BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEVADA

APRIL AT THE BLACK ROCK

Report from US2000 Dennis Bassano

Now after spending three days at the Black Rock in April I know why we go there in July. Upon arriving in Gerlach late Wednesday I decided to go out to the playa and try to find a suitable place to sail. The wind was blowing around 40 knots (74kmp/h) and the surface was soft. When I was driving into the wind I could only go 45mph (72kmp/h> and this is with a V8 engine.

One thing about driving around on the Black Rock, if people don't know you're out there you have to be very careful where you drive. If you get stuck in the mud or sand it can be a long walk back to town (20 to 30 miles) so I stayed close to the main travel tracks.

Thursday morning the weather report was for a chance of rain so we had to keep our eyes on the clouds. The playa can go from hard and dry to wet and impassable (you can hardly walk the mud is so slippery) in a matter of minutes. Thursday morning when we drove out is was windy and cold, but we had the boats (two Twins and US2000) set up and ready by 9:30.

At one point during the day, it started to rain, we were out for a sail and the mud started to stick to the tires. The next thing that happens is the front tire gets so much mud stuck to it that it jambs up the front forks the tire stops spinning and you stop.

If it keeps raining you might have 20 minutes to get off the desert or you can wait for it to dry (this might take a week or more). So, after packing up the big boat in a panic and getting quite muddy doing it, the rain stopped, the wind blew and the playa dried out.

An ominous looking Black Rock playa. Bad weather up ahead!

I was introducing some new people (Steve and Peter) to the sport and even though the conditions were not perfect we had a great afternoon of sailing albeit quite cold (it started to snow on all of the surrounding mountains).

Who says the desert's always hot. Snow on them thar hills!

We were back in Gerlach by 6:00 and in the warm confines of the Minor's Club, Bev mixed us up a fine cocktail and we talked about all that happened during the day.

After a delicious, pork chop and egg breakfast at Bruno's on Friday morning it was back out to the desert.

The clouds were still around but it didn't look like it was going to rain, all we could hope for is some wind. We set up the Manta Twins and the wind came up, Steve and Peter sailed around for a while but they were soon ready to take out the Green Machine. I put up the Class IV sail and after hiking tire numerous times decided it might be too much for someone who has never sailed a dirtboat with a wing mast.

Steve and Peter lined up reaady beside US2000.

I changed down to the 40 sq. ft (3.7 sq m) sail and let them have at it. It took a while to get up to speed but once you were going fast it was more than enough sail area (the wind was around 15k max boat speed of 50mph).

At 2:00 the sun came out and the wind started to die, we sailed until 3:00 at this point the wind shut off completely. We packed up the boats and drank beer in the warm sun until 4:00 and then drove back into Gerlach.

Friday night is Mexican night at the Black Rock Café, the food was good but the service was a little slow. After dinner we hung out under the black lights of the Black Rock Café bar and played some pool. The party then shifted down to the Minor's Club and before we knew what was going on it was 2:00 am.

After 3-1/2 hours of sleep, I got up put a Sex Pistols tape in the player cranked it up to high volume and began my 7-hour drive home. When I got to Reno it was covered in snow. Driving home over Donner Summit was exciting, snow, ice, fog and crazy California drivers driving 65 to 70 mph. One thing that I would like to say is...

"It's always an adventure when you go to the Black Rock".

See you in the desert.

Dennis US2000

[ t o p ]

MAP of GERLACH / BLACK ROCK DESERT

[ b a c k t o th e t o p o f t h e p a g e ]

BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS