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Homeward Bound
Although we’ve visited Rhyolite ghost town before, we’ve not visited the cemetery. This morning, we turned down the dirt track that led to the Bullfrog Rhyolite Cemetery.
Headed north on highway 95, we found our unmarked turnoff to our next destination. It was a long drive across the vast Sarcobatus Flat. The dirt road is incised into the ground and captures debris blown by winds across the flat. This morning, our way was blocked by a 100-foot section filled three to four feet deep with Russian Thistle. We cleared the road block by hand, a prickly mess, and did not at all feel like singing Tumbling Tumbleweeds.
Good navigation skills led us through the maze of roads as we found our way to a distant spring and another possible archeological site on our list. The last miles were up a deep gravel wash. To our consternation, the rattle in the front end was back again. Damn. Yup, we jacked up the truck, pulled out the tool box, removed the tire, found the top nut loose, and tightened it. This signaled another change of plans – threadlocker – we’d get some back in Pahrump. But that could wait. We got the truck settled into about the only usable spot at the end of the road and set up our camp.
Shadows were growing long as we began our search. Our truck is just right of center in the photo below.
The spring had running water. There were hundreds of noisy chukars. Their presence brought in predators. Coyotes and Northern Harriers worked the area.
After a good climb, we found the shelter sites we were searching for. This first shelter had a stacked rock wall and pictographs.
The second, larger shelter had been used by prospectors.
On a nearby saddle in the ridge line, we were thrilled to find an ancient rock alignment.
What a great site this was! We settled in for the night and enjoyed blazing stars above and the song of coyotes. The following morning – as always – we relished our “morning wander” with Peets Coffee. We made a wide circle of the area.
In the photo below, the Lady is coming down from the high point she climbed up to. We split up as there were several possible shelter sites to investigate.
The Lady joined me on my highpoint and then we worked our way back to camp for breakfast.
A different front-end noise started before we reached Beatty. It was a classic ball joint “clunk.” The repeatedly loose stabilizer bar link had damaged the ball joints on each end of the link. We crawled back under the truck. The nuts were still tight. We had cell service and we called Dobinsons in Florida. We had fun explaining where we were calling from and the problem. Would they sell us one new stabilizer bar link? They come in a package of two at a hundred dollars apiece. They agreed, would ship it immediately, and it would be delivered at home before our return. We still picked up threadlocker in Pahrump and repeated our well-practiced procedure for getting to the stabilizer bar link. We had no further issue with the nuts loosening.
I’ll move ahead in the story and share what the issue was. My mistake was just tightening the nuts. I should have removed the bar link the first time we discovered the loose nuts and inspected it – the shop in Pahrump probably should have done the same instead of just checking torque. I would have found that the banging loose ball joint studs had ruined the threads. The damaged threads prevented the single use serrated flange nuts from completely seating the link ends in place. I think of this whole episode as a good lesson. We also got well acquainted with doing field repairs on our new truck.
The new link was waiting for us when we returned home. I installed it, torqued the nuts to specs, and it has been fine since and I expect we will live happily ever after.
Pahrump was another detour in our plans so we came up with a good alternative that allowed us to reach a favorite dispersed camp spot before dark. We do not like chasing daylight trying to find a suitable spot to overnight. We settled into our campsite along Lake Hill Road in Panamint Valley.
We were ready for a good workout the next morning. Digonnet’s Hiking Western Death Valley National Park describes the hike up Dolomite Canyon on the western side of the Cottonwood Mountains.
We got a late start the next morning as we inspected the bar links one last time to be sure they were still tight. The mouth of Dolomite Canyon, in the photo below, is just right of center and is four miles away. The bajada was rocky and rough going and a constant climb.
Nearing the canyon mouth, the Lady used her see mores to note our truck’s location.
We made our way up into the wide wash. This was wonderful terrain with Lake Hill far below.
We continued up and found a spot for a break.
Watching our turnaround time, we’d have to save venturing further up Dolomite Canyon for another trip. But we did have time to explore a side canyon.
Here’s looking back down the first series of dry falls.
The polished limestone held wonderful fossils!
We continued up encountering dry fall after dry fall. This always puts a smile on the Lady’s face.
The canyon opened up. The cottonwood’s rock layers are spectacular.
The canyon narrowed again, and it was time to turn around.
Fossils continued to delight us.
The Lady downclimbed the first – and highest dry fall. You bet we were having fun
Returning, we stayed in the main wash that took us on a wide swing to the north. It was much longer but easier than crossing the bajada.
As I said, the Cottonwood Mountains are spectacular.
We returned to camp in time to take in evening light. It was a great hike and whetted our appetite to return to Dolomite Canyon.
It was time to return home to attend to a few things. For our last night out the Tub Whisperer had again scored a tub at Benton. We are addicted but this is also a very convenient overnight on our way home. The restorative healing water worked its magic on us.
So that’s it. This is the story of the maiden voyage. As the world descends into chaos around us, we will continue our explorations as long as there is still public lands and federal agencies to care for it. Time is running out on those two items. Think of us as gone.
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