Here's my trail report for the Nov. club run. It will also appear in the Club newsletter. Enjoy
Well was I excited with the turnout for this months club run ! 18 rigs were great to see and I thank everyone for coming. One notable in attendance was Dawn Nelson. This was her first run since being off her feet for a while and glad to see her back in her Jeep. I'm sure she was happy to get out too. One of our missing members was Beth. She was getting things ready for her trip to Death Valley with her new set up she has been putting together for a while ( truck/camper towing her Jeep ).
Our run began at a new location that I think worked out well for everyone. Railroad Pass has become more difficult to enter Boulder Highway from with all the increased traffic so we'll see how the Wagon Wheel exit works for any runs I do heading south of town. Boulder City has a couple of good meeting places too that we have used in the past.
After re-grouping on 95 heading toward Searchlight we turned east into the mountains and stopped to air down after everyone was off the highway. The vegetation had grown a lot through this area because of the recent rains that have come through the Eldorado Valley. Still a few flowers blooming but mostly just greenery. Wildlife was few and far between for some reason although we did see a Kestrel (falcon), some Phainopeplas ( black birds that eat Mistletoe berries) a rabbit and some butterflies. A couple of Bighorn Sheep were spotted also.
Because of the large number of rigs we had to split up into two groups to reach one of the mines that set up high on the side of a hill. Thanks to Rex and Alan for leading the second group up there and for pre-running the trail with me. After lunch at the St Louis Mine we made our way down towards the Colorado River stopping at an area that had some petroglyphs next to the road. The glyphs appear to be modern although the subject matter seemed to look like rock art I've seen before that I know was authentic. Who knows but they were fun to look at. There were some balanced rocks at this location also that are caused by softer rocks ( decomposing granite ) eroding away from wind and rain with a much harder rock sitting on top. JeepinJoe posted some great pictures of this spot on the NVBR message board under the November Run heading.
We ended our run at a little known cemetery east of Searchlight just inside the Lake Mead border. It was started many years ago by a man that wanted to be buried with his dog but wasn't allowed to do so at the Searchlight Cemetery so he started his own. Now there are quite a few people and their pets buried there. Quite a story and only in Nevada !
Well that's about it and you're probably ready to go to sleep now after reading all this so TTFN and thanks again for coming. Be sure to check to board as there are some good runs in the works and if you have any ideas for future runs, let us know.
Scuba Steve