depleted

today connor and i made an attempt to find the origin of peavine road. its not that it is that elusive, it is more that we are looking for way to connect with it from keystone canyon trail head. The reason for this is that despite the fairly dry climate of reno there is still a good gathering of snow on the ground, most of it untracked. the road that goes from top to bottom is an exception to this. vehicles use it to get the radio towers that are the summit.  peavine is a brutish mtn to play on. it is an individual peak that rises up alone. it is not part of the nearby by sierra nevada range. there are essentially no trees on the entire thing. it has a seemingly healthy wildlife population given its proximity to an urban scene. its base at the truckee river is close to 4000 ft elevation and its peak rises just over 8200 ft. so even if you start in the neighborhoods above the river you get about 3000ft of vertical gain. running on the graded and groomed road is something of a training tool during the winter months.

photo cred: Lilloarts

so today the goal was to drop a car at keystone canyon then drive to the top of robb drive. trudge our way up to the road then just head down until we ran into something familiar. it worked; we went from one car to the other. we just slightly underestimated the time and effort it would take. we finished our exploration in just under 4 hour hours. connor is adamant in saying we did about 20 miles. i feel like with the wall we hit (no food or water carried with us or consumed beforehand) that we were closer to 15 miles. so in reality a happy medium of 18 will be put down for today. Either way it was a solid four hours on the feet trough snow and mud with climbs and descents. 
furthermore and probably the coolest part of the day was the complete seclusion that was felt by both of us. it was as if we had entered a time machine at the top of robb dr and went back 400 years. i say this because there was a fog that blanketed and hid all of reno and its casinos roads and sounds and left us looking down on a valley of white clouds and radiant sunshine all around us. it was spectacular! we had been weaving our way up the mountain following game tracks and trails and finally turn around to see the city had vanished. i often find myself wondering what it would be like to see california or the west before it had been inhabited by the US and all of its citizens and sprawl. today was a glimpse of that.
now i am just sitting trying to make up for some of the lost calories and liquids and warm my body back up. thankful for a day depletion. It always makes everything feel so rewarding and rich, even if its just a can of beans and a cup of water.