Today we were late. At 7am, we headed out to breakfast at the elite McDonalds close to our hotel and had our egg McMuffins. 
Ely doesn’t have a Starbucks so we were out of luck. We had all kinds of troubles with our computers this morning - guess they were too cold - so by the time we finally headed down 93 to Pioche to get our Lincoln County cache it was 8:12am. We had 65 miles of driving before finding our first cache so we needed to get moving. This morning the sun was shining, the temperature was 32 degrees and the wind chill was 24 degrees. Mike was prepared with his ski mask, coat and gloves and Larry had on his sweater. No stopping us now!
As we traveled down 93, the mountains and clouds were spectacular and we were glad to discover that Nevada considers this the “Scenic Route”. I think that’s because it’s not the fastest route. But as you can see from yesterday's blog, we never go the fastest route. What fun would that be? Anyway, the scenic route lived up to its promise. We saw snow covered mountains, every kind of cloud, blue sky, big birds and lots of contrails, which we decided were those aliens headed to Area 51.
At around 9:30am we found our first cache. It was an easy ammo can hide, but it made us sad. When we were working on the Nevada DeLorme Challenge we had to travel through Lake Valley to reach Mount Wilson for the only cache in the quad. The people finding the Challenge now just have to find this cache along the roadway. What a loss for them! The challenge isn’t really a challenge anymore.
Our next cache was a walk through 8“ of snow. Since this was a much nicer day than yesterday, we all made the walk. As we went we were sinking in and slipping and commented that this was worse than walking in sand. We saw lots of animal tracks and tried to follow them, but while they don’t sink in, we certainly did. We found the cache quickly and since this cache qualified for our Lincoln County cache, we only have one more cache to find in Clark County and then we can head to the final County Challenge cache.
Our next stop was the Boot Hill Cemetery in Pioche. According to the sign, 72 men died in the 1870’s with their boots on and were buried at Boot Hill. The tombstones were all wooden. We loved exploring the area.
Next we stopped at Cathedral Gorge. Mike has been talking about stopping here since we started planning this trip. Today was the day. Too bad it was so windy and cold but we still enjoyed the view and took lots of pictures. While in the area, we visited the Bullionville cemetery and found a cache there.
The Lincoln County Airport and Panaca were the next caches we found before heading south again to Caliente. It’s now 47 degrees, which seems like a heat wave in comparison to yesterday, but the wind is howling so it’s still cold! As we approached Caliente, we passed through a canyon and actually started to see traffic. OK, 2 cars, but compared to the rest of the day that was rush hour.
It was lunch time when we reached Caliente and we began to look for somewhere to eat. The Branding Iron was our choice since it appeared to be very busy with locals. We’ve found a lot of great places by stopping in small towns at local restaurants. Unfortunately, today wasn’t one of them. After lunch we wondered around Caliente and found several caches and then headed on to Alamo. As we traveled the Joshua trees came and went.
They only survive right around 5000 feet so we knew each time we reached that elevation. After passing through Alamo, we stopped for a cache at Lake Pahranagat, a wildlife refuge, and Mike told us this lake was formed by springs from an earthquake fault. Nevada never ceases to amaze us!
Now it was getting late and we had one more cache to find at the old southern Nevada border before heading straight to Las Vegas and our hotel. When we got there, we decided to round out our numbers to 25 caches today so we picked up one more cache in the parking lot of our hotel. Since we were now in Clark County our Nevada County Challenge was done. Tonight we email the final caches to longwalker and tomorrow we find the final cache. Another challenge completed. Now on to finally completing the California Counties Challenge and the California DeLorme Challenge. We only have a few counties and a few quads to go. Wish us luck!!
Ely doesn’t have a Starbucks so we were out of luck. We had all kinds of troubles with our computers this morning - guess they were too cold - so by the time we finally headed down 93 to Pioche to get our Lincoln County cache it was 8:12am. We had 65 miles of driving before finding our first cache so we needed to get moving. This morning the sun was shining, the temperature was 32 degrees and the wind chill was 24 degrees. Mike was prepared with his ski mask, coat and gloves and Larry had on his sweater. No stopping us now!
As we traveled down 93, the mountains and clouds were spectacular and we were glad to discover that Nevada considers this the “Scenic Route”. I think that’s because it’s not the fastest route. But as you can see from yesterday's blog, we never go the fastest route. What fun would that be? Anyway, the scenic route lived up to its promise. We saw snow covered mountains, every kind of cloud, blue sky, big birds and lots of contrails, which we decided were those aliens headed to Area 51.At around 9:30am we found our first cache. It was an easy ammo can hide, but it made us sad. When we were working on the Nevada DeLorme Challenge we had to travel through Lake Valley to reach Mount Wilson for the only cache in the quad. The people finding the Challenge now just have to find this cache along the roadway. What a loss for them! The challenge isn’t really a challenge anymore.
Our next cache was a walk through 8“ of snow. Since this was a much nicer day than yesterday, we all made the walk. As we went we were sinking in and slipping and commented that this was worse than walking in sand. We saw lots of animal tracks and tried to follow them, but while they don’t sink in, we certainly did. We found the cache quickly and since this cache qualified for our Lincoln County cache, we only have one more cache to find in Clark County and then we can head to the final County Challenge cache.
Our next stop was the Boot Hill Cemetery in Pioche. According to the sign, 72 men died in the 1870’s with their boots on and were buried at Boot Hill. The tombstones were all wooden. We loved exploring the area.
Next we stopped at Cathedral Gorge. Mike has been talking about stopping here since we started planning this trip. Today was the day. Too bad it was so windy and cold but we still enjoyed the view and took lots of pictures. While in the area, we visited the Bullionville cemetery and found a cache there.The Lincoln County Airport and Panaca were the next caches we found before heading south again to Caliente. It’s now 47 degrees, which seems like a heat wave in comparison to yesterday, but the wind is howling so it’s still cold! As we approached Caliente, we passed through a canyon and actually started to see traffic. OK, 2 cars, but compared to the rest of the day that was rush hour.
It was lunch time when we reached Caliente and we began to look for somewhere to eat. The Branding Iron was our choice since it appeared to be very busy with locals. We’ve found a lot of great places by stopping in small towns at local restaurants. Unfortunately, today wasn’t one of them. After lunch we wondered around Caliente and found several caches and then headed on to Alamo. As we traveled the Joshua trees came and went.
They only survive right around 5000 feet so we knew each time we reached that elevation. After passing through Alamo, we stopped for a cache at Lake Pahranagat, a wildlife refuge, and Mike told us this lake was formed by springs from an earthquake fault. Nevada never ceases to amaze us!Now it was getting late and we had one more cache to find at the old southern Nevada border before heading straight to Las Vegas and our hotel. When we got there, we decided to round out our numbers to 25 caches today so we picked up one more cache in the parking lot of our hotel. Since we were now in Clark County our Nevada County Challenge was done. Tonight we email the final caches to longwalker and tomorrow we find the final cache. Another challenge completed. Now on to finally completing the California Counties Challenge and the California DeLorme Challenge. We only have a few counties and a few quads to go. Wish us luck!!
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