A Watering Hole Bites the Dust: Water Hole #1

Water Hole #1 in Golconda, Nevada — a bar made famous in the late 1970s by an industrious pig, Waterhole Ike — closed sometime within the last two to three years, before I had a chance to stop by and check out their beer collection.

Water Hole #1 and attached grocery store in March, 2015.

The bar and store during better times: June, 2012.

Zooming in on the bar.

Note the boarded-up windows.

A view of part of the motel next door.

The rest of the motel.

Part of the motel in June, 2012.

Read more about Golconda and Waterhole Ike:
A Visit to Often Overlooked Golconda - Backyard Traveller, Rich Moreno
Waterhole Ike - Howard Hickson's Histories
The illustrious past of Golconda - RGJ.com
Mike's Water Hole - FB page

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And, by the way, the stories about Waterhole Ike remind me of a story told by a former colleague of mine, who — back in the old days — once saw a pig walk into a bar up in northern Idaho (or maybe it was Montana? or Colorado??). The bartender or a friend of the pig grabbed a beer (can or bottle, I'm not sure which; brand, I'm not sure of that, either), opened it, and held it for the pig, who immediately guzzled it. The colleague, rather dumbfounded by the incident, asked about this phenomenon and was told that the pig saunters in to the bar about the same time every day and has a beer. (Story verified by another former colleague.)

Geo-beers: Volcanic Double IPA

Don't Panic! Have A Volcanic!!
(beer coaster created by unknown artist; photo by LFD)

Volcanic Double IPA is a quintessential geo-beer, being all about volcanic eruptions and such. Possibly — given the location of Lassen Ale Works in Lassen County, CA (here are all their beers) — the volcano depicted might be a fiery representation of Lassen Peak, which erupted fairly spectacularly in May, 1915.

The beer is quite hoppy and has a relatively high ABV (8.5%). Because of the latter, if you go directly to the source at the brewery, you'll get a relatively short glass of it, which is one reason I don't order it there (also, I do prefer the less hoppy, less alcoholic Eagle Lake IPA) — so if you want a full pint, go elsewhere or buy a growler to go or a six-pack in some local store. The Volcanic is currently (last time I checked a couple weeks ago) on tap at this establishment.

Meeting a Second Time

So, I met with Dana Hunter, the prolific and excellent writer, who not only has ONE, TWO (count 'em) blogs at two distinct blog networks (Freethought Blogs and the SciAm blog network), but is also (rumor has it) writing other stories, books, and — we hope — field guides (like those in this awesome series).

I met her at the usual place (usual for us, so far): the area outside security at the SeaTac airport. We had our usual drinks (see this post about our first meeting), and we ate a lunch of sandwich and salad. We talked and gabbed and had a great old time for a few/couple hours (whichever it was: time flew past rapidly, much faster than the Horizon turboprop I boarded after our meeting).

Anyway, things we discussed? Everything from A (Alaska) to E (her newish Etsy: Dana Hunter's Gneiss Schist) to F (field trips: field trips past and field trips future) to G (geology — yes, what else would geo-types like us hone in on) to K (Kittehs and Geokittehs) to N (networks: blog networks such as SciAm and FTB in particular) to P (phones: types, providers, and plans) to W (writing: blog writing and other writing) to...

...yes, there was more here, more that was somehow lost by the offline Blogger app I was using to block this post out while flying between Seattle and Reno...

We also discussed, at least briefly, geobloggers, geoblogging, and geological locations (at least from Washington to Nevada, and at least briefly between other topics) — and also a few other things that didn't necessarily take us all the way to the Z of the alphabet, but included South Africa, Mt. St. Helens, travel, wireless networks — oh, did I already mention that? We talked about scribbles (mine), focus (how it can be hard to accomplish at least for me), and cats (hers, because I don't have any and haven't for many years). Also, holidays and family (a little, and possibly mostly mine) —  and what else?

...to Z for Zinfandel (no, really, we didn't make it to Z!).

Inevitably it was time for me to go stand in the non-Pre security line, for the second (and thankfully final) time that day. We hugged for the second time — and went onward toward 2015.

Twelve Months of LFD (2012)

I missed this retrospective meme last year, but here it is, back again, as per DrugMonkey:

The rules for this blog meme are quite simple.
-Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.
I originally did this meme, after seeing similar posted by Janet Stemwedel and John Lynch.  Prior editions include 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Previous takes on this Twelve Month meme at LFD were posted for 2008, 2009, and 2010. As usual for LFD, I've also added the accompanying first photo of the month, where there was one with the first post of the month.

January:
I went on my first walk of the year earlier today, out along a creek in Anchorage, AK.

February:
I thought I'd back up to a time a week before our stop at The Geographic Center of Nevada, a time just prior to our soak at Spencer Hot Springs. 

March:Upon getting out of the truck at the north end of the Monitor Valley playa, it became rapidly clear to me that it was very cold. 

April:
I thought I'd actually have time over my 5-day break to get caught up on some blogging, but that hasn't been the case, and things aren't looking all that great for the coming 8- or 9-day work week and the break following that, so I'm posting a few views from the new area.

May:
Just a quick post showing a photo I took about two weeks ago at 5:50 am, on my early morning ride to work. 

June:
Yesterday I received an email while at work telling me that there was a hummingbird moth in one of our two pots of chocolate mint, which are sitting outside on the front porch. 

July:
These stitched photos were taken about three weeks ago near the site of Preble (just off the map to the west).

August:
These relatively small pinnacles are located in the canyon of Midas Creek, just north of the town of Midas, Nevada.

September:
Besides the obvious greenish feldspar, the countertop rock is composed of black pyroxene, gray metallic minerals (magnetite or ilmenite are likely, but I didn't bring my magnet, magnetometer, or portable xrf), and pyrite.

October:
In the morning after I wake up—while I'm drinking my first, second, and maybe third cup of coffee—I often think of things to write for the blog, how to write them, maybe even what pictures to use.

November:

I got to thinking after taking another looking at my arc photos, that this shot may show a weak tangent arc above the also weak 22 degree halo around the sun.

December:
We came in from the east or north, depending on how you view the direction of I-80 as it traverses the entire north-south length of the west flank of the Humboldt Range from Florida Canyon to Limerick Canyon northeast of Lovelock.

Back to Midas

At long last, we're back on the Tuscarora Loop, with the turnoff to the small town of Midas just up ahead. On our loop trip, taken way back in early June, MOH and I passed Midas by, in favor of making it all the way to Tuscarora. At the time, I had been to neither place, but Tuscarora seemed more out-of-the-way, and therefore more exotic, so down the road we went.

We came back in mid-July, and instead of following the main road, old S.R. 18, to the right, we took the side road up the canyon to the left.

Signs at the turnoff to the Midas road.

Sign at the entrance to the town of Midas, and green trees.

Acme Beer sign, reportedly dating to about 1936.

I was on the lookout for a bar that had been open in 1979 or 1980, a bar I knew as Kirby's Midas Bar, a name given to me by a friend of mine, a young woman who was working as a geologist while staying in Midas in a company trailer. Seeing the old sign for Andy's Midas Bar made me somewhat hopeful about finding either Kirby's or Andy's bar, although Acme Beer dates back primarily to the early 1950s and before. Acme Beer did have a short revival in 1975 to 1979; could it have possibly been being sold in Midas while my friend was in town?

While in Midas, my friend could make or receive phone calls on one of the two phones in town, which had the phone numbers of Midas #1 and Midas #2. Phone numbers like these were fairly common in the 1970s and early to mid- or late 1980s in the small, outlying towns of Nevada. These numbers confused operators outside the state to no end. To place a call into Midas or Getchell, for example, you would dial 0 for an operator and then ask for Midas #1 or Getchell #2 as needed. If dialing in from out of state when trying to reach one of these types of numbers, one learned quickly to ask the out-of-state operator for a Nevada operator, because many outside operators didn't believe that phone numbers like that could even exist.

While I was looking for, and not finding, the bar I'd heard of long ago, MOH and I were hoping that the one known-to-be-operating establishment in Midas, the Midas Saloon and Dinner House, would be open, but it wasn't. This became a concern during a later, uphill, in-the-rain adventure of ours.

Mine dump, ore cart, and portal (?) a little ways up Midas Creek.

Old cabin, garage, or storage shed.

Road to somewhere.

