SUMMER 2006 . BlackRockDesert.org Friends unites diverse users to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the Black Rock Desert / High Rock Canyon region for future generations. Guru Road, Personified The Safe and Sane Visitor’s By Matthew “Metric” Ebert Guide to Traveling Safely in s you drive north through Gerlach, bearing right on Ato route 34, along side the Black Rock Desert playa, The Black Rock Region you may notice a road sign off to the left about a mile out By David Book of town. Perhaps you slow down as a rock pillar erected without mortar or cement comes into view. White letters hether you are you hike or horseback into then might attract your eyes as you stop to read, new to the into the Wilderness Areas scratched in the ruddy WBlack Rock / and include the “cherry stone, "Dooby Avenue High Rock area, or are a stem” roads into and West," and "Whatever regular visitor, everyone between them, include You Think About This appreciates the vastness of another 752,000 acres. Road Remember The this area. Excluding the Price Is Right." Wilderness Areas where There are more than 900 motorized travel and miles of roads in the Your curiosity piqued mechanical equipment are National Conservation and deciding you are not allowed, there are Area alone. None of them in no hurry, you drive up the slight crest to see what more than 453,000 acres are paved. This can be there is to see. There you find a target-shaped pattern to visit. (The Playa alone is rugged country and it’s with beckoning rocks covered with words. "Ground almost 105,000 acres, or easy to get lost because Zero," one rock in the middle states, “The Alternative about 164 square miles.) If most roads are poorly (continued on page 4) (continued on page 6) Memorial Day Camp Out: Tales From The Burn Barrel By Margie Reynolds Boyfriend and dog in tow, I was happy to be back on the road and heading to the desert for the first annual Friends Memorial Day Camp Out, hosted by Will Roger. Camp was set up at the Cassidy Mine site, just off Soldier Meadows Road which runs along the west arm of the playa. A large flat bluff with plenty of parking offered sweeping views of the Black Rock Desert and the ranges beyond. The lake that forms on the playa each winter still remained, the winds shifting and morphing it’s shoreline each day. Friday was spent exploring the tufa along the rim of the playa, and by nightfall a host of Friends had settled in to camp. Photo by Laura Kimpton Friends of Black Rock / High Rock Summer 2006 1 The playa is a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan. Photo by Bill Kositzky There’s Something About Lake Lahontan By Will Roger Peterson t was 1994 when I first came to them and some how this camp on some of the mountainsides the Black Rock Desert. The occa- looked like it belonged out there on surrounding the dry lake bed had Ision was the burgeoning Burning this sea of playa dust. Fully clothed been puzzling me. These stripes were Man Festival on Labor Day weekend. this time, with my bloody socks layered, maybe several hundred feet There were about 2,000 people showing through my sandals, I apart and some were a mile long or camped out over several square miles limped over to their camp to be longer and perfectly parallel to the of blank dry lake bed. neighborly. They made me feel really ground. They seemed to be made of a comfortable, sat me down, listened rock that was darker then the rest, in The 400 square mile camping area to my laments about fact almost black. was not at all crowded. I immediately my ailments as we took off my clothes and shoes and made friends. After hat day I was working with BLM celebrated my independence from the several hours of cock- TRecreation planner, Mike Bilbo, ‘real’ world and danced around bare- tails and fishing tales I who informed me that the stripes foot and naked. It seemed that I was felt better, as if the desert had were the ancient shoreline of Lake the only one with such enthusiasm captured me and made me different Lahontan, that each stripe represented and the next day I discovered why. My then I had been before I came to it. I 10,000 years. The playa, he said, was skin was so burned from the blazing finally asked my hosts what was up a sediment remnant of the old Lake, sun that I had difficulty laying down. with all the boats out here in this dry over 500 feet deep in spots. He even Worse yet were my feet, cracked to desert place. As if I should have said that a fully intact wooly the bone from the salt and minerals in known, they said they were the Lake mammoth skeleton was found on the the talcum like playa surface. Lahontan Yacht Club. northeast part of the Black Rock Desert near the Quinn River wash. My first time visiting the Great Basin It was several years later when I heard Desert and after one day, all I could do of Lake Lahontan again. By this time I Apparently this was a very big and was gingerly sit upright in a lawn was one of the organizers of Burning ancient body of water that had left its chair. This forced me to look more Man and spent several months each mark to this day. All of these personal deeply at the things around me and summer on or around the Black Rock and discordant introductions to Lake attempt to enjoy my fate. Desert as director of the desert opera- Lahontan had caused some interest in tions. I had learned to negotiate trav- me to learn more. Close by was an unusual camp made eling on the lake bed by ‘dead reck- up of boats on their trailers that had oning’ or looking for memorable vari- The information on the next page been towed in by pickup trucks. ations in the surrounding landscape about Lake Lahontan was discovered People were living and camping in and using that as a reference point for on the internet. Perhaps you’ll their boats! There were about six of travel. A certain horizontal marking discover more on your own. 2 Summer 2006 Friends of Black Rock / High Rock Ancient Lake Lahontan (Wikipedia) Are You A Rockhound? ncient Lake Lahontan was an enormous lake that AFMS Code Of Ethics Aexisted during the ice age, covering much of north- (American Federation of Mineralogical Societies) western Nevada, extending into northeastern California and - I will respect both private and public property and southern Oregon. At its peak approximately 12,700 years will do no collecting on privately owned land ago, the lake had a without the owner's permission. surface area of about - I will keep informed and observe on all laws and 8,000 square miles, regulations governing collecting on public lands. with its largest - I will to the best of my ability, ascertain the component centered boundary lines of property on which I plan to at the location of the collect. present Carson Sink. - I will use no firearms or blasting materials in The depth of the lake collecting areas. was approximately - I will cause no willful damage to property of any 800 feet at present kind: fences, signs, buildings, etc. day Pyramid Lake, - I will leave all gates as found. and 500 feet at the Black Rock Desert. - I will build fires in designated or safe places only, and will be certain they are completely extinguished before leaving the area. Climate change Ancient Lake Lahontan covered much around the end of - I will discard no burning material - matches, of what is now Nevada. cigarettes, etc. the Pleistocene epoch led to a gradual desiccation of ancient Lake - I will fill all excavation holes which may be dangerous to livestock. Lahontan. The lake had largely disappeared in its extended form by approximately 9,000 years ago. As the surface - I will not contaminate wells, creeks or other water elevation dropped, the lake broke up into series of smaller supply. lakes, most of which rapidly dried up leaving only a playa. - I will cause no willful damage to collecting material These playas include the Black Rock Desert, the Carson and will take home only what I can reasonably use. Sink and the Humboldt Sink. The only modern day - I will practice conservation and undertake to utilize remnants existing as true lakes are Pyramid Lake and fully and well, the materials I have collected and will Walker Lake. Winnemucca Lake has been dry since the recycle my surplus for the pleasure and benefit of others. 1930s and Honey Lake periodically desiccates. The ancient shoreline is evidenced by tufa formations throughout the - I will support the rockbound project HELP, (Help Eliminate Litter Please) and will leave all collecting area and in many places shoreline cliffs are visible. areas devoid of litter, regardless of how found. - I will cooperate with field trip leaders and those in Surprisingly, the watershed feeding Lake Lahontan is not designated authority in all collecting areas. thought to have been significantly wetter during its high- stand than it is currently. Rather, its desiccation is thought - I will report to my club or Federation officers, Bureau of Land Management or other authorities to be mostly due to increase in the evaporation rate as the any deposit of petrified wood or other materials on climate warmed.