5.27 - hanging at lake mead

On thursday, i had the whole day to relax.  as a matter of fact, i thought i had till saturday wnen i would meet maurice in vegas.  turns out, i actually have till sunday before maurice comes in, 3 full days.

so i walked down to the 'beech'.  one of the first things that strikes you is the fact that the water is so low. I imagine the campground was originally close to the water's edge.  well, now the water is 3/4 mile away +/-. and it's all rock, there's no sand.  and, like most beaches, there's no shade.


railrod track from visitor's center to dam.  to build the dam, basically in the middle of nowhere, they built 3 separate railroads to get materials to the dam.  the last three miles of rail to the dam site were built by the government.  now it's a gravel trail from the lake mead visitor center to the dam.  there are 5 tunnels that were created in order to build it.



afterwards, since i had nothing better to do, i rode up to boulder city.  it's a several hundred foot climb, someone having decided to locate the city at the top of the mountain.  there is a bicycle path that parallels the road up.  it doubles as a drainage sluice.


boulder city has a small, active, walkable downtown.  breakfast/lunch:


a microbrewery, they have a decent black ipa:


a coffee house with books that makes a most excellent chai:

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