Day 15 - Ely, Nevada.

We woke early to get a start on the day before the summer heat of the Nevada desert baked us. The Diner across the street opened late because the waitress was late. Nevertheless, some pancakes and coffee, and we were on the road about 0730 - an hour later than we'd hoped. During the prior evening, we'd more or less decided to start off the day by taking a look at the old Ward charcoal kilns located about 20 miles south of here on a dirt road.

Although these kilns are reportedly the best preserved ones left, it aggravates me to no end that I have to pay 'fees' to view public land. I've already paid them, Lord only knows how many thousands of times. It's not the $4 - it's what it represents.

So, I didn't pay, and didn't enter the fee area. Won't do it.

Here's a pic for free, so you don't have to drive out there to find out the bastages want *more* money from ya....

The TransAm Trail crosses our tracks very close to here, Patterson Pass Road.

Gassin' it up out on Cave Valley Road. The 950's love this stuff.

I enjoyed a nice little stretch of two track out near Meloy Well and the Coyote Wash when I realized BigDog wasn't behind me. I backtracked out, found his tracks, and located him a few miles away near Big Mud Springs..

The Bristol Mine Road.....

Bristol Mine Road connected the Bristol Mine with Bristol Well, where a silver smelting furnace was constructed in the 1870's. Still a little incensed about the Ward ovens, we were more than surprised when we saw three of the old kilns still standing at Bristol Well.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the kilns aren't the kilns themselves, but what went on behind the scenes. An interesting book, Ward Charcoal Ovens by Chris Kreidler, expands on a little known part of American history. Specifically, it goes into considerable detail about the carbonari, Swiss and Italian immigrants, and experts in charcoal production. They were employed by the early mining industry to cut the pinion and juniper wood, build the charcoal kilns, produce the charcoal, and then ship the charcoal to the smelters. By around 1880, the carbonari were more than 10% of the population in Eureka County, the center of charcoal production. As is typical in history, the immigrants were poorly paid and cheated by the teamsters. Eventually, violence and riots broke out and Nevada's Italian War was borne. There's a lot more to it, but eventually charcoal was replaced by coke as the transcontinental railroads were established, and the rest is history. Check out Kriedler's book, interesting stuff.

Another interesting tidbit is regarding this building....

There used to be four charcoal kilns here - the fourth was dismantled to build this shack. If you look closely, you can see the carbon on the rock. There's also a huge slag pile from the mill that is still there today.

Anyway, Bristol Well had around 400 people in the late 1800's, but by 1900, it was a ghost town.

We were getting low on fuel, so we decided to divert over to Pioche and top off. It must have been 100 degrees already - so we'd best get some water also.

I saw a cool old early 80's Honda CR and a motorless 70's era Suzuki in Pioche....

We gassed up and filled our waterbags. We decided at this point, to head east and cross into Utah. We went out Hackette Road through Immigration Wash to the Utah border.

There was no sign at the border, so I made one - and did my part in adding nitrogen to the soils.

We intersected pavement at Modena, UT - and decided to make some time on the asphalt since there really weren't any other interesting looking options to cross the valley anyway. We gassed up again in Cedar City and decided to make a run for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

We dropped south off Rt 14 on Stout Canyon Road into the Dixie National Forest, and then jogged eastward again at Glendale on Johnson Valley Road and Red Wash Road.

We rode along miles of sandy one lane road, and then the canyons of the Capitol Reef came into View.

The road was fun - although you had to watch it in places as it got fairly steep and sandy in places where it'd not be a good place to crash.

We reached pavement once again at Cannonville, UT. This ol' pump is retired.

We couldn't get a room in Cannonville, so we headed up the road to Escalante, where there were a few motels.

We got a decent dinner and watched a zillion Harley riders motor up and down the main drag for what seemed like all night. They didn't seem to even notice us, which was probably a good thing.

The Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood came on the idiot box, so I went and got a few beers to sip, and stayed up waaaaay to late and watched it, probably for the 20th time. BigDog was snoring happily away as Little Bill kicked the ever-loving crap out of English Bob....

Today's map....

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