GBT Guide Part 1

Great Basin Trail: Guide Part 1

Water: (GBT Water Chart linked below)

Water is more plentiful that one might believe on the Great Basin Trail. Three of the longest waterless stretches of the GBT are in the southern section, ~41m, ~30m, and ~25m respectively. The southern half is very much drier than the northern half, although each of those 3 waterless stretches can be broken up by a strategic water cache at a highway crossing or a driveable basin road crossing. The longest stretches of the northern half are ~50m and ~25m. That ~50m stretch is fortunately from Wells, NV, in which one should have their belly satiated with water. The downside is that southward one walks to a questionable source in Upper Boone Springs, which may be horse-fouled. However, a couple of cattle troughs and tanks have been located some 10 miles prior that, at certain times of the year where cattle are grazing, will have water. The latter ~25m waterless stretch has the reliable Corta Spring near Overland Pass in the Diamond Range. A cache can be plotted on the good roads of Huntington Valley, as well.

In total, I found roughly 180 potential water sources and at least 8 cache points. In plenitude are the many types of water sources that exist on the Great Basin Trail. These include springs, creeks, lakes and ponds, corrals and troughs and tanks, wells, the occasional wildlife guzzler, and ephemeral potholes and puddles. Of those sources the springs are probably the main resource for water in which the flow can go from a tiny trickle, slow drops, a seepage, to a spring relinquishing a small creek flow. Even which of those springs, some are piped and either free-flowing, or flowing into various catchments such as tanks or troughs.

As much as the Great Basin is known for its dryness and unpredictability in weather, creeks inhibit most of the highest ranges and are a striking shimmer and sound to the thirsty eyesight and startling arid ear. The first running creek I encountered in the Quinn Canyon Range had me entranced for a long lunch break and nap at the beautiful hymn and harmony of crystal clear flowing water. In the largest ranges, such as the Toiyabe, Monitor, and Ruby creeks are a vital part of the ecoregion and are mainly spring fed in the highest elevations, as well as rapid flows from springtime snowmelt. 

Much of the water encountered is in fair to clear condition. Because human impact is scarce and much of the horse and cattle sources, such as springs and corrals, are maintained by the BLM or ranchers much of the sources look clean or clear. However, despite how one's confidence may appear from one's isolation in the Great Basin one must always be aware of waterborne illnesses and utilize water sanitation treatment when consuming these sources. A couple of these sources will be horse-tainted, even more fouled depending on the time of year and water volume. 

Also, taking care and maintaining proper LNT ethics around these sources are of the utmost importance. Please, ensure these ethics occur, as well as maintaining a proper safety protocol being so remote and far away from rescue and help. Myriad of wildlife utilize these sources such as wild horses, cattle, antelope, elk, deer, mountain lion, burros, coyotes, tons of birds, among other little critters out in the Great Basin.

In the GBT map set and on the GPS file, waypoints and water information will be notated for the hiker. A Water Report is now available with at three hiking seasons of the past 2 years water-scoped and water-proofed. The Water Chart includes notes as to the reliability and conditions of the source. This Google spreadsheet is hiker fed and is a public link.

As a precaution, one must not be too reliant on reported conditions as sources may change, dry up, become non-functional for range use, or become fouled. Lastly, not all water sources are potable. Occasional thermal pools or springs are encountered. I did not utilize any of these potential and precarious sources. 

In summation, I believe it is sufficient to say one can hike the GBT without drinking any of these questionable sources. To double down on this, there are sufficient enough water sources to thru-hike the GBT, especially if one utilizes strategic cache points. Lastly, over prepare on this route to ensure hydration and water availability.   

GBT Water Chart

Resupply and Caching: (GBT Resupply Chart linked above itinerary)

Because the Great Basin Trail is a loop, strategy for resupplying and caching makes one's complete attempt in hiking the loop favorable. Because the Great Basin Trail is contained completely in Nevada and within the Great Basin, section stretches between actual towns are great in distance and time consuming, especially with the rigors of the walking and the difficulty in navigation. Depending on when and where you start in the Great Basin Trail's loop, you can split up the longer sections with more manageable stretches, especially with the use of caching. 

