Day 23 – Schitt’s Creek | Rob, Dan & Ryan's Motorcycle Adventure

Thursday, July 23rd, 2020 – Battle Mountain, NV to McDermitt, NV

Yes, pretty much exactly what the title says.

And also one of the best days of our adventure.

The morning started early once again, and nearly with an immediate set-back while still in Battle Mountain: a gate posted with a Private Property sign.

The trail passed over historic 25 Ranch – an enormous 126,000 acre cattle ranch spanning four counties in Nevada. A quick phone call to the Ranch Manager, and thankfully, permission to ride across the property was cheerfully granted.

As a side note: 25 Ranch was put up for sale in January of this year – all 126,000 acres, plus additional BLM grazing rights. Current asking price is just a shade over $30M, in case you’re interested.

We spent a fair amount of time riding across the open space of 25 Ranch, and once into Winnemucca, NV, encountered an amazing sight.

Long-abandoned Kelly Farm, around which the trail passed. Or should we say USED to pass.

The road which once existed was gone. Long gone. The only thing remaining, other than the buildings, was the dried creek bed, which seemed to have no obvious means of crossing. Except… for the outhouse.

A previous adventurer had commandeered the remains of the privy to construct some temporary planking across the maw on one side of the creek. This looked promising. Once in the creek bed, the other side seemed scalable. Rather than back-track 40 miles, we decided to forge ahead.

All three of us, together, carefully walked each bike down and across Outhouse Bridge, then dragged the bike into position to walk it up (under power) the other side. It took some doing, but all bikes and parties made it across, unscathed.

Ryan in front of a positively ENORMOUS Cottonwood Tree

After a quick tour of the buildings on the property, we were back underway, putting miles in the rearview mirrors.

As if we hadn’t encountered enough amazing sights, we next rolled into Paradise Valley, NV, perhaps best described as a living Ghost Town. It’s inhabited, but with some amazing buildings, which are not.