Bergjord Boarding

July 29 – August 7 2016

By: Luke

With hitting the coast on day five, Sam and I made it as far East we could go. It is time to start our journey back to South Dakota. On the way there we will sleep on top of a mountain, run on salt flats, and eat chicken in a castle.

Leaving Redwood National Park included large elevation changes. This meant a lot of winding roads. There was a two hour stretch we had nothing but turns back and forth down the mountains. We had to pull off to the side of the road and sit still to reset ourselves.

We stopped in Redding, CA at a Walmart to restock our coolers with food and beverage. We were camping on Mount Rose, NV ( just south of Reno, NV) that night and needed groceries for dinner. Redding greeted us with a blustering 104 degree day and zero wind. We did not spend much time in that air-fryer of a city.

We drove through Reno on our way to our campsite and we didn’t make much of it from the highway. We got much better views of the city as we climbed the mountain.

After 8 hours of driving we were ready to settle into another campsite. This campsite was unique in a couple of key ways. It was large and multi-tiered, and It was at 11.000 feet above sea level.

Samie and I were not used to this elevation and it didn’t take long for the thin air to take its toll. We were winded just from setting up our tent. The elevation also effected our dinner because it was hard as heck getting a fire started. I don’t make any claims at being great, or even decent, at starting a campfire but this thing just wouldn’t light. We ended up having to search the car for any spare piece of paper or flammable trash as kindling. With a lot of huffing and puffing we had a fire to cook our can of beans and foil wrapped veggies. I think this was the day I bought a cucumber instead of a zucchini which made for some interesting flavors.

Day 6 didn’t involve breathtaking scenery or life changing adventures. Even the most mundane of our road trip days have life long stories. We still giggle about my cucumber mistake and will always double check to see if I am buying the right produce.