We made it through Nevada

Hello!

So, we've made it to Cedar City, Utah. We're staying with a nice family (the Dalton's) who we found on www.warmshowers.org, a website designed to help touring cyclists find a place to stay along their route.

Since we left Fallon, Nevada, we have had only intermittent cell phone service, and haven't had access to a computer to do a real update to the blog. So, I'll start from way back (I'll also include pictures starting with the Sierra's)

Here are a few shots of our day near Carson Pass in the Sierra's. It was absolutely stunning, and after spending almost a week in the desert, we've begun to miss the views!






So, after leaving Fallon, the last few days have gone as following:
1) Fallon-Austin
2) Austin-Eureka
3) Eureka-Ely
4) Ely-Baker
5) Baker-Milford, Utah
6) Milford-Cedar City

Leaving Fallon, we got up at 12 AM for a 1AM departure. One of our tires went flat during the night, so departure time was delayed until about 1:30. We were all decked out in reflective gear, and we all had flashing lights on our bikes. We hopped on highway 50, known as the loneliest highway in America. They weren't kidding. We stayed on this road throughout all of Nevada (until about 10 miles outside of Baker). This road takes you through the middle of absolute nowhere in Nevada. There are even signs to prove it:

Sorry the picture is sideways:

The 112 mile proved to be very difficult. We would like to make it known, that contrary to popular beleif (and by popular beleif we include ourselves) just because Nevada is a desert, it is NOT flat. In fact, there are over 350 mountain ranges in Nevada running from north to south. From east of the Sierra's until about halfway through Utah is known as the 'basin and range', meaning that there are a a ton of north-south running mountain ranges with enormous valleys between them.

By daybreak, we were already pretty tired (from lack of sleep and from the miles). By 8am, we had reached middlegate, a "town" which consisted of a gas station/diner, and a motel that was run out of a mobile home. We stopped for some much needed fuel and water, and set off of the rest of the ride. We were met with some pretty nasty headwinds in the afternoon, and this slowed us down considerably. It is pretty tough to ride on tired legs when the wind is strong enough to stop you from riding downhill. We finally made it to Austin at about 7:45 PM, and the local restaurant was nice enough to stay open past 8 to feed some very hungry bike riders. At the restaurant, we ran into Greg and Addison, who would become our friends for the next several days. They were on a tour across Nevada from their hometown of Reno to Great Basin National Park, outside of Baker. That night, we camped behind the Austin Baptist Church, which was also an RV park complete with showers and outlets for charging phones and cameras!

The next day's ride to Eureka was not nearly as tough in terms of miles and climbs, and we made it to town by 4:30, where the Sundown Lodge was kind enough to donate a room to us for the night. We again met up with Greg and Addison for dinner, but this time we went for Chinese food instead of Burgers. Even though the ride was not necessarily as difficult, it was certainly lonely.

Views like this were what we saw for days:

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• Small
• Normal
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• Largest

After another ride to Ely through more desert with very similar views and no places to stop for water, we again met up with Greg and Addison for some drinks. It was great to get to know them a bit and look forward to spending our evenings with them. From Ely, we parted ways and they headed towards Great Basin National Park to meet up with their families. We hope the rest of their vacation was fun!

From Ely, we headed to Baker, where we experienced a pretty nasty wind storm in the morning. From the looks of it, it was actually a rain storm, because rain was pouring down around us....but we never got wet. Apparently this is a common phenomenon in Nevada because it is so dry. It will often rain when it storms, but it evaporates before it hits the ground. Needless to say, the wind turned a pretty easy day in terms of miles into a pretty difficult day because the it was blowing so hard in the morning. Tired, we rolled into Baker, where we came upon the Jack Silver motel. They said that they did not have any rooms available, but that they would be willing to let us sleep in the gift shop to keep us out of the rain. We were very grateful to have a roof over our heads on a windy, stormy night! We also ate at the lectrolux cafe, run by the same man who owns the Jack Silver, and we were treated to some very yummy burritos.

Yesterday, we crossed the Utah border (YAY!)....


and we rode a very long 83 miles to Milford, Utah. We were very excited to leave the driest state in the country, only to find that it was possible for it to get drier. At one point, all plant life disappeared, and we were completely surrounded by sand (as we had imagined that all of the desert would be). We were also greeted again with very nasty winds. Thunderstorms were forecasted, and although a storm never directly passed over us, we still had two major wind storms.

you can see some of the ominous clouds in the distance here:

Under normal conditions, the 83 miles with 2 climbs would have been pretty tough, but it was even tougher with the wind. We did not arrive in Milford until nearly 7pm, and we were pooped. The Oak Tree Inn saved the day though...they donated two rooms to us! This meant that we each had our own bed, which was a very nice treat. After eating at Penny's diner, we showered and all slept very well.

Today, instead of headwinds, we finally had tailwinds! We left Milford after visiting the grocery store at 9AM, and made it to Cedar City by 3, even though we did have one 1500 foot climb. It's amazing to see how a change in the winds can change our average speed. We're excited to be staying with the Daltons. They are cooking chicken for us for dinner, and we can't wait for a home cooked meal. In fact, we're eating in about 10 minutes.

We're hoping for the best in terms of wind for tomorrow, when we will climb to Bryce Canyon National Park for a much needed day off. We're excited to do a day hike in park, which is rumored to be pretty beautiful. We will be camping for the next few days, and probably won't have access to computers.

Stay tuned for our next update!