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Finally Took the Truck

SacFett

4️⃣ Gold
Tacoma3G Supporter
Joined
May 31, 2021
Messages
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Location
Sacramento
2021 TRD OR DCSB Auto
Midnight Black
So I got my truck last Memorial Day, and due to work I hadn't much opportunity to take it out or go camping or anything. A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine that runs a YouTube channel on cemeteries and ghosts said he was going to be headed up to the mountains in Eastern Nevada to visit Hamilton Ghost Town and the Hamilton Cemetery. Said he was just going to bring his Subaru up there and sleep in the car. Well, I told him I've been wanting to take my truck out, I have camping gear, and my work schedule has been fairly mellow and we could take my truck and camping gear! So he said sure, let's do it, and we scheduled the trip. We left Saturday morning, and we came back yesterday.

A quick summary of the trip:
We saw some petroglyphs;
Did some very mild off-roading in the truck;
It felt like we almost toppled the truck;
I got my first taste of off-roading in and learned several lessons;
Got some good hiking in, and found some big cat prints and possibly bear prints;
Found the ghost town ruins;
We located the cemetery, which is incorrectly located on Google Maps;
We found a dead horse;
Got an awesome night hike in;
We did some ghost hunting in the cemetery at night and were forced to leave early due to the biting wind and freezing cold;
We almost froze to death in the night;
Braved a mild uphill rocky trail to bypass the prior day's mudbog fiasco;
Found the actual ghost town;
Made it home.

There's multiple parts to this adventure, so I'll break it down into the various events as they came. So...
 
Sounds like an amazing first trip!
 
That honestly sounds like a blast! My wife and I watch quite a bit of the ghost shows (Ghost Adventures/Destination Fear). We have a haunted location in town that does tours, maybe we should go! Hopefully you took some pictures!

Edit: spoke too soon!
 
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So the weather forecast for Hamilton on Saturday night was supposed to be a low of about 37F. I had just bought some new sleeping bags that claim to be comfortable down to 18F (spoiler alert, they were not). The rest of the camping gear is as follows: 4 person pop-up tent; two cots (one folding with its own pad, and another that disassembles); a twin size mattress pad for the other cot; camping gear bin; cooler with 2 liters of water, 4 bottles of electrolyte drinks, two pints of homemade mead, and food for the day/night/morning; an extra shovel; fire axe; jack; two cheap-o brand recovery boards; camp chairs, small camp table, propane fire ring, camp stove. I also had a rotopax with 2 gallons of fresh water, an 8 gallon rolling jug of fresh water, a 2 gallon rotopax with extra gas, and a 5 gallon gas can. So we had at least 10 gallons of water, plus a bit in the cooler (and another 3 liters in my backpack water pouch). There's some 50 miles between the nearest town and the ghost town, and I didn't want to run out of gas. I chose not to bring my tire chains because I (naively) thought well, it's spring, there won't be snow (I will be bringing them next time). I didn't yet have my awning for the truck (though I just got the brackets in either Thursday or Friday), nor have I got my shower tube for up top on my roof rack.
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Here it is just prior to leaving, about 10 till 6. I took a few more photos along the way when we'd make some pit stops. We weren't in too much of a hurry. The map said it would take just over 7 hours to get there, so we figured that we'd get there about 1 without stops, and about 3-3:30 with stopping whenever we pleased.
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I couldn't help but to take photos of just the truck itself on the way up there.
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The views on the way out and back were amazing. This portion of the US-50 is called The Loneliest Road in America, and for good reason. On the way out there, I think we may have come across 3 vehicles going the other way, and for almost the whole trip east (pictured here), there was nobody in front or behind, so we could literally just stop wherever we wanted.
We made it to this little town called Austin, and there were signs up about how there was SO MUCH to do in Austin. There was not. The town is slowly becoming somewhat of a ghost town itself.
We stopped at about the only place to eat, the International Bar and Cafe:
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The menu consisted of hamburger, cheeseburger, grilled cheese, bacon and grilled cheese, and that's it. We each got a cheese burger, which came with a ziplock baggie with potato chips in it (ostensibly filled from a chip bag bought at a store somewhere), and a bottle of water. We could have had juice, but the juice was in the fridge nearby, and all the bottles were opened and we were unsure of expiration dates. The burger was tasty, if a bit plain, though.
We then kept on truckin' and our next stop was the petroglyphs.........
 
