Protect your Wild Lands

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“I recall the cold autumn air, the dim orange glow of an old car’s headlights and what to me was the wildest country I ever imagined...” Steve Pellegrini

www.weethump.com

Currently,there is not a formal Congressional process

occurring in Lyon County that would allow for the designa-tion of wilderness in the Pine Grove Mountains. This is due to a number of reasons that are both in and beyond our control. It is crucial that we begin to take action NOW in order to let our leaders at both the local and federal levels know there is an interest and constituency for conserving public lands in Lyon County. The easiest way to begin is

by writing letters to both your local County Commission-ers and our Congressional Delegation (Senators Reid and Ensign and Congressman Heller) letting them know that you want to see the Pine Grove Range and East Sister Peak protected as wilderness. If you are familiar with these areas please include stories from your adventures there and even pictures to help further your points. Personal letters make a huge impact in helping to build momentum.

Lyon County Commissioners27 S. Main StYerington, NV 89447

Senator Harry Reid528 Hart Senate BuildingWashington, DC 20510

Senator John Ensign364 Russell Senate BuildingWashington, DC 20510

Congressman Dean Heller1023 LongworthWashington, DC 20515

Letters should be addressed to:

Lyon County, summer 2007

www.wildnevada.org

The memory has dimmed with age, but the first time I entered the Southern Pine Grove Mountains was with my father sometime around 1958. We crossed the East Walker River near where Ed Zanis use to live at “the Lodge.” We made our crossing late one afternoon through the river, bumping over rocks and scooting sideways as the river tried to carry our old Ford Jeep downstream. We followed a cat road up Martha Washington Canyon to Sherman Lewis’ mine. It was here we discovered where the cat that made the road had tumbled a thousand feet over a cliff above the river. Its remains are still strewn down that hillside today.

I remember sharing a jar of my mother’s canned peaches with him in the late afternoon shadow of a volcanic cliff. I recall the cold autumn air, the dim orange glow of an old car’s headlights on the way out and what to me was the wildest country I ever imagined. It was to be the last time my father and I would ever enter there together.

Today it is hard to believe a road once intruded into that canyon as water has completely removed all traces of it. In

places there are fifty-foot cliffs and boulders the size of houses where once we drove our Jeep.

Twenty years later it was to be my former teacher, Art Shipley, who would go back with me to probe the intricate and convoluted country that is the Pine Grove Range [referred to as the hills or mountains depending on where in the county you find yourself]. Together we have logged several thousand miles there, all on foot. There is virtually no canyon nor ridge we have not explored, especially on the east side of the range. My sons have also spent many days and hiked many miles in this mountain

range. Their earliest memories are of following

me into Wichman Canyon, Slide Rock, Halsey Canyon and other places whose names are, to us anyway, the very essence of what

Wovoka Proposed WildernessArt Shipley and Steve Pellegrini are life long residents of Mason Valley. There

are few Yerington residents under the age of 45 they have not taught at some point in the Yerington Pub-lic Schools. They became friends while working together at Yerington Intermediate School and hiking part-

ners shortly thereafter. Their favorite spot has always been the Pine Grove Mountains, an area they have committed to seeing protected so that others can experience the wild lands of their backyard.

Tia Gopp by a reflection pool in the Wavoka Proposed WildernessPhoto by AJ Locklear

To read more stories and see more pictures from the Pine Grove Range please visit www.weethump.com, a weblog about the magic of Nevada’s Wild Places. If you have photos or stories to share, send us an email

@ weethumpnv@yahoo.com or click the “Wild Photos” link on the blog!

Photo by Kurt Kuznicki

Searching for Sardine Cans in the Pine Grove Mountains

By Steve Pellegrini

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www.wildnevada.org

draws us to our state’s outback. It has become our tradition to spend even Christmas day there in a world that seems more inviting of hope Christmas promises others.

Every hike into the Pine Grove Mountains is an adventure. Each hike reveals new things to ponder and marvel at. Things such as the bear that I accidentally cornered on Bald Mountain. Thankfully it had more sense than me, and while I was temporarily paralyzed, the bear found its way up the rocky enclosure where I startled it and fled back into the pinyon forest. There was the day my dog, Shadow, got lost in the vicinity of what Art and I now call “Shadow Lake.” She became dehydrated on the dry bed of this ancient lake.

