(soft upbeat music) - [Man] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington Foundation.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Man] Gail and John Sande.

- [Woman] Margaret and Charles Burback.

- [Man] And by individual members.

(soft upbeat music) - [Host] It's been 20 years since Wild Nevada first appeared on public television.

Over the years many people have asked, "What's it like to travel around and make the show?".

So let's celebrate the 20th anniversary by reliving one of our favorite adventures and sharing some Wild Nevada Memories.

(upbeat guitar music) - Hi, welcome to Wild Nevada.

I have been horse crazy my entire life.

And this was two days on horseback.

I was so excited about this trip.

Knowing that I had the chance to plan a trip for myself.

I've combined a lot of my favorite activities into one grand adventure.

- I didn't go on this trip.

I did not finish my work in time on an episode of an art series we did at the time called Art Beat.

And they were getting ready to leave on this trip, and Jack says, "We have to go without you.

We can't wait.".

And so they left and I missed this episode.

Embarrassing.

- Hey Chris, how you doing?

- I'm good.

- I'm Virgil Mink, the wellness recreation manager on the Tonopah ranger district.

- An interesting start to the trip.

We were going out.

We were passing the sand mountain and we got a flat tire.

Luckily, that we were in a cell phone zone and we could call back to the station.

Ethan was coming in his own van because he was doing this trip and then going off for a big bike ride up in the Tahoe area.

And so we had to wait for Ethan to get there and then all climb to his, transfer everything to his van and head out on our trip.

- How many miles are we going?

- We'll probably go about six to eight miles today on the horses.

- Okay.

- This is a map of the Arc Dome Wilderness out of the Toiyabe National Forest.

We're right here at South Twin Trailhead.

And this is 376.

It runs up and down Smoky Valley, between Tonopah and Austin.

We're going to be riding up South Twin, past the mine.

The waterwheel's right in here.

- Well, what about those giant bugs?

What were those?

I want to know.

This is why I should've been there.

- We'll be camped right here, below Sheep Canyon on the map.

- Sounds great.

- You ready?

- Yeah.

- Let's slap leathers.

- Okay, sounds good.

- Alright.

- [Chris] In addition to our mounts, the Outfitters, Jim and Karen have brought along two pack horses.

We are able to pack our camping supplies and other equipment onto these small, but sturdy horses.

Karen and Jim know their horses well, which helped them match riders with mounts.

Their string of about 30 horses is made up entirely of Mustangs.

Each of them has a distinct personality and story.

I'm riding Tanner, a well-mannered Pinto Mustang.

He spent the first five years of his life running free in the New Pass area outside of Austin.

Karen and Jim adopted him about 10 years ago.

I loved Tanner.

He was such a sweet horse.

I honestly wanted to take him home with me.

(Chris laughing) And they actually were talking, they were getting ready to maybe retire him and they kept offering.

I just didn't have a place, at that point in my life, where I could have had a horse and ugh.

- This is a valley of the Arc Dome Wilderness set aside by Congress in 1989.

- Mm-hmm - We're going to enter into the wilderness beyond this sign.

It's 120 to 125,000 acres, designated by Congress as wilderness for the preservation of the character of this land for future generations.

- Well should we head on in and see what we can find?

- Let's go on up.

- Come on, Tanner.

Watching this makes me want to go for a ride.

Now what makes this wilderness area unique?

- [Virgil] Several things make it unique.

Just the character of it, the nature of it, the geology.

The fact that it's not used a lot.

It was set aside so that future generations could come here and enjoy the land undisturbed as it was or undisturbed by mechanical means, particularly.

It's wilderness is a concept that's different to our society.

In the Bible, they talk about wilderness as a place where God sent people who did wrong.

And now here we are in the 21st century or 20th century, with designated areas as wilderness to protect them.

- [Chris] So we seek out the wilderness now, rather than seeing it as a rough living or way to struggle through it.

- [Virgil] Right.

And what we want to do is, it's a rough living it's a place to struggle, but we don't want to come in and tame it.

So we come in, we either walk or ride by horseback.

We don't bring any mechanized equipment.

When I bring my trail crews in to maintain trails and stuff, we do it with hand tools.

We have hand, airless jackhammers that break rocks out and you'll see a place where we've done that.

We use handsaws, Crosschecks two man saws to do it the old fashioned way.

- In this trip, everybody rode horses.

So as you watch some of the camera movements and you get that sense of riding it's because they were shooting and riding at the same time.

- [Virgil] We're preserving what our grandfathers saw for our grandchildrens to see.

- [Chris] That's wonderful.

(upbeat instrumental country music) - [Chris] In the early part of the 20th century, there was some mining activity in the area.

In fact, the South Twin trail was originally a mining road.

Virgil explains that the miners actually dismantled and packed a truck through the rough canyon entrance on mules.