The Great Basin is very temperamental in weather conditions and because the nature of the terrain is so exposed one may be delayed in attaining achievable miles towards a section end. Often times, storms may limit one from traversing a ridge or crest, as well as crossing a basin during lightning storms, let alone trying to cross a basin when the floor is saturated which may pose a 'sticky' situation with the clingy mud. To briefly sum this up, the caches will be advantageous if one has to hole up a day or so on route.

Within the loop of the GBT, major yet isolated highways transect the route. Highways 6, 50, and 93 are the major and most useful to cache. These caches also promote one in being self-sufficient and not to rely on hitchhiking. To say the least, hitchhiking in the remote Great Basin may be time-stretching and may test your limits in patience. Also, the main dirt roads in the basins, which mainly run south to north, are maintained regularly by the counties in which those roads reside in. Usually, one can stash a bucket or bury an Ursack at a summit between two valleys or simply an innocuous highway or dirt road crossing. Lastly, driving around the loop and caching food gets one so familiar with such an isolated route. This helps in not only familiarity of the route, but to become aware of one's bailout options, which are so important in such a remote route.

Buck-30 has an excellent article about caching food and water in the desert. He gives tips, perspective, and strategy. Follow this link:

https://www.postholer.com/journal/Desert-Trail/2019/buck30/2019-11-22/Water-and-Food-Caching/64842

The longest stretch between towns that are relatively close to or on trail is from Pioche to Carvers at roughly 305m. Although I did not utilize Carvers as a main resupply option, this is reasonably the next closest town from Pioche that has sufficient amenities. I utilized Tonopah because I had an arranged ride from the GBT, and because Tonopah would have more amenities than most any other town on trail other than Ely. In between those two resupply towns, one may have an opportunity to hitchhike to Tonopah twice and have at least 4-5 caching opportunities. 

From my utilized itinerary, I had 3 sections over 185m between resupply with the longest estimated at 210m. For each of those sections, I utilized caches that I placed or had some help from friends that ventured out to central Nevada. Two sections--- from the Tonopah Cache on Highway 364 to Eureka (~185m) and the section from Eureka to Wells (~210m)--- are by far the toughest stretches of the GBT. Not only is the terrain incredibly challenging because you are frequently up high on a crest, but you are immersed in some of the most remote country in the lower 48. So, one needs to have ample food for the miles-per-day average, enough water carrying capacity, and have a little luck with the weather. Detours are available to avoid any inclement weather, but missing the ranges misses arguably some of the top highlights of the GBT. 

Overall, I highly recommend utilizing cache points for both food and water, but mainly food. I have labeled the cache points in the GBT map set and on the GPS file. I recommend also to use the Nevada Benchmark Atlas to have an overview of the highway and dirt road system within central Nevada. 

The GBT does not have very many towns, but of the towns I used I really liked the friendliness and the walking-thru of Eureka the most. Wells has the basic essentials for a truck stop town off Interstate 80. Some may even venture into the fairly large sized town of Elko from the Ruby Crest trailhead. Ely is a decent sized town with all amenities that is spitting distance from McGill, which is where one could only utilize the USPS. Other small towns exist off the GBT, but just remember these towns are incredibly small and amenities may not be up to all of your personal needs. Caliente, Alamo, Carvers, McGill, and Baker are other towns a hiker must be aware of for bailout options or a roofed respite from a storm. 

The Resupply Chart below is a shared public link.

GBT Resupply Chart


Sample GBT Itinerary:
note*** this is my utilized itinerary***

Great Basin Trail Itinerary:

(~1150m)

(5/3-6/16)

•Lake Valley Summit to Crystal Springs:

- (6 days) (5/3-5/8)

-Crystal Springs Cache

[total: ~146m]

•Crystal Springs to Tonopah:

-(8.5 days) (5/9-5/17)

-(~125m Crystal Springs Cache to Blue Jay Cache)

-(~70m Blue Jay Cache to Tonopah) 

(3.5 days)

[total: ~195m]

•Tonopah Zero Day (if possible)

-5/18

•Tonopah to Eureka:

-(8 days) (5/19-5/26)

-PO in Tonopah 

-(~50m Tonopah Cache to Smoky Valley) 

-(~135m Smoky Valley Cache to Eureka) 

[total: ~185m]

•Eureka Zero Day (if possible)

-5/27

•Eureka to Wells:

