View From Abandoned Campsite ©2009 Jeff Blaylock

It’s a rainy day in Austin — thankfully — and it looks like tomorrow will be a washout. It’s been exactly a month since these photos were taken. So now seems like a good time to recall the single most disappointing part of last month’s epic trek to Idaho.

Lamoille Canyon sits high in the relatively unknown Ruby Mountains of northeastern Nevada. It has been called the Yosemite of Nevada, but it’s isolation and the relative obscurity which comes from being a Forest Service area instead of a national park has kept it largely off people’s radars. This, along with the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, were circled on the map before I’d even settled on what part of Idaho I was going to visit. I was very excited about getting to spend some time in this canyon. I had a campsite reservation, and I was going to get to spend an afternoon exploring.

Or so I thought.

When I reached the dreary town of Elko, Nev., it was raining steadily. I stopped for a late lunch at Frannie Ann’s Restaurant in an upscale suburb called Spring Creek. While enjoying my meal and view out the window, the rain ended and the clouds appeared to be breaking. I became optimistic and got some last-minute sundries at the convenience store across the street. It was already raining again when I reached the town of Lamoille and turned down the road heading up into the canyon.

Rain clouds shrouded the canyon walls. I can’t report whether it was as majestic as Yosemite Valley. I never saw it.

Lamoille Canyon Shrouded in Clouds ©2009 Jeff Blaylock

As the road climbed, the conditions worsened. Occasional breaks in the heavier rain and clouds offered fleeting glimpses of shadowy cliffs and side canyons, but it was generally miserable. The temperature was also dropping — it was in the 40s.

I hoped my campsite would be set far enough into the aspens to allow me to tie up my hammock’s canopy, which at least would afford me a dry place to sit, cook, and do camp stuff. Of course, the nearest trees were more than 20 feet apart, and everything was soaked. I decided to nap in the car for an hour, at which point I would decide what to do. If conditions improved, I’d stay. The photo at the top of the post was taken when I awoke.

It was clear that conditions weren’t going to improve. In fact, they’d worsened. Fog was settling into the lower lying areas, including Thomas Canyon, which, at 7,600 feet, was home to the campground. Disheartened, I decided to head on toward Great Basin National Park to give myself more time there. After all, the only thing I could do which would keep me and my gear dry was to drive. So I left Lamoille Canyon much as I found it: completely obscured by rain and fog.

Glimpse of Shadowy Cliffs ©2009 Jeff Blaylock

Like the trip to Lamoille Canyon, the drive from the canyon didn’t quite go as planned, either. My decision, bordering on obsession, to avoid traveling on interstate highways forced me to take county roads around the mountains, 14 miles of which were unpaved. It had been raining for two days. They were muddy. I drive an Infiniti. Fortunately I have the skill and experience driving off-road and in bad conditions, so I was able to get my car through it all, though there were a couple of moments I feared I would be stranded. Had I waited until morning to leave — with it raining all night — I have no doubt I would have been stranded.

I also wasn’t counting on how fast the sun sets in eastern Nevada. It was already going down when I pulled into Ely, and I was still more than an hour from the national park. Not wanting my first experience in the park to be in the dark, I settled on spending the night at the Hotel Nevada. It was the grandest casino in Nevada, … when it was built in 1929. It was cheap. It had live blackjack tables, though I was the only one playing. It also had a decent, albeit smoky, bar, where I met a great guy named Luke. He’s a Marine who was biking solo from Denver to San Francisco to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, which I am also raising money for through Fight Gone Bad.

He reached his destination on the day I made it home to Austin, making two successfully completed odysseys that day.

View From Abandoned Campsite, NV09-0823-6401R; Lamoille Canyon Shrouded in Clouds, NV09-0823-6393R; and Glimpse of Shadowy Cliffs, NV09-0823-6395R; Humboldt National Forest, Nevada | ©2009 Jeff Blaylock

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