Inside the International, the old lady working was... different. You could tell it was an old west restaurant, with the bar next door. It had the feeling of those small town places you go where everything in town was boarded up and shut down, but there's the one place still open that keeps odd hours that nobody really ever goes in to. While we were waiting for our food, a couple came in and walked around a bit. The lady working there never so much as glanced at them, having gone next door to the bar (while our burgers sat on the grill). We showed them the menu, and they ended up leaving.
 
Our first stop (prior to the aforementioned lunch) was a windmill along US-50. It was part of the Central Overland Trail, the Westgate Station.
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Caption reads:
"We left camp at 6 this morning passed through the middle and west gate this kanyon that these passes or gates are in is the most beautiful one we passed through yet we have not traveled only 15 miles to day" - Elizabeth Duncan, Oct 4, 1867
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Our next stop was the Hickison Petroglyphs. These were amazing. Thousands and thousands of years old. Of course, there were modern petroglyphs mixed in from vandals. Kind of pissed me off.
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This one was my favorite, because it looked like it could almost be some kind of calendar or something:
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The views were awesome:
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After checking out the petroglyphs, we continued on, and our last stop for gas before heading off the US-50 and out to find the ghost town and cemetery of Hamilton was in Eureka, NV. This had an old-timey feel, kind of like Austin, NV, but there were actually people there and it looked like folks lived in the town. I think there's some sort of walking tour one can take, because this is right off the main road:

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Shortly after leaving Eureka, we were off the paved roads, taking White Pine County Rd 5..........
 
So, then the adventure started.

I've taken my truck off paved roads only a couple times, and I don't have much experience. This gravel road seemed fine. The description on one of the websites to get to Hamilton says, "The road is gravel/dirt for its entire distance. During wet conditions, the road will be muddy, rutted and slick. During normal conditions, a normal passenger car should have no problems on the road. But during so-so conditions, a high-clearance vehicle is needed. Road is also closed in the winter." I figured, I can handle this.
So we're driving, and my truck has its navigation going, and my buddy has his phone screen cap from the directions. Suddenly, the truck nav tells us to make a left turn in 600ft, but we don't see any road. Then it says "turn left," and we realize we passed the small little off-shoot of a road. Buddy tells me if we stay on this road, it's an extra 6 min. We consider what the truck is telling us, and we figure we want more time to explore, even if it's only six minues, so we back up to the little road and off we go.

It's not so much rutted, it isn't slick or muddy. There's a lot of scrub bush though. We're going along, and I can hear that high pitch squealing of skinny little branches and twigs scraping the side of the truck. Shit. There's going to be tons of little scratches, I think. We stop the truck and get out to assess, and it looks like it's only dirt and can easily be scrubbed off, so we continue down this road for another mile or two. We finally come back out onto the main road that would have taken us the extra time.

We press on, and there's a tiny bit of snow. Oh, maybe I should have brought my chains, I think to myself. The snow wasn't much, very low, and we crunched right over easy peasy. We continue on down the road, and then we come to a LOT of snow. This part of the road curves off to the left, and it's somewhat on the side of a hill, with an embankment at about a 25-30 degree angle on the right of my truck. We estimate that the snow is hard snow. No idea how we thought we were qualified to make that erroneous determination, but that's what our guess was. We start driving it, and realize, a bit too late, that the snow that starts out not thick at all is thick snow, and eventually it gets up about mid wheel, and I stop the truck.

I ask my buddy to walk over to see how far around the corner the snow goes, and he jumps out of the truck and steps into ankle deep, ice cold mud. His boots suck and squish as he walks about 50 yds down the road and says the snow doesn't go much further around the corner. He comes back to the truck and hops in, and I throw it in reverse to start backing up a bit, and the tires spin. Shit.

Thankfully, I had recovery boards, and I think it's a bit ironic, that they're there just in case, and the first time I try something I need them. Glad I had them, and I realize that I need four, not just a pair. At this point, our plan is to just back up out of it and there was a clearing we'd just passed where we would set up camp, and then hike in a mile for the ghost town. I use the recovery boards under the two tires that are spinning and they work great, exactly how they were designed to. But the road is at an angle to the right towards the embankment, and the truck starts sliding on the slick mud. My buddy says, somewhat alarmed, stop the truck! It felt like we were going to slide backwards down the embankment and possibly topple over. I'd actually done that once, in my work car, taking a freeway on-ramp at 40mph when I lost traction, hit the curb and spun myself backwards. I didn't want to do it again.

