PR - Hey Joe you out there?
F - Yeah, always. What's up?
PR - A brief on the road report. The sun's out, the snow's melting, and I'm needing to make miles yet today.
F - When did you get there?
PR - Yesterday, but I spent most of Sunday waiting for a snow storm to pass. An appropriate day to be resting and me only 8 miles out of town. Then it snowed all night and into the next day. I could see it coming behind me and pedaled through a few flurries. It was a long day with darkness closing in on me.
F - How much snow did you have?
PR - Not that much really, maybe 4 inches but it was wet stuff. It didn't stick to the roads.
F - So you're heading down the road right after this, eh?
PR - Yeah, as heavy as I was out of Alaska. Stores are few and far between heading east on Hwy 50. The next "big" town is Ely about 250 miles away. I'm packing a weeks worth of food from here.
F - Lots of interesting history along your route.
PR - Yeah, stuff you don't pay a lot of attention to speeding by in a car.
Dayton just east of Carson City, the capital of Nevada, is on the Pony Express Trail as was part of my route across the Sierras. Night before I camped near so called Ragtown, not really a town but a place where emigrants stopped for water to do their laundry after a thirsty desert crossing. Ragtown from the laundry hanging on bushes.
The Carson River and some others flowing off the Sierras disappear into the desert sands.
F - What are you doing for water, by the way?
PR - I'm packing a jug of water from Fallon. Not quite sure I can make the next small town and water before sunset today with a late start.
One last piece of history. I passed a small stone monument by the roadside in Dayton honoring Paiute Chief Truckee. He helped and befriended emigrants heading west and died near this place in 1860; a town, a river, and valley, are named after him. John C. Fremont, the explorer, also honored this legendary Chief.
One of my first fishing trips with Charlie, my dad, was on the Truckee River with my aunt and uncle who lived in Reno. This is also for me a journey of remembrance.
Well, enough for now. More to say about sacred places down the road.
F - When will we hear from you again?
PR - Probably not until Cedar City, Utah, 5 or 6 days down the road. Passed Ely I'll probably head southeast bound into Utah on 21, more watering holes than the alternative.
F - Catch you down the road.
PRD
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