-(8 days) (5/28-6/4)

-PO in Eureka

[total: ~202m]

[+ ~57,000ft and - ~57,500ft]

•Wells to McGill:

-(6.5 days) (6/5-6/11)

-PO in Wells 

[total: ~166m]

•Ely Zero Day (if possible)

-6/12

•McGill to Lake Valley Summit:

-(5 days) (6/13-6/17)

-Market in Ely 

[total: ~125m]

GBT Overview

Great Basin Trail: Overview

Inspiration:


I believe my inspiration for route within the state of Nevada began when I was a kid. My family and I frequently traveled between Los Angeles and Las Vegas not only for family visits but for an eventual move as a pre-teen. Then, as a teenager my family frequented the June Lake area which meant taking Highway 395, which is mainly the western boundary of the Great Basin. The basin and range high desert climate is etched in my memory stemming all the way back from childhood. 

Many, many years later in 2015, I undertook a long distance hike across the state of Nevada called the Great Basin Traverse. This route made sense to me considering my childhood and familial memories. I had grown to seek those wide views and isolated and lonesome areas. While on that particular route, I began to understand how undervalued and overlooked the state and region is. In actuality, I felt pretty surprised at how ignored this vast landscape seemed in the long distance hiking community. To me, the spirit of hiking felt focused on the Triple Crown trails. Around this time, and in the background, hiking routes had gathered some steam. Folks gravitated from the Triple Crown trails to more route driven trails like the Grand Enchantment and Hayduke Trails. As I accomplished the majority of these hiking routes, I noticed the lack of a focused route trail in Nevada and the Great Basin. On my traverse, which really had been my first researched and thrown-together route, I started to gather knowledge of what a route consists of, mainly a theme within the landscape that makes sense and flows with the terrain and geographic feature. As I crossed into Idaho from the remote town of Jarbidge, Nevada, I felt underachieved. 

Nevada is temperamental in climate and extremely exposed. Unfortunately, I had encountered quite a number of thunderstorms and snowstorms that greatly altered my route and had me hunkered down in those small dusty towns of central Nevada. Over the years, I thought a lot about this Great Basin Traverse. In fact, some of the Great Basin Trail uses the idea and the basin and ranges that I had thought of in the Great Basin Traverse. 

A few years went on since that Great Basin crossing. Then, I spoke about the route on The Trail Show and The Routes Podcast with John Z. The community seemed to be aware of the route, although I still felt it to be unfinished. But, I felt lucky to have stumbled upon a landscape where such openness exists enough to create a route without relative ends.

Two years later, in 2017, I rode on a bikepacking trip, called the Poop Loop, which is a 5,200m circuit around the intermountains and basins of the West. Part of that bikepacking trip consisted of nearly 600m within Nevada. In this trip, I went through parts of the Great Basin that my traverse did not. The bike also helped me explore more of the Great Basin within a shorter amount of time. What seemed to benefit me the most in regards to the Great Basin Trail, besides the more familiarity of the Great Basin, was the exploration of mining roads, like how these roads characteristically looked on the maps versus how they appeared in the present, how the springs may not be running in these areas due to the past mining history, and lastly, how these roads, if not used, maintained a character of wildness that one could possibly feel on a two track that is hardly ever or never used anymore.

In 2018, I hiked the Desert Trail, a 1500m route-driven trail from Jacumba Hot Springs at the California/Mexico border to Drinkwater Pass in central-eastern Oregon. This route's various ecoregions exist as not too unfamiliar with the Great Basin. From the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts in southern California to the outback deserts of eastern Oregon, sandwiched in between is the basin and range ecoregion of Nevada and the Great Basin. Conceived of in the 1960s by a Russell Pengally in Bend, Oregon, the Desert Trail had the lofty aspiration of connecting Mexico with Canada by foot in an entire desert ecoregion. The nature of the Desert Trail is route-driven with navigation and backcountry hiking experience a must. I found trail tread scarce, yet found undocumented horse trails. I found the creative notions of ridge running very doable and thrilling. I found one could be creative in resupply and caching strategy utilizing well-graded BLM roads and highway crossings. Most importantly, I found water plentiful despite the long, long carries.