So we get out of the truck and reassess. We move the recovery boards, and we start moving again, and they absolutely work again and help us overcome the slick mud but the angle of the road is too much and the truck starts sliding over the embankment again, so I stop again and get out and yet again reassess. No signal on the phone. It's about 40F out now, about 3pm. If I can't figure a way to work this out, we're kind of screwed. I look down the embankment and there's nothing but low lying scrub. I can't back the truck out because I'll go down the embankment backwards, so the only other way to really go is forwards, and I decide to risk it.

I get back in the truck, throw it in drive, turn the wheel, and start heading forward over the embankment. 25-30 degrees didn't seem so bad going head first. I get down the embankment and I'm driving over crunchy plants and every now and then I hit a slick spot of mud but the truck keeps going. I'm able to drive out a bit and turn and make it back to the road on a part that's close, but the very minimal embankment at that point in the road, and back up onto dry dirt and gravel, and I let out a hoot that almost deafened my own ears I was so excited.

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I thought that I was going to get the truck stuck the very first time going out trying to drive over something I shouldn't have tried to drive over, and then risked going over that embankment and it all worked out. I was thrilled. And relieved. We drove back up the road a little bit and over to the area where we had decided to camp, and started to set up camp......

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Love it. Glad you had fun learning the limits of your truck. Been there, done that.
 
So we set up camp, pitch the tent, set up the cots, and we're good. We want to hike over to the ghost town and the cemetery during the day time so that my buddy can get some day time shots and videos in for his video. We load up and start hiking over. As we get to the snow part, we decide we don't want to walk through the snow and the mud, so we start to go up the hill above the snow, and he ends up slipping and falling down in the mud. His expensive camera is in his backpack, and he's go his phone on its gimbal so he can take quick clips if needed. Well, needless to say, that gimbal he's got takes a dunk in the mud, which just sticks to everything. He tries wiping it off, and then we have to hike back to camp to try to clean it off.
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So walking back, we see some large paw marks, probably about 3" or so across. The dirt is dry, and has been for some time, so whatever left the paw marks (hopefully) isn't around any more, especially since there's no claws visible on the paw marks, which would indicate it's a pretty big cat. A bit further than those, we see bigger paw marks, with long strides. Again, the dirt is dry, so if it was a bear that made them, hopefully they aren't around.

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We try to clean up the gimbal once back at camp and do an okay job at it, but now it doesn't work anymore, and the videoing will have to be done without it. We regroup, and start the hike out again.

We finally make it to the start of the ghost town, and the first building was awesome. It's not very often you get to a ruined building and you're allowed to walk around and explore it without getting in trouble for trespassing. We start checking it out, and we're careful where we step, and anything that we examine we put back where it was.

I'm thinking this building was a bank or something. It looks like the area we're walking around in was a basement of some sorts, but we're not sure, of course. You can see the metal plate that use to be the ceiling of the building is sitting next to it on the ground.
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Next we came upon what looked like it could have been a mill of some sort. You could see a broken part of some wheel that looked like it would have been in the water.

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You can barely see it, so I'll post a zoom of it below, but there's a wooden stake inside the footprint of that old building that had a little red plastic tub lashed to it. We walked in to see it. At first I thought somebody may have left emergency matches (don't ask me why, cause I don't know why I thought that). I open it up and there's a small piece of paper inside. It's a mining claim from about September 2020 (recent!) that describes where the claim is from the point of the wooden stake.

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Once we're done at the building we realize we've gone way past the road to the cemetery and we start backtracking.......
 
On the way back, my buddy yells, "Hold up! What's that?!?" Right off the side of the road are some large bones. We talk it over and we decide, based on our very limited knowledge about such things, that it's obviously horse bones. Well of course if there's horse bones we want to find the skull to it, so we then start exploring off the road, and we find a lot more bones. It looks like a horse died, and whatever was eating it was just dragging its bones all over the place. They're bleached white, so they've been out there a long time.

