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The
Trip:
Back on the road, we take Highway 50 back to Highway 395 and continue south through the Carson Valley to the Minden/Gardnerville area. This fertile valley was the site of some of the state's earliest settlements and today continues to be one of the state's finest agricultural areas. We stop in Gardnerville to meet our mountain biking guide Keith Hart, a semi-professional mountain biker who competes regularly, at the Big Daddy's Bicycle Shop. Following Keith, we head to the mountain biking trails off of Gardnerville's Pine Nut Road. As the terrain gets even rougher, a 4-wheel drive is necessary to navigate the road. Much of the trail that Keith has picked out for us is uphill, and full of rocky obstacles. It's just plain tough, but not for Keith. He makes it look easy as he shows us some advanced techniques. After finishing our bike trip, we return to Highway 395 and continue south towards our evening's destination, Topaz Lake and the Topaz Lodge. The lake straddles the Nevada-California state line and is known for its trophy trout. Topaz Lake is also popular with boaters and water skiers. You'll find picnic grounds, camping and boat launching facilities located at the northeast shore of the lake.
The Desert Creek Ranch is situated near the small freestone creek that gives the ranch its name. It also incorporates several fishing ponds that are stocked with trout. We meet Todd O'Banion who gives us our first lesson in flyfishing. The ranch accepts reservations for fishing year round, Wednesday through Sunday. The ranch observes a strict catch and release policy — though with our fishing prowess, it isn't much of an issue.
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Thanks to the advisors and contributors of Wild Nevada Program #109:
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From
Carson we take Highway 50 up into the mountains and towards Spooner
Summit near Lake Tahoe. Terri McBride of the State Historic Preservation
Office meets us just off of the highway and guides us into the mountains
on a forest service road. Terri joins us for a hike in the forest, searching
for aspen groves of trees with 
We
start the second day of our trip very early to get to the fishing
pond at the Desert Creek Ranch while the fish are biting. We travel
Highway 395 north a few miles from the Topaz Lake to State Route 208.
Driving east on 208, we travel through the small, rural community of
Wellington. At the junction of Routes 208 and 338, we turn south and
drive less than a mile to the Desert Creek Road turn off. We continue
on the dirt road for about 4 miles and reach the ranch.
After
enjoying our visit to the ranch, we head back to State Route 208 and
onto our afternoon adventure… a desert hike near Wilson Canyon.
Alvin McLane, a retired archeologist and avid hiker, guides us out into
the desert. The dirt road is rough and requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle
with high ground clearance. Alvin takes us on a outing to see two interesting
geological features of this desert area: the rock wall of a desert waterfall
and a