Saturday June 3rd, 2017
We started riding at about 8:15 this morning. A bit earlier than usual as we knew that we had a big day ahead of us. It is 77 miles, with 3.5 passes (one pass is only a 500 ft climb) between Eureka and Ely, and nothing else. NO services for 70 miles. It will be a tough day.
Knowing this, we loaded up the bikes with extra food and lots of water. As we were just getting ready to start we ran into Nick/Kristen, who were walking past. Kristen's rear rack had broken at a weld. They made it in OK yesterday, but were going to take a rest day to try to get it fixed in Eureka. They said that they were a few days ahead of schedule anyways. They had to be in St George in about a week when Kristen was flying to a wedding for a few days. After the wedding she would fly back and they would continue their ride to Boston. If I were going to be home then, we could have put them up for night or two. Good luck to them, we likely won't see them again.
As advertised, the morning started with a 900 ft climb out of Eureka. The rest of the day was up over 2.5 more mountain passes, with valleys in between. The temperatures were nice, but the wind was fickle, sometimes a helping tailwind and sometimes a slowing headwind.
As we were just starting to climb up to the 3rd pass of the day, a crazy girl on a bike raced past downhill from the other direction. She whooped and hollered at us and was gone in a second. Ian and I had to talk to each other to confirm what we just saw. She was on a touring bike, but with only rear panniers. No helmet, headphones, only a sports bra and shorts. She was probably in her 20's? If she had started in Ely (there are no other towns between here and there) she must have started at sunrise to get as far as she did. We thought that maybe she was part of a group and that we would soon see other riders that were behind her. Nope. Just a crazy girl riding by herself in the middle of nowhere.
Our ride went well. The last of the passes was 17 miles from Ely, and it was all downhill from there. We were looking forward to the nice downhill cruise into town. But that wouldn't be the case. The road turned south and into the wind. Having to pedal when going downhill is just not right. But it's still better than an uphill at the end of the day, like the two previous days. Once in Ely, we stopped at our first McDonald's of the ride.
Our ride today totalled 80 miles at a 12 mph average, with 4050 feet of climbing. On the bike riding time was 6:45, with 8 hours total town to town including breaks. A long day. We found a motel and decided that tomorrow would be our first rest day after 11 straight days of riding. We had been planning a rest day for somewhere in east-central Nevada.
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment