It’s strange to begin a trip report by fawning over your travelling companion, but I need to do a little bit of that here to start. My cousin Neil has always been a huge, positive influence on me, perhaps as close to a role model as I had in high school. Two years older than me, Neil always exemplified that alluring blend of pin-sharp intelligence coupled with quiet but firm independence. He introduced me to punk when I was 12 or 13, I remember the yellow cover of the Ramones Mania CD in his bedroom and being weirded out by these abrasive, snotty, oh so short songs. In high school, Neil belonged to a crew of outrageously smart kids who were together in all pursuits: boy scouts, eco-minded punk bands, quiz bowl teams, and who knows what else. My high school friends and I always looked up to this group of kids as inspiration that if you excelled at school and didn’t antagonize anyone, you could basically do anything else you wanted to. When Neil went to college at Macalester, while I didn’t explicitly follow him there, it certainly put Macalester on my radar and when I got in, knowing Neil was there made the decision that much easier.
I was also a boy scout for a few years in Houghton, but without the devoted crew. The couple other boys my age started smoking a lot of pot when we were 14 or 15, dropped out, and that was the end of boy scouts for me. But before that, I did get to go on a couple small camping trips with Neil and everyone else. After college, Neil made his way out west, got a masters, and then began working for different public land agencies. Once Kyla and I moved to Portland in 2011, I got to see him in town once a year when the BLM office brought him into town for the first few years. But despite both living on the West Coast, and despite both deeply enjoying getting out there, we hadn’t camped or hiked since we were kids.
I resolved to change that this year and reached out to Neil this past spring to see if he’d be interested in a short multi-day backpack this coming summer. Neil graciously said yes, offered a few ideas in SE Oregon or Northern Nevada, and we settled on the Ruby Mountains. A place he has visited and backpacked several times, but that would be completely novel to me.
I left town with Bernie on Wednesday the 20th, with my pack loaded up, and other supplies for the 11 hour drive to Elko Nevada. Over Mt. Hood, past Prineville, and onto Burns. After some fast food there, it was time for the big empty part of the drive past Steens Mountain and into one of the emptiest expanses in the lower 48. I emerged a few hours later into Winnemucca, and cruised I80 to Elko. Once in Elko, I headed up Soldier’s Pass in the Ruby’s to meet Neil at a very excellent dispersed camping site. My dog Bernie, and Neil’s dog Billy, immediately went crazy with each other upon meeting. Billy is a cattle dog mix and has the energy to mix it up all day long. There was a beautiful slow stream by the campsite and the dogs frolicked through the water, jumped on each other like maniacs, and generally had a great time. Neil and I caught up for a couple hours, had a meal, and then we all settled down early-ish to get up and run the car shuttle next morning.
Waking up, we broke camp and drove both cars to the top of Soldier Pass, and left mine there. Then we loaded into Neil’s pickup truck and drove an hour South to Harrison Pass. It was already baking in the basins. The beginning of the Ruby Crest Trail is technically 2.5 miles North of Harrison Pass, but the road was in pretty rough shape, and we got about 1/2 mile in, saw a couple other parked pick-up trucks and decided not to push it anymore. We loaded up and set-out.
The first couple miles, walking on the open sandy double track, turned out to be very hard. With all the shuttling logistics, we hadn’t started hiking until 10:30 or 11 and the sun was already fierce. Eventually, we got to the real trailhead, and from there, the double track degraded more and more and we climbed out of the sun and into several big strands of aspens, offering some relief. There were some streams in these woods which the dogs lapped up. And we continued ascending.
We came out into the open and took in the view above, then we were back into the aspens. Many of the aspens were carved with graffiti from over the years. We saw dates as far back as the 60s and 70s on this section of trial. After a while, we crossed paths with four women and their dog, Cooper. We would end up seeing these women many times over the next few days on the trail. We continued on through the heat, and rather brushy trail, and eventually came into a large open basin of McCutcheon Creek. The dogs got the last of their water, and we began climbing. There was little tree cover, and by the time we finally hit the top, we were completely smoked. We rested for a bit, finished our water, and then dropped down to the South Fork of Smith Creek to camp for the night.
Day 1 Strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/7523694435
That evening, we resolved to get up extra early to avoid as much of the heat as possible. There was a small unfortunate incident where Bernie was inside my tent, Billy came over to play, and Bernie snapped at Billy through tent, shredding some of the mosquito netting. I was annoyed to see my relatively new tent get major damage, but I put it behind me and patched it as best as I could. Next time I’ll bring a needle and thread with me.
