I was seriously looking forward to day 3, my plan was to go to the Tahoe National Forest and spend the night in the proximity of South Lake Tahoe. My stated target was a little bitty berg, Sierraville.
I still had a fair chunk of US 50 to ride. I gassed in Austin and rode to Fallon on a delightfully cool morning. Fallon started as a Pony Express Station where off duty riders discovered silver.
I pulled into the Nugget Casino parking lot and decided that breakfast was in order. Unlike Reno or Las Vegas or even Wendover the Nugget in Fallon is an old sort of broken down place. Breakfast was good and the city center was interesting, including the former Churchill County Courthouse across the street and the City Hall next door.
Fallon is an old and somewhat threadbare place. For years it survived on cattle and farming but during WWII the Navy installed a depot and base to house chemical and conventional weapons. They now have the only incinerator in the Navy capable of burning the toxic waste. There is a fairly large EOD contingent that is sentenced to 2 years at a brutal place to live and work.
I just loved the 'old town' area, including a saddlemaker's shop. You don't see that every day.
I decided not to finish US 50 at Carson City and headed directly to Sierraville, CA. My reasoning was that it was 4th of July weekend and I wanted to find a good campsite. Silly me.
Sierraville is a tiny berg in an area that has LOTS of vacation/summer cabins.
Perhaps the most clever business name I saw on my entire trip was there in Sierraville. There is also a fair chance that is where I encountered Covid, though it was more likely Reno.
The entire forest was amazingly crowded. No campgrounds available and even dispersal camping was jammed. I got pretty depressed and headed back to Reno and a motel. I seriously can not believe the population density in the greater Lake Tahoe area. It's freakin' crowded.
So I stayed at the Airport Motel 6. Motel 6 is sort of my default chain because they are almost always clean and secure with a reasonable price. This one was an exception to all the above. That's the fire damaged door to my room. The clerk issued me a parking pass to hang on my bike so it wouldn't get impounded that night or the next. The management was cracking down on drug dealers and prostitution by towing unauthorized cars. Sigh.
If it weren't for the prospect of spending an entire day with my friend I'd have never registered and moved on. It was quite literally the only place in town with a vacancy for less than $400 per night. Sigh
Believe it or not, it didn't take me long to clear out on Monday. I was gone by sun up. Even with Covid this was definitely the low point of the entire trip.
All Words and Photographs in this post are mine. For better or worse.
