Day 25 - The Desert can be Boring, But it Holds Beautiful Secrets

We woke up earlyish this morning and enjoyed a nice camp breakfast. I got the fire going and water boiling quickly because even though we were in Caifornia, the elevation let the night temps drop down to 15-16 C, tea and coffee are necessities to waking up in a tent. Once the fire was going I peeked in the tent to see how our man was doing. 

Did Gord get a good sleep? Does he like camping? You tell me.

Knowing we had a ways to go today (the first of three consecutive 600+ km days) we ate quickly, cleaned up quickly, broke down camp quickly, and got on the road. We jumped back on 89 and kept going North towards Tahoe City (where we hoped to get some diesel and ice) and our home for the next 4 days, I-80. Things were slow going through the various small towns along the Western shore of Lake Tahoe with construction regularly reducing the road to one lane only - but it wasn't that bad because the scenery was good. This continued until Tahoe city, where it stopped. Literally, for nearly 20 minutes, and it felt like 60. Lovely.

Finally we were able to creep up to a gas station, paid an extortion fee for our diesel, filled the cooler with fresh ice, and hit the road. We worked our way away from the Lake but still enjoyed the scenery as we paralleled the Truckee R. and manoeuvred through the tall stands of pines. We didn't know it, but it was good that we relished the shade and the tall, elegant creatures, when we finally said goodbye they'd be the last we'd see for the day.

Finally on I-80 we moved into Nevada and the desert. There are two things of note in the desert of Nevada: one, you can make up lots of ground here with 70-75 mph speed limits; and two, the scenery is dry, but beautiful. Lots of dry, barren mountains with the occasional river/crek supporting more greenery. 

So began our search for the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

Yes there was construction, but it didn't slow us down much. We slowly made our way across the map and watched the temperature climb on the dash of the Jetta. We started the day at 24 C and by the time we got to Reno it was comfortably into the 30s.

By Reno Gord was sund asleep and the temperature had climbed to a dry but Hades-like 36C. Dry heat or not, that was warm. Needless to say, we sped past.

The road system carried us deep into the dessert and provided few things to look at. Lindsay, while comiserating about the ravages that a dry climate can have on a body, told us that "people are not meant to live in Calgary", I wonder what she'd say about this place. 

I love tunnels. Gord does too, he stops whatever he's doing and stares at the lights passing over head.

When Gord finally woke up we were just outside of the sleepy town of Lovelock NV, so we pulled off hoping to get lucky in is small town of 250 warm people. Of course there was the local Scottish burger place, and again it disappointd with no change table, but this one had no play land, and it was packed, so I had to change him in the back seat. T made a case to eat in the AC as the mercury had climbed to 40 C, but I am a stubborn so-and-so and don't want to give them any of our money. That's when I noticed the shaded picnic areas just up the road a way. She placated my curiosity, and to my delight, the shade was easily 10 degrees cooler. With the slight breeze we would have no problem eating a quick picnic lunch before heading out on the road again. The space even had public bathrooms, horseshoe pits, and bbqs. Thank you Lovelock chamber of commerce.

In a little more than an hour we were back on the 80 and heading due West towards Wells, NV. From Wells we were supposed to drive 12 km up into the mountains to a small park reserve calld Angel Lake. Online, at home, this looked perfect - but today, at 40 C, and us being as tired as we were, I was nervous. We topped up our cooler and water supply at a grocery store in Wells and headed up the mountains. I didn't realize NV had country like this. We wove our way through the desert and slowly made our way towards Angel Creek. That's where it started to get really steep. Up and up we went, it must have been a few thousand feet because it made me queasy, and I don't get like that. What is more, the road was narrow and had NO guard rail, NO shoulder, NO room for error. After what felt like an hour (probably closer to 20 min) we finally reached the summit and found our space among the 26 camp sites. There couldn't have been more than 10 occupied sites, and the view was amazing. We'd made a good decision. All in all we'd lost about 10 C by the time we reached the summit, from 40-30. Still not cool, but it was noticeable.

Our site nestled into the rock.

The temp dropped another 10 C as soon as the sun went behind the rock. 

We enjoyed a quick dinner of burgers (and watermelon) and headed for the lake.

What a sight. So far up and full of fish. There was actually a decently busy beach on the left and a large family was enjoying the water and a BBQ dinner.

The alpine desert landscape is alive with sage and emerald, and the skies are a thing of beauty unto themselves.

Wide open spaces and pretty landscape makes Theresa happy.

Gord too.

After our walk we watched the departing sun turn the Eastern sky a magnificent palette of colour, from orange and gold, to pink and purple, and finally to a deep blue-black. 

There were clouds obstructing the moon when I finally went to bed, but I needed no light to walk around. What a find! We were dressed for cool temperatures when we went to bed, told by the park 'host' that it would get "down to 50" (10 C) by morning. 

TOTAL FUEL FILL UPS: 8

DAILY WILDLIFE: horses, cows, fish, lots of song birds, a large-ish snake on the road up to Angel Lake, and plenty of mice and voles once the sun went down.