Day 2 -- Citrus Heights to Ely
May 26, 2006

       

The Mail Must Go Through!     Anxious to hit the trail, we saddled up early this morning and headed to Old Town Sacramento to find the B. F. Hastings building, the western terminal of the Pony Express Trail. We arrived at 7:00, early enough that we were the only visitors there. It was a beautiful, cool morning, very quiet for the center of a big city. It was easy among the restored buildings and artifacts to visualize the riders of the Pony Express, picking up the mail that had arrived by ship along the American River, and galloping off with their trusted cargo to points east. We could almost hear the hoofbeats!

To get into the spirit of our trip, we had several souveniers date stamped at the nearest post office in Old Town. We will be carrying them with us to have them stamped in St. Joseph, the eastern terminal of the Pony Express.

Our journey back through history had begun. As the riders before us had done, we continued down J street, heading for Highway 50, going past Sutter's Fort. Today the workers at Sutter's Fort were hanging a banner, preparing for the summer. We watched for quite awhile, amused by the efforts of our state civil servants. It was a slow morning for them. Not much on their agenda.

We turned onto Highway 50, which closely follows the Pony Express Trail, travelling along the banks of the breathtakingly beautiful American River. We watched the many, many people traveling to work or getting away for the holiday weekend, and marvelled at the dreams of our early settlers. Could they have imagined today?

We were up very early, so lunch came early in Placerville. The traditional Pony Express lunch fare of In and Out double cheeseburgers animal style! mmmmmmm!

Stopping at a scenic overlook on our way to Lake Tahoe, we met Daniel and Sara who showed an interest in our journey -- and our trusty steeds!

The land Highway 50 goes through in Nevada is decidedly different than that of California. The horizon goes on forever. The land is high, dry, lonely. It was easy to imagine the riders staying close to whatever protection could be provided by the Carson River or rocky hills. We veered off the highway to visit Fort Churchill which was on the original trail. It was built to offer protection to the settlers of the area, and to the riders of the Pony Express and stage coach trails.

We stopped at Cold Springs just off the original trail, but which serves today as an exchange post for the yearly commemorative run of the Pony Express. This year the exchange there will take place June 8th.

The rest of today's trip was very familiar to us, going through the old west towns of Austin and Eureka. One new sight for us was of the prisoner in Eureka. We noticed he was dressed without any regard to his personal embarrassment and that the sheriff had innovative prisoner work details.

The evening ride from Eureka to Ely was great. It was a warm evening and the wind that we had battled all afternoon had died down. We had time to reflect on the marvelous day and felt grateful for the experience.

We checked into the historic Nevada Hotel in Ely. As you can see be the picture, we weren't the only ones travelling on two wheels. There is a run this weekend in Winnimucca -- the Runnamucca! We have other places to go.