9 June – Day 10: Warm Springs NV to Ely NV – 184.9 km @ 18.7 km/h

It was a beautiful morning with scarcely a breath of wind. Today was probably my longest and potentially hardest day as I was going to try and make it to Ely – a distance of 119 miles or just under 200 km. I had decided to have a rest day on Saturday and to attend the Seventh-day Adventist church in Ely, although as it transpired there was no church. This would give me two nights in a motel with time to do laundry and possibly fix my bike.

I soon entered the valley and it was great. The temperature was cool enough that I was wearing my long gloves but the sun was shining, the sky blue, the air fresh. It was great to be alive. The valley was dry and desolate with a few cattle trying to eke a living. A very hard life. The road stretched forever, as you can see below. Indeed, that is one of the most difficult aspects to cycling through the desert: you can see so far that you lose your sense of perspective when it comes to distances. It may look to be 2-3 km but is actually 5-10 km.

I came across three animals trying to cross the road. One of them made it across but the other two turned and ran back to a hole about 10 m off the road from where they watched me. They were beautiful and I wish I knew what they were. The moved like minks with a long, low body but they had black and white stripes on their heads. Throughout my travels through the desert I saw very few animals or birds, a testimony to the harshness of the land.

What I did see was an unusually bit of road kill: the entire leg of a cow and its stomach! Nothing else, just those two. On wonders what happened to the rest of it. As a cyclist one notices road kill and other roadside flotsam and jetsam and it has surprised me how much it has varied.

During the first two days of my trip there was lots of road kill. Squirrels, rabbits, snakes, even a rare desert fox (the ranger I asked to tell me what I had seen was upset since they are an endangered species). I even saw one llive snake trying to find its way over the kerb. By the time I reached Yosemite the roadkill dropped off, possibly because of the birds of prey or mountain lions? It was replaced with broken mirrors from the RV drivers who mis-estimated the width of their vehicles and hit posts or the roadside cliffs (hopefully not cyclists). In the desert there was nothing. But I digress …

In the distance I spied some huge fenced areas. I pondered why they would be fenced and then I saw that they had irrigation as well. They were growing grass and there were bales of it ready for storage or perhaps sale. The contrast of these green fields to the desert around was startling, but my photo didn’t do it justice. One wonders if this is the most efficient use of water which is probably from an underground reservoir.

I came to a military base at the turnoff to Tybo. There was also an historical plaque which I duly read. It told of how the mining town of Tybo had ethnic conflicts between the Cornish, Irish and Central Euripeans which only stopped when they all teamed up against a team of Chinese woodcutters! I would like to know if once this place had trees and it was man that made it like this. Then again, perhaps it is better not to know.

I stopped at a rest area and had a drink and refilled my water bottles. Wellesly Muir had advised me to be careful with my water through Nevada and I was rationing myself to 1 Litre/h. Fortunately, the previous day had been cold so I had not perspired much and I was OK for water. Then it was up the long (9 km) hill out of the valley. At the top there were some lovely rocks, a sample of which is shown below. I was at 6100’ again, and afterwards descended to another valley.

That is the geomorphology of Nevada (and probably Utah). There is a line of hills/mountains which are separated by expanses of valleys. Were I going North to South it would be an easy ride but since I was heading East, it was up and down. Still, nothing compared with the Sierra, or perhaps now my cycling fitness is up so I just don’t notice. Probably a combination of both.

One problem with the desert arises when you want to stop and have a break. There is usually nowhere to lean your bike against. While you may think that one could just lay it flat, it is exceedingly difficult to get it upright again without hurting your back due to the load. Normally one uses trees or signs but these are few and far between in the desert. I found this one so stopped and had some refreshments mid-morning. I had bought some dates and figs and they went down all so well.

You may be wondering why there is a stop sign in the middle of the desert. It was at the entrance road to a ranch. Given that it was a private road, the people would surely know enough to stop. Furthermore, given that the road I was on probably carried less than 500 veh/day and you could see several km in either direction made it quite redundant. However, one must not forget that this is America where there are 4 lawyers for every engineer so the engineers are fearful of litigation. Then again, it could also be an example of trying to use up ones sign budget. I found an example of that on Highway 120 a few days before where there was a sign 24 miles to the next town. The fact that there were no turnoffs since the road started and there was the first sign meant that we all knew how far it was. Nor were there any turnoffs ahead so it really was redundant. Still, someone decided – let’s go to the middle of the desert and tell them it is 24 miles to go. But why not 25 miles – or 20? Again, I digress …

The area was desolate with ‘pancake’ hills in the distance. The photo below is an example of these. I passed by a place called ‘Lunar Crater’ which is an old volcanic field. You can see the black soil much like we used to have in Mt. Eden when we lived there. There were three deer just inside the fence to my right and they zoomed off parallel with the road. I followed them for some distance until they got smart and turned away from the road.

Eventually I reached ‘Black Rock Summit’ and from there it was downhill to the valley. The photo below gives you an idea of what it was like. You can see down to the valley floor and in the distance there is a mountain range which, unfortunately, needs to be crossed. Beyond it? Probably another range …

It was another of those wheeeee rides which Nevada has been so resplendent with. 10 km downhill with no traffic. As I was descending I spied a number of trees so I thought that there must be a farm. Even better, it was a store which held out the option of sustenance and, more importantly, water. One can go without food for extended periods, but not water.

It was run by a friendly old fellow and consisted of a gas pump, junk food, and a pay phone. No fresh fruit and vegetables here I’m afraid – although all the candy one could ever want. I indulged myself with some brownies and bought some chocolate for later in the day if I needed the oomph. As I sat outside munching my very nice brownie, I remembered the time I was working in Kathmandu and went out to dinner with Mike and Kath Riley along with their daughter Leah. Leah had discovered the American delicacy of brownies and had resolved to try all the restaurants in Thamel to find which was best. A true conniseuse. If you haven’t tried them you should, they are very unhealth but when one is famished and in need of a hit of sugar work wonders.

