Someone had told Jerri and me that we could take the Ranger from our houses through the mountains to her granddaughter’s house using trails cut out by many other off roaders. Of course, we wanted to see if we could find our way and the following is the adventure of that day.
The Carson River is not far from where we live. We ventured into the Pine Nuts (the range to the east of us) and followed a power line road for quite a way.The power line road sort of petered out and we wandered around trying to find the absolute right way. We could see where we wanted to be, but the trick was getting to the right connection without getting onto a paved road. The Ranger is not street legal and often the gendarmes look the other way. But we wanted to do it legally. Unfortunately, our final road turned into a motorcycle run and it was just too dangerous for us. As we turned around, we saw this sign and laughed. (This was a gully and NOT the road)So, we turned around and headed for home. BUT, we saw another road that would take us higher to give us some better views. This one was really fun! Prison Hill is to the left.A view of Slide Mountain and a portion of Carson City (Eagle Valley). Yes, part of it actually slid away down into Washoe Valley just north of Carson City. The mountains/hills you see between Carson City and Slide Mountain are a portion of the Virginia Range. Looking the other way, we could see the north end of our Carson Valley.A tufted evening-primrose (according to my flower book)Some Mormon tea plants… a different taste, but not a bad tea.Lots of arrowleaf balsam plants to add some color to the hillsidesThis is an example of desert peach. Those thorns are very mean if one is not careful.Jerri taking some photos that she’s already posted on Facebook. It was very sandy where we stopped and hard to tromp around the area. Since we had jackets on, you might wonder if it was warm enough for snakes to be out and about. Yes, they were, and we were very careful where we walked.As we began to go down the hill, we encountered this guy just sunning himself across our road. We estimate he was more than a yard long. Locally, he’s called a bull snake.We knew he wasn’t poisonous, so weren’t very concerned when we got out to look at him. He wasn’t moving and wasn’t even sticking his tongue out. I thought, at first, he was dead, that we had run over him when we went up the hill. I petted the back of his neck and he still didn’t move. Eventually he did stick out his tongue and then moved off the road enough so we could pass him without running over him. This guy was the first snake I’ve seen out in our wildlands, and I’ve been here almost 11 years. Glad, though, it wasn’t a rattlesnake.
We didn’t accomplish our goal to getting to Sierra’s house, but now we have an excuse to try again. No matter what adventure we take next, we know we’ll have a lot of fun.
Marvellous pictures again, Cora. How beautiful your area is! I liked the DEAD-END- information. Had there been no sign, you’d probably never have known. I liked the snake, too. I wonder if I’ld have had the courage to touch him, like you did. Great adventure! Love, Angel
buzzardnotes 
Marvellous pictures again, Cora. How beautiful your area is! I liked the DEAD-END- information. Had there been no sign, you’d probably never have known. I liked the snake, too. I wonder if I’ld have had the courage to touch him, like you did. Great adventure! Love, Angel
>