Finally, in the Fall and into the Winter of 2019, a couple of friends of mine, Pepperflake and Handy Andy of Pa'lante Packs invited me on another version of the Great Basin Traverse. After a couple weeks of mulling the idea over I decided to join them. Not only did I want to start a new hiking season hiking with friends, especially in a remote and special place, but I really thought about those sections I had to forego in '15 due to severe weather. From that point on, I spent most of the Winter revisiting the route.

Route and Loop Concept:

As I perused over maps and satellite images of the Great Basin Traverse, I began to get more and more excited. My eyes drifted to other mountain ranges and ridge lines. Even remote basins intrigued me. Really, I felt more interested by the isolation and remoteness of the Great Basin. Pepperflake had a tentative start date of May 1st. I had that set in mind too, but as the Winter progressed and as my job became more stressed, I realized I wanted to leave earlier and to spend as much time immersed in isolation within the Great Basin as possible. I developed the Great Basin Loop that instead of staying north above Area 51, like the GBT does, stayed south and skirted just north of Las Vegas and headed west to Death Valley where I was to meet the boys. The original loop pushed 1700 miles or so. But, then the Covid-19 happened. I'll get to that later.

So, because of COVID-19, I wanted to be responsible in my hiking choice. I wanted the route and loop to be contained in Nevada and completely within the Great Basin. I really wanted to hit the mountain ranges that my Great Basin Traverse did, as well as the higher ranges of eastern Nevada, in particular the High Schells and the Snake Ranges. I, then, focused on the timing of such a loop hike noticing the climate bifurcation boundary of Highway 6. I followed mountain ranges and linked them together with basins that followed a more or less direct path within public land. As I followed crest lines of some ranges, I would then zoom in on satellite to see if the ridges could be traversed. If so, I then plotted a line that would follow the crest and then leave the crest in an area where a spring or possibly even a small creek existed. 

More time on the satellite imagery for the water sources ensued. Most water sources seemed reliable and the ridges doable. After drawing a route south from Lake Valley Summit off of Highway 93, I then ventured in a westerly direction crossing some barren and remote country that initially went through the Basin and Range Monument with the idea of meeting the boys at Peavine Campground in the southern Toiyabe.

From Peavine Campground, we would follow the trace of what I had originally drawn nearly 5 years earlier and interweave that line with Pepperflake's newer line. His line made the traverse more attractive and even more challenging. I was excited to see how his route would be implemented with such rigors as isolation and long distances between resupply. 

Both our routes would split up at Wells, NV. Pepperflake's would head in a northeasterly direction to complete a traverse of the Great Basin while mine would loop around at Wells and turn south to eventually complete a loop at Lake Valley Summit.

Besides the characteristics and the draw of immersion in such a grand ecosphere, I really became focused on a loop for a complete thru-hike. Other than the Tahoe Rim and Wonderland Trails, finding a loop on a long distance trail is fairly rare. Andrew Skurka's Great Western Loop, Pepperflake's Greater Yellowstone Loop, Ras's UP North Loop, and my Vagabond Loop are four notable loops that utilize other well-known routes or trails. But, to have a long distance trail in the form of a loop and be greater than a 1000 miles without utilizing any other trampled routes is even rarer and even underexplored. The more research I put into this idea the notion of a loop became my goal. Little was I to know how I would be affected by hiking a large continuous loop in an extremely remote area.

As I began hiking the Great Basin Loop, I noticed that the wildness and isolation is the most apparent trait of the route. Ultimately, as I turned the route westerly and northerly I felt the pull of the core of the Great Basin. It is a big difference to pass through something within a point-to-point trail and to touch multiple pulse-points within specific areas, such as the PCT and CDT. Within a loop, you are constantly in the core of an ecosystem and within that core you develop an intense sense of place where you become part of the landscape. You become immersed in the wholeness of the Great Basin, you become the wild horse, the roaming antelope, and the grazing elk; you become the wind rifling through the warped bristlecones and the tumbling sagebrush; you are the enormous sky, the dryness within the stillness, the ruffling tumult of gusts that deposit sand in plumes; you are the water that flows from the mountain tops down through lonesome canyons only to bubble up or run out into the basins that seep into the aquifers below. 