Luckily, Art found her. We took turns carrying her out until we found a tinaja that held enough water left over from a thunderstorm. This small green pocket was enough to revive her.

There are so many subtleties it seems almost silly to name them. They are the small and significant memories borne of quiet, remote places. There were the plants I collected, keyed and added to my collection. There were snakes we marveled at, lizards we attempted to identify, the badger Art encountered on Bald Mountain and the brief glimpse of a cougar south of Shadow Lake. A rusty can here, a Native American house ring there, a hunting blind and an aboriginal fence. All of them are so much a part of this place; all of them speak their own secret language and tell us others have passed this

way. Silence asks what did they see here and who were they? The imagination answers.

When all is said and done, the memory I will cherish above all others will be of those days I spent in the Pine Grove Mountains with Art and my boys. I will relive those days after I can no longer physically live them for real. Golden light of morning as we climb westward from the foothills above the East Walker and the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction as we exit, tired and ready for a cold beer at the end of day. Each day promising some small secret to be revealed. A Native American artifact will speak of someone who called this his home many years ago. Or perhaps the Shadow Lake cougar will reward me with one more brief glimpse. Or perhaps I’ll find that spot where my father and I watched the day die across the rugged canyon of the Raven—El south of Sherman Lewis’ mine. Maybe I’ll find one of his old sardine cans, his favored lunch on deer hunts.

And when these things fail, I know there is always something to discover that is vital to who I am. This place is always cathartic but unsettling in that it leaves one with the suspicion it is somehow transitory, that it will not be around forever. Art and I have spoken often of this. It is something constantly in the minds of my boys. We word it differently, perhaps, but we agree. These Pine Grove Mountains have become a large part of who we are. They must be protected.

This is why we are dedicated to seeing the southern portion of the Pine Grove Range become a wilderness area, to assure that these subtleties are there for others to discover. To assure as many as possible discover the joys of introspection that quiet places demand. But we also want to protect these mountains for their own sake, for spirits that dwell there. Only wilderness can preserve the magic we have found in the Pine Grove Mountains, preserve it for future generations so they can also enjoy a piece of the world we have been fortunate to know.

Photo by Andrea Laue

www.wildnevada.org

Please join us for a wil-derness values hike

through the area with Art and Steve to learn more about the cam-

paign for the proposed Wovoka Wilderness

and see a piece of these spectacular wild lands.

August 19th

September 8th

For more information please contact:

Steve Pellegrini 463.3432scied@tele-net.net

Art Shipley 463.3476tootsie@tele-net.net

Cameron Johnson 775.746.7850cameron.johnson@wild-nevada.org

Wovoka was a Smith Valley born, Paiute Spiritual leader andprophet who sought inspiration in the mountains of Lyon CountHe believed that a land would be set aside by God for the Numu(native people) as a place of peace. That land might have lookeda lot like the Pine Grove Range, and we would name the wildernessto honor that ideal of peaceful simplicity.

Wovoka

Please check www.weethump.com for more sto-ries and photos of the Pine Grove Mountain Range

and the Wavoka Proposed Wilderness.

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Photo by Andrea Laue

Photo by AJ Locklear

The Nevada Wilder-ness Project is commit-ted to working with Steve and Art to help them realize their goals of seeing the Southern Pine Grove Range receive the protection it deserves as legislated wilderness.

US Forest Service is recommending this area for wilderness management

Bald Mountain is the largest peak in the area at 9,544 ft.

Bald Mtn Offers views of Mt. Grant and the Toiyabe Range in Nevada

and Sweetwater, White, Wassuk and Sierra Nevada in California.

The Pine Grove Hills is a habitat for mule deer, raptors, mountain lion, badger,

grey fox, bobcat, black

bear and sage grouse.

East Fork of the Walker

River holds 11 miles of

wild river that border

this mountain range.

Lyon County is the

7th fastest growing

county in the nation.

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Pine Grove Hills Fact Sheet:

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