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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
1,028 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | | | |
| 1,028 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Met up with kingsnake for another winter hike. The weather was a bit colder than last year, but quite pleasant for hiking.
From NV-160, we hiked up washes, cross-country, and up a jeep trail toward Bootleg and Rainbow Springs. Although much of the hiking was on FS roads, there wasn't much traffic, and it was quite interesting. Along the way, we encountered several agave roasting pits, which are quite common in this area. Kingsnake mentioned he had never seen one - a first for him. Poked around at Bootleg Spring for a while, mostly following animal trails. The vegetation was pretty much dormant at this time of year, but it would be a very interesting place in the spring. Vegetation at Rainbow Spring was also dormant.
At both springs, there was ample evidence (scat and tracks) of visitation by bighorn. Based on a July trip to this general area, we knew this was a area of bighorn activity, so this wasn't entirely surprising.
In spite of all that, we only saw one jackrabbit and one butterfly. We did encounter a few guys out for target shooting, closer to the start of the hike. Overall nice hike in an area I might have never visited, and got to enjoy some signs of winter - ice and snow. 
Edit: The scat was quite different than what I had seen before for bighorn, so I wasn't sure in the field. After looking at the Peterson field guide of tracks and scat, I see that what we saw conforms nicely with the type of scat you see when a bighorn has been feeding at a mineral lick. This suggests that the springs we visited are highly mineralized. |
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Bootleg Spring |
Gallon per minute |
Gallon per minute |
| | Good flow.
Frozen over approximately 1/4 mile below source. |
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Rainbow Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | A few deeper pools where water could be filtered. | | _____________________
| "Let it ride / Let it roll / Let it go" |
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