Seven Troughs

I've neglected my poor blog for too long; with winter comes a comparative lull in travel.  However there are still a couple of points I have yet failed to include: a visit to the Sheldon Refuge (the second installment of the Geologic Legacy series), a short jaunt from Austin to Battle Mountain on the scenic NSR 305, and a day trip to Seven Troughs I made the morning after Thanksgiving.  So what better time than February to share a few secrets from November!?

Turns out I picked a good time to go: the day I made the trek was a balmy 60 degrees (or so claimed my Jeep) with a few high cirrostratus clouds riding a stately breeze; by the very next weekend, however, things had changed quite a bit.  For my trusty steed and I, though, that Friday was a good day for deserting.

NSR 399 out of Lovelock

Trinity Range

If you lived here you'd be home by now!

Trinity Range 

Trinity Range, Turnoff from 399 to the Seven Troughs Road

Seven Troughs Range from Seven Troughs Road, Trinity Range

Seven Troughs Range

Unfortunately I never did make it to the camp of Seven Troughs itself, but I did manage to see some impressive geography and two historical sites.

VERNON

Vernon was one of the many communities to spring up in Nevada during the early 20th century mining boom.  So little information is extant (or readily available anyhow) that I must apologize: it was founded in 1905, had an operating post office from Nevada Day 1906 until July 31st 1913, and by the end of the Great War the town-site was essentially abandoned...with most of the frame structures eventually moved to the nearby Tunnel Camp (see below).

So what's left?

Some of the jail.

Everything looks better with basset hound.

The Vernon tetanus farm; my jaw was seized with excitement.

An adumbrative stone foundation.

And some inspiring views.

TUNNEL CAMP

Mining activity took place here up into the 1950s, but the establishment of the camp, much like Sutro nealy 60 years before, was in support of a boring (I probably should say "tunneling," but it would be redundant, not to mention stolid, to recycle the name of the camp in its description - I'm sure the work itself was anything BUT prosaic) operation to provide drainage for the mines at Seven Troughs, a project which was abandoned in 1934.

So what's left here?

"Mine!" - Moffet

Those shirt have been hanging there untouched for over half a century!

It still WORKS!

Privacy is forgotten when you have scenery like this to take the place

of an old Nebraskaland magazine when you...you know.

????

So...enough to make the trip worthwhile by itself.  In addition to the lonely remains of buildings, many of which are still in sufficiently adequate condition yet to provide shelter (quantity of deer mouse feces may exceed federal standards however), there is also a small graveyard...

 
...which, far from being forgotten, has seen fairly recent use.

Beloved family pet.

Just outside the graveyard's border.

No names to be found, however.

SEVEN TROUGHS RANGE

After exploring Tunnel Camp, having left Reno fairly late in the morning and with short late-autumn days working against me, there was not much time for a thorough exploration of the mountain range itself.  Having just enough time, more or less, to drive up to the crest from Vernon before rushing back to the Pizza Factory in Lovelock I made one last side jaunt up the narrow canyon to complete the day.

Utah juniper, the only indigenous tree I came across in the Seven Troughs area.

The Seven Troughs crest from the Northwest

Granite Springs Valley...sorry about the lens flare

(although I'm reasonably sure J.J. Abrams doesn't have it trademarked).

Looking toward the Selenite Range in the distance.

Although I wasn't able to make it to the sites of Seven Troughs or Mazuma, the couple of hours I spent wandering around this lonely if not entirely remote sector of Nevada were not only well worth the travel time, but also whetted my appetite for my next adventure out here (I can't leave the area only half conquered now, can I?).  Plus I got to meet a few new friends along the way!

Wild Burros

Wild Horses

Wild Horses

Antelope

And the adventure ended as it began...in Lovelock.

Happy traveling!