It's getting hot again!

Wards Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, near Ely, NV

The 6 beehive charcoal ovens were used for smelting silver ore from 1876-1879 during the silver boom.  Later bandits used them as hideouts.  

Why charcoal?  It burns slower and hotter than wood.  Each oven took 6 acres of trees (Pinyon Pine and Juniper) to fill it.  One load burned for 12 days.  After 3 years the silver boom let up and, of course, the trees were gone.  They have these charcoal ovens throughout the area.  We passed some at Frisco on our way to Great Basin.

There were two limestone kilns on the site that were used to produce lime mortar.  The mortar was used for placing between the stones of the charcoal ovens.

The smoke went out the top.

The holes at the bottom let air in.

Lime mortar kiln

Lehman Caves Cavern was bright and early Weds. Our tour was at 8:30.  If you had been to any other caves in 10 years you couldn't wear the same clothes, and shoes had to sit in a lysol solution for 5 minutes.  This is to prevent  White-nose Syndrome which kills bats.  Couldn't remember which shoes we wore at Carlsbad Cave so we decontaminated.  

The limestone cavern (despite its name its a single cavern) was smaller than many we've been to but pretty.  Our guide, Ryan, was excellent and funny.  He had a passion for, and was a Jr. majoring in geology.  We learned a lot!  

At 400 miles, Lehman is the largest cave in Nevada. It was discovered by Absalom Lehman in the 1880's.  It has the standard cave formations.  It is known for the large amount of, over 500, "shield" formations.

Most of the ceilings were written on in early years.

Two shield formations in the upper right.

?"Parachute shield" maybe on top.  In the foreground is the "wedding cake."

The slow leak in one of our rear tires was getting less slow, so Pat drove the hour to and back from Ely to get that repaired.

Before we got to our campsite at Great Basin (Baker, NV) Pat called to see if we could have a package delivered there.  "Yes," he said but "we're not responsible."  We took that to mean not responsible for lost packages, but...  Our package arrived by USPS the day before we  arrived, which was last Thurs.  The office couldn't find the package.  Pat checked to make sure they knew it was by Post Office.  Pat was able to reorder the sink drain at Amazon to be delivered Tues. by UPS and reported the first one lost.  

I called  the office this past Weds. as the second package was delivered Tues. afternoon, UPS. "Oh, we refused that yesterday, we thought you had left."  Mind you this is a very small campground and we were prepaid till the 1st, and definitely still there.  Weds. afternoon the owner came by and repeated that he refused yesterday's package because he looked over and saw an empty spot and thought it was ours, but he did have another package for us.  Amazingly enough, it was the original "lost" package and from all indications it had been in his PO box since last Weds.  The Post  Office is 1 block away! At least we ended up with the sink drain.

Tues. night I forgot to check on the 2nd package because we were a little busy.  It wouldn't have mattered anyway because it was already headed back to Amazon.  Krikkit was out with Pat and I heard, "she's having a seizure." The first and only other one was last Oct.  This wasn't any less scary. We held and comforted her till it passed. She was confused, dazed, and couldn't walk the rest of the evening just like last time.  I was concerned that it might be the end of her walking days.  I'm sure the massive flailing of her body and all limbs for what seemed like forever, but Pat said was only a few minutes, really hurt them with her severe arthritis.  By morning she was back to normal.

Sycamore Ranch Campground is a county park near Yuba City, CA.  It is very shady and the sites are secluded.  Nice fire ring on cement, but that won't be needed( 100° at 5 p.m.).

Where are the Piepers?  Yuba City, CA