Day 98 - Monday, September 6

After passing out exhausted at 7 PM last night, I rose at 2:08 AM excited to start the second day on this Highway 50 mission because it began at the end of the first valley and I would cross a mountain range first thing. Looking at a map there are waves all the way to Carson City - Mountain range then valley again and again. It looks exactly like waves of the ocean and the only difference is the frequency with witch they roll. Today’s route of 36 miles would only include one “wave”.

Before I left, Chris jumped out of bed at about 2:30am and asked me if I heard anything last night? I told him I had passed out and didn’t hear a thing until I woke up. He excitedly shared that Bird and Michael - who had passed me during the day on their way to Eli Nevada, were on their way home and had seen the RV parked on Seveir lake and came over to check in on me. They were knocking on the door as Chris was coming home from a walk and didn’t know who they were. They both looked up to see Chris and said hello - they knew him from the blog! They hung out for awhile and the highlight was. Chris who had wanted to hold a gun at some point on this trip had his wish come true as Bird and Michael had a cache of guns as most people do in Utah and Wyoming, and Chris got to hold a big one! This is now the third or fourth time that I have come across someone who I had seen prior. I guess all animals follow paths to and from our places of habit and perhaps the odds are that we bump into each other again and again. Or is this complete random luck?!

I put on a new pair of Altra running shoes - my 8th so far as they average roughly 350 miles, and step out of the RV onto a desert with no moon but a brilliant star filled sky. Impossible to turn the light off today as I did yesterday. In the desert you can see a car coming In the night for miles and miles away and oddly enough in the day you can hear it coming from miles away. I am walking / running in the dark desert for hours alone just hearing the sounds, watching the sky and wondering what is beyond my field of vision. On this morning, I counted 7 shooting stars in the dark sky for which Utah is well known.

As the sun rose, so did the elevation, the temperature and the effort level required to keep moving. Once again Chris came to the nutritional rescue with huevos rancheros for mid morning snack and a fruit smoothie in the heat of the afternoon. I survived another day following up the 37.5 miles with a solid 36.5 mile day. My goal is to knock off 35’s until Ely, NV in 2 days and then assess.

All for today - thank you for your support.

Cheers,

David.

Juliter

And the starry sky

48 miles from Hinckley and still 40 miles until services…

A glorious sunrise over the desert at 5,000’

The caked dirt on the floor of the desert

At the top of the pass, with the sun touching the mountain behind as it rises, I noticed a grave sight

Top of the pass!

We made it to Nevada! Kind of…I finished 10 miles shy of this sign and we drove here to stay in the Border Inn RV Park on the border. Tomorrow I officially cross.