The New Range? No, I have never heard of it either but on the USGS topo maps the hills between the Little Walker River/Molybdenite Creek and Highway 395 to the east are labelled as such.
I rolled out early on day 3 and enjoyed the long shadows and soft light up in the Sweetwaters.
Burcham Flat
After a short stint on 395 I turned up the Little Walker River Road.
This is where the fun began! I crossed Molybdenite Creek too soon and headed for a trail shown on my Earthmate app that would take me to the Caldera 500 route. Problem was the trail no longer exists! I should have backtracked at that point but instead decided to continue on cow tracks and join the route near Long Valley Ponds.
Pretty. Pretty slow going too.
Long Valley Ponds. I felt like I was back on track except there was hardly any track at all. Just more cattle track which split and disappeared and reappeared and so on.
Long Valley. On track? No! Not THE track, but A track that was heading in the right direction.
Volcanic Butte.
Pretty sure this section was on track. I finally accepted the idea that there was no significant trail I was missing and as long as I was rolling in the right direction all would be good.
I was amazed how remote this area is. No jeep tracks. No moto trails. Nothing but cow track and a fence gate every few miles.
Sweet meadows and ponds dot the landscape too.
The Caldera route turns up Huntoon Creek at it's junction with Long Valley Creek. Fortunately the trail here is a bit more distinct - but not much more!
Huntoon Creek and the terrain up and over to Yaney Canyon were simply gorgeous and incredibly wild.
On track but hard to tell!
The trail more or less vanished in the meadows.
Buy was pretty obvious through the sage thankfully.
The descent down Yaney Canyon was an absolute hoot. After that, a relatively easy roll got me back to Buckeye Trailhead where I left my truck.
Another long hard day. A lot harder than I expected, but also more rugged, remote, and beautiful than I expected. An incredible day!
