Day 030 – 6/23/11 Alt US 95 to US 95

Distance = 28.1 Miles; Elevation Change > 430 Feet
Lo Elevation = 3914; Hi Elevation = 4257

Right from the start there were three apparent problems for this day that resolved themselves with the meeting of two trail angels, the only people we met on what might be called the most desolate section of the trail.

I started out wondering if we packed enough water.  What if we made a wrong turn somewhere?  The possibility of that increased when I realized I forgot my maps for the first time.  The third problem was shade.

With a 5:30 a.m. start we were able to enjoy the shade of a taller sagebrush while the angle of the sun was still low in the sky.  For the next break we huddled by a shade rock.  For the third break we pushed our heads into a sagebrush and hung our fleece over our heads for shade.  Unfortunately, the rest of our bodies still baked.

Our route was basically to follow the Pony Express route, which is essentially the Simpson Road.  That made route finding easier in the absence of maps.  Shortly after lunch we were surprised to see a vehicle coming up behind us on that lonely and rutted road.  Matt and Miriam from Switzerland make frequent trips to this country to explore historic trails such as the Oregon Trail and Lewis Clark.  By our good fortune they were now exploring the Pony Express.

Matt and Miriam, Trail Angels

They gave us ice tea and topped off all our water bottles.  They also informed us about the Pony Express and the Immigrant Trail, and that we were on the most desolate stretch, what people call the 49 mile desert, a stretch that even found oxen dying along the way.

Perhaps that’s why later on in the day we came on another gallon of water that they left behind just for us.  That was even more water than we needed and I was reluctant about carrying it all but that problem got solved when we saw Matt and Miriam backtracking up ahead.  By taking a wrong turn they save us from making the same mistake.

We never found real shade until 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon — when we came across power lines.  After about twenty miles of short breaks due to the lack of shade we spent a bit of time laying in the shade of the power lines — long enough for Matt and Miriam to come driving by one last time.

The shade of a power line pole

They backtracked deliberately this time just to inform us that we were about to add seven miles to our day if we stayed on the route we were on.  They suggested following the power lines, which was just fine with us because we finally had a reliable source of shade.

Many, many thanks to Matt and Miriam from Switzerland, our two trail angels.

So long and thanks to Matt and Miriam