So, Sunday early a.m. I awoke in Ely Nevada… by 6:45 I was packed… I had drunk my morning cup of coffee… I left… room keys and five bucks on the table… (first rule of travel in Nevada, don’t screw the locals…)
Up the hill, stop and gas up… it’s a long way to the nest gas… probably Tonopah…
Uphill, past the High School, into the Juniper and Pinion pine… This is Hwy 6, the highway lonelier than the “Loneliest Highway.” I counted 14 cars and a tractor in the first hour… 6 cars in the second… Travel was fast… much of the time I was traveling over 85 miles per hour… slower on hills, but fast.
There isn’t much out there… a few ranches… with cattle and hay fields… some road side taverns with gas stations… now long closed… signs for school bus stops, with little to show where the students live… I see prong horn antelope, wild horses, (the “feral” horses of the National Park Service, another term thing)
There are more cars as I approach Tonopah. I stop for gas… It will be a long way, before I find another station. Then off south for Benton Jct, north of Bishop in California. Still fast, more people, lots of motorcycles… I start down at Boundary Peak, Mt Montgomery, an abandoned motel, once a whore house, a closed gas station… The place sticks of failure and hopelessness…
Benton Jct. has gas… I pass it by, doing well and knowing where the next tank can be purchased… up hill through Benton Hot Springs, climbing up into the Ponderosa Pine forest along the south of Mono Lake… I pause at Mono Mills, once site of the largest sawmill east of the Sierra… Nothing left but a board scatter and a few railroad ties… On to Lee Vining, gas at the world famous Lee Vining Mobil station… gas only, no food, but the food is great.
Up hill, along the creek, I camped along the creek a week or so ago… but this time I am headed home… My progress is hindered by turtle people and tourists… they are traveling slow, unaware of those who follow… It’s free weekend at Yosemite… and there are hordes of volunteers, asking for donations in place of an entry fee… There is a long delay at the entrance station, much longer than would be expected when no fee is charged… I drive, past Tuolumne Meadows, following more turtle people… It is a beautiful place, but there are just too many damned people….
The Park has a 45 mile speed limit… within the park (and other parks) I believe in the speed limits… they seem slow, but make sense in these places of worship… for the most part I don’t make 45 mph… out of the park beyond Crane Flat, and speed limits increase, but my speed doesn’t … the turtle people block progress for miles…
I pass one large group on Priest Grade… I encounter a long back up reaching Oakdale… Breaking though, I make good time towards home… over Altamont Pass and it’s windmills, across the San Mateo Bridge… I make home just after 4:00, 527 miles, in about 9 hours…
Home to the wife, a shower, a chance to clean out the car and unpack… Out to dinner, and a night in my own bed… life is good.
Some statistics… The entire trip was 2646 miles… I consumed just under 100 gallons of gas as of the last fill up in Lee Vining… I averaged about 24.8 mpg… The highest mileage noted was over 30 mpg from Jacobs Lake to Mexican Hat… I bought three t-shirts, three bundles of fire wood, four bags of ice, three books, and not much else… I ate out three times… otherwise I ate what I brought. I camped 4 nights. I stayed in motels 4 nights.
I saw buffalo, a Kabab squirrel, a California condor, Mule deer, white tailed deer, a coyote, wild horses (“feral horses”, that term thing again), prong horn antelope, chipmunks.. and other birds and animals… there were Edward Abby’s “Slow Elk”
It was a good trip… I will do it again, not the same trip, but similar trips in similar country. I will have camp fires, I will sit by said fires with a drink in had and contemplate the cosmos… I will sleep soundly in my tent… I will have coffee early in the morning, sitting by a fire, watching the sun come up.
Randy
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