The concept of the route continued to marvel my curiosity. As I turned south, I found myself, to my surprise, almost doubling back on the route I had just passed through. Although I really didn't get that close to the sections I had hiked, I still felt the pulse of the core of the Great Basin. The heart still felt present. With the deceiving distances of the Great Basin, due to its vastness and enormity, one range felt so close as to travel there on foot in a day even though I had taken 2 weeks to get from one place to another. This sense of place made me feel incredibly small and vulnerable, as well as to feel as a part of the region. To be honest, I felt incredibly connected, clear-minded and balanced while feeling so familiar with the land. I could name every ridge, every drainage and basin; just everything, everyplace.

Then, as I crested the Highland Ridge at 11,775ft in Great Basin National Park, I could see my starting point, the cinch point of my loop, that I started 43 days prior. Lake Valley Summit shimmered in the miraged distance at 5,800ft. I vividly recalled my lead up to that first day: the campfire, the Talking Heads song, my partner Ruta, her smile, her eyes. I envisioned that first day in the Fortification Range: the horse trails, the flowing springs, the intimidating and impenetrable rock walls along the crest, the pinyon and juniper. As I neared the beginning, I felt the end. Like I was actually completing something, like I had come home, that I had re-lived such a familiar experience that I stumbled into a realm of what was real and what was memory. I felt alive within the landscape, simply exhilarated, exactly surreal. One who experiences completing the loop of the Great Basin Trail indulges in such a unique experience where one has attained complete immersion within the Great Basin of Nevada. 

The Foundation of a Trail:

Like I stated above, when I started to create the Great Basin adventure I had initially called the route the Great Basin Loop. Really, in the planning phase, I had not even considered the possibility of creating something for others to hike. I had only been focused on how I had to rearrange and edit the route to fit within the timeframe and the social upheaval of the Covid-19 Pandemic. As with most of the routes I have endeavored on, I had my vision sighted on personal goals. The idea of sharing something that felt intimate to me felt not fair not only to me but to the next hiker. The notion that others would enjoy the immersion in the Great Basin eluded me. I mean, there simply had not been enough buzz or interest in the Great Basin except for how I felt about it personally. Nevertheless, something became apparent as I walked the route. 

By the time I had my first actual town resupply in Tonopah, some 350 miles in, and I had the opportunity to express the experience up to that point, I realized I had been on an actual route that I firmly believed another hiker, whether section or thru-hiker, would want to hike. During that first 2.5 weeks, I found so much more than scenic beauty. As I ground-truthed the route in the field, I discovered the foundation of a long distance trail. I found myself utilizing my research from the past Winter, however, I realized I had been utilizing my Desert Trail experience. That experience provided me with validation in what I found myself creating and discovering. 

So, I decided to change the name from the Great Basin Loop to the Great Basin Trail. I found abundant horse trails meandering the crests of ranges and cattle trails within the basins. Shoot, even on the first day in the Fortification Range I found nothing but horse trail, like close to 15 miles worth. Even the cross country travel had the character of wildlife travel, which meant that most game or horse or cattle trail led eventually to water, especially in the basins. I saw my instincts shift from one of a hobby hiker to one of a tracker and creator as I was seeking and following the lay of the land and wildlife tracks. The cross country travel was still appealing when wildlife trail was absent. This I knew would appease a long distance and route-driven hiker. This brought a wild aspect to the route even if a dirt road is near like in the basins. 

I, also, found the mining two tracks to be very appealing and held a wild spirit. What at one time might had been a blatant scar on the land now held the appearance after so many years of being a part of the landscape. If the road became faint and non-existent the corridor still held its integrity. Plant life grew within the road to become two side-by-side singletracks. And, an important aspect of these mining roads is that they led up into the mountains that otherwise felt untraveled. The mining roads provided a way.

The exhilaration in all of this came in the form of an unsuspecting discovery--- I found most of the foundation of the trail as undocumented trails and in seldom used public lands while also buffering the foundation with the presence of water. The amount of water surprised me greatly. The more I found the more I understood why and how the water is used by the wildlife and ranging cattle. This meant I could reasonably estimate if a water source would be reliable or not. At every high point on crest lines in ranges I would scout my gaze over the next basin to spot the corral and tanks. Sometimes I could see water shimmering in the troughs in the distance, sometimes I could see the stamped out ground from the cattle frequenting the corrals. The more I hiked onward the more confidence I achieved. 

