Our Everyday Life

It became a tradition when men are gather and go to the desert. And November became our traditional time to go. Late fall conditions are the reason why there is a very short list of places that are possible to visit. Those requirements are – no snow, a lot of BLM land and hot springs with the travel time no longer then 10 hours (or less) from the Portland, Oregon area.

This time we did not come up with a new route and went to our well known place: Frog Pond and Black Rock. Both are located in Northern Nevada with vast BLMs and lots of hot springs.

Frog Pond is more warm than hot, it’s comfortable to dip in even if the air temperature is below freezing, but getting out is tricky. Also worth mentioning that it is located on the private property, so treat it with respect and pick up all garbage when leaving. The pond’s location is very convenient, just about 15 minutes from pavement using a good gravel road.

Night sky in Nevada is awesome, no artificial lights:

Next morning after a fulfilling breakfast we headed to Black Rock Hot Spring. This year the fall was pretty dry, so we drove through playa and saved about 4 hrs of driving. And by lunch time we were on our next camp site.

Since we had some time till sunset, we decided to hike up to Black Rock.

Views from the top:

And we still had some time to practice with various guns and rifles, and learn how to do it safely, of course.

Evening was filled with unlimited supply of grilled meat. We enjoyed loud music – nobody was around to complain, because we were in the middle of the desert.

Black Rock hot spring is hot, it is nice to visit during the cold months. While you are sitting there, the body accumulates heat and saves enough of it, so you don’t freeze after you get out. It is easy to walk to the tent and slowly dress up without even feeling the cold. But don’t go there during the summer – it is not safe.

Next day we went to a boiling hot spring named Double Hot. Good people built three toilet cabins nearby, and one of them even has a nice book.

On the way to camp, we went to look at a another playa – it’s wetness will affect our driving tomorrow, and time may vary from 10 to 14 hours.

But it’s condition was perfect – dry and packed, no deep mud, so we are expecting easy driving for the convoy with a couple of winches…

Yes! I made it! My mighty Tundra got stuck in the only wet spot we happened to cross.

Now it’s time to practice recovery and winching 🙂

Tundra recovery – winching. Author: Vladislav Petyuk

Day four, time to pack and drive home

On the way back, rainy Oregon welcomes us with a bright, full, double rainbow.

This time I took my camera drone with me

 

The pictures from other people were used above:

Alexander Kogan

Andrey Shapkin

Sergey Kiselev