I noticed that there were buffalo in the pen beside the store so I went and had a look and got the photo below. The coat was quite mangy but that could be because it was summer and no longer needed. A family from Idaho drove up in their van and got out. They had a baby poodle who headed over to the buffalo corral but they fortunately stopped it before it got in. Like I’d seen too often, the entire family was obese from the teenage son to the grandmother. It seems as though there has been a 50% increase in teenage obesity over the last 10 years but with parents that way is it at all surprising? I wonder what they must think about this fanatic on his bike miles from nowhere.

I cycled across the valley and was it ever desolate. In the distance I saw some buildings and they turned out to be an oil refinery. There were several oil wells so obviously there is something below the ground. One wonders how they ever decided to drill for oil in a place like this – or water.

I turned the corner and there was another construction zone. The stop/go sign person said that I would not be permitted to cycle through and that they would put my bike on the pilot car. No matter how much I protested he refused so I accepted grudgingly.

Steve was from Oregon and every summer he came to Nevada and worked on road construction. He was normally a ‘raker’ who handles the AC but the woman who operates the stop/go sign got ill so he was standing in. That is one of the dangers of being out here – you are a long way from anywhere. He said it took over an hour for the helicopter to come from Ely to collect her. He didn’t think it was a snake bite, although he commented that where their construction camp was ‘rattlers were thick on the ground’. Delightful.

I was surprised that they were putting down 80 mm of asphaltic concrete on a road which was hardly cracked and had very low roughnesses. They were doing 23 miles of overlay at a cost of $USD 800,000 per mile! I counded the traffic and it was about 300-500 vehicles/day. Unbelievable. No need for pavement management systems in this place. We will just burn up our money.

The pilot truck came and I sat in the back with my bike amongst the coke cans and other paraphernalia of road contractors. He dropped me at the other side and I chatted with an entomologist who was waiting to go through. He looked to be about 70 and was missing all his front teeth. He needed a bath and told me that he lived full time in the cab on the back of his pickup truck. What surprised me was that he was doing research into the DNA of sand dune insects trying to ascertain what degree of cross-migration there was between areas. He had been on the road for 4 months collecting data over several states and was heading to California on his way ‘home’. I asked about a strange insect I had seen near Mono Lake. It was grey and had a body like a bee, but had a long snout on the front of it like a hummingbird. I saw several of them. He was perplexed and said that he would look for them as he was going to Mono Lake to check out the nearby dunes.

I carried on to Currant which was another abandoned town. I stopped outside what was once the restaurant and sat in the shade and ate lunch.. The road crew had piled their signs against the windows but inside it looked like someone had just decided on day that they would not come in again. There were glasses sitting upside down on the walls and crockery neatly stacked. Strange.

I had come 88 km and after a break decided it was time to move on since I had 100 km to go. It was then that it happened. I passed through a sea of thorns which punctured my tires. I always carry one spare tube but they got both my front and rear which meant that it was necessary to patch them. So back it was to the shade where I removed the paniers and started the fixit job. Firstly, I removed the tyres and pulled the thorns out. Some had not gone all the way through while others were still embedded waiting to repuncture my tube. I used my pliers to remove the thorns as they were in there tightly.

I scrounged an old tin and put some water into it to locate the holes. They were so small that even when I found them I would lose them again. Eventually I patched 4 holes in the front and 2 in the rear and put all the gear back on. Of course I found that I had missed one so off came the front wheel and I replaced the tube with my spare and prayed that my rear wheel would be OK. That prayer was answered.

The whole exercise took 1.5 hours which meant it was almost 3 p.m. when I was done. With 80 km to Ely it was unlikely I would make it by sunset at 8:15 but I had to give it a go. One benefit of the extended rest was that I was refreshed and I attacked the ride with gusto. The grade wasn’t too bad and the road passed through some lovely rocks as it wound the way through the mountains.

I reached the summit. Pity it wasn't 7000', but close enough.

From here it was downhill to another valley which spread out before me. It was a great run with the road straight and smooth. I measured it to be 13 km without having to peddle. What I didn’t appreciate was that there would be a similar length of upgrade at the other end.

The valley was beautiful with mountains on either side of the valley. It was lusher than many of the other ones that I had been through. The road was good and there was even a cycle path of sorts along the side. They had milled out the pavement to provide a ‘rumble strip’ and there was sufficient space on the other side for the cyclist. Neat. Anyone heading towards the cyclist would be warned by the noise of the tyres on the rumble strip. What a great idea!

I cycled as fast as I could but after 140 km I was not exactly full of vim and vigour. The sun was going down and I was still some distance from Ely. I put my disco light on the back and strapped my head lamp to my handlebar bag since I knew I wouldn’t make it before dark.

The uphill run was very long and took me up to over 7000’. Boy was I tired. But that was the last hill and from there it was a wild 10 km downhill run to Ely. It was cold and although I was wearing my long gloves my fingers still went numb. By the time I got to Ely I was almost hypothermic and couldn’t wait to find a motel. I asked at the fire station where they were shining the engine and they pointed me in the right direction. I decided not to stay at the Hotel Nevada where they had a casino and opted for a motel off the main drag. My hands were so numb that I couldn’t sign the credit card voucher! But I managed to do so and got into a nice hot bath. Ahhhhh. The thermometer outside read 12 degees C, but with the windchill it was a lot colder. Had a pizza and then crashed.

On to the next day