When I got to Tonopah, I believed I was on to something, that I was onto a legitimate route worth sharing. And I knew what laid ahead of me: the Toiyabe, Toquima, and Monitor Ranges section, and the Diamond and Ruby Ranges section-----all would be enticing and incredible. That left the last third of the route. With the high ranges of the Shells and the Snakes, I envisioned something wholly complete. With some luck, research, and my previous experience I stumbled onto the Great Basin Trail.

The GBT in the time of Covid-19:

The Covid-19 Pandemic put a lot of hiking plans to a screeching halt. People lost their jobs, folks sank into a depression, the economy crashed, people fell ill, and life became set in a lockdown isolation. Besides spending considerable time thinking about what it would mean to hike the route during the trying times of Covid, I occupied my time by training with running, walking, and body-weight workouts. I also spent my time refining my Great Basin Trail and trimmed some fat of the route that would fit in a reasonable timeframe with a later start date due to the warming of the weather in the southern half of the route. I looked at reversing the loop depending on the openings. I looked at food and water caches along the route to maintain social distancing standards and respect for others. In a weird way, I felt I had an opportunity during the time of 'stay-at-home' isolation. I planned for the time to be ready when the time of opening presented itself. 

A couple months into the pandemic things began to open slowly. My lease was up on my seasonal employee housing, my partner went back to work, and my job had no start date in sight. I kept my eyes on Nevada's opening and timed it with Ruta's return to work to spend a weekend driving to the Great Basin to cache food and water. I felt comfortable in my plan: head to the most isolated place in the lower 48, be as self-sufficient as possible for 2-3 weeks, quarantine for 14 days in isolation in the Great Basin, dip quickly in and out of town when necessary and utilize the USPS for resupply after the caches, create a safety plan, and refine my route to be attainable. All in all, my plan worked out well and most things played out according to plan. I felt socially responsible for the situation I had planned and created for myself even if the decision to hike might not have been a popular one in the eyes of others.

GBT Introduction

Great Basin Trail: Introduction 

The Great Basin and Nevada:

The Great Basin is contained in nearly all of Nevada, much of Oregon and Utah, and exists in slivers in California, Idaho and Wyoming. The Great Basin encompasses 209,162 square miles and is the largest area in North America of a contiguous endorheic watershed, which means the geographic feature flows internally and has no channel, flow, or outlet to a major river or ocean. Albeit the region is made up of many basins despite what the name may suggest, most of the water evaporates on the surface of the land or drains to the aquifers beneath the basins. The area is known for a very dry climate, very much high desert like. While much of the precipitation falls in the form of snow, the area also receives intense thunderstorms. 

image from Wikipedia

Bookended by the Wasatch and the Sierra Nevada Ranges to the east and west, the Great Basin is flanked by the Snake River Basin and Cascade Ranges to the north. The southern boundary is less discernible, however, the Colorado Plateau and the Colorado River and the Mojave Desert are the obvious features. The topography is characterized by a basin and range ecoregion and varies dramatically in elevation from as low as -282ft in Badwater Basin to the highest contiguous point of 14,505ft at Mt. Whitney. The area is also characterized by the hot and dry Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the south, the Badlands of eastern Oregon, and the high desert of the northern Great Basin. Within these desert climates flora changes from Joshua Trees and creosote shrubs to the sagebrush basins of the northern portion. The flora also changes as the elevation ascends from pinyon and juniper in the desert climates to limber and bristlecone pines in the subalpine environs. Temperatures vary greatly from the highs to the lows and from the higher points to the lower points.  In essence, this region is extreme.

The Great Basin Trail of Nevada

The Great Basin is harsh in climate, unforgiving and rugged in topography, and even more intense in its remoteness and isolation. Cities are few and far in between, water is scarce, and roads are rare. The night skies are stupendously black and the wind constant, even incessant. From my past experiences meandering through Nevada on both bike and foot, I found these aspects to be advantageous for a challenging long distance hiking route. So much public land leaves the mind free to wander. And since so much of these public lands are within Nevada, that leaves so much of the Great Basin on public land. I have discovered the Great Basin and Nevada to be an ideal place and region to house the Great Basin Trail.






