Pony Express Trail

 Every year a group of our friends plans what's called the "Annual Fall Trip" which is some sort of expedition adventure. Everyone that comes has to have 4-wheel drive and be able to handle high speeds, dirt, mud, rocks and unknown circumstances. This year the boys chose to do the Pony Express Trail from Salt Lake City to South Lake Tahoe. This began last Wednesday in Salt Lake City and arriving in South Lake Tahoe Saturday night. This trip is usually mostly men, every year there are a few wives/girlfriends on the trip.

This year, myself and my brother's girlfriend, Melanie, were the only girls. (Next year, I think I am going to do a girls weekend while the boys are away playing!)

Heading out of Salt Lake City through Eagle Mountain towards Simpson Springs. At the Simpson Springs post, there was an old building, remnants of an old building and information on the Pony Express. To truly understand what these riders went through is amazing. You look out across these huge valleys and know they rode through hundreds of these valleys to bring mail from the East Coast to the West Coast, night and day, it blows your mind! 

 

We stayed on the outskirts of a small town called Gold Hill. Gold Hill was a mining town back in the early 1900's. According to history, it boomed and died multiple times due to mining gold (which ran out), then mined for arsenic for WWI (the war ended) and for tungsten for WWII. The town officially became a Utah ghost town in 1949 when the post office and schoolhouse shut down. It amazes me to see that people live in such remote areas, with nothing for miles and miles. The vastness that is out there is unimaginable. We went through these tiny towns, if you can even call them towns, a few families living there. It was windy that night around the fire. My brother showed up and while they were setting up their tent the rain poured down. Everyone dispersed to their tents fast! 

 

 Thursday morning we headed back out. Our first stop was to be in Ibapah for gas. The gas station is a run out of the Ibapah Trading Post. Unfortunately for us, we pulled up at 10am and the sign posted said it opened at 11am. BUT, the family that runs the station came out to open up the store for us but not with good news. They had run out of gas the previous Tuesday and weren't expecting more gas until the following Tuesday! We were screwed! All of the vehicles brought extra gas in canisters but some of the vehicles were gas-guzzlers. Our only choice was to use what gas we had left to try to make it to Eureka, Nevada. Ibapah was a town created by Mormon Missionaries sent out to teach the Native Americans farming techniques. There was an operating Pony Express station from 1860-1861.

 
 
 

 
 


We continued on the trail through Utah to Nevada. We went over this long stretch of space that took us along the Old Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway was the first automobile road across the United States. This was also the first national memorial dedicated to President Lincoln. Some of it wasn't paved, just dirt. 

We took a route over a range of mountains that was pretty rocky. We were on the incline of the mountain when you could feel the engine cutting in and out on us....running out of gas. My husband, Steve and our friend Kurt have the same vehicle, Toyota Tacoma. They would be on the CB's talking about their rigs, how much gas do you have left, etc.

 
 
Everyone was getting close on gas. My brother, Brett and his girlfriend Melanie brought her Rav 4 which was super fuel economy! They didn't take this route with us due to already getting a flat tire and the rocks were pretty sharp. They cruised on the highway to meet us in Eureka, Nevada. We were on our way down the other side of the mountain when Cody broke a radius arm (don't ask, I have no idea what it is). That made us turn around and definitely use up precious fuel to make it to Eureka. Running out of daylight the arm was fixed thanks to Kurt's welder he carried.

 
We all headed down the mountain and in to town. Out of the 7 vehicles coming down the mountain, 3 made it in to town for gas. Dominic was kind enough to take the gas cans and get fuel for the others to get into town. I would be so warm in the truck but the minute I got outside I was freezing. I got the best cup of white chocolate caramel coffee for $0.85!! It warmed me right up! 

We were right on Main Street in Eureka which was in the Historic District. The Opera House, the court house and an old hotel. What beautiful buildings. This part of town was also part of the Lincoln Highway, they had old liberty bells outside of these buildings.

 

 I was so hoping to stay in a hotel that night, I was so chilled! We gassed up and headed on out to find our camp spot. We camped by these hot springs by Hickison. 

