Skiing!

 Early season snowfall allowed pleasant cross country skiing up at Murry Summit. Soft snow in the shade and melt/freeze crusts in the sun. As of 12/7 bare patches have appeared, there is more melt/freeze and even some ice, but still worthwhile.

Gotta love the interesting tracks!

Hoping for sufficient cover, I went back to the area where I had my last good powder runs last spring in the Schell Creek Range.

I'd call it fair to good skiing on wind eroded facets, but there were patches of wind crust too. Rocks and timber lurked beneath the snow which was roughly 2 feet deep. Not complaining! It was fun.

I truly enjoyed the wintry mountain scenery too.

Yesterday (12/9) I went for another tour seeking turns. Entering the Schell Creek Wilderness, I was happy to see I was amongst the permitted groups.

Back to the promised land. This time I checked out the glades far right.

Rugged terrain across canyon. Steep skiing anyone?

Good skiing here! Much less wind affected than the open bowl. Obstacles again lurked so I kept the foot off the gas.

 So danged good to be on skis again!

Schellbourne Pass Bike Tour

 Too long! I've been riding in earnest. Mostly short to medium length rides in and around Ely. Cool stuff, but not quite blog worthy.

I've been hoping to get out for a bikepack for the last month or so, but haven't for various, kinda lame, reasons - until my buddy Patrick came to town and was itching to go. 

We had a false start up in the White Pine Range near Hamilton where we only found only one meager spring and were reliant on finding more further on. Too big a gamble, so we regrouped.

 We settled on the Schellbourne Pass area in the northern Schell Creek Range. This is me, rolling out!

The climb to the pass is relatively easy, stairstepping up with a few short, steep sections. Once over the pass our next destination was Twin Springs.

Good flowing springs were found above this stock pond, so we topped off our water and rode on.

The next several miles involved a lot of short, sometimes steep, climbs and descents as the road traversed through different watersheds. This is me again, just cresting one of the climbs.

By mid afternoon we rolled into Centerville, the site of a mill and a small town established in 1872 near several silver mines. Patrick in stoke mode.

Bike lean on the last remaining structure.

Centerville made for a fine campsite with a strongly flowing spring, a fire ring with plenty of wood nearby, flat ground for sleeping, and sweeping vistas.

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful.

A fun descent brought us down to Spring Valley, and after a short spin, to Stone House. This was the site of a Pony Express station and later a stage coach stop.

A look up into the hills from whence we came. Our route basically traversed from right to left at the base of the steeper slopes.

 Finally! A blog entry. A bike tour. Wild Nevada. I love it!

Horse Camp Wash

 Yesterday I got out early and rode up Horse Creek Wash starting off Highway 6 about 20 minutes south of Ely.

 The wash empties into Steptoe Valley as a wide and shallow grass and sage valley.

Higher the valley narrows and the Pinon Juniper Forest encroaches.

Bike and flowing water trough. The water was coming from a solar powered well.

Most of the best limestone formations were still in the shade early morning, but this little one was shining brightly.

Flowing water!

The cabin at Horse Camp Spring. Looks like it was in pretty good shape until relatively recently, but pack rats had gotten in the through the rotten planks at floor level and were making a mess.

Apparently unused corral.

The meadow at Horse Camp. As I rode up I saw a small herd of Elk including two young ones. here.

This is another meadow with flowing water just above Horse Camp Spring.

I got up to the pass between Horse Camp Wash and Cattle Camp Wash relatively easily, so I checked my maps and decided to take on the big loop by heading over the pass.

Small but attractive Limestone formations along the way.

Came across this old cabin about midway down Cattle Camp Wash. It is entirely fenced in preventing access (I reached through to take the photo). There's the remnants of an old mine nearby, but I can't find any other info on it.

Wide open scenery lower down with Mt Grafton in the distance.

The USGS topo map calls this the Lund Group Well. The windmill was operational. The school bus was not! Note the solar panels for running a pump in the well too.
 

There were three or four of these "troughs" made from giant tires with float valves in the middle which were protected by metal cages. Serious engineering!

By this time it was getting warm, so I wet myself with the water and rolled on. About an hour later I was at the truck. I'm loving the adventure riding out here!

Great Basin NP

 Took a short but sweet trip out to Great Basin National Park with long time friends. 

Theresa Lake with Mount Wheeler back left.

No color enhancement on this one. Just nature's brilliance! No idea what it is.

Stella Lake

Hiking with Z was a hoot. Slow, but a hoot. Perfect for me. Feeling pretty slow myself.

Sweet sweet meadows.

Twilight vistas from the campground.

Early morning scene.

Mary and I hiked Wheeler Peak back in 2018. It was great to come back and remind myself just how beautiful it is here!

Inside Passage Pt2

 We saw Humpback Whales every day of the cruise, but this day was extraordinary owing to the number of pods and unusual feeding behavior.

With just a cell phone it was pretty hard to get good photos but....

Nice pair of flukes

Humpbacks Bubble Net Feeding. Incredible to see several whales breaking the surface, mouths agape.

Later that day we sailed up Neka Bay, then boarded the Zodiacs for a trip up the lower stretch of the Neka River. Sighted a Brown Bear and early King Salmon.

Next stop was the Inian Islands. Here we neared the open ocean with more wind and swells.

Calming at sunset!

Glacier Bay day! Mountains, glaciers, fjords.

We were lucky to witness two large calvings here at the mouth of the Margarie Glacier

The peak back right is Mt Fairweather 15,325'. Ironically this range/peak is known for consistently poor weather, but we lucked out enjoying an ideal day.

Glacier sculpted granite

Zoomed in lower left. Mountain Goat!

The second to last night on the ship.

Orcas! Without a good zoom lens it was hard to get good shots. We were blessed to see babies frolicking, adults mating, and plenty of breaching.

 All good things come to an end and unfortunately for me this trip came to a crashing end, as I contracted COVID. Symptoms showed up the last day of the cruise and next day I was pretty sick.

It's been three weeks out and I still suffer from chest and head congestion, but those symptoms are still slowly diminishing.