In early September, Ian and I ran the Ruby Crest Traverse as part of The Fifty. The Ruby Mountains are just southeast of the town of Elko, Nevada, in northeastern Nevada. I’ve spent a lot of time in Elko for mining work over the years, and it was special to visit for a personal trip. The Rubies are a gorgeous range.
Photos by Ian.
Steve (Ian’s dad) was our shuttle king. He dropped us off at the southern end of the range in the wee hours of the morning. It was pretty smoky from California wildfires.
Smoke does have some upsides… like insane basin-and-range sunrises.
You get up from sage to scrub to aspen groves pretty quickly.
Sheep dogs are not so pretty. As we ran uphill along one forested stretch of trail, we heard about 500 sheep bleating ahead. When we left the trees into their pasture, we then heard barking. Four massive Great Pyrenees charged down the hillside towards us. They definitely wanted to eat me, and we escaped into a thicket and bushwhacked to safety.
Red scrub along the trail gave the landscape a ruby hue. Apparently the Rubies are so named because the rocks have garnets (not actual rubies) and some early explorers got excited. We did not see many garnets.
Ian running about halfway along the traverse. Amazing landscape!
Looking down at the lakes.
An old mining or hunting hut by one of the lakes. There were some deer bags inside.
The northern end of the range gets spectacular. Big granite.
One of our favorite parts of the trail. Totally open, epic, flowy singletrack.
The second-to-last lake at the northern terminus of the range. Given it was late season and there wasn’t any snow, we were pretty thirsty by this point. Between mile 18 and 36-ish there wasn’t much water. Definitely something to be aware of.