East Side Sierra Nevada – April 2025 – Part One

 

please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version & highlighted text are links to additional information

 

“Where’s the Shovel?”

 

Friday we successfully sold and delivered our previous camper to a wonderful young couple who drove out from Salt Lake City to get it. It was an end of an era for us and a new beginning for Pat and Ellen and their old dog, Otto. Saturday morning, we were packed and ready to go. Highway 120 east of Lee Vining had opened from winter closure so we landed for the night at a favorite dispersed campsite.

 

 

 

 

 

We took a long walk in the afternoon exploring more nooks and crannies in the granite outcrops. Long shadows across the vast landscape signaled time for supper and a return to our simple, cozy home.

 

 

 

 

It dropped to 32° overnight with calm wind. The dawn light worked its magic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked a large loop on our morning coffee walk.

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, hit all the high points for the Lady.

 

 

 

 

 

It occurred to me as I took the first photo above, “Where’s the shovel?” It was not in its place, nor was the Yakima Shovel Rack, on the cross bars on the camper roof. Also missing was our rotopax gas can. We had forgotten both at home. We could blame it on our excitement about selling the camper but why? Blame’s a waste of time and energy. We had to deal with the reality of the missing items.

 

We think of both of these tools as insurance. We’ve used the shovel many times to dig out other people’s rigs, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

not our own. The same with the extra gas. Having them along is a habit and I’m heard to repeatedly say, “It’s our habits that save our lives.” We felt naked without them.

 

During our morning coffee walk we put together the plan for the day. We had two sites we wanted to search for. The first was the tiny ghost settlement of Pizona. And, if we made it to Pizona, we’d continue on to the primary goal of Truman Meadows. We located the two track that climbed east to Pizona. The road was a steep nasty rock garden at the first climb. We stopped and walked it. It was doable, but would make a miserable ride, and what lay ahead in this seldom visited area? “Remember,” the Lady advised, “We don’t have our shovel.” It was the best decision to turn around.

 

We returned to pavement by a different route – our explorative natures were not dashed by the lack of our shovel – and sought out an alternate way to Truman Meadows. We stopped when we came to the first hill climb.

 

 

 

 

 

This photo is of a good section of road. Downhill from us was a series of sharp bedrock steps, 10 to 12 inches high, diagonally across the road. “We don’t have the shovel,” we reminded each other. “And,” the Lady added, “If we make it up into there and choose not to backtrack and look for a way out the opposite direction, we don’t have extra gas.”

“It’s around four and a half miles up to the meadow,” I said after checking the topo. “It’s noon now. We have time. Let’s walk it.”

The Lady is always happiest when we make the decision to walk it. And we can usually walk faster than driving rough roads.

 

 

 

 

 

And it gives her time to put the Seek app to work on her phone.

 

 

 

 

Shockley's Buckwheat (Eriogonum shockleyi)

 

We’ll bring you deeper into this search and our reason to make the laborious climb to Truman Meadows. It, of course, involves “the list” you’ve heard much about. This is from a research paper dated 1965 and is our only source of information about the rock art site near Truman Meadows:

 

“Truman Meadow, on the California-Nevada border three miles north of Highway 6, is in the northern portion of the winter feeding ground for deer herds in southern Mono and northern Inyo counties. The meadow is one-quarter mile long and 200 yards across, surrounded by heavy stands of pinon.

Two miles southwest of the meadow is an extensive area where obsidian nodules were collected. Cracked boulders and large flakes of obsidian extend over a two square mile area. A random sampling at this site supplied 147 large flakes from a 10 by 10 foot surface area. Each flake is of sufficient size to fashion at least a 2 inch projectile point blank. Small chippings were few, indicating that this site was primarily used for obtaining the raw material from which to manufacture tools.

On the south side of the trail, at the narrow entrance to Truman Meadow, is a basalt block on which is seen a small group of pictographs.”

 

When you start to digest the information presented in the quote above, there is the issue of making a lot of assumptions. First off, since the author mentions the location as “three miles north of Highway 6,” is that the approach used? Another assumption can be that roads and trails are the same 60+ years after the research was published. Another assumption can be the author was adept at navigation and map reading. Assumptions are often wrong. The bottom line is keeping your eyes and minds wide open when you try to match the real world with a written description. And, believe me, we have a lifetime of experience with these searches.

