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-