After a quick pass through town, we headed up the hill to the west on this relatively innocent-looking side road. The partly cloudy weather became more and more threatening as storms to the south moved in, creating an unexpectedly muddy situation.

Icky with Anorthosite

Besides the obvious greenish feldspar, the countertop rock is composed of black pyroxene, gray metallic minerals (magnetite or ilmenite are likely, but I didn't bring my magnet, magnetometer, or portable xrf), and pyrite.

Also see:
Geo-beers: Gimme an Icky

Anorthosite and labradorescence

Theme and Variations on Anorthosite and Labradorescence

Rock 366 : Day 72 : Anorthosite with sulphides

Labradorite at Wikipedia (photo)

Geo-beers: Gimme an Icky

Ichthyosaur "Icky" IPA, usually known as "Icky," is a true geo-beer, made by geologists for geologists — and for Nevadans and all beer lovers. It's named after our official state fossil, the Ichthyosaur, found and preserved at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park.

"Distinct, not extinct."

Icky is one of my ultimate favorites — especially for a local, often on-tap beer (on tap at least as far east as Winnemucca, NV) — competing quite nicely with all my other favorite local, Alaskan, and IPA brews. (Okay, so the last two are Alaskan.)

"A brew more than 200 million years in the making."
"You better hold on tight. This is one tough species."
"PROTECT THE SPECIES. Enjoy a long-necked Ichthyosaur today."
and
"Do as the locals do - say "GIMME AN ICKY".
"A highly evolved brew."
"Savor the pioneering spirit of the Great Basin."
"Named after Nevada's official state fossil."

I don't, currently, have an actual photo of an Icky, but I hope to remedy that lack sometime in the next few days, when I will finish logging the hole I'm on and take some well-earned days off.

Great Basin Brewing Co.
Icky IPA

UPDATE: See Accretionary Wedge #54 for more interesting posts about beer and other libations.

First Day Off After Nine

Early morning: This was my rousing view of clouds and the foothills of Winnemucca Mountain when I awoke this morning. This photo now seems to represent what was a somewhat inspirational beginning to what turned into a busy, erratic day. Perhaps the day was also a bit like the clouds: scattered.
Early evening: It was a hectic day, seemingly, and I'm finally relaxing with a cold beer — a Rotator IPA in a Ruby Mountain Amber pint glass. I think the only reason the day seemed hectic was that I did things other than what I planned, things that weren't on my TTD list, so I felt as though I didn't accomplish anything. Instead of relaxing and blogging (both were on the list), I did a modicum of unpacking, a bit of arranging, and quite a bit of rearranging. I did get two things on my list done, including having a relaxing hot bath. And, for things not on the list, I accomplished the hanging of a peg strip near the front door of the apt, which now looks like this (sign compliment of furnished apt):
By the end of the day, prior to beer, I didn't find a Father's Day card to my liking. Whereas it seemed that the cards in our moved-away-from town were dorky and quite repetitive year to year, it seems as though the cards in this new town, while ostensibly or superficially quite varied, trend overall either toward the overly sentimental (for either myself or the way I view my dad), or they are raucous musical and noisy things that I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like. Consequently, because I'm already late in mailing anyway, I'll probably dig through the many cards I have on hand, which I've bought for myself not to use but to look through and enjoy (art cards), then I'll pick one out and hopefully get it sent by tomorrow afternoon when the mail gets picked up at our nearby apt-based boxes. With any luck, the card will arrive in AK by Monday, only one day late.

In the meantime, I'm expecting a phone call from MOH. He's on his northern adventure, checking out oil fields and small towns in northerly areas that I've never visited. (I'm jealous, in a way, but am getting daily pictures of campsites, rivers, and the way my old truck currently looks as a mini-RV. One thing I've learned is that the Yellowstone River is quite beautiful, though a long way from here.)

And now, my beer is still cold but needs to be refreshed with a new one, the sun coming through the open-to-the-freeway window — open to let swamp-cooler air on high out — is warm. After beer I'll have a dinner either of mint chocolate cookie ice cream or mini-ravs and milk. That will be the end to what I now see as a good day.

P.S. The "our town" tag refers to the old place in the hinterland of eastern Nevada, and the "wnmca" tag refers to a uniquely named town in north-central or north-western Nevada (depending on how you view Nevada geography).

