nor my preference, but I happen to like money. *shrug* It pays well.

 

[monbla256]

Your pics brought back some nice memories guy! Back in the early '70s, when I worked for the Dallas Museum of Natural History, I spent a lot of field time down in the desert area of Big Bend and down into Northern Mexico. VERY similar topogrophy and conditions. I loved it when a late afternoon thunderstorm would come up, pour tons of water on acres then it would all clear and you could sit on a rock and look out at the "Jesus Cactus" plants that had been just grey/brown dead looking clumps start to open up and turn the whole area a bright dark verdent green for a few hours, then they would close back up and wait for the next drop of water !! The Desert is a world unto itself and far more ALIVE than most folks give it credit for

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Monbla, yeah the desert is a unique place. Northern Nevada is FAR too dry to have such hopeful and optimistic cacti waiting to swell up for rain. I'm from middle Arizona originally, so I know the more southwest deserts, too. The one thing Nevada does that few other deserts is how dry it is and the temperature swings. Then there's the elevation, and the sun cooks the hell out of you. Other places in the world are colder, hotter, and dryer, but few go as long without precipitation, and get as wildly and randomly hot and cold. Wind is also a factor...as noted by Mark Twain on quite a few occasions. He was also a lover of this land, and a fellow pipester--and one of my literary heroes. 8)

The desert is quite alive, and the fact it is humbles the hell out of me. Such great creatures struggle every day just to scratch out a living there. There is only about a month out of the year where any color resembling "green" happens here, and we're in the middle of it! Perhaps "dark sage" is more appropriate than "green...." :lol:

 

[George Kaplan]

Under the desert sun, the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology, and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean. The rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock, and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance accross the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbrush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and it has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime.
-Edward Abbey