Big Bend & The Land of Enchantment - 8

Nevada Sky

Pony Express Cache - NV Rest Area

The next morning we gassed up and headed north on Hwy 18 before turning west on Hwy 56 toward Panaca, NV. We picked up a geocache before entering Nevada and then another just after turning north at Panaca on Hwy 93. At Ely I continued north and Sam took Hwy 50 west. His wife was hosting some ladies from the state PEO convention and he preferred to arrive home after it was over. I would have gone with him but my tooth was hurting so bad I did not want to take an extra day getting back. I continued north to Jackpot picking up a few cache along the way. I again stayed at Cactus Pete’s having traveled 425 miles and logging 6 caches for the day.

Hagerman Fosil Museum

Just as a week and a half before there was ice on my saddle in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny day although rain was forecast up north. Preparing for that eventuality, the night before I had fashioned rain gear out of a garbage bag and the remaining sleeves from my backless raincoat to wear under my mesh jacket.

I followed the reverse route I had taken previously stopping for caches at Hollister and just past Buhl before reaching Hagerman. I stopped at the Hagerman Fosil Museum for a cache and took a short tour of the museum. It was really interesting and there was a skeleton of the Hagerman Horse among other things. Son, Clint, had lived in Hagerman and thinking I wouldn’t be interested never mentioned the museum. I wish I had had more time to spend there.

Hagerman Horse

Having seen the weather forecast I thought I might encounter less rain going north from Boise up Hwy 95 through Weiser rather than the way I had come on Hwy 55 through McCall. As I proceeded up Hwy 95 the clouds began building past Weiser. I stopped at the Rest Area on the hilltop north of Weiser and donned my rain gear. The rain held off until I reached the little mill town of Tamarack. I can happily report that my make shift rain gear passed the test. I was in and out of rain until just past the Rest Area at Sheep Creek south of Riggins.

Counties Map

I arrived home around 4:30 having traveled 472 miles and logging just 3 caches with 1 DNF. Totals for the whole eleven day trip were 4,731 miles, an even 100 geocaches along with 15 DNF’’s. I am hoping that son, Yancey will accompany me next year to finish the counties of New Mexico. This trip certainly had its challenges but we rode some great roads and had interesting adventures. I couldn’t have had a better traveling partner than Sam. He was knowledgeable, thoughtful and always upbeat (an important quality on a trip such as this). That’s all folks. M/W