 

As the prior photos show, there is a lot of elevation gain involved in getting to Truman Meadows. After a couple of miles, we began finding lithic scatter – obsidian flakes from tool and point making.

 

 

 

 

 

Our favorites are pieces of mahogany obsidian that is common here.

 

 

 

 

 

Our progress toward the site was confirmed when obsidian nodules littered the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

The road bed was covered. I would not drive over a bed of obsidian. On our hike on this road, we saw no tire tracks of any kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an incredible trade opportunity the native people had with easy to transport chunks of obsidian for point making. Visiting this area alone was well worth the hike.

 

We continued up.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at what is clearly labeled “Truman Meadows” on the USGS 7.5’ topo. We took our time, pulled out our maps, and oriented ourselves to the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, you are along with us on our search. Think about how you would proceed with the information in the text. Do you notice any issues, such as this –

“The meadow is one-quarter mile long and 200 yards across, surrounded by heavy stands of pinon.”

Truman Meadow is surrounded by heavy stands of pinyon but is nearly 2.5 miles long and well over 200 yards wide. We focused on this –

“On the south side of the trail, at the narrow entrance to Truman Meadow, is a basalt block on which is seen a small group of pictographs”

and searched the area, especially the edges of the meadow, for old trails. We found no trails. Did the current primitive road replace the trail? There were basalt boulders and basalt cliff bands. What did the author mean by “basalt block?” And was there a “narrow entrance” to the meadow?

 

What may have seemed straightforward had quickly grown complicated. We spent time searching everywhere that might yield a clue. What we thought would be an nine-mile afternoon hop, skip, and a jump was easily turning into eleven. We do not give up.

 

We moved downstream from the meadow to the area of Truman Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

This meadow area fit the description better. We continued our search as long as time would allow. We were thorough as we could be. We’re experienced at this. We did not find the pictographs.

 

But we had a good measure of success. We did not find the pictographs but we found other rock art – petroglyphs – not mentioned in the research paper. We gave ourselves extra points for this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And what else did we find? We’re keeping that a secret. Days like this haunt us. We will both dream about the search and where we didn’t search. We’ll pour over Google Earth and maps. We should find the 15’ topos from that time period. Most people used the 15’ maps back then and our 7.5’ USGS topo carries a date of 1994. It gets complicated, but sifting through clues, doing the homework, facing a challenge, keeps life interesting. Will we return? Not without the shovel and extra gas.

 

It was late afternoon as we retraced our route and returned to our truck. The views to the south across Queen Valley and Montgomery Peak, (13,447 feet) at the north end of the White Mountains, were wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

The skies were clear in that direction but a storm was coming in from the north. We arrived at the camper and got our showers completed before the storm was on us. The evening light was incredible as the storm moved on and then cleared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next adventure was a day of exploration into the Excelsior Mountains in Nevada. Rock House Spring had caught my eye on Google Earth and was our first destination. We easily made sense of the maze of unsigned primitive roads. We had a surprise when we reached German Spring – the remains of an old homestead.

 

 

 

 

 

There are several spring pools, unfortunately all are fouled by the abundant feral asses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cabin is in fairly good condition and is visited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lady loves summit registers and cabin logs.

 

 

 

 

 

A few miles further on and we reached Rock House Spring.

 

 

 

 

Not much remains and I know little of the history. To the north is the mining ghost town of Marietta.Near Marietta is Teels Marsh, in 1872, was the start of Francis Smith’s – The Borax King – borax mining empire.

 

 

 

 

Evidence of ancient abundant springs and travertine deposits surrounds the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next destination was Huntoon Valley in the Excelsior Mountains. Several years ago, on an attempt to get up into the area, we found the roads damaged, washed out, and impassable. Today we had success and found the roads passable. Long on our list was the old cow camp at the north end of Huntoon Valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That pink plastic chair just does not fit, does it?

 

The interior is fairly well kept and looks to be used by the cattle grazing permitee. Cows have not been moved into the area this early in the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made lunch and enjoyed a long stay in the shade of the cabin. We started to explore the long alternate route into this valley from Hawthorne. The primitive road began climbing a narrow canyon to the north. It was sandy and rough. We thought about “where’s the shovel” and that missing gas can and turned around. It’s our habits that save our lives.

 

Next up is one of the highlights of this trip – a visit to the ghost town of Candelaria, Nevada and an HI (Historian Intelligence) guided hunt for treasures. Please click here for - Part Two