Had a great time on today’s group trail run. Was an awesome mix of vehicles with Jeeps, Toyota’s, full size trucks, and land rovers(which now I kind of want).

The day started out near 5 mile where we met up and talked about the trail. We expected it to be covered in deep snow or a complete mud bog, so we were shooting to make it down to the hot springs by 2 or so.

The weather was surprisingly pleasant and the trail mostly mud free except for a few short low spots. One new experience for me was a section of the trail being completely covered in tumbleweeds so deep we didn’t dare drive through them. I’m also told the “Beware of attack llama” sign was in fact not a joke, but I’ll leave that story to our tail gunners to tell 😀

We made excellent time and reached the springs around noon, where we were entertained by a gentleman showing us the art of proper hot spring operation. At this point some of the group headed out for the day while the rest of us continued on up the nearby volcano, and took a short hike up to the cone. Despite having been there many times before, the group discovered some heat vents still letting out warm air from below that I’d never noticed before.

Once we reached the volcano base again, some in the group headed over to nearby Topaz mountain, while the rest split off and headed for home. For those of us taking the Eureka route, we came across a Las Vegas rugby team whose van had a flat and they didn’t have a good enough jack to change it. Despite the pouring rain, the group had it swapped out and them on their way in no time.

It’s hard to pass through Eureka without stopping at Porters Place for some great food, so a pit stop was made. While there the mayor of the town swung by to see what all the 4x4s were up to, and shared history of the area along with trail rides we could check out. The owners of Porters even shared pictures with us of the train trestles we were discussing. Talk about service!

Keep an eye out for a future guided tour in this area!

Thanks to everyone who was able to come out today. It was a fun day with good weather and great friends!

Til’ Next Time!