We got up at 5:30 the next morning and were back on the trail by 6:30. Before the trip, I had told my good friend Dan how the four days would be hard-easy-hard-easy. And Dan pointed out that you never know if that’s actually what will happen on the trail. Day 2 proved him right. It was supposed to be the second easiest day, 6.5 miles, 2200′ of elevation gain. The first few miles were very relaxed, with moderate elevation gain. We crossed the hump over to the Middle Fork of Smith Creek, and then again over to the North Fork. There were lots of cows in North Fork and we had to keep the dogs close. The trail was also still very brushy in this section and we were all plowing through desert brush all morning long. At mile 3.7, things got steep, as we had to switchback our way out of the basin and onto the high ridge. Again, we were both bushed when we broke off the switchbacks and finally had a view of the broad expanse.
After making the saddle, we had a snack, took in the views, and then climbed up the saddle to the high point of the day where we were treated to stunning views of Overland Lake, our destination.
We hiked down, were a little dismayed to see the spot we had in mind was occupied, and then realized the lake was actually relatively busy. Seems that it was a popular spot for locals to access with pack animals, as several group sites had massive plastic boxes and jugs of water, despite us being miles and thousands of feet above the nearest trailhead. But we found a decent spot away from the masses. Ate a little, rested, and had a really nice swim in the water. Poor Neil got pawed by Bernie a few times while in the water but was a good sport. After swimming though, I felt absolutely destroyed for a couple hours and just had to stay laying down and relax as much as possible. We had a pleasant evening later on, but the wind picked up that night and I was kept up til at least midnight (after going to bed at 8) by the huge gusts rocking the tent.
Day 2 strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/7524130174
After a few hours of sleep, it was daybreak again and I was up by 5:30. Neil soon joined, and after eating and packing up camp, we were once again ready by 6:30 for our longest day of the trip. Day 3 was the true crest day, with lots of time spent above 10,000′ , walking the crest and ascending and descending multiple minor peaks. My garmin had us slated for 14.5 miles and 3500′ of elevation gain. We were blessed with some cloud cover early, and again made short work of the first 5 miles. The trail this day was immediately beautiful with lots of granite formations, constant views, and early on, a lovely waterfall. We passed the group of 4 women on the first long ascent, they had broken camp super early to have breakfast on the trail.
Up on the Ridge, despite the altitude and sun, it felt like my body had adapted to the elevation, pack-weight, and heat. I felt pretty dang good the whole day. Bernie at one point seemed to be getting quite tired, so after a while I grabbed his pack and lashed it to mine. But mostly I enjoyed my time in the high crest, getting epic mountain views and basin views in 360 degrees. We moved along the crest and eventually made our way to the high point of the trip with an ascent up Wines Peak.
There was little shade at the top of Wines Peak, but we hid as much as we could, took a rest, and decided that we would get off the Crest trail to camp at a quiet lake named North Furlong Lake. I enjoyed the last high mile of broad expanses, then we were into the trees and down to a creek below that lead to the lake.
North Furlong didn’t quite have the splendor of Overland Lake, but we still had a pleasant campspot and for the last night, we had some solitude too. I was able to get a little service here and checked in with the family and got to see that Jonas had wrapped up the Tour De France. We took another little swim at this lake, but it was quite muddy, and after getting out, we realized that there were tiny sucker worms in the sand, fairly gross, I pulled one off and Neil had to contend with 3 or 4. We had a nice dinner and then took a lovely evening mini hike exploring the micro lakes dotting the landscape.
Day 3 Strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/7524133966
It got surprisingly cold that night but I slept the best I did on the trail. We slept in until 6 the next morning and we’re off by 7 to finish the hike. It was a lovely cool morning, and I really enjoyed the next few miles over to Farve Lake and then on to Liberty Lake. We filled up our water at Liberty Lake, and then climbed the last pass of the trip to Liberty Pass.
We had a long descent down Liberty Pass to my car parked at Soldier Pass, and this was a popular place for day hikers. We were soon passing swarms of families, trail runners, and backpackers. Neil had to keep Billy leashed which looked frustrating as Billy then proceeded to pull Neil down the 2000′ descent. Bernie was fortunately so tired that he just trotted quietly next to me the whole day. The final descent did seem to take a very long time, but eventually, we started to spy the parking lot, and our eventually our walk was done. We loaded the dogs up, put on some fresh shoes, and headed down the canyon to the nearest gas station to load up on junk food for the drive over to Neil’s truck. We got there an hour later, confirmed his truck was ready to drive, and then had a good hug and said until next time.
Day 4 Strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/7524136120