They then reassembled it and used it to transport ore from the mine.

Wow, now that's a serious bit of hauling.

We take a break from the horses to get a closer look at some of the remains of the old mining operation.

- Chris, here we are at the water wheel.

- Now, when was this used?

- This was built in 1915.

When the mine, it's further up the creek here a little bit, was in operation.

This mill was in operation from 1915 to 1920.

- Uh-huh - This process here, this milling process was built by two guys down in Goldfield, Nevada, just south of Tonapah.

They built it, put it all together, then took it apart brought it up here and hauled it in on horses and mules and reassembled it right here.

And you can see what they've done here.

The water comes in and turns the one wheel.

And then from that wheel, they run up to a set of belts and pulleys.

And off of that one water wheel by gearing, they run.

- One of the things that I don't think we included in the show that I will never forget about this ride.

- [Virgil] A lot of different things to do a lot of work.

- So they used one pass of water to do the whole operation?

- Right.

- That's an engineering feat.

I mean, let alone.

- A lot of engineering - [Chris] Now they were mining for ore?

- [Virgil] Yes, they were mining gold here.

And it was a rough process at this point to get the ore down to a smaller concentrate.

And from here, they would haul it out to the bottom of the hill, just outside the wilderness here where they'd hauled it out in a truck from there and then put it in mules and bags and hauled it up over that hill and took it down into Smokey Valley, where it went to a further processing plant.

- Well should we get back on the mounts?

- All right, let's do it.

Go have lunch.

- They warned us that if the horses' ears started twitching a lot or the horses started shying from the peaks, it's because the horses are very aware of the mountain lions.

And to be aware of that movement on your horse's ears as a warning.

So very often when we're riding through those canyons and those steep walls, if the horses ears started twitching, I was absolutely convinced that a mountain lion was suddenly gonna launch off onto us.

As we ride through an area known as the narrows, I marvel at how well our horses climb the trail's steep stone steps.

Equally amazing, is that the workers who built and maintain the route, hone and cut the steps by hand and with only hand tools.

(horseshoes clopping) - Oh there's that big smile on my face.

I was loving being on the horse, let me tell ya.

(horseshoes clopping) - [Chris] The trail cuts through the rugged canyons of the wilderness as it follows the South Twin River.

We crossed the water a number of times, providing the horses with the chance to take a break, when needed.

(horseshoes clopping) (horseshoes clopping) (horseshoes clopping) (horseshoes clopping) - Where are we exactly in the wilderness area?

- We're almost at the heart of the Arc Dome Wilderness right now.

We're going to cross it over from, this is the headwaters of the Reese River or the South Twin River.

And we're gonna cross over divide here and be in the headwaters of the Reese River.

- A lot of the photos that I took from this trip, people will see and ask when I went to Colorado because there's so much Aspen and there's in the meadows, they would think that it was not in the state, but it was Arc Dome.

I have to say my land is very pretty.

- I think your land is pretty too.

Thank you for hiring me to maintain it for you.

- Well and it's part of Karen's too, right?

- Yes.

We're in a little bit more than anybody else's, I think.

- Now you get a chance to come out here and explore it often on the pack trips, don't you?

- Yes, we do.

We have to bring the camps in every year and take them out every winter.

And we're up here quite a bit.

- People have the chance to come up with you and enjoy it?

- Oh yeah.

Yep.

We do summer trips and fall trips and hunting trips.

And so we're in here all the time.

- Well how far are we from camp?

- We're about 45 minutes.

Just over the top of the hill here.

- Well, Should we mount up and get into camp before - You bet.

- it's too much later.

- Yeah.

Before we get a little rain on us.

- Okay.

Okay, Tanner.

Come on.

(horseshoes clopping) We climb up out of a meadow area and onto a saddle where we reach an overlook.

The valley and the waters of the Reese River stretch out below us.

From here, it's just a short ride into camp.

So when we talk about camp, this was one of those trips where you actually end up being a little bit spoiled.

Cause it was more than just a camp site.

They've got the canvas tent set up for us and they had packed in great provisions.

So it was very comfortable.

It was much more comfortable than you would expect, when you describe a two day horseback trip with a camp overnight, it was very nice.

(peaceful guitar music) - I think about all those camera angles and camera operators, Jack and Ethan and Bonnie.

I think she did audio on this.

Running around up the hill, get the shot, back to the horse, ride, jump off, run up get another shot, different angles.

It takes so much longer to do this than it feels.

- Well we were up here with another division of wildlife in NRCS, the soils people.

And we were all camped down here at Jett Creek.

So we packed them in and we set up down there.

And I set up electric fence for the mules that we use for pack horses, pack animals in here.

And we had to pack a couple of soils people at top of the hill, and then they were going to walk down.