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The area where the bones are strewn about is about 20 yds x 20 yds or so. We realize that the skull is probably long gone, and we start heading back, and I find a HORSE TOOTH.

We make it up to the cemetery, and the view is amazing. I can understand why they picked that peaceful spot to lay folks to rest when they passed on.
We decided to head down to camp, which can be seen from the cemetery. It took a roundabout hike of just over 3km to get to where we were, but since we could see our camp, we decided to just hike over the brush and through a gully to get there, and so started the next mini-adventure and our next find....
 
So on our way back to camp, we cut through the gully and over the brush. As we're walking along I think I see movement out of the corner of my eye. We're thinking there may be a bear or big cat out there because of the paw marks seen earlier, so I call out to stop, and I point over to where I thought I saw it. It looks like it's some kind of dry pond bed, long since dried up, or something. I see what looks like a big branch at first, and then I realize it's another horse bone. And then the longer I look at it, I realize, it's a horse leg. It's all the bones from the horse's leg. And then I see it's got skin/hair and its hoof still attached. MY buddy and I are marveling over this find, because the last set of bones were scattered about. We round the corner, and we found the rest of the horse. Literally the rest of it. On it's side, skin and hair still attached in some parts, and it still has its skull.
So we filmed the discovery. <- video link. Caution, it's a horse skeleton/carcass.
I'll write more of our little adventure in a bit, gonna watch a movie with my son...
 
So... After we got back to camp, we made the plan for the night. We'd sup, then as dark fell we'd hike back up to the cemetery. We'd already been there during the daylight hours, had seen where it was, and knew how to get back there. Simple, right? Indeed. So we cook up a couple cans of Busch's baked beans, and supplemented that with some cold corn bread I'd baked the night before and stowed away in the cooler. The beans got hot enough with our stove, and we ate the cornbread cold, but after the day we'd had, we were quite pleased with dinner. Night was falling, and so was the temperature. When darkness was finally upon us, we grabbed a flashlight each, as well as a lantern for myself and the camera gear for our ghost hunting activities.

Just prior to the hike back down, before we saw the carcass/skeleton of the horse, I'd been able to see the map of the area, since we'd only had a signal at the cemetery. I'd noted a patch going from the road just prior to our mudbog fiasco up to another portion of the NF-401. I advised my buddy there about it, and we trekked up it, lantern shining, flashlight lightin' our way. I noted a few spots of mud, but the most of it was just gravel and rough rocky trail road. Our way back up the path to the other road and to the cemetery in the dark took only 1/3 of the distance our day time hike had taken us, and we didn't even come across any deleterious snow piles, mud paths, bears, or large cats. We were there. The whole point of the trip. The cemetery at night, under cover of darkness.

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We stay there as long as we could, at the grave of one Mary, wife of Mr. Thornton. Tried asking questions of any spirits in the cemetery (any EVP recordings wouldn't be able to be evaluated till later, of course). It was so cold, we couldn't stop shivering, so we ended up ending the visit early, and hiked back down to camp, backtracking along the gravelly, rough rocky trail we traversed to ascend up to the road leading to the cemetery. On the way out, he asked what time it was, and looking at my watch I replied it was 10:06pm. We hadn't spent that much time up there, but it seemed like an extra hour had passed.

We got back down to camp and sat at the propane fire (wish we would've brought some wood, it would've been hotter and more comfortable!). I look at a video on my phone, and it says the video was taken at 9:28, which would coincide with when we were at the cemetery, but looking at my watch it shows that it's only 9:36 or so. It doesn't make sense. We just gained an hour. Mountain Daylight Time doesn't take effect until one reaches Utah, so there's no reason we should experience an hour time chance with a hike of 1 km. But we do. We're weirded out about it. He starts checking his watch and phone, and as he's looking at them the time changes back an hour, and all the time pieces are on the same time, but the video of the cemetery in the dark shows it was recorded minutes from now (then). We decide we're too tired, and it's time to hit the shucks.

I quickly put my thermal undies on, and we decide to turn in for the night. Now, the new sleeping bags I just acquired are rated for comfortability at 18F. I thought we'd be good. When we decided to bed down for the night, it was about 34F. I throw on my thermals, and it's COLD. I'm shivering as I put them on. But once they're on, I jump in my new sleeping bag, and oh, boy, is it TOASTY. I drift off to sleep almost immediately...

