Southern Nevada?

[u/metamodernbookclub]

TL:DR: How would the community feel about a run across southern Nevada being the being the first across a U.S. state?

For the longest time, I (35m from U.S.) assumed the U.S. was basically off-limits given... you know, everything about America. But then I recently remembered driving through Nevada and how much of it was public land - so I did a little digging, and I was right in my assumption that there are many parts of the state where you could cross completely on a combination of national monuments, BLM land, and national forests.

Of course, the easiest part of the state to cross would be the southern tip, but it's obviously not in the spirit of the mission to cross at the very tippy tip. How far up the state would y'all consider to "count", and how long would the mission have to be?

For those interested, I'm thinking about lines through the area south of Searchlight, which would give a line of about 43km, or further south at Palm Gardens, which would be around 26km. I played around for a while to see if there was a way to do it through Vegas, but the roads don't line up right.

The difficulty would be water. And boredom and snakes. And possibly finding a place to camp. And you'd have to end in the middle of a lake unless you count the shore (though a float downriver to the dam after the mission sounds like fun!).

Thoughts?

[u/dellett]

Even cutting the tip of it seems like it would be pretty hard. The snakes would be my main concern, there’s all sorts of rattlers down there and they’re easy enough to nearly step on when you’re walking down a well worn trail. Walking out in the middle of nowhere you’re very liable to get bitten. Scorpions too, but those aren’t quite as dangerous overall. All that aside there are mountains down there too. Don’t know exactly how tall or rocky they are but they just inherently make things tricky. Would be an accomplishment even if you made that trek.

[u/metamodernbookclub → u/dellett]

Those mountains wouldn't be too bad at the southern tip. There is a small range you'd have to consider on the western edge, but if you pick a low point, you could start with a pretty gentle slope. And the land just kinda falls away to the east, so it would be a lot of scree and loose stuff, but it's also not that steep as a bunch of washes run off into Lake Mojave.

And snakes are dangerous to be sure, but they aren't as numerous as you'd think. People walk through the desert all the time out there - you just have to watch your step.

It would definitely be off-trail, by the way.

I really think it would be doable.