The allure of becoming a "Desert Rat," Boondocker, eco-hermit, gets stronger with each pass through the Sheldon Reserve and the Oregon/Nevada back country. The sights are amazing, the vistas healing, the solitariness so complete, the mysteries intriguing. We made good time from Medford, stopping at the Happy Horse deli in Lakeview and finding Summer and Bill's son is now a Brand Inspector in Riverton! He was featured in People or US Weekly as a "beautiful person." I bought enough provisions to get us home: good clean food. We had plenty of daylight left at Winnemucca, turned down a hichiker at the Flying J-he looked too spiffy-"jail release clothes," says I, so I called the Motel 6 in Elko thinking to gain a couple of hours on today. They had no room so I tried for Wells, Nevada and we pulled in there a little before 10p, or was it 9-the time zone is different and I never change my watch. So we were only 180 miles from Salt Lake and got a 9-ish start and made it home in the daylight-first time. I paused on South Pass to snap the snow scenes.
We had some loss of foliage but first glance says no more than one wrist sized branch and quite a few thumb sized ones were casualties of the big storm. I'll know more tomorrow.
The backcountry is teeming with hunters. They amuse and scare me a little. I played leapfrog yesterday with a convoy of hunters with big Dodge Ram trucks and trailers packed with equipment and 4-wheelers. They were feeding off each other's testosterone and vastly, dangerously, exceeding the speed limit. But I passed them three times and saw they finally had blown up a truck that sat pitifully blinking its lights-abandoned 130 miles from a garage. Could hear the strains of "Dueling Banjoes" faintly in the background because Bly Mountain is filled with West Virginia transplants. Meanwhile, West Wendover is scheduling "Deer Widow "Casino Events with 'All Male Revues." I wonder how many marriages end over hunting season.
Time for bed-I have the new Dan Brown book in hand and it is going to be a two dog night on the bed. Chilly in and out. Thirty three days before a departure to Florida.
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