Buckskin Mountain
  Last viewed: Dec 09, 2009, 06:12:06 AM (GMT)

Winnemucca, NV--

One of my oldest and most long-suffering cycling pals was passing through town earlier this week, so we loaded up the truck and headed north about 50 miles into Humboldt National Forest for a mountain bike ride.

We parked on FS531 about two miles up from FS084. We started out up a driveway, and when that quickly ended, followed first an abandoned road and then a pretty nice game/cow trail about four miles up the canyon next to a small stream. We saw a small herd of female antelopes, and a white-tailed deer, also dozens of Sage Grouse, known as Sage Hen hereabouts. Vicky spotted a small black snake, which she pronounced "snok."

Eventually, the trail gave out and we cross-country hiked about a quarter mile over to FS084, which we took a quarter mile or so to Windy Gap. From there, it's a steep two miles up to the Halcyon Mine and Buckskin Peak (8,734 feet).

Nearing the top we saw several birds that I took at first for eagles. They had variegated wings with white markings. The wind was strong and thankfully cool in the pounding noontime sun. The two birds held their wings in, close to their bodies, hovering completely motionless 500 feet off the ground. Then, they'd fold up all the way and plunge down the steep Western cliff face of Buckskin Slide. Nearing the ground, they'd open their wings and be instantaneously catapulted back up, gaining about two thousand feet in a matter of seconds. Don't their ears pop?

At the top, we hunted for cool rocks. Vicky found several large specimens which she somehow induced me to carry back for her in my handlebar bag. I began traversing around the steep side of Buckskin to get a closer view of the eponymous "buckskin," the massive tan area where the mountainside slide away.

As I stepped around a stand of juniper trees, a truly massive bird rousted out of a low perch about ten feet in front of me. It was clearly a parent or guardian of the smaller birds we'd watched earlier, and it soared quickly up to join its companions. It's wings seemed too long and narrow for an eagle, and seemed to lack the distinctive eagle claws, but, after a fair bit of research, I've decided that they probably were Golden Eagles:

-- Young, one in particular, were much lighter in color
-- Didn't flap wings while hovering like a kite, or dive feet first
-- too big for kites and wings weren't pointy

The parent had white stripes under its wings, as Goldens do, but narrow ones, even close to the body (not typical of Golden Eagles). The stripes ran just back from the leading edge of the wing, then curved around the edge of the wing ends, again not so typical of Golden Eagles. Wingspan six feet.

We explored the summit for about an hour, poking around the remnants of the Buckskin Halcyon mine, which filed for corporation in 1917. We found a really ancient yellow motor and what looked like some kind of conveyor-fed rock crusher from the Samson Company of Colorado. Also, a small dynamite shed/workshop with a few spare parts still left in the bins. We also found a cluster of what appeared to be miners quarters from the 70s that had been surrounded with an electric fence to keep the cattle out and turned into some kind of hunting lodge. A coyote pelt lay drying near the entranceway.

Eventually we cashed in our elevation gain and dropped back down to the truck. I rinsed my legs off in the stream: I had forgotten the sunscreen, and so had dusted my legs, Indian-style, thus escaping a burn. My long-sleeve thrift-store linen shirt protected my arms and is my favorite hot-weather riding garment.

We weren't very well organized, or I should say I wasn't: I made but forgot to take a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Luckily, I still had a large bag of Lays potato chips in my handlebar bag from the last ride.

Vicky forgave me, or seemed to, and we drove back to Paradise Hill Station where we caught the end of a rather boring stage of the Tour on OLN on the big screen in the trucker's lounge. Then we drove home to Winnemucca and had hamburgers, salad and celery sticks with pineapple- and pimento-flavored cream cheese. Yum.

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