The Public Lands of Nevada:

Nevada became a state in 1864. Part of the state's constitution said that an land unclaimed would be public lands that would then be managed federally. Today, Nevada contains 48 million acres of public land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, roughly 63% of the state of Nevada. Over the years, the vast public lands of Nevada have been used mainly for cattle and sheep grazing and mining. In 1971, wild horses were introduced to Nevada and managed under the care of the BLM. Today, Nevada has more wild horses than the rest of the western states combined. Also, the Forest Service manages almost 6 million acres of public land, most of which is in large mountain ranges such as the Toiyabe and Ruby Ranges. These public lands are also used for hunting, recreational use such as biking, hiking, off-roading, camping, fishing, and rock hounding among other uses. Culturally the public lands are rich. Petroglyphs and pictographs dot boulders and paint hidden canyon walls, Burning Man promotes peace and creativity in the Black Rock Desert, aspens hold etchings from sheepherders from Peru and the Basque country that signify a past presence and trail side information; remnants of old homesteads that creak amid ancient cottonwoods, mining roads relics erode and rust in the dry sun, and the Pony Express's footprint still whistles in the wind.

The Great Basin Trail spends most of its route on BLM land, wends its way through occasional Forest Service land, dips in and out of state land, and traverses across the Great Basin National Park and Basin and Range National Monument, which are managed by the National Park Service. The GBT passes through many wilderness areas and study areas managed by the BLM and USFS, while in its entirety the Great Basin Train exhibits a wilderness characteristic that is hard to compare. While none of the GBT passes through private property (although at times a fence line is straddled), it is not uncommon to encounter ranch hands or shepherds out on public lands. There is so much open and public land out here in Nevada folks can share separate experiences yet feel the common bond of wildness and the spirit of freedom.

I have seen various counts of Nevada's mountain ranges ranging as wide as from 150 to 300+ mountain ranges with distinct biomes. I side with the latter. Just take a gander at a topographic map of Nevada and see for yourself. 


The Great Basin Trail:

The Great Basin Trail is a loop route solely contained within the state of Nevada and the geographic feature of the Great Basin. The GPS track I sketched tallies roughly 1050 miles, while I estimate the actual walking, or cross-country factor, to be roughly 1100 miles. The route is in a loop and can be hiked in either direction. The loop gives one the flexibility to not only have an optimal hiking season, as well as when to time that season, but hiking a loop can help one be more self-sufficient in regards to resupply and caching strategies. 

The GBT is more or less bisected by US Highway 6 with the southern half drier and warmer and the northern half colder, higher in elevation, and a tad wetter. You can also walk through a couple towns, such as Pioche, Eureka, and Wells. I achieved a full circuit of the Great Basin Trail starting at Lake Valley Summit off of Highway 93 just west of Great Basin National Park in 44 days and in a clockwise direction. Secondarily, I hiked the GBT again in 2021 going in the the same direction and starting at the same place of Lake Valley Summit. My strategy stayed very similar, yet I adapted to non-Covid situations as well as bettering the route with parts I did not get to last year. Overall, the second time around, I finished the GBT in 47 days.

I vetted most of the trail on the ground after spending the previous Winter researching satellite images, maps, and other websites. In all honesty, I got very lucky in what transpired out on the Great Basin Trail. When I initially started my thru hike, I thought to be on a personally route-driven hike only to find enough sufficient water and trail to consider this a route hikeable and enjoyable for others looking for other challenging long distance trails and routes. Ultimately, the GBT is a suggestion for a deep exploration into the landscape of Nevada. I have heard of other folks piecing together other routes through, around, or in Nevada. This landscape leaves the walker with so many options with all the open space and public lands around them.

Generally, the GBT crosses a basin in either east-west direction and can traverse a mountain range east-west or north-south directions. Obviously, the crossings of mountain ranges pose the greatest difficulty on the GBT, with some ranges being minor high desert biomes and some others, such as the Ruby's, being a mix of high alpine and desert shrub environments. Some of these mountain crossings traverse long and exposed ridgecrests with little or no trail. Almost all of these traverses have a tremendous amount of elevation gain and loss.

