Ophir Creek
06/21/2007 11:02 p.m.
It was a fairly typical "Reno day" for me. I arose at 5:15 and was on the riverside path on the west end of Idlewild Park before 6:00 a. m. The air was almost too cool. That's a nice thing about Reno: it does cool down at night. I walked my 2 1/2 to 3 miles and then went to 7:00 Mass at the cathedral on the corner of 2nd and Arlington. I went yesterday too.
Not being Catholic, I don't participate fully in the mass, but I enjoy the "spiritual food," and the time to meditate. I no longer feel "a stranger" during the service either. Though I admit there's something particularly friendly about the Reno's cathedral, the benches are exactly the same as those in the old 3rd Ward, and the architecture too is somehow similar.
But my big adventure today was a hike / walk out to Davis Creek Regional Park in Washoe Valley. I'd been there before, just to check it out. It's one of the only "campgrounds" listed in the Reno area--and it does have a mountain setting. But this morning after a light breakfast and a shower, I felt inclined to go to Washoe Valley. Though nearly surrounded by high dessert, it's green and moist there. It's no wonder that the Mormons were attracted there, and that Eilly Bowers built her mansion there. When I pulled into the park, I noticed that "Ophir Chreek Trailhead" notation and decided to give it a try.
"Try," it was. The temperature was 90 or above and the dry gritty hillside was not appealing to me. I decided I'd only go one hour--after all, I had already put in my walking time for the day. It was Ponderosa Pine, chaperall, bitterbrush, sagebrush, and another chaperall-like shrub with reddish brown stems--I knew it on Catalina--I hate getting old and forgetful. The trail was especially steep at first but moderated part way up the mountain. It flattened out onto several slide benches or glacial morains, I'm not sure which, and a time or two, it actually declined into some low, flat seasonal "lake beds." When I got warmed up, it really wasn't a bad walk.
My hour took me to where the trail finally crossed the creek--Ophir Creek, I would guess. Due to the unstable slide mountain above it, and no doubt also to the impact of the logging/mining operation a hundred-fifty years ago, the creek itself was in quite an eroded gorge. I heard the creek, saw it far below, long before I ever reached the water. And by the time I reached the water, the flora had added arbovida, fir, and other less "desolate" plants; and I had finlly reached the "out-of-hearing" point for the busy highway below (traffic between Reno and Carson City is endless).
I saw no animals with the exception of frequent lizzards. Other than boot tracks, the only other impressions on the granitic-sandy trail were horse hoof prints--obviously quite fresh (there was still a horse piss puddle). On the way back down I passed one man of about my own age coming up the trail. Oh yes, there were plenty of birds, and I saw one colorful one with a long black and white tail, but mostly I just heard them.
The trail was well-groomed, "well enough" engineered, and I would climb it again if I had the opportunity. One of the listed destinations was the Mount Rose Meadows, and ultimately it joined into the trail that approached the summit of Mt Rose from the south. That, however, would be a long hard climb. More than I would want to do--and certainly not alone without companions.
When I got down off the mountain, I went briefly to Wall-Mart (the new one on the far south end of Reno), and then went to the Indian Restaurant (just a couple of blocks north of my motel) for lunch. They have a lunch buffet that is very good and still under $10.00. I was not disappointed, though the service was different from how it has been in the past.
I'm at the downtown library now. This evening I may go to a bookstore. Tomorrow morning I need to pick up the kids at 10:30 a. m. at the leadership camp at Tahoe. No, I didn't "do Tahoe" this trip either. Somehow, Tahoe doesn't make me feel happy. It's too developed: there's too much there that doesn't belong in such a mountain setting. It feels to me like the lake has been "defiled" in a terrible "California way." It's the same defilement that's going on at Bear Lake and other beautiful places in Utah. Yes, I've missed some good things at Tahoe, but I think that there along the most wild portion of the east side, I've seen the best.
I'm out of computer time. Here at the main library it's dished out in one-hour helpings, and it's always busy--though no long line today. Now the goal is to get safely home across that 9 hours of desert between here and the eastern side of the Great Basin. It's still hard to believe that Reno-Sparks-Carson City really are the next "real" city west of eastern Box Elder County. It's a big country.
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