So we walked, we came on back down and had that electric fence set up.

Ed had never seen one of those.

And he walked down to it and he said, "Well tell me, show me how it works."

When you come up to an electric fence, what you do is take a blade of grass and you lay across the hot wire and you just slide it up to you feel the tingle in your hand, you know getting shocked.

So Ed took the grass, slid it up on that wire slid it up on there and slid it up there.

So he slides all the way up.

Then he reached down and just grabbed ahold of it.

Ed's tough.

He said "I don't feel nothing."

Just give me your grass.

I took the grass and I slid it up.

So nothing, nothing.

And I reached down and I touched it.

We'd had the mules in there for three days and I'd forgot to turn the thing on.

(everyone laughing) But they'd stayed in there so.

Ed said "Well that's great."

He said "Why did I buy you all that electronic stuff?

Why don't you just bought you a white piece of rope?"

(campfire crackling) (campfire crackling) - Morning, Chris.

- Good morning, Virgil.

- How was your night?

- It was great.

- Sleep well?

- Very well.

Very nice.

Comfortable.

- Nice mountain air?

- Oh yeah.

- Well good.

- Well, what are we looking at today?

- Well, we're looking at the Arc Dome here.

- Is that where we're headed?

- We're headed up.

About a three and a half hour horseback ride.

- Sounds great.

How are we going to get there?

- Well, we're going back up on the Crest Trail, back over to summit there.

- Sometimes you can see the shadows of the camera.

When it gets too close and then the shadow creeps in.

And then you see them back away.

- A hundred yards from the top where we'll tie the horses up The last stretch, we'll walk.

- Oh, we get to stretch our legs out.

- Get to stretch out a little bit.

- Sounds like a full day.

- It's gonna be a full day, but it's gonna be a lot of fun.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] One of the stall's horses is a curly, a rare breed of Mustang, derived from the Bashkir Curlys.

- [Karen] He was caught over by Eureka and there's a good herd of curlys out there.

His coat just gets like a tight, kinky, firm hair.

His whole body is just tight, kinky, curly hair.

They're hard to come by and we came across this one.

He's not very big but he's got excellent feet and great heart to him.

He won't quit.

He's a little guy, but he can pack, you know, a good amount of weight.

And he won't quit ya.

(upbeat music) - [Chris] Karen says, Mustangs are ideal for pack trails.

Especially after they've had a few years running wild.

They're sturdy, know the terrain and have strong hooves.

- [Karen] My other horse I ride is a quarter horse mare I've had for years.

And if I told her, got her up to the edge of a cliff and asked her to go off it, she'd go off it.

You know, without question.

That Mustang, you haven't got a stick big enough to get him off a cliff he can't go off of.

But I haven't seen too much they can't go down.

You know, they know what they can do because they've been doing it with nobody telling them what to do.

- As we saddle up, I was ready to go and I was excited and some of the crew had lost their enthusiasm.

Today's trail is steeper and more mountainous than yesterday.

I empathize with the horses, as they work to get us up the mountain.

At the same time, I'm glad to let them do some of the climbing, knowing that we'll get our chance later.

- Day two, when we're heading up to Arc Dome, I think if I remember correctly, Arc Dome is around 12,000 feet and we were on horseback for most of the trip up.

And my old guy was just grunting and groaning.

And so I got off and had walked next to him and he was quite happy.

And we kept going up and up and then it'd be like, okay I'm going to get back on.

I would go to get back on and he would look at me like, "Wait, what are you doing?

Don't you get back on me."

(relaxing guitar music) - You're going to go, this trail here, we're going to go up and over around dessert.

And then you can see where the trail cuts through the trees up there and goes toward that saddle.

It's only about three quarters of a mile left to go.

Everybody ready?

- Truly a really steep climb even for the horses.

And it got to a point where really the horses weren't comfortable climbing anymore.

- Okay Jim, we've used your horses to get this far on the trail.

Chris?

- I think it's time for our workout now.

- Are you ready?

- Sure.

- Let's go.

- Okay.

(footsteps falling) So this must be the trail.

- Okay.

- Why don't you go ahead and lead.

- All right, let's go uphill.

- After you, Jim.

You guys know where we're going.

(soft guitar music) From our vantage point, Arc Dome doesn't appear very arc shaped or very dome like.

But I understand that if you look at the mountain from the Southwest, especially when it's snow-capped, the name fits.

The trail we followed to the peak is steep, but well-defined, and we are able to climb to the summit without having to scramble up the rocky mountain face.

The path was originally used in the 1930's by surveying and mapping crews that worked on the peak of Arc Dome.

Now the forest service maintains the trail to keep the mountain accessible to climbers and hikers.

- We had to go up there on foot.

And I know that most of us were winded by that.

And I'm looking at the ranger who was there and this guy is not winded at all, he's just plowing along doing his thing.

