July 28-29: Nevada-Land of mystery and Illusion: On the first official day of walking in the great state of Nevada, we really had no idea what to expect. From photographs and topographical maps, I had an idea of what the terrain would look like, but as I have said before, photographs can never do Justice. Before I go on, I want to thank a cross-country bicyclist named Nick whom we met along with 2 other bicyclists named Russell and Simon at the Border Inn. During our day off on the 27th, we met these 3 individuals for dinner and talked of our travels and inspirations. Simon and Russell are originally from England, but all three of them are currently living in San Francisco. Nick was biking to the east coast while Simon and Russell were headed back to the Bay Area after starting their journey in New York. Many cross country bicyclists use maps from a company called Adventure Cycling and I am personally a huge fan of them because of the detail and elevation profiles the present. Nick had already finished using 2 of them and kindly gave me the ones he was finished with! They are a huge help in showing me some of the difficulty of whats to come. Thanks again Nick, and it was wonderful meeting all of you gentleman! Now that I have a better lay of the upcoming land thanks to Nick, I was able to see what Jake and I had in store for todays walk. The pattern of Nevadas terrain consists of Basins and mountain ranges. The ranges run north to south and between each chain of mountains lies a valley. Following every ascent, the next mountain range can be seen looming on the horizon. It is certainly intimidating and to start the 28th off right, we made our way through the first mountain range Nevada had to throw at us via Sacramento Pass. The morning of the 28th started out cool and cloudy and we figured that we would simply walk until we felt like stopping. We climbed out of the Great Basin National Park Valley over a 16 mile stretch to the summit of Sacramento Pass. As monotonous as the climb seemed to be, it did not fail to leave me feeling accompanied as ever in spite of the next massive range staring directly at me from the west. We we finished the descent down the mountain, we came into the Spring Valley. The clouds that had shielded us from the sun all morning dropped a few showers of rain on us as we made our way through the valley. It cooled the air around us even further and barely reaching 80 degrees today, this cool weather was a relief from the scorching deserts of Utah. The precipitation was refreshing and our spirits were high as we pressed forward gazing up at the mountains covered with sheets of rain and a thick cumulonimbus cloud cover. Aside from the moderate to light traffic on the road today, the air was silent. Unlike the deserts of Utah and parts of Colorado, there were no rustling of animals, chirping of birds or even insects here in Nevada. Todays walk had an eerie, yet tranquil vibe to it; however, tranquility can easily be turned to madness especially with the optical illusions this terrain plays on the weary traveller. By the late afternoon, we had already completed 30 miles and according to the map, there was a bar/restaurant called Majors Place with camping/lodging another 7.5 miles up the road. Until making it into Nevada, I had no idea it even existed, but we could see it a ways down the road in the distance, so, we made it our end goal to reach it! This is where the illusions of Nevadas terrain really started messing with my head. It was a straight shot to Majors Place, but the little oasis seemed to sit a top of a massive incline that was the first ascent into the next mountain range. Mile markers proved that we were getting closer and closer to the upward turn in the road, but my eyes begged to differ. It seemed to be getting further away until it just disappeared all together! When looking forward, the steep incline seemed to appear as a gentle uphill grade, but my body could feel a heavy resistance against the cart. When I looked back at the ground we had already covered, it was noticeably apparent that we came up hill quite a ways, but the road that was now in front of us did not seem to be gaining as much elevation as could be seen building from behind me. It is hard to explain, but truly bizarre. Not to mention, out here, things appear much closer than they actually are. When we finally made it to Majors Place, the road we had been walking on almost 3 hours ago still seemed to be right in front of us. We were greeted at Majors Place by mangers Don and Joann. They had actually been told of our arrival by Russell and Simon, who had stopped by in the early afternoon on their ride into Ely. They prepared us dinner and we were set up in one of the rooms attached to the bar. Thank you both for your kindness! July 29: Today, we made our way to the summit of the highest point on US 50 in Nevada: Connors Pass. It was a 5 mike climb from Majors Place and from the summit we had an overall downhill for 20 miles into the town of Ely, NV where we are staying until the 31st before our 2.5 day walk into Eureka, NV!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 22:45:11 +0000