Month: August 2017

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The Roller Coaster Ride Across Nevada Continues

Cold Springs Station, NV > Austin, NV

Miles Ridden – 49.5

Mileage to date – 437.1

By now the astute reader may have noticed a pattern in our riding across Nevada – up, down, up down…… Nevada is a series of mountain ranges and basins. We will traverse many of these in the next several days.

Despite lack of survival training (inside joke for our dedicated readers), John and I survived the night camping at Cold Springs Station. We awoke to the sounds of a coyote howling and a cow mooing. John was wondering if it would be safe to keep food in the tent overnight as it might attract animals. I told him that I bet the majority of the guys in the RV’s next to us have guns so we should be OK if any bears show up!

As we were packing up camp, the forest fire fighters stopped by the hose next to us to fill up multiple containers with water. The looked at us and our bikes like we were crazy. One of the guys said to another “it takes real endurance to ride a bike out here”. Unlike fighting forest fires in the summer in Nevada?!

The fire fighters loading up with water-

We had a leisurely start to the day since it was a short mileage day and did not leave until 8:20 or so. We immediately started heading downhill for several miles and then climbed up to New Pass at 6348. We then descended and rode across a basin and ascended to Mt Airy at 6679. We descended into a giant basin where we rode downhill for probably 12 miles and then we ascended to Austin at 6605 with the last 5 miles or so uphill.

We found a hotel, got cleaned up and had lunch down the street.

Our hotel-

There is not a lot going on in Austin. It has a population of 197. It is an old silver mining town and before the mine failed the population was several thousand.

I was just thinking that we had not met any real characters today when a guy walks into the restaurant with no shirt on. The look of shock on his face was priceless when the waitress asked him to put on a shirt.

Next we walked into a minimart. The fellow behind counter started chatting with us and told us he was originally from near Malone, NY. He told us that the one of the prisoners that escaped from Dimora prison was killed on his cousins farm. He later told us he was a distant relative of General John Stark who he told us had committed suicide. He then told us that his grandfather committed suicide and then (kiddingly?)said that he pretty much thought about suicide very hour. John asked him if he could hold off another 5 minutes until he checked us out. The clerk thought that was hilarious.

Tomorrow the roller coaster continues. We are headed to Eureka which is about 70 miles away and there are no services in between here and there.

Downtown Austin

This is the giant basin we descended. It was 18 miles from the pass to Austin-

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Riding the Pony Express Route

Fallon, NV > Cold Springs Station, NV

Miles Ridden – 63.7

Mileage to date – 387.6

“Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred”

Above is a quote from an advertisement for Pony Express riders. I am sure that some of my more astute readers may have guessed by now we are largely following the Pony Express route across Nevada. After spending a day in this remote area, I can only imagine how challenging it was out here 150 or so years ago as a young rider.

I assumed today would be Easy Peasy Part Deux. It seemed like a pretty straight forward ride except the part about 43 miles without any services. We were on schedule for a 7 am departure when John noticed that his bike had a flat tire in the hotel room! He quickly changed the flat. The culprit was yet another “goat head”-

We cruised out of town at a nice pace. We stopped 5 miles out at a convenience store to grab a cold water and use the restroom before we rode the 43 miles up to Middlegate Station.

It was really pleasant riding under cloudy skies which kept the temperatures fairly mild. We were stopped at about 23 miles out due to a road construction. It was single lane for about 5 miles. We had about a 20 minute delay and while we waited the fellow in the truck next to us started talking to us. He is active Navy and told us that the area all around us was part of the Fallon Naval Air Station and they do lots of training here including Topgun. He also said we might see them dropping bombs today! But we did not. He told us we might see a guy at Middlegate who seems like he is talking to you but he is really talking to himself. But we did not.

We ascended Sand Spring summit (4600 ft) and descended it a 7 mile long basin where we encountered some fierce cross winds which slowed us down a lot. We then ascended Drum Summit (4600) where John got his 2nd flat of the day. As soon as we started riding we were met with a nasty headwind.

We grinded on to Middlegate Station and we met a young man named Devan who is walking across America. He started last 9/11 in Delaware and was trying to finish in San Francisco on 9/11. Pretty amazing.

We had lunch at Middlegate Station. The place seemed like a cross between North Exposure and Twin Peaks. I asked the bartender if they sold bike tubes since they had a small minimart in there. She said no, but said that she was going to Fallon and would bring us back one. She said we should camp there as further up was for folks that had “survival training”. She eventually told us that she had to work and would not be going to Fallon.

