Neatly Stacked

Eastbound with a souhward drift, I had to go see Pumpernickel Valley. Near an old watering trough were these two halves....neatly stacked.

*Hamburgler*

Coming from the north or west, there's a curve to the left at

41.46433,-118.28316 (Coyote Pt Road).

There, perched atop the knoll, is an abandoned building...heavily adorned. 

It's near a southern boundary of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation; there're hints of Paiute-ness.

Sporelust

(tap to enlarge. Tap X in upper right of 

image to return to blog)

Fi & Me

As we were leaving the dragons, the folks next door waved. I went back to ask about the dragon's provenance and we met Fi, a Frenchman, a former motorcycle racer who's retired from Burning Man. It was he who knew from whence the dragons had come. He now operates a bicycle tour company using Specialized eBikes.

I took one for a test drive and was astonished at the power and control; it conveyed my bulk effortlessly. 

Fi charges $30.00 an hour for his guiding services. The bikes are used by donation as liability insurance is prohibitively high.

Contact Fi (pronounced: Fee) at 510-999-2023 

Carl and The Dragons

At the south end this sign welcomes you....

Touring the town, it appeared everyone was in one way or another either an artist, involved with Burning Man, or both.

This sculpture

led to the acquaintance of Carl,

who is also the official Burning Man gardener in charge of the botanical well-being of numerous properties.

Sculpture Detail

These splendid dragons, now yard decorations,

adorned a temple that was burned on the playa.

They were rescued by the trucker who'd ferried them to the pre-burn site.

Zach...of Bruno's Country Club

The day began with an impending crisis: tea-milk shortage! Urgency was imbued through the collective unconscious awareness of a single jug sitting, at risk, at the store in Empire, the only store for 60 miles. We arrived in time to be the chosen ones. 

Returning to Bruno's Country Club in Gerlach, we met Zach, the new chef. He'd just arrived from northern Indiana via Houston, Missouri and a couple of other places inbetween. Our veggie omelettes had us both sitting up and beaming like a pair of prairie dawgs.

And when a German sits down to eat, it's serious business.

Ole Sausage Fingerz,

he wuz knowed az in dem daiz

Black Rock Playa

Burning Man without the other 79,998 people expected this year.

 

I've come to think of Nevada's claim to fame as the astounding expanses that're constantly changing with the light. We spent three days watching.

The pentangle in the lower left is the area wherein Burning Man occurs. 

Stories abound about the "Boogie" (pronounced boo-jee) who fly into Gerlach International, the airport built each year on the playa, to enable their ease of access. One was told of how they vacuum up the dance area and collect the myriad baubles that were dropped, fell off or otherwise lost in the frenzy of pheromones and other mind-altering substances.

We camped on a bluff. The image above is of the view southward...toward Gerlach.

The hills across the way (above), to the east, provided an ever-changing scene that was far better than anything on CineMax, let alone tv.

 

Here, the distant hills (above) seen in the previous photo, emerge while the closer "humpies" disappear. (Humpies is a term borrowed from the lexicon/nomenclature of sexology. Though I began my undergraduate work in Geology, I eventually moved to Geography where things were more, to my way of thinking, more lyrical.)

There was still a bit of snow on the higher peaks.

Jenny Creek C.O.R.

Fifteen miles south of Gerlach.

It was in 2018 that I went past and noted an "inviting" looking road. This time we ascended beyond Jenny Creek...to the top where "dee hills ver uh-life mit dee zound uhf meeewwzik."

See THIS BLOGPOST for an explanation of C.O.R.

Theerrrrrreeee's Phoebe!

Climber

Camp

Popcorn Rock

...is a calcium carbonacious buildup (precipitate) at the southwest end of Pyramid Lake. A sulphurous air wafts about, though the waters, here and there, are cool. 

The variety of forms suggest growth or deposition in the open, but all the elongate forms are horizontal.

It was within a short amble of our camp so I set out with my guide. She'd done a prelim explore and deemed it worthy. That meant, for us, that aside from exclamations of delight, our loupes were screwed to our eyes and our noses  glued to the rock; we scrambled among the forms as children in a funhouse.

Experimenting with my meds, I waited too long to take them and though felt no angina, the onset of syncope had me wondering if I'd reached the terminus. It's a strange way to live, but provides a great appreciation of ability, despite only being able to clamber 750 feet horizontally and 50 feet up a hill.

Wildlife!

Jurassic Donut

Herd of Pelicans & Seagulls

Accretion

Insert Here

Nature's humor

Pyramid Lake Overlook

 Pleased with myself at having found an out-of-the-way place, I was surprised when a car went out around 10 pm. The next morning my surprise was deepened as several vehicles passed. A few hours later, I flagged down a likely-looking suck...er, uh, a friendly face and asked where everyone was going. It seems there're some holes in the cliff just around the bend that're popularly known as The Monkey Condos.

Pyramid Lake

This was the lowest elevation I'd been at in years but at the time I attributed my new-found energy to the presence of She-of-the-Capri.

As it was, I gamboled up the hill and enjoyed the farther view while she went even farther and snapped the photo above.