Counselor rides 'loneliest road' for mental health services' sake

MINDEN - It's called the loneliest road in America - the two-lane strip of asphalt that rises and falls with the empty mountain waves of the Great Basin.

For Gardnerville counselor Lance Crowley, it's an opportunity to achieve the opposite of loneliness. He set out Thursday ride his bicycle across Nevada's desolate portion of Highway 50 with three objectives in mind: to raise awareness of the need for mental health services funding, particularly substance abuse prevention; to encourage those who are struggling to seek help; and to honor those who already have lost the battle.

"From my own experience as a teenager and young person, from the friends that I've lost, part of what I do is encourage people to stay on the planet, to not only stay on the planet but to enjoy it," Crowley said on Aug. 16. "I'm hoping this ride encourages the people I know to set their own personal goals, to get healthier and push the limits. I try to model that."

Crowley, a 47-year-old Sheridan Acres resident, has been on the front lines of mental healthcare in rural Nevada for 20 years. Trained for wilderness outreach, he worked for Douglas County Juvenile Probation for 10 years, oversaw the first year of Aurora Pines Girls Facility in the Pine Nut Mountains, and spent three years as a case manager for Douglas Mental Health.

Over the last four years, Crowley has been a partner in Three Peaks Therapy, along with wife Mary Wolery and counselor Jodi Wass. The couple specializes in substance abuse counseling and marriage and family therapy.

Crowley also serves as clinical supervisor of substance abuse interns at Tahoe Youth and Family Services in Gardnerville. His work with the latter and other agencies has been formative in his understanding of the importance of mental heath services in a community and the need for stable funding of those services.

During the recession, mental health resources have been diminished when people need them the most, Crowley argued.

"The state transfers the burden to the county, and the feds transfer it to the state," he said. "These are our people, human beings, children that form the basis of the future. Unless we invest and keep people healthy during these tough economic times, they will fall to the wayside. People need it most when they're unemployed and have no health insurance."

Crowley said that cuts to mental health services end up costing taxpayers more in the form of incarceration and increased medical costs.

"All these programs are essential," he said. "Until I worked in these programs, I really didn't know how essential to the community they are."

He said he approaches the funding question in non-ideological terms. He praised late Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn for protecting human services funding in past legislative sessions.

"We should all take a moderate view," he said. "When times are tough, those who need services most, the most vulnerable parts of society, need to be protected," he said. "The answer isn't to cut one essential service at the expense others."

Crowley said Nevada's tax structure needs more solid footing. He said Highway 50 is the perfect metaphor for Nevada's unstable funding mechanisms.

"I'll be passing through towns that rose and fell in the boom-and-bust cycles of mineral wealth," he said. "It's always been boom or bust in this state, but now the cost is too much for families and too much communities. We need a tax base that sustains us through the highs and lows, and that is not completely dependent on gaming."

Whatever the solution, it has to be structured in an equitable way, Crowley said.

"It can't just be a tax on employers or the rich," he said. "All who can support the community need to show willingness, not just blind refusal. Hopefully, all sides can reach common ground."

A seasoned climber, river guide and cyclist, Crowley knows how to push long distances. Of course, it helps that he has the support of people like Keith Hart, owner of Big Daddy's Bike Ski & Board in Gardnerville. In sponsoring the journey, Hart has provided gear and also discounted big-ticket items, such as the bicycle trailer in which Crowley will store his camping supplies, food and water.

Crowley plans to ascend Kingsbury Grade on Thursday. He will follow Highway 50 down from Lake Tahoe, sleep one more night at home, then, the following morning, take off across the desert with his trailer in tow. His goal is to reach the town of Baker, near the Utah border, by Sept. 2. If all goes according to plan, he will end his trip that weekend by climbing 5,000 feet into Great Basin National Park, where the high desert lifts into the timbered and glaciated face of Wheeler Park. His wife and 10-year-old twins, Aidan and Maya, plan on meeting him at the highest alpine campground.

"Instead of staying in motels, I want to camp as much as I can and make it a wilderness trip," Crowley said. "I'm packing as light as possible, but bringing lots of water."

The entire journey is roughly 420 miles, Crowley estimated. He hopes to divide the stretch into intervals of 60-80 miles per day. He will be texting his progress to colleagues, who will be posting updates on the Facebook page of Tahoe Youth & Family Services.

When it comes to the set of wheels itself, Crowley expressed pride that he'd purchased the carbon-fiber Specialized road bike in 1992 with his first paycheck from Douglas County Juvenile Probation.

"Unfortunately, I've known far too many people, clients, friends and family, who have lost their lives not only to substance abuse, but to other mental health problems, to suicide. This is my way of thinking about them, of honoring them," he said.