Darth Nater’s video of how we crossed Bilk Creek. Obi-Ben was the first to attempt the crossing, and it took all three of us to get his bike unstuck from the mud.
Tag Archive for 'Nevada'
Keeping the posts updated on the road proved to be a challenge. Until I have a chance to go back and place images in the context of the posts, you can see a sampler of photos I took with an iPhone on Flickr:
When Darth and Obi-Ben return to civilization, we’ll upload some of their shots and video.
Just threw down lunch at Denio Junction , just a few miles from the Oregon border. Met a rancher in the cafe who gave us some advice on what roads to take. He gave us yet another viewpoint on how the rising fuel costs are killing rural America, particularly tough on the cattlmen. Basically, thanks to GW’s brilliant ethanol subsidy, there’s no freaking corn to feed the cows. He and his wife had their cows at a local pasture and they had come to check in on them. They were from Oregon but had to come over to Nevada to find pasture because it is so hard to find these days. After some massive burgers and shakes, it was time to roll. Darth bought a can of Chunky Stew, allegedly to be his dinner for later that night. After he and Obi-Ben are done hammering out the dents from his aluminum Touratech pannier box after his digger in the mountains, we get on the bikes and go. Sent from my iPhone.
Another bar/gas station/grill/grocery store/post office/motel in Nevada.
We rolled into Paradise Valley and the little hamlet of Paradise for a quick rest. Little did we know that Paradise would be a shangri-la to wait out a major wind storm. We threw down some lunch at the Paradise Saloon (best cheeseburgers in all of Nevada so far). Our plan was to saddle up and ride over Hinkey Pass. At the 7820 feet elevation summit, Obi-Ben and Moto caught a glimpse of a lion on a distant ridgetop. Unmistakable, lurking low to the ground near a big boulder. When Obi-Ben got his scope out, it had vanished. What was in front of us was an impassable stretch of snow. We scouted it out, but the downslope of the pass was all north facing. What really turned us around was a fast moving
squall that chased us back down into Paradise. We returned to the saloon and met many townsfolk trickling in for spaghetti night. We met Steve Lucas, a friendly and generous man with a big cowboy hat who bought our dinner. Besides running the local feedlot, Steve runs a B&B 10 miles out of town called the Stonehouse. He also owns a little house in town called the Adobe House, which is where we stayed. The Adobe was a fully furnished house with beds, a loft, a coffee maker, and satellite TV so we could see the final performances on American Idol. There was also a .38 Special CD in the stereo, so we rocked that out the next morning. Stay tuned for more about our stay at the Adobe, our thoughts on Cook versus Archuleta, and the prospects of getting into the ranching business.
Sent from my iPhone