P.P.S. I am finding myself, as I've mentioned before, considerably shorter on time for blogging while working the industry-wide normal 10-hour days and having a door to door driving/riding time of 45 to 60 minutes, depending on particular logistics. These logistics create what are actually 12 hour days, longer than my previous 10-hour work days plus 30 to 45 minute max round trip times (10.5 to 10.75 hour days compared to ± 12 hour days). I'm still adjusting, rather slowly, to my lack of blogging time. I'm not awake enough in the morning to do much serious (or very good) writing or link finding, and the short evening is often crammed with brief winding down, dinner, getting ready for the next day, enjoying a netflix-streamed old TV series episode or two with MOH when he's here, OR just crashing, OR reading the internet but not blogging. Haven't figured all that out quite yet — and I haven't quite scheduled time in for any excercise besides what I get at work, walking up and down metal-grated stairs and walking back and forth down my rubber-padded cement-based core-logging lane.

P.P.P.S. Wrist and elbow overuse pain (started in one arm, is now also in the other becuase of using the other almost exclusively at times) has also limited what I have been able to do on the computer. The pain, soreness, inflammation, whatever it is, is better. It all probably began from packing and lifting/carrying boxes; consequently, any unpacking I do puts me at least slightly at risk of a longer healing time. (RICE: REST, ice, compression, elevation — need the former, acheiving very little of the latter - how does one raise the elbow without using it or other possibly compromised muscles? Meh.)

West to Southwest of Center: Beers and Roads and Folds and Things

I thought I'd back up to a time a week before our stop at The Geographic Center of Nevada, a time just prior to our soak at Spencer Hot Springs. MOH and I had gone out to Austin, Nevada, and we had aimed, successfully, to arrive in time for Serbian Christmas.

Serbian Christmas is celebrated yearly at the International Cafe & Bar, and we've happened in once before without knowing that we were arriving on that celebrated date. This time, we postponed our already scheduled trip to Austin by one or two days in order to arrive on the 7th of January, which corresponds to December 25th on the Julian calendar.
By perfect celebratory standards, we got there just a wee bit late, but still in time to get a room with overrated free wi-fi (terrible bandwith, poor broadcasting) at the Mountain Motel, and time to sit in the bar for a drink or two — including some traditional plum brandy from Serbia — before moving to our table in the cafe. The Christmas dinner of pit-roasted pig served with various and sundry dishes and desserts begins at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon (or maybe as early as noon). I think we sat down just before 6:00 and the food was still coming. The meal is free (unless you order off the pizza menu), the experience is more than worth the price, and the cuisine is the best for miles around.

We spent much of the next day trying to find a certain locality in the Northumberland caldera, and at one point we came close to taking the right road.

The right road.
I somehow didn't manage to take a picture of the wrong road.

We found a nice Z fold in Ordovician cherts of the Vinnini Formation just a couple miles southeast of the turnoff to the right road. The Z fold was part of a larger fold or fold complex that was difficult to photograph with straight-down-sun lighting. You can barely make out the Z fold near the main fold axis, just to the right of the prominent, though thin, black chert band in the right hand part of the photo.
Here's a better look at the Z fold with my boot for scale
And here's the Z fold rotated into a Z postion. I'll leave it to all the diehard structural types in the audience to tell me which direction is up in the photo showing the whole fold.

Not knowing that we hadn't made it to our sought-after spot in the Northumberland caldera, we returned to Austin after partaking of the waters at Spencer Hot Springs. We had another beer or two at the bar before eating dinner at the International, and the next day we continued our journey.

View Northumberland in a larger map

Can You Believe We Are Still Doing This?!

No, not blogging...

...attending the annual Consultants and Independents Hospitality Suite at the Northwest Mining Convention. Apparently the first one was in 1986. Yes, those are 26 X's. Count 'em. A couple independent or consulting geologists started this bash back in 1986, to show that you didn't have to be big to throw a great party. Previously, the big parties had always been thrown every year by the famous, now defunct, S&D.

I don't have a full set of the mugs. Darn it!

The NWMA holds its convention the first week of December every year, and already has the announcement up for the 2012 meeting. The meeting site location alternates between Reno and Spokane. The next one will be in Spokane.