Day 13 - Ely to Baker

                                             Monday  June 05, 2017

"I think I understand the concept of Basin and Range".
(Ian W.  June 2017)

We had two more mtn ranges, and 2 more valleys to traverse today, including our highest pass in Nevada, Conners Pass at 7,722 ft.

We left fairly early at 8am, hoping to beat the strong winds that we encountered yesterday on our trip to GBNP and Baker. The forecast for today was for similar southerly winds, but with lower wind speeds. Well, the winds we encountered were just the opposite. We had a nice northerly tailwind for the first 20 of the 60 miles. Then the wind seemed to be from the east and we had a mix of crosswinds and headwinds, but never too strong.

A small bar/store at Majors Place at about 25 miles, which we saw open yesterday (Sunday) evening as we drove past with Quinn, was closed when we got there today. We had been expecting to get some snacks and fluids there. We carried enough water, but were light on snacks for today's ride.

We saw our first wind farm since Calif?, and stopped at some neat shale outcrops hoping to find some fossils. They were probably too metamorphozed to retain obvious fossils.

The 2nd pass, Sacremento Pass, proved to be one of the tougher ones in Nevada due to its 6+% gradient, greater elevation gain and the presence of a sporadic brisk headwind.

We arrived in the tiny town of Baker at about 2pm. There we got a bit more disappointment, as one restaurant was closed on Mondays, and the only other one didn't open until 5pm. I was really starved and so bought and devoured 2 ambient temperature cans of chef boyeradee ravioli. They hit the spot.

As we were rolling into the only campground in town, we saw another cyclist sitting in the shade of a building. He looked totally spent. His name was Willie, 61 years old (same as me) and he was from Germany. Willie was heading west and had just finished the 87 miles from Milford. He had left at 4:30 am PDT this morning and just arrived. He didn't have much to say about his ride today except that it was hot and long. 

Willie had started his trip on the east coast at Virginia Beach and is headed to where we started, San Francisco. He's only 2 weeks from finishing. He did mention that today he passed both the Swiss Markus/Markus and the other couple we saw yesterday from the car. So both of them are a day ahead of us, still heading east on the Western Express route.

So today we rode 60 miles at 12.9 mph average. Two more mtn passes climbed with 3800 ft of total climbing.

Tomorrow we plan to wake at 5am and get as early a start as possible to beat heat and wind along the 87 miles to Milford, which will be our first night in Utah.

After Milford, there will be about 50 miles more to Cedar City, where Tracy will pick us up and drive us an our south for a rest day in St George. I can't wait.

Mike