We soldiered on after lunch and rode 14 miles uphill with some head winds to Cold Springs which is really nice restaurant/motel/RV park. They are current housing a bunch folks working on a Geothermal plant nearby. They also had a group of Nevada Firefighters staying in a field next door. John looked at them and said “those are real men”.

They let us camp out back for $10. We patched our tubes, had a nice dinner, did laundry and turned in for the night.

Tomorrow should be an easier day. We will head up to Austin which is 50 miles from here. We are at 5500 feet and Austin is at 6600 feet. We will spend the next several days at 6000 feet or higher.

A few photos.

6 liters extra water that John carried-

It sure is –

Rest room –

Scenes from Middlegate Station –

Cold Springs Station scenes –

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Easy Peasy

Carson City, NV > Fallon, NV

Miles Ridden – 60.8

Mileage to date – 323.9

We were on the road a little after 7 am. We rode under cloudy skies with some very light drizzle which was nice after all of the hot weather we have experienced so far. The ride to Fallon is a net downhill but there was some climbing. Overall it was a pretty easy ride. We took US-50 all the way there. In fact we will be following US-50 almost all the way to Utah. It has been described as the Loneliest Road in America. The traffic was heavy leaving Carson City but thinned out the further east we got. There are minimal services between Carson City and Fallon but enough so that we did not need to carry extra water.

The main excitement for the day was John’s bike was wobbling at high speeds. We stopped several times and tried a number of things to fix it. We tightened his rack and adjusted his panniers all to no avail. Finally, we looked in his right rear pannier and discovered he had a heavy item higher up and towards the outside of the bag. John repackaged the bag and put the heavy items lower and voila no more wobble.

Tomorrow we plan to head up to Middlegate Station which is 48 miles away. There is no water between here and there so we will carry extra. If we are feeling good we will continue up 14 miles the road to Cold Springs Station where we can camp for the night. Otherwise we will camp at Middlegate Station.

Some photos from today –

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Now that’s more like it

Silver Lake, CA > Carson City, NV

Miles Ridden – 58.9

Mileage to date – 262.1

We woke up to temperatures in the 40s this morning. Quite the change compared to the 100 degrees we experienced 2 days ago. It made for great sleeping in the tent. We had to start riding with light jackets. We got rid of them about 2 miles in. We climbed 10.5 miles to Carson Pass. On the way we passed Kirkwood ski area. At Carsons Pass, we got some water at the ranger station and took a few photos. We then rode downhill for 15 miles where we stopped at Woodfords Station for lunch. This is another former Pony Express stop. It was delicious.

We then rode about 20 miles to Genoa,NV which is the oldest settlement in NV. It is a very quaint town. We stopped at the country store for cold drinks as the temperature was about 95.

We then rode another 15 miles to Carson City where we are staying at the Golden Dust West Hotel which is also a casino!

All in all it was a delightful day of riding. The scenery especially at higher elevations was beautiful.

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It’s a long way to the top!

FairPlay, CA > Silver Lake, CA

Miles Ridden – 47

Mileage to date – 203.2

Note: I could not post this until today due to lack of internet access. This is for our ride on Sun 8/27.

Today’s ride is probably best described by this elevation profile –

We started at 2100 feet and will sleep at 7300 for an elevation gain of 5200 feet. If you take into the account the up and down we think we probably climbed about 7000 feet. We actually reached 8000 feet elevation but we descended to 7300 feet to our campground.

We got an early start to beat the heat. We were on our bikes at 6 am which was 30 minutes before sunrise. The first few miles were a little rough as our legs got used to riding again. The weather got cooler as we ascended. It was quite pleasant riding after a while. We went up Omo Ranch road for about 15 miles. It was very scenic and well shaded. We made it to Cooks Station which is an old stage coach and Pony Express stop. It is now a restaurant and we stopped for breakfast number two which was delicious. We spent the rest of the day on State Route 88 which is a busy road with some nice views.

We set up camp and managed to swim in Silver Lake. The swim was refreshing after a long day of riding. Tomorrow the plan is to go up and over Carson Pass down to Carson City.

A tough but rewarding day.

Starting at O Dark 30.

No snow removal no problemAn Uber would be nice now Home for the night no fly