Warning: Antelope Crossing

A good morning welcome from the mountains of Baker, Nevada and the Great Basin National Park. We had a rough start. My skid plate fell off so I turned around and we re-bolted it and carried on. My rear tire was low on air but there was no where to fill up. Then a sand rut surprised me and down I went. My bike and I were fine but a little shaken up.

The land was beautiful, though. We rode double track through wild fields with a 360 view of rolling hills and ranges. A rabbit jumped to my left and startled me just before we traversed a large wash.

The wildlife was all around us as we escaped further from civilization. There were wild horses, a coyote, and an antelope that almost ran me over. Terrifying but beautiful, his strong hind legs passed just 10 feet in front me at an angle. He could have crushed me, but what a way to go!

I bandaged Han in the dust of a sage field after he pricked his thumb on a barbed wire gate. One of the many we have to open and close to proceed. Not to worry, he is up to date on his tetnus shot.

On we rode, climbing and descending loose gravel, dragging our back wheels through sand, and racing soft desert earth. We came to the base of Patterson Pass and camped in a BLM campground where the sun set just behind the mountain, illuminating the vast open ranges where the coyotes wailed.

We made dinner by the light of a fire and read Kerouac aloud. Another end to a dusty desert day.