I wake up sometime in the night, shivering like I've got the palsy. Cold wet drops of water drop onto my face, and I realize my breath is condensing on the sleeping bag as I breathe out. Literally, as I breath out, my breath condenses on the fabric of the sleeping bag. It then proceeds to drip onto my face. I tighten up the face hole in the sleeping bag until just my schnoz pokes out. I drift off now and then, wake up shivering. I read somewhere that placing the next days clothing at your feet in your bag helps keep them warm for when you put them on the next morning. False. I feel like my toes are getting frostbite. They're bound to snap off if I move them wrong.

The whole night, I slightly adjust, hug myself for warmth, try and utilize every last bit of insulation in the sleeping bag, and eventually the morning sun rises, and I've survived the night. My buddy wakes up, and I hear him making all sorts of comments about the state of things. Eventually I emerge from the insulation of my bag and I see the sheet of ice that's formed on the interior of the tent. I check the thermometer and the temperature is down to 16F. So much for comfort at 18F - Surely a 2 degree difference couldn't have had me awake the whole night worried about freezing to death, having lucid dreams of freezing in my sleeping bag and my wife conducting some rescue search in the mountains... 18F my eye.

We dress out, and try to make coffee. All of our water has frozen solid. The 2 gallons in the rotopax has frozen solid. I thought the container had cracked, but so far it seems to be fine. The EIGHT GALLONS in the rolling jug has frozen solid. Some 60 pounds of water, frozen solid to a block of ice in the shape of a jug. How the hell can we have coffee if our water is ice? I check my hiking backpack, and the 3L pouch is a brick. Underneath the backpack in the tent is a 1L bottle of water that isn't frozen, and I'm ecstatic. I hold it up, not believing my eyes, and I'm thankful it's liquid. I give it a shake out of excitement and it turns to frozen slush at the movement. Well, frozen slush can still ne squeezed from the bottle, and so it is, and we soon have a cup of instant coffee each. It's amazing. Hot coffee, a granola bar each, a frozen banana, and it's time to warm up.

We sit in the Tacoma with the engine on. Seat heaters on max. Eventually the engine is warm enough and the cab is full of hot air, blowing much needed warmth onto our toes, and, as it turns out, I don't have frostbite. We're able to continue our adventure, as soon as we're warm enough to.....
 
After being amazed that we survived the freezing cold that night in the mountains of eastern Nevada, we take the first part of the morning to reflect on the previous days activities. After a small breakfast, we decided to drive the truck up that rough rocky trail we braved under lantern light. Memory serves, and the trail is easy going if not full of rocks and ruts. There ended up being no risk of getting stuck, rolling sideways over an embankment, or any other silliness, and we're able to drive up the the abandoned cemetery we sought the day before. After a short time filming the gravesites, we continue on down to the ghost town proper, and it's awesome. Most abandoned buildings there's signs posted everywhere, do not trespass, etc. Nothing such as that here.

I wish I could determine exactly what these building were, their use, or their owners, but I'm afraid it's lost to time. Here's a few photos of the last remaining buildings at Hamilton Ghost Town, what was once a thriving mining boomtown that is no more. Due to the claims drying up, the town burning down, and the residents dying off, most of it is lost to history. There's certain to be a few souls out there that know its story, those that have researched, or perhaps the family members of long dead relatives. Nothing remains but the abandoned carcasses of the buildings of what may have been.

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So, yesterday my buddy went and post his video of the whole thing. It can be viewed here. The full video is some 53 - 56 minutes, but I think he did an awesome job editing it. Anyway, if you read the whole little adventure, thanks! It was my first time taking the Tacoma out.

I got home and unloaded the next day and cleaned the truck. Turns out on the first bit of off-roading all those little tiny scratches that looked like they were no big deal were actually little tiny scratches all over the side o' the truck. Scars, I call them. I don't plan on selling this thing, and it's not a lease, so I refuse to stress out and worry about them. Those scratches will remind me of my first outing into the mountains of eastern Nevada, visiting a ghost town cemetery, almost freezing to death, and finding a DEAD HORSE in a drained swampy pond, as if Artax himself was finally freed of the Swamp of Sadness.
 
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