Baker, NV --> Eureka, NVI woke to the sight of a middle aged lady with dirty blonde hair standing over me. I thought all my nights of squatting had caught up with me and that she was there to get me off her property, but then I remembered that I had stayed in Kelly’s camping ground. Then she spoke up and asked if I wanted to share breakfast with her and her husband Rober (a very mellow and philosophical Frenchman that would make for an awesome traveling companion), when I smelled her coffee brewing nearby I knew I couldn’t refuse such and offer. Catherine and Rober were traveling cross country in their Prius from New Hampshire to just south of Yosemite.
Catherine handed me a tin cup of steaming coffee, and proceeded to tell me about her son who a just ridden the Northern Tier (a route spanning America which travels through Maine, Michigan, the Dakotas, Montana, Oregon and such). We talked about my difficulties and also some of her son’s. He was a Vegan and managed to stay true throughout the whole trip, a far cry from Dave, the Chef Boyardee eating Transamerica traveler I had met a few days before. Catherine said he made it through almost primarily on peanut butter which, trust me on this, does not taste good when cotton mouth is the standard. While explaining my adventure to Rober and Catherine, their poodle named Alfred was roping my legs up with his leash. This eventually caused me to slightly stumble spilling hot coffee all over Alfred’s white fur….. After continued yelping from Alfred, we all recovered from the incident and continued to shoot the breeze for the remaining minutes of daybreak. After a sweet ham and cheese omelet sandwich from their camp stove, I bid Catherine and Rober goodbye and headed out the notorious Highway 50 for some on the bike me time.
On H-50 I rolled steadily up a gentile incline for about 40 miles and gained a surprising amount of elevation till it all dropped off into a basin. I peaked over 50 mph again and was amazed to see motorcyclists and cars passing me at only a few miles an hour more than my own pace. I had enough time to look into their cars and make funny faces at kids or give a challenging looks to the drivers. But eventually I hit the basin bottom and became thirsty due to the heat in the lowlands and the challenging riding.
I stopped at Majors Junction Bar in the middle of the next ridge climb. It was the only business in about 30 more miles and I needed re-supply ASAP, but their prices were inflated 3 times the normal rate because they knew they were the only service for miles. So I shelled out nearly fifteen dollars for two iced teas and a beer. The walls were coated with thousands of dollar bills that people had written their names and motto’s on and pinned to the walls. I sat next to some bikers that had passed me earlier and who after several minutes of gawking at me approached to as how fast I had gone on my bike when they saw me earlier. I let them know that I had hit 55 mph that morning; they couldn’t believe it, one even questioned if a wheel so skimpy could hold under the force I was suggesting. After a while I told them if they were so impressed they could buy me another beer but if not I had to hit the road…. I was back on the pavement moments later.
I pulled into Ely (pronounced E-lee) around 4:00 and stopped for some Subway, Mountain Dew, and also I made some calls back to Pueblo, Nashville, and Athens. After I finished screwing around it was already 5:30 and I had less than two hours of light left. Ely was a sweet town but at this point in the venture I had become able and rather ambitious, so I left town at 5:00 with more than 80 miles of emptiness in front of me as well a four large climbs….Eureka was a day away but I wanted it that night!
This situation creates a certain amount of excitement. Imagine the movie Gladiator, when he finds out that his family is doomed to be murdered he works beyond his potential to make it home before they are killed, racing the sun as if his life depended upon it. Well this sounds a little intense but that’s about the closest thing to how I felt riding into 80 miles of nothing with little supplies at almost 6:00 PM. I absolutely hauled as fast as I could, not touching the ground once in 50 miles. I sped over several 2000 foot climbs and rode even faster into the basins that followed them.
Darkness fell halfway through the third climb so I clipped on my light and rode in cadence to the strobe of the headlight. Every once in a while it would flash to reveal a buck in the road, a large desert rodent, or one of many snakes that populate the roads at night to collect the warmth of the day’s heat deposited into the asphalt, one of many reasons I wasn’t keen on sleeping on the side of the road that night. I hadn’t seen a car in hours and I was glad of it because in this sort of territory you could make someone disappear if you wished. I was hell-bent to reach Eureka just over Pinto Summit at 7,351 ft. My cadence only quickened and by the time I reached the summit of Pinto I was absolutely spent. I rolled the additional few miles into Eureka (pop 650) and wasn’t surprised to see the classic old west town closed for the night. I found a historical landmark building about a block off of Main Street that was abandoned due to a fire in the upstairs. It was being renovated and had some insulation for me to sleep on so I made the second floor of Eureka Historical Site #22 my home for the night.
Day: 153.55 mi
Total: 1174.84 mi
Elev. Climbed: 7300 ft
Elev. Difference: 1600 ft
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