Day 108 - Thursday, September 16

The countdown begins…10 days left on this incredible journey.

And, the last route decision has been made. The Caldor wildfire has shut down Route 50 from Meyers CA to Placerville so there is no getting through. This leaves me one other option - go to Carson City, hike solo on trail over to Incline Village which is about 10 miles trail w 5k’ climbing, get to Truckee and finally run on Interstate 80 as little as possible as I make my way to Sacramento. I will need to do bigger mileage to keep the schedule but I felt really solid today doing about 37 miles in the desert. The 72 miles to Truckee over the next 2 days is the entire ball game.

Chris and I ended up staying in a Walmart parking lot in Fallon, NV. First time in weeks for us and we are definitely not used to all the commotion after living as monks in the desert. I heard a noise at 1:27am, jumped out of bed and went outside to find that it was nothing. Of course I couldn’t go back to sleep so I just got up and got going around 3am.

Today is the first time we are witnessing the devastation of drought first hand. Fallon has a lot of agriculture that depends on waters flowing from the Sierra’s. But, that water has dried up. We are staying at the Lohanton Resevoir which has a damn that was built in 1915 to supply irrigation for the towns down stream - the Resevoir has dried up as well. Everything looks like it is dying - trees, marsh grass, shrubs. Echoing the words of the gentlemen I spoke to yesterday about local towns not having drinking water, I can now see this for myself and it is really scary.

Tonight we parked at Williams Station overlooking the Resevoir. Little known at the time, except as a stage stop, Williams Station was destined to be remembered in Nevada history as the incident that ignited the Pyramid Lake War of 1860. Williams Station was named for three brothers, James O., Oscar, and David Williams. It was a one room combination saloon, general store and stagecoach station located along the "Big Bend” of the Carson River about ten miles northeast of where Fort Churchill later was constructed. The site is now submerged by the modern-day Lake Lahontan. On May 7, 1860 Williams Station was raided by the Paiutes. Accounts vary as to the exact details leading to the Williams Station "Massacre". Most accounts say that two young Paiute girls were abducted by the traders, held at the station and molested. About nine Paiute warriors went to the station, forcing five white men, believed to be have been responsible for the kidnapping inside the building: Oscar Williams, David Williams, Samuel Sullivan, John Fleming and "Dutch Phil". The station was burned with all five men inside. Station operator and owner, J.O. Williams was camping a couple miles further up the river and thus escaped the fate of his brothers. He rushed to Virginia City to spread the news. Within no time, a militia was formed with the intent of apprehending the perpetrators. This force consisted of about 105 men and was under the overall command of Major William Ormsby.

After the war the station was rebuilt and called "Honey Lake Smith's" and visited by Mark Twain in 1861. He did not speak highly of the place, saying "it was a two-story log house situated on a small knoll in the midst of the vast basin or desert through which the sickly Carson winds its melancholy way."

All for today - thank you for your ongoing support.

Cheers,

David.

With poor air quality it feels like I’m on the deserts of Mars this morning.

Daily Brief

The canal for irrigation right behind the sign is bone dry and doesn’t look like water has flowed through in a long time

A new friend checking me out

That little critter in front of the luxury townhouse is a white tail antelope squirrel who watched me as I ran by

The long lonely road through another arid desert

Rural living - everyone has a mailbox on Highway 50

This is remote living - nothing around for mile and miles

The Lohanton Resevoir and the water is almost gone

I ran on the dirt road that overlooked Highway 50 that overlooked the rail line

And ending the day with panko crusted shrimp tacos!