Being in the middle of nowhere: guest post by Julian

As a very strongly-identified city person, this trip is blowing my mind every day. We drove for about 2 1/2 hours each way to get from Tonopah, NV to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, where they had both a ghost mining town AND the fossilized skeleton of an icthyosaur. We had podcasts on, but I was unable to focus on them at all because all I could do was stare at the mountains. Nevada is full of different mountain ranges. They each have different characters - some are full of trees, and some are desolate. Some are snow-covered, some are mostly brown dirt. Some are huge and have sharp peaks, some look more curved. Some have obviously been mined, with huge slices cut out of them. The roads run straight and lonely between them and twist through them. They are not all the same kind of lonely. Route 50 is called "The Loneliest Road in America" and it was on this road that we passed through my favorite non-ghost town so far, Eureka NV. However, the state routes leading to Berlin-Ichthyosaur were far lonielier. Except for one person coming from the semi-ghost town of Ione, we didn't see anyone else.

I don't know if any of my photos of the desolation or the mountains even come close to doing justice to what it feels like to be there.

Last night we visited the ghost town of Belmont by moonlight (as described by Kelly a few posts back). The moon was so huge and bright, we didn't even need our flashlights. No photo could capture the moon either.

The photos can, however, capture some of the structures we've seen so far. Here are some from Berlin and Candelaria.

I love you, icthyosaur

I overdid it yesterday running down a mountain in thigh-high snow at 4 degrees and 7000 ft, enough with the bone-dry air already. But we persevere. Cough syrup haze, beautiful day, actual ghost towns, debates over gastrointestinal ettiquette, snowy snow, icthyosaur fossils - prehistoric reptilian whale, rocks, caves, lichens, the most amazing mountain road views, pb&j assembly line, in bed by 8 with the zquil stuff. Berlin, Icthysaur SP, Ione, Calandaria and again in Tonopah, where if you barter for a lower room rate, you pay in towels and tp. Sleeeepy sleep.

Sleeping in a bed.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The loneliest highway

I'm feeling pretty euphoric. We survived the evening. You don't understand, this was quite a feat. We drove from Ely to Tonopah today and did a fairly amazing hike to try to find a ghost town called Newark which, as it turned out, was covered in snow. being 6000 feet above sea level and thigh deep in snow eventually took it's toll and we turned around and headed back, facing an amazing view of a really beautiful valley all the way to the car. We then drove to the next town to eat lunch and plan. We museumed it up and ate mining town sized sandwiches. Deciding to make Tonopah our home base for the night we headed out just as it was getting dark. Now, getting to the harrowing part: We decided one of the really great ghost towns circled on our map (that happen to be on the way) would be way more rad at night. Roughly 30 minutes later we found ourselves 12 miles down a poorly plowed gravel road. There was no way to turn around, even if we were able to get going the other direction there would have been no way to get back up the mountain we just drove down. We had to keep going. I feel the need to mention my lack of confidence in our rented GMC good for nothing, front wheel drive, piece of shit. Erin did a terrific job of not letting it go off a cliff and for that I'm grateful. When it was realized no one was breathing, we decided to stop at a fork in the road and reassess our directions and consult the compass. It was at this time that I saw, arguably, the most beautiful scene I've ever seen. The moon lit up the entire valley, words can not describe. I did have a small chat with the cosmos on our current predicament and when I shook off the awe of the scene and reconvened with the group they had a promising direction and a new way out. Belmont (ghost town of the evening) was amazing and we made it out alive without having to seriously debate weather if we got stuck in the snow to stay in the car or walk back to keep from freezing to death in single digit temperatures. Tonight we chose the least rapey motel, though, the bathroom does looks like a future murder scene and the artwork is adhered to the wall with a screw going through the velvet canvas.