It was surprisingly chilly when we got up in the morning. We set up the generator and made our first batch of coffee. Yum. Susanne said “Here’s to good coffee in the middle of nowhere.” Cheers to that!
We lounged around enjoying our coffee and trying to get the dogs to eat. They are definitely not settled into the trailer yet and all the packing the day before really stressed them out.
After breakfast, I took down the bikes and we went for a bit of ride down the dirt road. Susanne was on the Fattie. It had been awhile since I had gone for a ride with Ringo and he was totally triggered by the bike and kept trying to bite the wheel. He was really obnoxious. The dumbass even nipped my ankle one time. He did finally start to get tired and quit biting, but sheesh, these cattle dogs are a pain – life is an escaped cow that needs to be herded. We got back to the trailer and Susanne stayed behind with the dogs and and I rode down the main road toward the San Rafael river. The rock formations were amazing. It felt nice to get a bit of a ride in. I had a nice tail wind riding back up the hill.
We packed up and headed out. We had a much shorter drive to our next boondock spot, which was near Notch Peak in Nevada. We stopped in Delta, UT, the last town before really getting into the middle of nowhere and filled up with gas. Susanne asked if we could fill up with water, and the lady said yes and came out and helped us. She had to unroll two brand new hoses; clearly we were the first to fill there. She was super nice. I climbed under the trailer and managed to pinch off the overflow hose.
We drove another 69 miles to a set of GPS coordinates I had pulled from Google Earth that looked like a really promising campsite. It turned out to be awesome, even better than our first one. There was an old gravel quarry that made for a perfect flat spot for the trailer with easy access and good Frisbee throwing for the dogs.. It had the most amazing view of the mountains. Across the other side of the valley is Mt. Mariah, which my sister and I climbed a few years back. It is also not too far from Great Basin National Park, which is lightly visited, but what few people go there, rarely come out into the other mountain ranges in the area. I am pretty sure this is the most remote area of the US and it definitely feels a bit like Patagonia.
There is truly nothing out here. I said to Susanne that I doubted there was a person within 20 miles of us.
We set up the trailer in a jiffy; we are getting pretty good at it already and drove up a 4 wheel drive road to the base of the mountains so we could do a bit of a hike. I can safely say that Susanne will never be big on 4 wheel drive roads. Graded dirt roads, no problem, but she definitely gives the big thumbs down on 4 wheel drive roads. But we made it. And it turned out to be worth it.
We walked up the upper stretch of the road and to where the trail started for Notch Peak. There was a big granite intrusion that had pushed up into the Triassic limestones that make up the steep cliffs of Notch Peak. It was some pretty cool geology and the rock formations were really nice. A lot of flowers were out—spring in the desert. The dogs were super happy to be on a walk, and they were panting hard as it was pretty warm.
We drove back down and finished setting up camp. We prepped some apps and opened some wine and sat in our chairs and enjoyed just an absolutely amazing view. We had a perfect spot to throw the Frisbees for the dogs without even getting out of our chairs.
I think we may spend another day here tomorrow since the weather in Wells is supposed to be rainy and cold. It has been surprisingly chilly so far. I thought this site would be sweltering by now, but it was maybe 70 during the day and quite chilly in the evening.
We took some showers before dinner. To exacerbate our fresh water issues, I had forgotten to blow all the air out of the hot water lines when we prepped the trailer, so Susanne had to run a lot of water before anything came out. By the time she had finished her shower, we were down to 1/3 of a tank of fresh water again. Note to self: put that in the set up manual. It felt pretty awesome to take a hot shower.
Dinner consisted of some Mahi with cilantro/chile/pine nut sauce and grilled asparagus and mushrooms with garlic herb butter. It came out quite nice and grilling is definitely the way to go. The dogs finally ate their dinner.
The dogs had a big day and they needed it. After dinner we hung in the trailer for a bit and then decided to have some Scotch and build a fire. The dogs were so tired, we just left them in the trailer. It was a very pleasant but cool temp and the fire felt good. We let the dogs out, but Ringo came out, peed, and wanted to get back in the trailer and get on the bed. He loves the bed. Sadie made a half-hearted effort on the Frisbee, but it was clear they were both cooked. So we put them in the trailer and they slept while we watched the night fall.
It was really a nice day. And I think we’ll just hang here another day tomorrow and have a real chill day.
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