Just a week after returning from my previous trip I set off again for one last visit to the mountains of Nevada before the snow and winter weather arrived. After nearly 200 days without rain, the West Coast of California was bracing for a major storm to pass through on Sunday. That likely would be the end of the season for off roading.
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| Karla Bonoff, Nina Gerber and Dog |
On Friday evening I attended a concert in Auburn at the State Theater to see Karla Bonoff (she wrote lots of songs for herself and Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt). She was ably accompanied by Nina Gerber who is a superb guitarist and her dog (who slept on stage in a dog basket for the entire show - perhaps they sedate him/her).
After the show, I continued up the hill to Reno where I stayed in a hotel near the downtown area. The next morning I was up for breakfast and a little wandering around town - the air smelt so clean and fresh up there. Quite a contrast to the air in Sacramento.
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Ash Canyon
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After breakfast I drove down 395 to Carson City. I wanted to explore the area that I ran in last summer on the TRT run. The race course was up from Carson City on Ash Canyon Road all the way to the top. This time I wanted to do it from the comfort of my 4 Runner. It is a serious uphill even for the 4 Runner and I am amazed that I could even think about running it (or be thinking about running it again).
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End of the road up Ash Canyon
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The Aspens were turning and they give a nice bit of color to the landscape. At the top of the hill where the road enters the Nevada Tahoe State Park the road is gated so that limited my trip. I explored a few fire roads in the area and got back a little ways above Hobart Lake. It had started to snow so I decided it was best to head back down the canyon before things got too bad.
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| Top of the hill above Hobart Lake |
Back in Carson City I headed back towards Reno, stopping off at the Bowers Mansion on the way. The Mansion is impressive for its period and its location but the most amazing thing is the story of its first owner, Eilley Oram. As a young woman she left Scotland with her first husband bound for Salt Lake City (she was a Mormon), she divorced her husband when they got to Utah and then married another Mormon and came to Washoe County, Nevada. That marriage didn't last either and after the divorce she opened up a boarding house. Somehow she started trading mining claims and one of the claims struck it rich and she became quite wealthy. She married an adjacent claim owner, Sandy Bowers and they built the mansion. They had a child, then Sandy died, as did the daughter and the mining operations failed. She ended her days in relative poverty as a fortune teller plying her trade between San Francisco and Reno. What a life.
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The Bowers Mansion
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Back in Reno I visited the museum of another interesting character, Wilbur May. Born in 1898 as the heir to the May Department Store company, he went off to WW1 in his teens, then he became a pilot, a traveler, a hunter and basically enjoyed a full and varied life. In a bit of a fluke, he sold off all his investments in 1928 before leaving for a year's hunting trip with Denis Fynch Hatton (Robert Redford in Out of Africa). While he was away the stock market crashed and when he returned he reinvested his money at a deeply discounted price and made his fortune. He ended up in Reno where he bought a cattle ranch and raised cattle and race horses. The museum is a display of all the weird and wonderful things he collected in his travels around the world. Lots of spears and shields and, oh yes, a shrunken human head.
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| Wilbur's Shrunken Head |
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| The Trophy Room at the May Museum |
After the museum, the weather was still fine so in the remaining hours of daylight I did a short off road trip off of Mount Rose Road. There is a dirt road running up into the mountains alongside Thomas Creek. It is a beautiful canyon especially at this time of year when the Aspens are turning. The road ends after a few miles but a hiking trail continues up to Mt Rose and over into the Tahoe Basin. That might be worth exploring some day.
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| Thomas Creek Canyon |
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| Thomas Creek Canyon |
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| Thomas Creek Canyon |
That was the end of my day in the Reno area, I grabbed a quick bite at a great Mexican place, Miguel's on Virginia Street (well worth a revisit) and then headed over the hill before the storm came in.
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