The High Nevada Desert

Day 9, 77 more miles of the High Nevada Desert.

Today we continued to ride through the high Nevada Desert, a place that National Geographic called one of the most remote places in America (excluding Alaska). By now, the group has formed three riding groups: fast, moderate, and “stop and smell the flowers.” I ride in the middle group. We do stop to take pictures at vistas and biobreaks are tolerated. There are long and deep conversations as we ride two abreast. I think that we (the larger group) have bonded and have become pretty close over the last 9 days. We’ve come to like riding on I-80; the shoulder is wide and the grade is never more than 8%. There was another long grade to the top of Emigrant Pass (elevation 6,114 ft) where a whole new world lay on the other side. There was green on the mountains, there were cattle on the horizon, and the mountains in the distance were snow-covered, not snow capped. A local told us they had 12” of snow up there last week. Also on the other side of Emigrant Pass was a 5 mile downhill, one that was smooth with no hairpin turns. According to my cyclo-computer, I hit 44.7 mph. If I’d realized how close I was to my personal record of 46.7, I would have pushed and broken it. Gerard broke 50 mph.

We’re staying in Elko, NV, a town that was once hub of stagecoach traffic, locomotive traffic, as a center of the high range cattle industry, and is now sustained by casinos -lots of them. They range from seedy to pretty nice. We’re staying at a “pretty nice.” The local ranchers, and those of much of the region are descendents of the Basque people (Google it yourself, I’m too tired to put links into the blog). So many of the towns we pass through are having their Basque Festival, much akin to North Brunswick’s Italian Festival. There’s a cultural museum in town (I rode there on my bike) that had lots of interesting information of what it was like, and what it is like to be a rancher. Everything depends on the Spring rain and the runoff from the mountain snow.

All in all, it was a good day. The breakfast room at the hotel was a disaster, they’d never had a group so large as to use all four slices of the toaster, the microwave, the juice dispenser, and the waffle machine. So it was pretty slim pickings of sugar cereals, doughnuts, and fruit. But hey, a carb is a carb. The ABB folks offered to pick up the tab for anyone who wanted to eat in the diner next door, I don’t think anyone took them up on it. “Ride out” was at 7:30 a.m., on 20 miles of bumpy back roads. It was then back to our friend I-80 until at Exit 280 we got off for a check point and lunch at a Burger King/Truck Stop/Kwikie Mart. On the way to the rest rooms, they had a display of high quality colorful do-rags. We all bought at least one. Mine has flames streeching from the front at blazing speed. I figured that it was just what I needed since speed is really a mental thing. And, I have arm warmers in the same design. Then it was back on I-80 and through a scenic alternate route that allowed us to avoid the tunnels that ran under the mountain. The only challenge was that the scenic route ended at a concrete barrier on the Westbound side of I-80. So we carried our bikes over the barrier, and then ran across I-80 W and I-80 E to get to the eastbound shoulder. It was our own triathlon; ride, lift, run. I got into Elko at 1:30 p.m. so there was some time to bicycle around town and blog.

There will probably be no blog entries on day 10 or 11. We are doing back to back centuries on those days. As I’ve previously mentioned, a century ride is 100 miles and is to cyclists pretty much what a marathon is to a runner. It’s no small thing. I’ll be too tired to blog. BUT! Day 11 is our first (non-riding) rest day. We should he ready for it.