Unit 015 covers the country south of Gerlach and the southern Black Rock—Smoke Creek Desert margin, extending into the Granite Range and the western fringe of the Lake Range. Elevations run from about 4,000 feet on the playa edges to roughly 9,000 feet on Granite Peak. The country is high-desert basin and range: alkali flats, sage and bitterbrush slopes, mountain mahogany pockets in the canyon heads, and a few aspen stringers on north faces. Granite Creek and Mahogany Creek are the only water you can count on. The rest of the unit dries up by August. Almost all BLM with checkerboarded private along old railroad sections—watch your maps because the property lines run square through what looks like one piece of country. State Route 447 from Wadsworth to Gerlach is the paved spine; from there you're on graded gravel that turns into clay soup the second its rains. Gerlach is the only outpost—a bar, a cafe, a pump that may or may not be working. Winnemucca is two hours east and that's where you actually re-supply. Cell service dies five miles outside Gerlach. Pronghorn use the open sage and mule deer hold in the mahogany draws on the Granites; California bighorn cling to the cliff bands. Wind blows constant, the dust gets in everything, and if your truck quits out here yo're walking. Carry extra fuel, water, and a real spare.