A very deer miss

My description of the moment my journey almost ended on the 2nd day.

Lake Tahoe to Great Basin National Park, NV

*** This was written at 11pm on Sunday, July 25th ***

Got up at 9AM (after 2:30AM bedtime) and left SLT about 11:30.

Nice ride up to Fallon, NV.

After Fallon, road gets a lot more desolate with no services for 100+ miles, so you have to closely monitor the fuel situation - especially on a bike.

It is very spectacular, with many beautiful and desolate mountain ranges. Hwy 50 at this stage is one lane in each direction. You will go for long stretches and see no other vehicles, and very few motorcycles.

After Middlegate or Middletown, can't quite remember, there were some serious thunderstorms. Luckily I managed to skirt them. There are also dust devils - kind of mini-tornados, which are not much fun, and you certainly don't want to hit one on a bike. Some of the bigger storms I could see in the distance had a sort of "supercell" look to them, but I don't think they were in danger of developing into those.

Huge areas of sand were being kicked up in te distance though.

I finally made it to Ely - kind of an interesting town, stocked up again, and it was getting twilight, so I wanted to push on to Great Basin National Park -another hour and twenty minutes away.

Just before I hit the park, on the road up to Baker, I had my "deer near-miss episode." That could have ended the trip (and possibly more) on only Day Two. However, I survived. :-)

** Adding note here on Monday: I was pretty shaken by the deer episode. I met an older guy (relative term!) on a bike today and we drove a bit together. He said that it would have really rattled him too. See my video report (later) for a description of how close it was. ** End note **

I'm also finding it a little tougher than I thought. This is a BIG country! I also didn't think I'd be lonely, but I am a little. I miss Kenno and the boys around the campsite. This is a motorbike trip though. This is what I wanted.

Just have to try and avoid hitting wild animals and driving at night.

Hoping to get to Colorado tomorrow. Thunderstorms are forecast for the next four or five days through eastern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. Should make for interesting times.

Til the next time,

Onwards...!

Sent from my iPhone

San Francisco, CA to South Lake Tahoe, CA

Wow. Well, all the preparation, all the work (for my business), and the lack of sleep last night, along with the early morning Saturday, has me tired tonight in South lake Tahoe.

Finally got out of San Francisco after a few false starts and delays. It was becoming a bit of a joke among my friends as to would I ever actually leave.

I said my last goodbye to the Bay at the Carquinez Strait, where my friend Bret's ashes were scattered recently. R.I.P. Bret. I had once planned on doing such a trip on a very small motorcycle years ago, to which Bret would reply that it was "not practical, Bryan!" Anyway, you'll be in my thoughts, Bret.

It took until Sacramento for the weather to finally warm up. I joined U.S. Highway 50 at West Sacramento, and duly pulled over for an 'emergency" by the side of the road. I just happened to snap a picture of the sign Ocean City, MD 3073 (miles). I plan on driving to the other end of this wee road.

After that, I headed up into the mountains. A full moon was rising in front of me, as the sun was setting in the west behind me. Next ocean I shall see will be the Atlantic.

The pictures above seem to be in reverse order. I'm still getting used to this blogspot tool. The two night shots are of South Lake Tahoe from Echo Summit, and the sky behind me with the full moon in the clouds.

Looking forward to some quick grub now, then a decent night's SLEEP!

Onwards...!

The Day Before Departure