Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Welcome to the Silver State - Baker, NV (Day 52)


This morning we woke up to Yogetta's bike strung up to the basketball hoop behind the school in Milford. Though we liked to say it was a mischievous local, the 4K yellow rope kind of gave it away as an inside job. The culprit is still on the lose. No arrests have been made.

Today was the day of the three uphills, with three equal down hills. This is the topography that 4Kers love, because we always look for that reward after a climb. After each summit, we descended into beautiful (and empty) valleys. I think the entire team finally realized we were truly in the middle of the desert.

Near the end of the day, we began to enter Great Basin National Park, and out of the dry terrain came a large lake. Only a few more miles down the road, after I had been complaining the entire day about not seeing any major wildlife crossing the road, we saw a heard of maybe a dozen antelope (or a similar animal, sorry I'm not an expert) run across the road maybe 20 feet in front of us. All three of us struggled to get our cameras out, but I think Greg was the only one to actually get a shot of them on the road. It was really exciting.

Of course, the greatest part of the day was reaching the Nevada state border, and the Pacific Time Zone! We are that much closer to west coast. Though Baker was a tiny, tiny town, the hospitality was huge, and we were treated to great lodging and a nice community dinner. Time and time again, it is always the smallest towns that show the greatest kindness towards the team and our cause.

-Dan

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