Hell’s Half Acre

We had a lovely night camped next to highway 50. We left Eureka at sunset and drove into the horizon still light with the departing sun. The boys found books I’d bought them at the start of the trip and were singing travel songs. The full moon rose behind us; orange and bursting with light.

We have some work to do on boondocking expectations; I saw VERY VERY MANY possibilities to pull out but Jamie nixed each and every one. The only one he liked was on such an incline that once inside the trailer, it was a steep hike to the back room. I nixed that one. Just west of Austin, we both agreed on a very nice pullout and stopped for the night. As we were right next to the highway (albeit the lonliest one) i worried that we’d hear traffic all night but it was quiet all night long. At dawn, the coal trucks began running but we had been up by then. We had banana/chocolate chip pancakes and sausages and were on the road by 9am. When there is no camp cleanup, hitchup or packing, breaking camp goes MUCH faster. In the light we’re now seeing very many places to pullout and boondock; many hidden from the highway. Instead of the “Lonliest” highway, they should rename this the Scenic Boondocking-Heaven highway.

With the kids permission we have decided not to try for California today, but will instead spend the night somewhere in the Carson Valley area and hit the Bay Area tomorrow afternoon. The kids are jumping out of their collective skins at the thought of seeing Sara, Andrew, Becky and Catie again.

We are true scavengers at heart. Driving along the road we were looking for a Pony Express Station marked on the map. We missed it; the map and the road did not agree. Right about the same spot as the missing Pony Express Station we saw an anomoly for this area, well, for the entire state so far, a large leafy green tree. Sissy needed to pee so we slowed and stopped at the tree. As we drew closer we noticed something strange about the tree. It looked to have some dead branches and/or large bunches of leaves. Parking at the tree we saw SHOES in the tree. Hundreds of PAIRS of shoes! The kids immediately scrambled out and scavenged for shoelaces. They are always stealing shoelaces from my and other’s shoes to play with and here was a treasure trove of shoelaces. After mavelling for a bit, Jamie and I realized that some of the shoes were in really good condition and we began our own scavenging mission. We got shoes for everyone except Pike, who refused to wear any of the shoes except a ratty pair that were too big and WAY too narrow. Sometimes I have to wonder about that boy. Ellen managed to find the only two shoes without a partner and nevermind that they are for the same foot; they are on her feet and they will not be removed. Some motorcyclists stopped while we were scavenging and asked if we’d been able to get any up in the tree yet; I looked at her incredulously and said, “with four kids, we’re getting them OUT of the tree!”.

We found Wifi and diesel at $3.05/gallon in Fallon and stopped for a short time to get email. Between Fallon and the border with Utach, we passed three towns. Ely, Eureka and Austin. The rest of the road was pure BLM land and mountain range after mountain range. I lost count of the number of passes we crossed today; I think it was five.

Once west of Fallon, the homes and urbanization did not stop. It was so very strange, after weeks and weeks of small towns or no towns to find ourselves surrounded by strip malls. We headed towards Markleeville and the kids all cheered when we crossed into California. The Grover Hot Springs were CLOSED and while we sobbed at the missed opportunity for hot springs (they are closed 2 weeks out of the year and we hit the 2 week period) we were overjoyed to find that we were too long for the campground. Yes, overjoyed, because the STate Park wanted TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS to camp! No hookups, no flush toliets. We found a lovely pullout at a trailhead and spent the night there. No water, no toliets but also, NO TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS!!! There was a gorgeous little creek nearby and no traffic on the road. At night, the full moon filtered down through the forest of pine trees and it was SO quiet. I especially enjoyed the quiet knowing that the next place we slept would be city.