Even though I hadn’t gotten into the Old West history until I got out to the West Cost, and found Cowboy Action Shooting, it really wasn’t until I moved to Reno, did I really find out how much history is really packed into this area.
From the Pony Express, the Immigrate Trail, the Donner-Reed party, the 49’ers, Virginia City and the Comstock lode. There are lots odd strange facts about the area also. One is that while most people think about the fact that most rain that fall East of the Appalachian Mountains flows to the Atlantic. West of there up to the Rocky's, it flowed to the Mississippi and hence into the Gulf of Mexico. The stuff that falls West of the Sierra heads to the Pacific. But there is a swath of land between the Sierra and the Rocky's that the water don’t go nowhere (sic). The water goes from Lake Tahoe down the Truckee River to Pyramid lake, then goes up into the air as evaporation. Most other rivers come out of the mountains that surround the area known as the Great Basin, only to be sucked into the sky out of areas now called Sinks. I now find that I can take a 2-3 hour drive and be going through areas that had once had 60 or so feet of water over my head. Got lots’a places around here to still explore, just need the time to keep om doin' it.