Twenty Years From Now - Adventures of D&J: May 2020

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Into The Dry, Bikepacking To Six Mile Station

"Formerly known as six mile station, this stage stop and way station provided service between some of the smaller mining camps and Aurora and Bodie, CA during the late 1860's. The area became of greater importance with the arrival of the Carson Colorado Railroad into Hawthorne in 1881. With increased passenger and freight traffic between Hawthorne, Aurora, and Bodie, and the expanding local population, a Post Office was established on October 24, 1883. The Post Office was named after H. D. Fletcher, the first Postmaster. The Post Office was removed on November 30, 1918 when Hawthorne became the mailing address for area patrons."

May 2020
I wanted to get out on a little longer bikepacking trip than running circles through the Pine Nuts. I planned out a 3 day trip to Fletcher Station, aka 6 Mile Station where Joannie would come and pick me up. Much of this is ground I had covered before but it's been a couple years so it was relatively fresh to me. Riding up Pine Grove Flat I found several additional water sources that were unknown to me on my last trip. That was a nice carrot as it allowed me to carry less water on my bike, always a huge weight savings.

I left the house planning to ride my usual route across to Sunrise Pass rd (SPR) then simply follow that across Sunrise Pass and down into Smith Valley. After a few minutes riding I changed my mind and opted for a route up to Mineral Valley rd and thence through Mineral Valley to SPR. This route is much nicer in my opinion and has nice springs along the way. By lunch time I was through Mineral Valley and just a couple miles from the SPR junction. It being Memorial Day weekend I was expecting lots of ATV traffic on SPR and I wasn't wrong. They were all courteous though and slowed down while passing me. I crossed Sunrise Pass and descended towards Smith Valley filtering several liters of water at some cattle troughs and made camp in a nice green meadow with views out towards Smith Valley.

Top of Sunrise Pass looking east

The following day I rode down through Smith Valley on mostly pavement stopping at the Buckboard Station for more water and a quick breakfast. Then it was pavement out through Wilson Canyon, the Yerington cutoff and finally up East Walker road where the road returned to dirt. On Google Earth I had spotted what looked like a water tank and hopefully a place to camp for the night. When I arrived late in the afternoon at the turning point to go up to where the tank should be I could see no evidence of the tank from the road. I elected to go up anyway and try to find a place to camp. To my delight I came upon the tank, about an 18" high concrete tank that was apparently built right over a natural spring with cool water bubbling up into the tank in the middle and a small cut in the wall where the overflow exited. It was obviously well known by the cows but they had been moved elsewhere for some time. I ended up camping right there and as a bonus I was able to clean up some of the last couple days sweat and grime. Winning!

Harmless Red Racer snake

Water tank

Third and final day. I continued riding out East Walker road beyond the Flying M Ranch formerly owned by Barron Hilton. Apparently it was acquired by the National Fish And Wildlife Association in 2016. Even though you cross the Walker river on a bridge it is difficult to access the water being completely fenced. Climbing up away from the ranch a couple of miles, I found another cattle trough with water flowing through it. Another win! I continued climbing across the small saddle and made my way to Fletcher, a beautiful desert oasis with a great spring and lots of big shady cottonwood trees. I leaned my bike up on a tree and waited for Joannie. We camped together that night, along with our pup 'Wyatt' who thoroughly enjoyed splashing around in the abundant water and getting filthy in the equally abundant mud. I ended my ride there but we went on to Exploring the Esmeralda Mining District.