Lucky Boy Pass by Bicycle - Velo

Lucky Boy Pass

Monumental fault block ranges, separated by graben valleys, are a dime a dozen in south eastern California. Only the highest ranges and the deepest valleys become famous, like Death Valley for example. Some distance east of there, across the border in Nevada is the Wassuk Range, and I'm guessing few people are familiar with this name. What is more exceptional is that the valley to the east is occupied by a large natural lake, Walker Lake. The thing that makes this valley even more famous is the presence of the largest ammunition depository at least in the US - in the world, if you believe what's written on signs at the entrance of the small army town Hawthorne.

South east of Hawthorne, crossing the Wassuk Range runs this monumentally wide, unpaved road, designed for large haul mining trucks. This alleviates the most pressing gravel/mountain biking problem in the area: too much sand. We wouldn't want to get our truck, hauling mining ore stuck in the sand now, would we ? Also - I didn't see any large trucks whatsoever. Instead the surface is exceptionally smooth for a Nevada gravel road. I would call this a very bicycle friendly pass. It also has a magnifcent view of the main Sierra Crest from the east side of the summit.

Approaches

From West. A sign on Nv359 shows the turnoff to Lucky Boy Pass, but only for Hawthorne bound traffic. The initial miles on the alluvial fan are frightenlingly steep. Behind the well defined fault line on this side, the grade barely relaxes. It does become more variable though. The surface offers no excuse to walk. But for me, just being very steep is good enough reason. I don't need an excuse.

On the way up you can't miss a carefully crafted homemade monument to a military person. He did not get to be very old. The site also has a great overview of Hawthorne and the ground cover on top of all its assorted buried explosives of all types.

Eventually the road reaches a rolling surface of sorts. You can only see the upcoming pass during the last short straight away, heading for an apparent edge to the landscape. Cory Peak (10500ft), flanking the pass, seems very rounded and stands in easter egg like isolation

From East. (described downwards) The road turns north and presents a magnificent panorama in 270 degrees. In the distance snow covered peaks play with a few clouds. The road still has this monumental width. A ridge of piled up dirt on the west side serves as a guard rail of sorts. It becomes clear that the decent into this high mountain desert park is a lot smaller than the climb just finished. The sinusoidal road down stands in contrast to this idea. It makes the decent look much larger and complicated than it actually is. Once down in the park, starting at the junction with FR27 to the Borealis Mine and Powell Canyon, the road contains a few more sandy stretches and a bit more rocks. But relatively speaking the surface is still pretty good.

The road reaches a low point of sorts at the junction with CR3c (or possibly Nv3c). At this monumental dirt junction in the desert there is a sign that even includes a few destination names, such as Bodie, Route15 and Hawthorne. In this general area is also town site of Fletcher. It is located on a short road, which cuts off the junction when connecting two of its roads. Water across the road marks the spot of the old town. Today a nice grove of trees are the result. To facilitate requirements of modern man, BLM has also erected a parking lot with toilet at the spot.