At night setting up your tent and starting up the fire, the feeling you get is that you have some sort of protection and bushes and mountains. We woke up that morning and the it was a flat no bush land. We found the hot springs and a few of the boys got in to soak up. It was too hot so we poured in some of our cold water in.

We checked out the Hickison Petrographic Site which was pretty lame compared the the Petroglyph's and Pictographs in Utah! Our Native Americans have a way better skills in art!

Friday morning we headed out past Hickison, we encountered wild horses. They were pretty fast at running away. The long stretches of road is very enticing to Steve, Kurt and Jason. They have to speed along these roads. Steve's goal this trip was to hit 100mph on dirt. We made it to 95! Steve is a very skilled driver and knows how his trucks handles curves and ditches. We raced around corners of the roads! I definitely have to keep my mouth shut and hands underneath me! Trying to stay on the Pony Express Trail didn't work this time. We took it as far as we could and it seems as though it doesn't get too much travel except for 4-wheelers. The sage brush has grown so much over the road that it's a good thing Steve didn't mind getting his truck scratched. We had to back out of that road and decide what route to take next. But we were stuck for awhile....Benny's Ford broke down.

 
While waiting for the boys to fix the Ford, Steve and I ventured down another split in the road. We weren't going very fast maybe 20mph and we hit this portion of road that made both of us rise out of our seats, drinks on the windows, and all of the contents of our cooler fly out!!! We got out and checked out what we hit and the one side of the road had been washed away so it was big hole that both tires hit. It was crazy! I was picking up our yogurts, water, ranch dip off the ground. Our camping chairs came out. Things broke! 

We had to turn around and go out a different way to get to Austin Nevada. We had lunch at the International Cafe. Not very international foods though. More American home-cooked foods. 

We headed out of Austin to Smith Creek. We took the Pony Express Trail and ended up in someone's private property. The property owner came to the gates and the boys told him we were doing the Pony Express across Nevada. The buildings on his property were part of the Pony Express. He let us pass through his property leading us to the other side and letting us through the gate. He said we were missing a pretty portion by driving it at night. Unfortunately we could not wait to drive it through the day due to the long journey we had to get to South Lake Tahoe. We finally found a large flat piece of land that would fit all 8 vehicles and tents on it. 

Saturday morning we had to make our last stretch to South Lake Tahoe. We took a road that led us through roads that were mud. Steve had to hit those going pretty fast. It felt like we were on a ride at DisneyLand where they use water to slow you down. By the time we reached dry road the truck was covered in mud.

 
Brett and Melanie got another flat that had to be patched this time (they used the spare the first time). When they got to pavement, they headed out to find a tire shop. Unfortunately the little town that we were close to didn't have one. They almost didn't make it to Carson City. 

Once in Carson City we picked up food and washed most of the mud off the truck and headed up the canyon towards South Lake Tahoe. We took this adventurous road  called the Tahoe Rim Trail.

 


It took us from Spooner Summit right into South Lake Tahoe. It was a beautiful trail. It seemed more appropriate for motorcycles though. The trail was full of small hills, up down up down. I love the old trees and the way the moss grows on them.

Once in South Lake Tahoe, Brett's girlfriend talked him into a hotel, so we split a hotel with them. We all got showered and clean! So nice after 4 days! We walked down the street to the other half of the groups hotel. Half of us decided to just go get dinner then hit the sack since we were driving straight from Tahoe to Salt Lake City early in the morning. And the rest hit the casinos on the Nevada side. We made it to bed around midnight. 

Waking early Sunday morning, Steve and I ran over to a church he had worked on years before I met him to collect pine cones. They weren't as big as I had heard they could be but they were still huge compared to the ones I am used to. They sure hurt to pick up when they are big. We met up with the rest of the early crew at their hotel, stopped at Starbucks for coffee and headed to Carson City for cheaper gas. The drive home was endless and boring. Good thing we stopped about every 2 hours for bathroom breaks and food! We arrived home at 6:15 after leaving South Lake Tahoe around 8am.

Glad to be home!