Jeff Morin

September 4, 2017September 10, 2017

Hike Your Own Hike, Ride Your Own Ride

Ely, NV > Baker,NV

Miles Ridden – 61.5

Mileage to date – 649.1

This ride was on Sunday Sept 3. I could not post due to poor internet connections last night.

We decided to get a little later start today since yesterday was a tough day and today looked to be a little easier. There was no breakfast available at our hotel and not many restaurants in the immediate area so we decided to walk to MacDonald’s down the street at 6:30 am. We looked up and saw the young couple (Heather and Jaime) of bicycle tourists that we had met 2 days ago in Austin. They were getting an early start. We stopped to talk with them and they said a young man named Ethan from their church where Jaime was the youth pastor was going to meet them in Baker. Ethan is going to provide “sag” support for them i.e. carry a lot of their gear in his car to lighten the load. Jaime said we were welcome to have Ethan carry some of gear as well if we wanted. John and I are going to take them up on their offer tomorrow which is 83 mile day with no services and temperatures projected near the mid-90’s.

We did not get on the road until 8 am. The weather was really nice early with some cool and crisp air. We made good time early on. The ride was relatively easy. We had 2 passes – Connors(7722) and Sacramento(7154). By the time we got to Sacramento Pass it had gotten warmer and it was quite a bit of work to get up. The good news is that from Sacramento Pass to Baker is about 16 miles and all downhill.

I have to say that the scenery today was some of the best of the trip. Hopefully the pictures can convey some of that. Baker (population 68) is a pretty interesting place. It is right outside of Great Basin National Park which was established in 1986. There is not much else to say about Baker except that it is a pretty isolated place.

John and I met up with Heather, Jaime and Ethan in Baker and over dinners #1 and #2 we formulated a plan of attack for tomorrow.

“Hike your own hike” or HYOH is an expression amongst Appalachian trail hikers and it means there is no single correct way to hike the AT. There are a lot of ways to hike the AT from thru hiking to section hiking, but at the end of the day it’s your hike so do it the way you want it. I think that philosophy can be extended to bicycle touring and life in general, there are a lot of ways to do it as well and I think you have to do what works for you. Taking advantage of a sag wagon for the next couple of days will be a nice break.

Scenes from the ride

Always a fun sight to see –

Found on the side of the road –

View from the motel-

Dinner #1 location –

Dinner #2 location –

September 3, 2017September 3, 2017

Go East Young Man!

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–

It was founded by a Vermont resident JW Long in 1878
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

September 1, 2017September 1, 2017

Eureka – We have made it!

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-

August 31, 2017September 10, 2017

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-

August 31, 2017September 10, 2017

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 –

August 29, 2017August 29, 2017

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 –

August 28, 2017August 29, 2017

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.

August 28, 2017August 29, 2017

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

August 27, 2017August 29, 2017

I fought the heat and the heat won!

Folsom, CA >FairPlay, CA

Miles Ridden – 47.5

Mileage to date – 156.3

This screenshot from my phone at 830 in the morning pretty much sums up the day –

It was pretty hot out today. We had hoped to make it up to Cooks Station,Ca. Our starting elevation was about 200 ft above sea level and Cooks Station is 60 miles away and at 5000 ft. Our plan was to make the final decision on a stopping point in Plymouth, CA which is about half way to Cooks Station. After an early lunch we decided to try to make it to Cooks Station but about 7 miles outside of Plymouth the heat really started to get to me. We decided to find a place to stay for the night given and we managed to find a wonderful B&B called Lucinda’s Country Inn in FairPlay, CA about 10 miles up the road.

I think it was a wise decision give the heat. The hosts were really great to us. They allowed us to do a load of laundry. They provided us some breakfast food tonight since we plan to leave so early. They also offered to drive us to the next town to get supplies if we needed anything for our trip. We meet some guests who very interested in our trip and nice to talk with.

It was a tough day to ride. Johns GPS app says we did about 3900 feet of climbing. On the way to the B&B I lost a significant amount of braking capacity in the my rear wheel. Which is probably not a problem tomorrow since we still will be climbing, but definitely an issue when we come down Carson Pass. There are no bike shops available until we reach Nevada in 2 days. I called Andrew from my home bike shop Earls Cycles and he gave me enough info so that I think I have it fixed now! Thanks Andrew!

It was overall beautiful ride but traffic was heavy in spots. We did not take a lot of photos give the heat.

August 25, 2017August 29, 2017

Tour de la Visa Continues

Fairfield, CA > Folsom, CA 89.8 miles

Yesterday on the ferry we met an interesting guy from San Francisco. John him called the Keith Richards of bicycling. When he heard we were riding just 15 miles and staying at a hotel he said “oh you are doing a tour de la Visa” as in Visa card. We are staying tonight at a nice Inn on Lake Natoma in Folsom so I guess guilty as charged so far.

The original plan was to ride about 70 miles and stay around Sacramento. We had an early breakfast and saw the weather was going to be over 100 degrees tomorrow in Sacramento. We started riding promptly at 7 am. It was very cool and we made good time. At some point we decided that maybe we should push on past Sacramento if we felt strong after lunch. The temperatures today in the afternoon were in the 90’s – hot but bearable.

We rode through some beautiful agricultural areas around Fairfield. We had lunch in Davis which is great college town and probably one of the best places to ride a bike. There are just an amazing number of bike paths there. To get to Sacramento we had to endure about 3 miles on a bike path that runs parallel to I-80 – quite a contrast to the bucolic scenery earlier. We also got to experience West Sacramento which is pretty sketchy. I saw what I thought was another touring cyclist approaching us, but it turned out to be a homeless guy towing his stuff in a trailer. In Sacramento, we decided to ride on to Folsom which is about 30 miles north. We booked a hotel with my phone and almost immediately after that John got a flat tire!

The ride up to Folsom was entirely on a bike path which was very nice. It was flat and easy riding. We were starting to fade about 10 miles from the finish when a fellow rode up beside us. He had the exact same bike as us and lives in Folsom. It turns out he is a high school teacher in Sacramento area and commutes by bike 45 miles round trip pretty much every day for the past 20 years. He road with us all the way to Folsom and showed us where our Inn was. He gave us some dinner ideas and was just a really interesting guy. The last 10 miles flew by!

Tomorrow we will be heading into the Sierra Nevada foothills and will start to do some climbing. We will see how we are progressing and then decide where to stay. We may have limited internet access for the next 2 days and will update as much as we can.