And it was like, man this guy, he's putting us all to shame.

- Now Virgil, it looks like somebody actually was building up here.

You can't tell me someone tried to build a structure.

- No, Chris.

This was a camp pad, a tent pad.

During the thirties, there was crews stationed on top of the mountain here, and used a theodolite system.

- Wait now, you'll have to explain what that term is.

- Okay.

The way I understand it, Chris, what they used was a mirror in the back of a telescope, into the eyepiece type.

And they would catch the early morning or the late evening sun and shine that light through the telescope.

And they would shine it onto another peak.

The other peak is that middle summit on that peak right over there, Mount Jefferson.

And by triangulating those angles, they were able to do some mapping.

I'm not really sure how they did it after that but that was the principle.

During the thirties, there was a crew station here from sometime in early May, up until first snow in November.

- So they got to see all kinds of weather extremes then.

- Yes they did.

It was probably a pretty tough life.

And I'm not sure I'd want to stay up here all summer.

We're up here above almost everything and we're above the tree level.

So every thunderstorm that came through the area, you had to live right through it.

- Oh, it makes me anxious to get to the top and see what the views like from there though.

The volcanic stone of Arc Dome and the neighboring peaks gives the area a reddish-brown tinge.

The Ridge has sometimes been labeled as the Red Toiyabes.

- I remember thinking, I should not be out of breath, hiking this short a distance.

I should be able to do this hike without this problem.

Jim calls this climb a heart tester and a lung cleaner.

I have to agree.

What does this mean?

Well, we made this climb.

- Guys welcome to the top of the Arc Dome.

- Jim, Thank you.

Virgil.

- Here we are.

- We made it.

- This is it.

- Oh, what a view.

- [Virgil] You can see forever.

- I can hear it in my voice there.

Every time I hit a peak top and you get that vista, you get that adrenaline rush.

It's exhilarating.

(relaxing guitar music) - And of course we have our register here.

Inside, there's a notebook and people signed.

- [Chris] I think we all deserve to sign that one today.

- And put your name and sign in the notebook that you've made it to the top.

Nice little antecedents and people write in there.

- Oregon, Dallas, Ohio, New York.

Here now I like this.

"I now I feel like I can conquer anything."

Okay.

Time to sign.

What's really cool about registers and logs on the top of mountains is, it is that acknowledgement that you've accomplished something and you've achieved it and you've earned the right to put your name in that book.

- Now this is the hard part, walking downhill.

- [Chris] This is when your toes start to complain.

- [Virgil] Yep.

- [Chris] Your thighs complain on the way up, your toes on the way down.

- We visit Arc Dome.

We're heading down.

And Bonnie, who was our audio person, had reached the point where she couldn't be on a horse any longer.

And she ended up saying, "Okay, you guys go ahead.

I'm walking back."

And she and the horse literally walked their way out of Arc Dome Wilderness area.

And we were, for a while, starting to worry.

What's happened to her?

She's taking forever.

But she finally did arrive and she was more than happy because she was happy to be off that horse.

- [Chris] The North Twin Trail that we take after coming down off of Arc Dome, follows the North Twin River.

The country along this part of the crest trail is every bit as breathtaking as the route we traveled yesterday.

This is our path out of the wilderness area.

And despite a sore muscle or two, I'm reluctant to leave the peace and beauty of this incredible place.

At this point, I already know that I'm going to have to say goodbye to Tanner.

And I'm already getting sad about having this trip end.

I was still having so much fun.

And at this point, of course I know Bonnie and Jack were pretty sore and I felt bad but I was still having so much fun.

(triumphant music) - So I have to confess that I have a new male in my life.

He has big brown eyes, listens to me fairly well.

His name's Tanner.

I think I'm having a lot of fun with him.

- Well, Chris, this is the South Twin River trail.

We're about four miles from where we parked the trucks.

- Oh, so this is our way home.

- This is it.

Just four miles.

- Well Ranger Virgil Mink, it has been a great trip.

Karen, Jim and the Mustang Outfitters, it's been wonderful.

- Watching this close as we did it on horseback and the horses are there.

We did it relatively quickly.

I don't think we did it in more than one or two tries.

And the horses were so patient.

That's pretty remarkable.

- And until next time, go out enjoy the beauties of our state for yourself.

- That's right.

(upbeat guitar music) (dog toy squeaking) - Sorry you guys.

The joy of trying to film at home.

Reba wants to talk.

(dog toy squeaking) (upbeat guitar music) (soft upbeat music) - [Man] Support for Wild Nevada Memories is provided by the William N. Pennington foundation.

- [Woman] Millie Hopper and Millard Reed.

- [Man] Gail and John Sande.

- [Woman] Margaret and Charles Burback - [Man] And by individual members.