Adding a pair of shoes for good luck...

Day 233
10-26-2005
Started: Beyond Cold Springs, NV
Finished: Sand Mountain, NV
Today's Miles: 30.0
Total Miles: 3665.0

The Nevada desert treated us to another cold start this morning. Somewhere around ten degrees is probably in the right ballpark. We had trouble packing up our tent because when it is frozen stiff it is much more difficult to fold and therefore a challenge to get into it's small stuff sack. We began the day with just about every layer of clothes we have with us on our bodies, but by the time we reached the "shoe tree" the clear skies and sunshine had us shedding layers. That's right, we said "shoe tree"! We wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, and we had actually started to think that it was all a myth that Nevada locals used to keep travelers paying attention while driving down highway 50. For days now we have been hearing about a huge tree out in the middle of the desert that has thousands of shoes hanging from it's branches. "You can't miss it", a nice lady in Ely said, "it's between here and Eureka". The lady at the checkout in the Eureka general store said, "yeah it's out near Austin, and there are so many shoes in it that the branches are starting to break". The waiter at the Austin Café told us, "travelers throw an old pair of shoes in it on there way by for good luck on their journey across Nevada, it's somewhere close to Cold Springs". When our friend Mark, the local UPS driver, dropped our new shoes off to us trailside he told us we should add our worn out pairs to the "shoe tree" in the huge Cottonwood that sits between Cold Springs Station and Middle Gate Station. We were almost sure that everyone was just passing on a Nevada myth and that we would be hearing about a fictional "shoe tree" all the way to the California border, but as we came to a bend in the valley this morning we saw a big tree. Could it be, we thought, and as we got closer and closer sure enough we started to notice that the tree appeared to be covered with shoes. Completely covered, the truck was wrapped and the branches were sagging from the weight of every type of shoe you could imagine. There were even bundles of shoes that were all attached to ropes and the ropes were tied to the lower branches. Even the ground all around the tree was completely covered as if the shoes were like leaves that had dropped out of the tree this Fall. We hope we have added a bit of luck to our Journey with the addition of an extremely worn out pair number eight. We normal take every measure to "Pack it in, Pack it out" and definitely hike by the "leave no trace" philosophy so we would normally never leave anything behind, but in this case we feel like we added to a piece of desert art. Sheri sat near the tree and brewed up a cup of coffee while getting a good laugh out of Randy's multiple attempts at hitting the highest branch possible with his shoe toss. The first few attempts made contact with some leaves but didn't manage to get caught up on any branches. When he did have a successful toss the result was quite nice and he definitely put his shoes near the top of the big tree. After a fun break at the infamous "shoe tree" we hiked a few miles down the historic Lincoln Highway and took another break at the historic Pony Express stop known as Middle Gate Station. There are a few towns with the use of "gate" in their name in the area because when James Simpson of the Army Corp of Topographical Engineers was surveying the area he thought the gaps in the ridges of the nearby mountains looked like gates. Today Middle Gate Station is a Bar, Mini Mart, and Café that makes a great breakfast burrito. The Station actually had a computer and internet access so we took advantage of the opportunity to check our Inbox and E-Mail and met a very nice couple that gave us an "I Survived the Loneliest Road in America" sticker. They gave us their phone number so we could be in touch with them again as we get closer to the Reno/Carson City part of the state. We have certainly met some great people out here in this "lonely" stretch of Nevada. Our afternoon hiking took us past a few old mining towns including Wonder, a boom town of the early 1900's and then we had the excitement of watching small rockets shooting into the air over the sand flats on the Fallon Naval Target Range. The Naval facility we hiked through is a Centroid site where the Navy works with unmanned Drone technology. We thought that between the "shoe tree" and the rockets we would have had our fill of excitement for the day, but little did we know that we were going to be camping near one of Nevada's most popular destinations for the three day weekend that celebrates "Nevada Day". "Nevada Day" is actually a celebration of Nevada becoming a state and truly falls on October 31st, but the state wanted to give all it's employees a three day weekend so the holiday is observed on the last Friday in October, which happens to be tomorrow. We came through Sand Springs Pass late in the day and as we dropped down into the Salt Wells Basin we couldn't help but notice the sound of dirt bikes and ATV's and Sand Rails off in the distance. When we hit the bottom of the Eight Mile Flat we could see hundreds of RV's that looked like a small city at the base of Sand Mountain. Sand Mountain is literally a mountain of sand. It looks more like something you would see at Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina than right here in Nevada. The huge migrating mountain of sand was called Kwazi, a snake that inhabits the sand, by the early Northern Faiute people because it resembles the shape of a snakes backbone at the twisting top of the ridge of sand. The Mountain is a huge playground for the off road vehicles and the headlights going up and down the side of Sand Mountain were quite entertaining to watch as one after the other flew up the step slope until pretty late into the night. We talked to one dirt bike rider that told us as many as thirty thousand people could be in the make shift RV city over the weekend. By the looks of the fun going down on Thursday night it will be a wild scene by the time Saturday rolls around. While the scene at Sand Mountain is not quite what we expected we've come to expect just about anything and everything here in Nevada. We've found the solitude and seclusion Nevada offers to be quite refreshing, and we've found Nevada's "loneliest" stretch to be quite friendly. We've gazed at the beauty of it's bright white snow covered peaks in it's mountains, and we've gazed at the beauty of it's bright white salt flats in the bottom of it's valleys. We've enjoyed walking in the footsteps of many early settlers as we learn about Nevada's history, and we've enjoyed visiting small towns as we get a glimpse of Nevada life today. We are loving every minute of our time here in Nevada and can't wait to see what the Silver State will show us next.

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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