Wow, I've really overslept this morning, just woke up at 11h30 after a rather sleepless (and cold, low 20s) night

I fell asleep before midnight, but two vehicles drove up the road past my tent to the Old Dominion Mine site at 1h15. I couldn't get back to sleep after that until around 5h. They're still there this morning (white blot on ridge at upper left).

I'm hearing noises, not too distant, and notice that it's coming from vehicles riding on Broadwell Dry Lake

That's quite a dust storm down there! I'm sure it's fun, but I'm glad I'm not hiking across Broadwell Dry Lake today in a quest for solitude like I was yesterday. Note to self: avoid potentially popular places like this on holidays!

If I zoom in on Broadwell Dry Lake, I see a number of ant-like items on the playa that might be a convoy of 4WD vehicles

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, which most people have as a vacation day, hence the extra traffic in this otherwise quiet area.

I've already made two cups of hot coffee, but I decide that I need a more substantial breakfast today

I was planning to walk up to the Old Dominion Mine site before packing up, but my "neighbours" are still there. Instead, I'll make a pouch of instant Mountain House Beef Stew, if I can get water to boil.

The wind has picked up, and my water just won't boil, so I bring my propane burner closer to my tent, hoping to block the wind

Finally, my water does boil, and I make my instant Mountain House Beef Stew. Tasty, and I can tell that I needed the calories.

I'm about to start packing up when I hear the two vehicles from last night driving down the road away from Old Dominion Mine

I wonder if they noticed me nestled in the creosote-bush scrub when they passed by... They've been noisy all morning, banging on something up there. Now that they've left, I'll go for a quick walk up that way before packing up.

I don my hiking gear and go for a short walk toward the Old Dominion Mine site

When I reach this clearing, I start hearing more of the banging sounds I was hearing earlier. Oh, nobody is demolishing anything, this is the sound of gunshots, and someone is doing target practice or other random shooting up here.

I decide that it might be best to turn back since there were no gunshot sounds until I reached this area

Yeah, nice fire ring.

I start walking back to my tent, wondering if maybe I should have ignored the gunshots and continued with my short hike

Maybe those gunshots weren't intended to scare me away. At any rate, this part of the road is much clearer than further down where I couldn't even find it in the dark a couple of nights ago.

OK, there's my tent, today's abortive one-mile hike to Old Dominion Mine comes to an end

I still wonder whether the gun folks up by the old mine site have seen me or not...

It's not my routine to be breaking camp late in the afternoon, but here I am

I still have water remaining, probably enough for another day, given the cold weather. But perhaps not.

It's almost 16h and I'm just now starting today's bicycle ride out of Broadwell Dry Lake?

Maybe I should have gotten up eight hours earlier? But no, sleeping all morning in the warm tent this morning was sooo nice. I don't think I woke up once.

We're ready to ride the half mile down from the Old Dominion Mine area to Crucero Road

It still bugs me that I couldn't find this road two nights ago, even though I was sometimes on it!

I ride down the faint road from the Old Dominion Mine site at sunset

I'll turn right as soon as I reach Crucero Road, just ahead.

Back down on "the main road," I look north on Crucero Road near Broadwell Dry Lake

There's more worth exploring further up that road. I didn't expect this road to be passable by bicycle, so I didn't plan on attempting to travel any further up this road. Maybe next time.