Lisa Borok
Jacques Delsemme
I run around in moderate frenzy trying to get everything done and the van loaded for the trip. Go to the glass shop at 10 am where they install the replacement mirror for the left side. The car wash smashed it the afternoon before; probably the first and last time I pay to have the VW washed.
Mirror in, I load the remaining food, etc. It's 1 pm--an hour later than I told Jacques I'd leave. He's in Davis at a conference; I'm to pick him up en route. I leave a message on his voice mail at work which he can pick up remotely. I arrive at UC Davis at 3:45 pm. It's been raining or threatening the whole way.
Davis is hot and humid but still sunny. Jacques has just come from the swimming pool and gets to the rendez-vous about 5 minutes ahead of me. We sort and put away much of the stuff I've loaded in bags and suitcases and piles. Then we head north on Hwy 50, stop for gas and early dinner and start up into the hills.
That night we camp at Sly Park near Pollock Pines. They're full, but the attendant-- referring to us as a ``nice couple''--gets permission for us to stay overnight in the boat launch parking lot. It's all paved, but we're right on J... Lake and there are toilets and water very nearby. Our first night on the road!
We get up fairly early since the ranger told us to be out of the parking lot by 8 o'clock. But 8 passes and there is hardly anybody at the boat launch, so we decide to stay and have pancakes right there rather than moving to the nearby picnic area.
Eventually we leave and continue on Hwy 50 up to South Lake Tahoe. We stop at South Shore at the Mikasa factory store to see if they have some Tillary soup plates to replace the broken pieces we have: no luck. Next we go to a grocery store to stock up for the Nevada crossing. We leave Lake Tahoe at about 1 o'clock (we have lunch before leaving), and gas up in Carson City before starting east across the desert. There is a small fire above Carson City spewing smoke across the sky. Carson City is already much drier looking than around the shores of Lake Tahoe. We keep driving east on the two-lane blacktop, trying to go as far east as time permits. We make it to ??? where we fill up with expensive gas, and as night is approaching we camp just outside the ``city'' (pop. ???) after climbing to ??? feet just past the pass. It's a nice Forest Service campground but without any water. There are just a few other people also camping.
By the time we get going, there is only one other camper left. I check the oil before leaving, and we both marvel on how smoothly the car runs with the tune-up that I did before leaving Santa Cruz. Passing gears is also much easier than it used to be after I had to readjust the bent gear lever. The lever was bent by some mechanic in Santa Cruz when we took the VW to be lubed; the mechanic tried to force the van into gear rather than gently nudging the lever into place. The VW is showing its age (27 years) and needs to be treated gently.
The road is flat except for the passes which we climb inch by inch in 2nd or 3rd gear. The passes occur every 80-100 miles since this seems to be the average width of a set of basin and range which we are crossing perpendicularly. The storm which we had overtaken yesterday needs to be overtaken once again. We will be playing leapfrog with the storm front for the next few days as we overtake it during the day, and it overtakes us during the night. Because of this, our desert crossing is very pleasant, and the hot temperatures we had feared never materialize.
The road crosses the Pony Express trail several times along this stretch of highway. It is pretty desolate (with emphasis on the pretty). What strikes me the most is how run down most of the cities we cross are. You know you approach human habitations when rusted cars and other junk heaps start to appear. With so much space it seems there is little incentive to hide the eyesores.
Eventually we end up in Ely, the big town in eastern Nevada (pop. ??). Lisa gets spooked by the attitude of the people in line at the supermarket, and we flee this town which has kept the worst aspects of the fifties, and stayed frozen in that time period.
It is still daylight when we enter the Great Basin National Park. We go directly to its nearest campground at the end of a long gravel road next to Baker creek. We pick a nearly idyllic site. It overlooks a rocky wash with aspens and evergreens several hundred feet on the other side. Several mule deers are browsing and come fearlessly right up to our picnic table.
That night after having drunk too much tea in the evening, we both get up at 3 am and admire the night sky with all its bright stars. The Milky Way is easily visible, and I manage to find Pegasus and not too far away a patch of light from the Andromeda galaxy. My stint as a planetarium operator is paying off! The Big Dipper is not visible because of patchy clouds. We go back to bed, shivering a little and with sore necks from having looked up so long. We sleep late and get up when we both wake up naturally.
Lisa is ravenous when she wakes up, and eats a bowl of cereal almost before getting vertical. Then we make some coffee in our dining room with a view (i.e. at the picnic table) and have our real breakfast. We pack up everything and head up for the Visitor's Center.
At the Visitor's Center, we register for a tour of the caves, and while we wait for it to start, we browse through the little bookstore and the gift shop next door. We buy postcards for everybody, and have lunch in the van (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). We put on heavy sweaters for the cave tour and run back to the Visitor's Center, dodging the rain drops that start to fall.
Ranger Kelly is our tour guide. She is a school teacher from Virginia and she is good at presenting the materials in a fun way, very dynamically. The tour takes about 90 minutes. It is an intimate tour since the Lehman's caves are not that big. But their decorations make it worthwhile. There are some good ``parachutes'', ``bacon'', and even an ancient dance floor where Lisa and I try a couple of steps. Alas, no music. At the end, we buy a cave sticker for the VW and we paste it on top of an old one which has completely faded away.
After filling up the tank with water, we inch up to Wheeler Peak campground which is close to 10,000 ft.
The campground is nestled in a valley with a small stream meandering among the meadows, the aspens, and the firs. We see many mule deers including a fearless one that we have to chase away. At 8 o'clock we go listen to the ranger's talk on astronomy; but with the clouds and the rain, it turns into a fire-side chat at the campground's host sitting below a tarp hung right next to the fire. There are quite a few characters: a former ranger trying to live as many days as possible above 14,000 ft for his asthma/bronchial problems, a guy from Montana who is surprised to learn that Mt. Wheeler is not Nevada's highest peak, and the ranger herself who couldn't praise enough this park as being the one with the fewest regulations (and she likes that).
Utah Div. of Parks and Rec.
Canyonland Campark campsite in Moab, Utah.
US Forest Service campsite.
US Forest Service campsite.
Utah Div. of Parks and Rec.
Nevada division of State Parks campsite.
| City | Miles | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Vail | 13150 | |
| Beaver | 13607 | 9:38 |
| Fallon | 14064 | 11:15 |
| Santa Cruz | 14425 | 7:40 |