Dreadful weather coming over the Sierra
I was forced to leave Saline Valley, totally against my will (and I threw an almighty temper tantrum over it which only ended this morning), due to business, which I was unable to conduct because there’s not a hint of a Verizon cell signal within 50 miles of Saline Valley. AT&T people can get service from the lower springs, but I am not one of these. So I had to drive out. And I had to drive out a day before my deadline because there was a horrendous storm on the way and I thought I might get snowed in due to bad conditions at the pass. This is the sort of unpleasantness nomads have to put up with.
Anyway, I didn’t want to return to Buttermilk Road because of the dead-end-creek-Tungsten-hills-people-all-over-my-campsite thing, so I looked for another site and found one off of Pleasant Valley Dam Road on the bluff overlooking Bishop Creek and Owens Canal. Very lovely view. There, I watched the predicted storm come rolling over the Sierra. There, I sat in the nano-house all day and night while the rain pounded away on my roof and created huge puddles on my tailgate so I couldn’t go outside without releasing a flood into the house. There I sat, hoping my roof would stay on and I wouldn’t lose my solar panels, while my rig made such noises as I have never heard before as the wind howled across the desert and the storm, after way more hours than I had hoped, finally blew itself off to the east. It would have been just as scary in Saline Valley…there was a wind advisory there, too…but it would have been drier and it would have been 55 or 60 degrees instead of 30. After the storm passed and the sun came out and it warmed up a hair, the campsite looked nice again, so I stayed another day.
For those who are also out wandering aimlessly around the southwest who also want to possibly find campsites, I can only recommend this one to people in SUVs and pickups. It isn’t the kind of track you want to drive an RV on. However, there is what promises to be a nice BLM campground very close to this location, I believe it’s called Pitt Creek or Pitt Valley or Pitt Bluff or Pitt something. It costs money. That’s why I’m not there. But it doesn’t cost a lot of money, maybe $5 a night (or $2.50 if you are the Vagabond Tourist and you have a golden age pass). So maybe if you’re driving an RV you could check that out.
Here is the storm coming over the Sierra toward my campsite. The temperature dropped 20 degrees and I hunkered down under torrential rain (24 hours) and howling winds (36 hours) that made my rig crack, groan buckle and rock…it was NOT FUN.
Here’s the aftermath of the storm, looking west to the Sierra.
And here’s what I now have to get through, basically, to get back to Saline Valley. Now we’re looking east, not exactly toward the pass, but sort of. Maybe we’ll try that tomorrow.