Month: September 2017

Eureka, NV > Ely, NV

Miles Ridden – 79.5

Mileage to date – 587.6

Stop me if you have heard this story before. We got up early, ate as much as we could, and then ate some more. We got on our bikes and rode straight uphill and then down and then up…. Oh, right sorry that sounds like yesterday. Well today was a lot like yesterday except longer and more climbing.

Since we have traveled so far east, sunrise here is nearly a full 30 minutes earlier than San Francisco but we have not really taken advantage of it. We usually leave at 7 am or so.

I was a minor celebrity at breakfast because I figured out what button to push to cook a breakfast sandwich. In case you are ever at Eureka Gold Country Inn use button 6 on the microwave to cook your breakfast sandwich! Other highlights from breakfast include the couple all decked out in camo and the 2 guys dressed as cowboys. One even had spurs on! John thinks they are the real deal. I always thought cowboys camped out next to a fire instead of staying in a hotel?

John wanted to add some air to his back tire before we started and as we pulled away he realized he left his water bottles in the refrigerator! Luckily he caught that before we got too far up the road. Due to the lack of services, we carried about 13 liters of water between us and had plenty left over when we finished.

Today we ascended and descended 4 passes – Pinto(7376), Pancake(6517), Little Antelope(7438), and Robinson(7607). The scenery was very nice. It was amazing how many trees and how green it was at the higher elevations especially over the 1st two passes. The 4th Pass came at mile 61 and it was all downhill into town which was nice.

Ely (pronounced “e-lee”) is a pretty big place compared to the last 3 places that we have stayed. It has qa population of about 4300. There is still mining going on in the area(copper). Some Wikipedia fun facts about Ely–

1. It was founded by a Vermont resident JW Long in 1878
2. It is the birthplace of Richard Nixon’s wife Pat

Once we got into town we went to the sporting goods/hunting/bike store so John could get some new tubes. Lots of camo being worn by customers today so I am not sure if that is a thing here or if hunting season has started.

We are staying on the out skirts of town so we won’t see much more of the town.

Tomorrow should be a shorter day as we will ride down to Baker, NV(population 68). It is about 62 miles away and there should be some services about 1/2 way there. That will be our last stop in Nevada and then it will be on to Utah.

Pictures from today-

My 3rd pancake of the day –

A sign I hate to see because it means we are going uphill-

Ely

Austin, NV > Eureka, NV

Miles Ridden – 71.0

Mileage to date – 508.1

Given the distance of today’s ride we were determined to get started riding at 7 am sharp. We rolled our bikes out of our rooms at 6 am and went down the street for a breakfast. One of the rules of bicycle touring is to eat until you are completely full and then eat some more. We did exactly that at breakfast. This was key because there are no services from Austin to Eureka.

We started climbing immediately and went up hill for 4 miles to Austin Pass at 7484 feet. We then went downhill for 2 miles and then up hill for 1-2 miles to Bob Scott summit at 7267 feet. There is small campground there where we were able to top off water bottles and use restrooms. The road surface from Austin out past Bob Scott summit was a fine grained gravel with oil applied to it. Unlike anything I have seen anywhere else. Naturally road crews were applying oil to the road as we rode through this morning!

On the way down from Bob Scott summit we met a cyclist ascending and stopped to chat with him. He had ridden out from Montana and immediately asked if one of us was John!? It turns out we met a young couple at dinner last night and they are cycling the same route as us. They were ahead of us this morning and met the cyclist from Montana. They told him to ask us if one of us is named John.

We then rode downhill some more and then eventually ascended Hickinson summit at 6546 feet about 25 miles out from Austin –

We went down hill a couple of miles and got on this straight away that goes for 30 miles and is pretty much flat –

We cruised along this stretch and made very good time as there were minimal winds and the temperatures were in the 80’s. One game I played to occupy myself was to count how many seconds passed from when I saw a car to when they passed us. My record was 180 seconds. Which means assuming they are driving 75 mph and we are riding at 15 mph, we were about 4.5 miles apart when I first spotted them. Feel free to check my math as I did that in my head to occupy the time as well 😀!

It is really hard to convey the vastness of this landscape. It is truly amazing and unlike anything I have ever seen.

About 50 miles out we caught up to the young couple when they stopped for a break. We chatted for a bit and rode with them for a while. The last 5 miles were uphill into Eureka and we were glad to get to our hotel. Naturally, when we rolled into the hotel John got a flat tire. He is getting really good and fixing them!

The housekeeper showed me the 2 different room types available on the 1st floor. There is no elevator. She said to me “I can’t believe we have so many guests tonight!” I replied “well it is Labor Day weekend”. She then said “well who would want to come here?” Well Ok then

This is pretty nice hotel. After all don’t all nice hotels have a little guy like this waiting for you on the bed?

I squished it and a bunch of baby spiders ran across the bed! Welcome to Eureka. Needless to say we got assigned a new room.

Eureka does seem like a nicer place than Austin. It has a population of 610. It also was former mining town which had a population of 10,000 in the late 1880’s. There are more services here than Austin.

The plan tomorrow is to ride to Ely which is about 78 miles away with no services in between (naturally). There will be more climbing tomorrow. We did about 3000 feet today and tomorrow will be more like 5000 feet. We will wake early, eat as much as we can and then eat some more.

Time for dinner.

Pictures from today-