The morning was again so beautiful, a perfect day to visit Ruby Mountains to go hiking. We packed sandwiches, chips and fruits in lunch bag.
As we were leaving the campground we were stopped by a white haired lady with walkie talkie in her hand, asked us about the RV spot we are staying in. It turned out that the registration office did not us put down for site #9 yesterday. We were advised to stop by the office to register (even though Edith did that yesterday)
We left Elko at 9:45 am, turned left on US 12 then to SR 227. While on way Edith wanted to take pictures of the mountains, found out she left the SD card in the laptop at home. There was no drug stores in Spring Creek, NV! Erwin suggested to turn around and go back to the RV park, but Edith told him not to. She said she will use her IPad to take pictures, but the quality wont be the same.
Edith suggested to stop at Khoury's in Spring Creek buy they did not have SD cards, but the cashier suggested her to try another Koury's store (bigger), but Edith decided not to waste time. So, we continued on to Ruby Mtns at Humboldt National Forest.
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| Yes, I am the king of the hill |
We chose to hike Island Trail and at the base it was over 8,500'. There is a lake at the top of the summit at over 10,000'. It took us over an hour and half to reach 3/4 of the trail. There was a female local with her black lab dog and she encouraged us to keep on walking to the top, but cautioned that where we were was the halfway point of the trail. We thought we had reached almost 2 miles after crossing the bridge, but no the lady said it is halfway. After the lady left we looked at each other and wondered if we should continue or turn around and go back. Well, we decided we were going to keep going, but after a while Edith gave up after continuing few steps. Erwin wanted to go back with her, but she encouraged him to continue hiking to the top and not to worry about her. Edith turned around, went back to the parking lot. She fell along the way, her IPad flew in the air and landed on the trail (luckily, it did not fall down the cliff). No damage on her IPad. She fell on her right side, took a while to get up. No one was around to help her up. That was her 2nd fall this year. After waiting a while she managed to get up, felt sore. She managed to continue hiking to the base. She made it back to the base in less than 45 minutes. It was about 15-20 minutes before Erwin arrived. Erwin told Edith that she should have continued hiking to the top because it was less than 1/4 of a mile to see the hidden lake. The female local “lied” to us. Erwin took pictures of the surroundings, filled up a bottle of water from the spring. We had lunch at Roads End while admiring the scenery.
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| There were rangers with K-9 dogs looking for this missing hiker when we were there. No idea if he has been found |
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| Erwin told a story about how this rock came to look like it does! |
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| See why this is called Island Lake? |
Edith prepared goulash for supper. We rested a bit but did not nap, discussed about tonight’s plan. Edith recharged camera batteries, so they will be ready for taking pictures of the stars and the Milky Way at Ruby Mountains.
By the time we got out to go to some casinos to gamble the clouds started to thicken up and it looked like it was going to rain. Looking at Ruby Mountains in the distance Edith was disappointed that there may not be an opportunity to go there for stargazing tonight.
We went to Red Lion Resort & Casino across the street from Gold Country. Edith played $3 craps while Erwin played blackjack. Then we left to go to Gold Dust Casino.
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| Metal sculptures |
When we were getting ready to head into Gold Dust casino the sky/clouds started to take on different colors/shapes. We did not play very long at Gold Dust, hurriedly left to get on I-80 to try to find a spot for sunset photography.
After the sunset we went back to Elko town because it was still too early for us to head to Ruby Mountains for the Milky Way observation. We stopped at Dairy Queen to get ice cream and sundae. While we were enjoying our treats the sky started to look better and the clouds disappeared. Edith told Erwin to go back to our LH to pick up photo gear and bag. And, we left immediately for Ruby Mountains.
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| Nice welcome sign |
It was pitch black when we drove into Ruby Mountains. We arrived at the second spot that we saved on the GPS early today. It was so easy to see the Milky Way and it was just right above us. Edith was all happy and snapped so many pictures. It started to get cold, but we had jackets on. Very few cars drove by us.
It was a very good day for us with hiking, gambling and photoshooting.
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