Have we mentioned how much we love this journey...

Day 223
10-16-2006
Started: Beyond State Line, NV
Finished: Spring Valley, NV
Today's Miles: 33.5
Total Miles: 3397.8

The Nevada air felt almost perfectly still this morning. We probably wouldn't have taken notice of how still it was if we hadn't felt the fury of the wind all through the night. We actually had to push one corner of our tent back into it's correct shape this morning from where the wind had blown it and the pole going to it completely out of whack. The pole was bent in a very interesting position and we were surprised that it only bent and didn't break. Our first Nevada sunrise was absolutely marvelous! The clouds that floated off to the east of us started as a light gray and as the sun began to creep above the horizon they slowly turned a wonderful violet and eventually a bright pink before surrendering the sky to the sun as they drifted off all puffy and white. The snow capped mountains to our west caught the first rays of sunshine and we watched, anxiously awaiting the warmth, as the line dividing the sunshine from the shadows slowly worked it's way down the mountains to where we were hiking in the valley below. Watching the rising sun amused us all the way into the small town of Baker Nevada. We didn't make the push into Baker last night because it was a Sunday and we didn't think we would have much luck with any services, you know, an open restaurant or grocery store in smallville USA on a Sunday is asking a lot. Well, our luck wasn't much better on a Monday morning. There are only two restaurant type establishments in town and one of them wasn't going to be open until lunch time and the other was closed on Mondays. Our early start hit a road block! Even the small convenience store wasn't going to be open until 9:00 a.m. We though we could waste some time by making some phone calls and checking in with our families back east, but as we quickly discovered, Baker doesn't have any pay phones. Fortunately the Post Office was open even though the hours on the door informed us we would be waiting another half hour, we gave a tug anyway and sure enough it was unlocked. The nice lady behind the counter was just getting set up but she didn't mind giving us our packages. Sheri was excited to get her eighth pair of shoes that Mom and Dad Natoli sent out. Pair number seven made it a long way, but now that they were wearing out they were starting to cause some sore feet and achy legs. We also received our Nevada trail guides and maps as well as another fuel canister from Maw and Pop Propster. Having such an awesome support system from our home base is priceless on a long distance Journey like this one. After hanging out in front of the Post Office opening our packages and cutting Sheri's insoles to fit her new shoes we made our way back down to the convenience store and just chilled out on the bench they have out front until a truck pulled in and the owner unlocked the door and flipped the "closed" sign to the "open" side. We did the best we could to re-supply a few days of groceries, the selection was a bit limited but we were just happy there was an open store. Once we packed out our food supplies we headed west and just outside of town came upon Great Basin National Park. The Park is not only significant to Nevada, but to the whole world! A Bristlecone Pine that scientist discovered to be 4,950 years old was found in Great Basin National Park and was determined to be the world's oldest living thing. Boy, if that tree could talk, just think of the stories it could tell. A lot has changed in the last 5,000 years! Our hike took us up to Sacramento Pass and then down into the Spring Valley. We followed the east side of the valley for miles and then near an old deserted mining town called Osceola we hung a hard right and started making our way straight across the long and wide valley. Darkness and tiredness caught up with us at about the same time and we were just about dead center of the huge valley. The wide open space and the endless sagebrush would normally have made finding a campsite fairly easy, but today we had a few added concerns. We had been warned early in the day that the weather was going to take a turn for the worse and that rather heavy rain, sleet and snow were all possible. As we hiked through the valley the wind picked back up to the fury we had felt the night before and the far end of the valley quickly filled in with some very dark, very thick storm clouds. If it will come down as snow then camping in the lowlands of the middle of the valley will be quite beautiful, but if it comes down as a heavy rain it could get ugly! We debated trying to get to the other side of the huge valley so we could head up to some higher ground, but we knew that even though it looked like you could reach out and touch the far side of the valley, it was actually still miles away. We decided that we would search out the highest of the lowlands in the valley and discussed the fact that if the storm did come down as heavy rain that we may find ourselves packing up in a downpour and hiking in the dark to search out higher ground. We could live with that, and at least we would have time to rest between stopping and whenever the storm did hit. Once we were in the tent and cozy the last thing we would want to do is pack up in a downpour in the dark, but if the conditions require us to do so then obviously we will do so, safety first! The big surprise of the day was that out here in the middle of the Spring Valley with no one around in any direction we have five bars of service on our Pocket PC. We are shocked! Hopefully we will be able to upload some of the many journals that we have stock piled since we came across the entire state of Utah with no service to be found. So, if we don't get washed away by the crazy storm clouds that are inching their way up the valley we will try to get treckusa caught up. Day number one in Nevada and the "silver state" is already providing some adventure. Have we mentioned how much we love this Journey?

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com