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| When the road turns to bug dust... |
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| ...you keep on hiking. |
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| Lizard on far rock for scale. |
"Bug dust" is apparently a Nevada term for the loose silt and clay that develops when a soil is overworked by tilling or any other means. I've mostly heard the term in reference to the billowing powder dust that develops on
some dirt roads — two track and otherwise. The dust can become so thick that it will clog your air filter and stop your truck.
This particular bug dust isn't that thick; it was created mostly by ATV's during a fairly short period of time.
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| Closeup of lizard. |
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| Walking through the nasty stuff. |
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| A closer closeup. |
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| Ack! |
Truly silted and bug-dusty roads would be quite unpleasant to walk through, as the fine powder can reach several inches or more thick. Our new hiking spot, so far not featured on the blog except for this dusty post, is along an old two track road that was closed to motorized traffic in spring and early summer, so the dust, so far, hasn't gotten as bad as it could. It will probably never reach the epic bug-dust category claimed by many basin and alluvial fan roads in Nevada. Those roads are essentially impassable with windows down and call for vehicle cabins that are pressurized by recirculated air.
On our most recent hike up that same canyon, we took a side road not frequented by many, thus avoiding most of the bug dust.
11 comments:
bug dust has been added to my vocabulary -- a needed and useful term.
I lived in Nevada for 35 years and never heard the term bug dust. Quite familiar with the dust though. It fun in the winter too, when it builds up on your boots to amazing thickness and weight.
Hollis, glad you like it - believe me I didn't make it up!
The Bobs, I've heard the term more recently, being back in country where the stuff is thick (the west alluvial fan of the Humboldt Range has long been notorious in my mind). There may be some other phrase people around here use, but I can't think of it right now.
Hurm, bug dust eh? I know the stuff but my own term for it is Dust Puddle, as the 'splash' of dust resembles a huge spray of water when taking a vehicle through it.
Gotta love the desert!
Teri, probably you've run into those roads where the entire road has gone to thick silt - ugh! Maybe we could call them Dust Rivers?
I've known it as bug dust in my 30 years in and out of Nevada. Ran into a nasty version of it in northern Chile too when it would begin to develop as soon as the surface cobbles were disturbed.
It's nasty stuff, and I'd get a better picture of it somewhere, somewhen, but I don't like going out in search of it.
Plus, it's not camera friendly!
Hmmm. The term I always heard was Bull dust. Hit a 'puddle' in my car once and the car was never the same. Every time I turned on the AC, a puff of dust would come out!
Tom, Bull dust may come from the Australian word for fine dust encountered in the outback -- I haven't heard it here, but then, I hadn't heard "bug dust" here until recently, either. I should probably collect all the words used for the nasty stuff!
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