Days 101-102, Thursday-Friday, November 17-18, Great Basin National Park, Nevada, slight revision
Day 101, Thursday
What a splendid park Berlin-etc was. For some reason, I don't know why, i was thankful that the Defender started in the cold as no one else was around for at least 45 miles, and there was no cell phone service in the area. But I did have the satellite phone, though, and made sure it was charged.
I opted not to take the 51-mile dirt an gravel short cut to route 50 since that road is rarely travelled and not maintained. Instead, i took the longer 130 miles paved road route. I lost perhaps 2 hours in doing that but i decided at this stage of this trip it was time to lower my risks and concentrate on getting home safely.
Our goal for the night was Great Basin National Park, some 330 mies away, was meant to be the last real camping night for the trip, although we would continue to camp if it was convenient for us. The drive to GBNP was nothing short of amazing. Route 50, here called the loneliest road in the world because there are so few cars, cuts from mountain summit to mountain summit though miles of high desert. I don't have the vocabulary to describe thev drive but it is the kind of scenery that is never boring and constantly brings out some vocal expression of wonder every few minutes.
We made Great Basin park at 4:45, 30 minutes after sunset. The Park office had just closed and so we had to wend our way on our own up the dark, sign-challenged, 12-mile mountain road to the camp at 8000 feet. When we got, there wasn't a light around except from the moon. The camp was not only empty but covered with snow and ice. It Would have been impossible to stake down the tent. The temperature had just dropped precipitously and was then in the low 20's. Setting up the tent was not an option, nor was moving on down to a motel in the nearest town of any size, 60 miles away, so i decided to sleep in the Defender as we did on the Alcan for two nights. I also decided to go to sleep early to make sure i got enough sleep since I knew i would be waking up often. I slept in the rear in two sleeping bags and Donner in his front seat bed in his hand-me-down winter dog coat. We were prepared for a cold night. I checked to make sure that all my equipment and devices were unplugged, including my driver's seat warmer, so we would not find ourselves with a dead battery in the morning.
And it was a cold night, but not as cold as i expected for a reason you will soon learn. At one point Donner made some loud crashing noises as he tried to reposition himself in his bed and came in contact with some stuff on my console.
Day 102, Friday
I got up at 6:00, long before daylight, to get a head start on our destination for the day. I learned later that the temperature here in the camp hit 11 degrees last night. But it did not feel it in the Defender. Warmer, for reasons i soon found out why.
After taking Donner for a walk, i went to start the Defender. It would not fire up. I looked down at the console and saw that Donner, when he made those crashing noises, had accidentally last night pressed the driver's seat warmer on, which might have drained the battery. No big deal, i though. I'm prepared. But when i tried the mobile battery jumper i have, nothing happened. Fortunately, there was cell phone service, so i called 911 to send a ranger. One arrived at 8:00 and tried his jumper device, but it did not help either. I then called AAA , who promised to send a truck from Ely, 60 miles away.
After two hours, i learned that the driver of the tow truck had to turn back. His wife's store was robbed last night and he had to help clean up. A new truck was being sent and would be here in a few hours.
The tow truck from AAA just arrived, and the driver agreed it's not the battery. As i write this, we are being towed 60 miles to Ely. I have no idea how long we will be there. I have no idea where we will stay there or how we will get around since there are no car rentals in town. Or how we will travel the remaining 2500 miles home from here since, needless to say, i have lost confidence in the Defender. But we will figure these things out just as before.
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