Burning Man came and went. I guess it's a testament to the way my life's become that all that anarchy is the status quo.

We took a bunch of supplies up to an old prospector who runs an opal mine about 46 miles off the paved road through the desert. He sold us a 76 Blazer 4X4 and we've just been exploring the mountains... there are wild horses everywhere, and hot springs. This was part of the wagon train, so there are the remains of old ranches and tollhouses and lots of abandoned mines.

The old codger has spent years listening to yarns, cross-referencing maps, comparing old books, and exploring the mountains looking for lost claims and hidden caves. He's too old to go clambering up rocks, though, so he's using us to do the spry stuff. Most of the time, though, we just mine opals or toodle up an unused road and go camping. That's the truck's name, Toodles.

The scale up here is beautiful. You can see forever, and there's noone around. The deer are tame, and I've seen antelope, foxes, badgers, owls, eagles, hawks, buzzards, jackrabbits, coyotes, and even the desert dace, a fish that lives only in these hot springs.

We can get gas in Gerlach about 40 miles south, but if we wanted to go to a McDonalds we'd have to drive another 130 miles to Reno. So taking a trip up through High Rock Canyon another 30 miles puts us a solid 200 miles from civilization, right where we want to be.

Check out this article on Josie Pearl, Queen of the Black Rock Desert. And check out the area on a map sometime.

https://www.blackrockdesert.org/friends/news/1954/josie-pearl-prospector-nevadas-black-rock-desert-desert-magazine-august-1954