Thursday, October 24, 2013

SUSANVILLE, California - WALKER LAKE, Nevada

 

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After quite a restful night in the Walmart parking lot at Susanville, California, we set out for Nevada.  Our plan was to get passed Reno/Carson City and head south on the 95.

We are seasoned travelers.  We should know better.  We trusted the GPS.  There are many, many routes through and around Reno.  Why did the GPS have to take us this one?

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We got some pretty amazing aerial shots of Reno and the surrounding area but Mr. Truck had to work very hard climbing these hills.  The local traffic coming towards us were heard to say “Ha, tourists trusting their GPS.  Crazy!”

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Up and down, twisting and turning.  And where did we end up – VIRGINIA CITY.  Now don’t get me wrong, Doug really wanted to see experience Virginia City but believe me, it is no place for a rig our size.  The designated parking for RV’s is a left turn off the narrow main street and down about a 6% grade.  Nope, so we drove to the end of the main road and saw this.

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That’s us parked in the lot at the end of the street.  I waited in the truck while Doug made a quick trip along the main road.  He reported that almost everything had a fee and the town is a huge tourist trap.

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So we follow the truck route.   Holy smokes, literally, our brakes were smokin’ hot by the time we got down.  We ended up in Dayton, where we got directions to Schurz which would take us to our destination, Walker Lake, near Hawthorne.

I thought we had learned our lesson about GPS but apparently not.  It made for a very long, stressful day.

We found Walker Lake and we love it here.  However, there is no cell service or internet.  The lake is gorgeous and the price is right ($3.00 a day for Seniors - Canadians probably don’t count but there is no one here to ask).  There are presently two other rigs here and one guy in a tent.  The sites are huge and all pull-through. 

 

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We got set up and hustled off to Hawthorne, about 20 minutes down the road.  Took the phone, no service even in town and alas had not taken the computer.  I don’t like not having anyone know where we are.  Next morning we went back to town (oh the gas) and used the Wi Fi at McDonalds. 

Hawthorne is a huge Army Base.  There are hundreds of bunkers of ammunition.  There was a tragic accident here in March 2013.  Seven marines were killed.

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We had intended to stay just two nights but we are enjoying the solitude and have decided to stay a couple more.  There are lots of things for Doug to take pictures of and we have been catching up on a lot of little organizing projects.

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Walker Lake is shrinking and appears to be very alkaline.  All around the shore are hundreds of coots.

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These birds seem to live on algae and bugs.  We don’t think fish could live in this lake.  There are other animals around too but you really have to watch for them.

 

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There is fresh snow on the mountains around the lake but it must be very far away.  It’s sunny and warm in the daytime and cools down just a titch at night.  And it’s so quiet. 

A couple more days here and we will be on the road to Pahrump, using our map!

3 comments:

Jim and Sandie said...

If we ever go that way again, you can bet we'll be staying at Walker Lake. We loved it there. Sorry you don't have any service. That's not good.

Wanderin' said...

We checked into Virginia City a couple years ago when we went thru Reno. After researching the area decided not to go. We also had pretty high winds at that time and even the road into Carson City was closed to RVs and trucks. Looks like you found a great place for a few days.

Striper said...

Yep, sometimes them "New Fangled Gadgets" will jump up and surprise you.

I've been taking lessons in "Trip Planning" from Jeri......I'm not sure yet if I'm headed to Vegas or Yuma next week.

Joe