Rough estimated mileage of the GBT is 1050 miles and when you take into consideration all the miles walked cross-country the total climbs towards 1100 miles. Of that 1050 miles, and it seems fair to say, about 30% of the trail is cross country with more mileage covered due to navigational obstacles, sagebrush weaving, and direction. This 30% of cross-country travel equates to a very difficult route where that 30% feels more like half of the trail. Over 50% is either faint two track, or jeep track, or dirt road, in which one may feel like a road is non-existent, or just a side-by-side singletrack, or simply not used by any vehicles. These roads, in the end, prove to be more of a way through than actually just slogging along a paved road. The GBT consists of 20% is trail, whether dreamy and cushy trail, or of the sort where one may spend all day navigating along overgrown or non-existent paths. 

Of these estimated percentages, I had occasional full days of nothing but cross-country, encountered myriad systems of horse trails stamped out in BLM managed mountain and basin regions, found cattle trail across some isolated drainages and basins that led to corrals, and sauntered along old mining track that probably hadn't been driven on in many years. In many instance, I tried to avoid the most heavily used dirt roads in stretches. Overall, the cross country travel across the basins is very straightforward, the occasional bushwhacking through remote canyons a bear of a task, while the ridge line scrambles and jaunts were either lined with horse trail or difficult crest hiking. 

Lastly, I estimate between 194,000ft elevation gain and as equal that amount in loss. This is an incredible number over 1100 estimated miles where most of the miles walked are dominated by the cross-country nature of the GBT. Some sections are harder than others due to the sheer climbing of the ranges that stand tall. Other sections are easier due to the southern deserts simply being lower in elevation.

I found water to be plentiful, especially north of Highway 6. The longest waterless carry is about 50 or so miles, but luckily enough that stretch is when you have left a town and should be fully hydrated. Water sources can be a small flow to a trickle to a raging creek. Springs are abundant in the ranges, while in the basins corrals with troughs and tanks are intersected to make one confident in water carriage. Wild horses and cattle are present, more the former than the latter, so, some of the tanks and corrals are maintained for these animal purposes. It is not uncommon to stumble upon large bands of horses, herds of elk, and bands of bighorn sheep. Antelope scurry across the basins, vultures, ravens, and golden eagles soar twirling in the thermals, and coyotes stealthily trot across the barren basins and howl under the incredibly dark night sky. 

Over the next couple posts an in depth description of the Great Basin Trail will contain my inspiration for the route, a resource guide, and details on how to attain the map set and waypoints.

Impressive Facts of the Great Basin Trail:


27 Mountain Ranges: 

Fortification, Wilson Creek, Highland, Chief, Delamar, South Pahroc, Hiko, Mt. Irish, Worthington, Quinn Canyon, Pancake, Hot Creek, McKinney, Toiyabe, Toquima, Monitor, Antelope, Fish Creek, Diamond, Southern Ruby, Ruby, East Humboldt, South Pequop, Dolly Varden, Schell Creek, Moriah, Snake









19 Basins/Valleys: Lake, Delamar, Pahroc, Pahranagat, Garden, Railroad, Hot Creek, East and West Stone Cabin, Ralston, Big Smoky, Monitor, Little Fish Lake, Huntington, Clover, Independence, Goshute, Spring (x2), Snake












17 Wilderness: Fortification, Parsnip Peak, South Pahroc, Worthington, Quinn Canyon, Palisade Mesa, Arc Dome, Alta Toquima, Table Mountain, Antelope, Ruby, East Humboldt, South Pequop, Becky Peak, High Schells, Mt. Moriah, Highland Ridge

****resource pulled from Wikipedia, BLM web pages, and Friends of Nevada Wilderness pages****

Great Basin Trail Media:

• Article in the Reno Gazette Journal by Jason Bean
• https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/07/06/nevada-great-basin-trail-thru-hiker-ryan-sylva/5358210002/

• Video of wild horses in the Diamond Range, posted by RGJ and Jason Bean
• https://www.rgj.com/videos/news/2020/07/03/wild-horses-great-basin-trail-diamond-range-nevada/5369973002/

• Article in the Gossamer Gear blog, titled Developing the Great Basin Trail: A Hiker Immersed into the Soul of the Land
• https://www.gossamergear.com/blogs/our-blog/great-basin-trail

• The Trail Show Podcast episode #98
• http://thetrailshow.com/show98/

• Katabatic Gear blog:
• https://katabaticgear.com/blogs/blog/a-week-on-the-great-basin-trail