Black Warrior and the Mine at 40-02.0 x 119-14.5

LR Trek 102 - 02 June 2007 - Monte-Disco Productions

Ron (Trail Boss) and Ben

After leaving the road at Nixon; the first order of business is to air down a bit. I think I've made a believer out of Ben. We head north-north-east, passing the old slough that used to connect Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes (pre-1936), crossing the saddle; and then about 2 miles past Russell Peak we turn east towards Black Warrior Peak.

The trail mostly follows the edge of and sometimes in the bottom of the wash that originates at Black Warrior Spring. About two miles up we come to Creel Spring and the only cottonwood tree within a radius of about twenty miles. At this point about four years ago I climbed a small crest and continued towards the south side of the mountain in the old Freelander. This time we turn around and head up a different trail hoping to find something that will get us nearer the top of the mountain.

According to the topo maps there are no roads that go all the way to the top of the mountain; but we'll look to see just how far we can get. After traveling another mile and a half east; we pass some prospects just below the 1000 foot basalt cliffs that surround the peak, and head towards a threatening looking road climbing a steep saddle.

At the bottom of the climb I stop to survey the situation. The trail runs a linear distance of perhaps 300 feet and climbs maybe 150 feet and is covered by loose talus. I might be able to make it to the top if I run it very fast, but will be in big trouble if I don't make it; plus the fact that Ben, without traction control won't have a prayer. So I try it at a crawl in low range, first gear and differential locked. The first 100 feet is really loose and I'm kicking rocks plus the ETC is getting a work out. Finally the truck stops with all four wheels taking turns spitting rocks. It's time to back down.

Backing down is really loose. Ben's comments after I get down are that it appears that all of my wheels are taking turns floating on the rocks. Thankfully the trail is absolutely straight without any drop offs; as otherwise it could be really dangerous. I tell Ben to turn around so that we can head back towards the lake.

Where we find a spot wide enough to turn around we're in a sandy trough between three foot high sandy banks. Ben is almost immediately stuck. He's sitting with the front bumper on one bank and his spare tire, under the truck, stuck on the other bank with all four wheels spinning. No amount of spotting and playing around will move him. This ought to be a fun recovery!

I back down to him and then just drive up onto the bank that he's stuck on. Then we strap his rear recovery point to my rear recovery point and hope that I can get enough traction to pull him out. It's a piece of cake; I turn around in nearly the same place that he did without any trouble. It's amazing what about three inches of extra clearance, no spare tire underneath and traction control makes.

So it's decided: We won't be bringing the newbie's in the brand new Range Rovers and Sports up this trail! We head back to the lake and then up Coyote Canyon towards the mines at Nightingale.

Just past the Jay Bird Mines I turn onto a trail that parallels the regular one and pass some prospect workings that Ben's GPS names the Miracle Mine. I wonder where these names come from that aren't even on the USGS Topos. Anyway, the trail has a couple loose off-camber spots to break in the newbie's when we bring them this way. We pass on by the Nightingale Mines and head on up to the saddle overlook above that mine we spotted last month at 40°02.0'N x 119 °14.5'W.

We have decided to hike the half mile from the saddle down to the mine to see how drivable it is and whether it would be possible to park and turn around ten trucks down there. The hike down is pretty easy; it's about a half mile and a 300 foot drop in elevation. The road is just a bit wider that one of our trucks and pretty solid, but gives one a heavy dose of vertigo looking down into the deep canyon below with its 60° slope. At the mine it's pretty obvious that there is only room for one or two vehicles at most.

The mine shack visible in the photo was at one time part of the caved in building about fifty feet above it on top of the tailings pile. The remains of a busted ore chute are in terrible shape. The mine consists of three horizontal tunnels, three vertical shafts that intersect a couple of the tunnels and a lot of cave ins. This is another place that we will not be bringing the newbie's unless we decide that there will be time to hike down and back. The hike back up to the trucks is a workout as you are making an elevation gain of about three hundred feet at an elevation already above six thousand feet. The guests on the trek will all be flatlanders.

The next place that I want to explore is across the Sage Hen Valley to a spot on the crest of the Sahwave Range to the east. On the map it shows six vertical shafts, lots of prospects and a spot marked "USLM1" at about 40°00.7'N x 119°07.1'W. The road to the spot is almost perfectly straight for about seven miles across the sand and sage and is not on any maps. That's what happens when you're in country that was last mapped by the USGS in 1927! Almost none of the roads are where they say they are.

Amazingly, we are able to drive right up to the monument even though there is not supposed to be a road there. It's a cairn of rocks with a 6x6 post in the middle of it. And it's exactly at 40°00.7'N x 119°07.1'W! Yes, it does have a lot of mined ground. The ore looks very similar to what is found at Nightingale, MGL and Jay Bird; so it's most likely tungsten too. We were going to have lunch here, but as its 94 degrees and shade less, we decide to move on.

From here we head due south to where we will intersect Sage Hen Wash and then will turn out of the wash going south again towards Bradys Hot Springs. At about the point where we intersect the wash; an antelope darn near runs into the front end of my truck. Then she and a friend casually walk around me and continue along the wash.

Where North Valley breaks out into Hot Springs Flat I decide to see if we can drive all the way around the curious diatomite mine at 39°56.3'N x 119°05.6'W. It's a butte about 500 feet in diameter and about 200 feet tall. The top is a flat lave cap and everything below it is a deposit of very white diatomite that is at least 200 feet thick. Yes, there is a road that goes all the way around. Rounding the last corner I wake up a doe and fawn antelope that were sleeping in the shade of the cliff on the north side. It's still too hot for lunch so we continue south.

At about 2:00pm we reach Bradys Hot Springs and cross highway 80. We stop for lunch at the abandoned salt evaporators at Eagle Rock for lunch. It's now 96 degrees so we don't linger long for lunch.

After lunch we continue south-east crossing the low saddle at the north end of the Hot Springs Range and into the Fortymile Desert. At the foot of the range we head south following the pole line road towards Black Butte and Hazen. At Hazen we intersect US50alt. and it's about five miles back to the house. We arrive at about 3:45pm.

Photos are at:

http://rvm.tcomeng.com/yappa-ng/index.php?album=%2FRons%20Adventures%2FBlack_Warrior_Recon

Note that numbers BW30 through 34 are not in same order as the previous.