Crossing Nevada

Wed. June 1:  Drove up to Millbrae with Alexandra then took BART to Civic Center to have a sendoff breakfast at Arsicault, my favorite French bakery.  Back to the BART station, Alexandra went back to Millbrae and I went to Antioch so that San Francisco was only 1 day's ride away.  

CA 84 near Rio Vista

Nice warm ride up the delta.  Mostly flat.   From Rio Vista, took Hwy 84, which includes a ferry ride across the river.  After arriving in Sac, went downtown to Sauces for BBQ and brussel sprouts.  Downtown SAC is a pretty vibrant place.  There's about a 6 square block area with a lot of restaurants and bars.

My dinner at Sauces

Thu. June 2:  Had breakfast with Jae and his 6-year old sun Xero.  I met Jae near Pescadero while on one of my local rides from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz.   Jae was on his way to LA.  He was intending to camp at Costanoa for the night (10 mi south of Pescadero), but we had 20+ MPH tailwinds and he decided to  join me and continue to Santa Cruz.  After breakfast I headed over to the Amtrak station, and caught the California Zepher to Reno.  Stayed at a Super 8 at the east end of Sparks.

Fri. June 3:  Headed out towards Fernley on I-80 (27 miles).  Bicycles are legal on the interstates in most Western US states as long as :

• It's not near an urban area
• There are no other paved through routes nearby.

The drawback of bicycling on the interstate is that it's noisy, and not typically scenic.  The advantages are:  Smooth and wide shoulders, and you get a burst of wind at your back everytime a truck passes.

After lunch in Fernley, biked the next 28 miles to Fallon

Fallon is a non-descript town on US-50 but big enough to have a Safeway, hotels, and restaurants.   The tap water has a pretty bad chemical taste, though.  Fortunately, my hotel had a water cooler in the exercise room 😃.

Passes on US50

Many people think Nevada is a flat desert.  Well... the desert part is mostly true.  The "Flat" part is anything but.  During this ride, I went over a total of 16 mountain passes.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_50_in_Nevada

Sat. June 4:  

About 61 miles east of Fallon is Cold Springs Station Resort , which is the only place to sleep between Fallon and Austin (another 50 miles to the east).  The first half of the ride is pretty flat, but then there's about 2,200 feet of climbing.  On the 2nd climb, I got off for a mini-break and noticed another bicyclist about 1/2 mile behind.  A pickup truck stopped next to me and said the other cyclist asked if I would wait a little for him to catch up.

Arjun and I then proceeded to bike across the rest of the state together. 

We rode together, more or less.  He's a little faster than me, being about 30 years younger, but he's carrying a lot more gear...  If he had the amount of gear I carry, he'd be way faster.

 

Cold Spring Station has good tap water, food, and motel rooms.  Since I had 2 beds, I invited Arjun to use the other bed. 

Sun. June 5:  The ride to Austin was another day of up and down... 50 miles with 2600 ft of vertical climb.   Google Maps has been characterizing hilly rides as "Mostly Flat"  

Cold Spring Station to Austin. "Mostly Flat" ... yeah, right

Short ride from Hotel in Sacramento to Breakfast at the Fox and Goose.  "Moderate hill"?  

About 25 miles out of Austin we noticed some strange looking grasshoppers on the road.  Many dead, some alive.  I think they're called Mormon Crickets.   

I had dinner at the "Owl Bar".  They were having a $10 spaghetti dinner, complete with salad and a slice of Garlic bread.  The only other food in town was Champ's hamburgers, which is a food truck on the parking lot of Champ's gas station... no tables, no chairs.  Also, Austin had nothing open the next morning for breakfast, so I bought a couple of muffins, and milk, and got coffee at the gas station.  

Arjun was running ahead of me, and stopped in Austin to recharge... then continued on to Spencer Hot Springs, which is another 18 miles east, the last 8 on pretty rough unpaved road.  

Mon. June 6:  Eureka was the next target, starting with Austin Summit at 7500 ft.

 

Arjun and I met up again the next morning about 15 miles east of Austin, where the unpaved road from Spencer Hot Springs meets US50.

Arjun at Hickison Summit 

 

There was only 1 bed in my room, so Arjun camped out in the city park.  

I got a text from him at 4:30 when he woke up around sunrise that he was going to head out.   That was postponed a few minutes later when the sprinklers came on and he had to shelter in place....

We had breakfast at Eureka Depot, a lovely little cafe that has been in business for about 1 year.  Warm Blueberry Muffin was wonderful!

  

Tue. June 7:  The dreaded 4 peak, 80 mi. ride to Ely...

We saw some strange deer, and even a wild donkey along the way.  Other than that it was a difficult ride.  The downhills were fun, though... especially the 15 mile descent into Ely.

The last pass before Ely

On the way into Ely, the phone decided that we had crossed into Rocky Mountain time, so we lost an hour.  We later found out that it was an AT&T anomaly, and that we had really arrived to town at 7:15 instead of 8:15.  The time zone line is at the Utah border.

We pulled into La Fiesta (Mexican food) for dinner... there was a waiting line, so I went across the street to check in at the Ramada hotel/casino (everything in Nevada seems to have a casino).  I got upgraded to a suite, so we had plenty of room.  Meanwhile, Arjun got us a table.  

Wed. June 8:  Still under a time misconception, we arrived at Denny's (in a casino of course) for breakfast about 7:45 (we thought) which was really 6:45.  We hung out until they opened.  Then I proceeded to a laundromat across town to dry some stuff I had hand-washed the night before, and Arjun went back to the room.  

It's only a 2-pass day

I headed out for Border Inn around 10:30, figuring that Arjun would catch up.  He stayed behind for another hour or so.  

Wind farm before the last big climb in Nevada (Sacramento Pass)

I finally got to the Border Inn around 6:30 Nevada time.  The Hotel is on Utah time.   Arjun ended up staying at a park at Sacramento pass.  I was really happy after that ride to have dinner and an ok bed!

Thurs. 6/9

Arjun is going to spend a day or 2 at Great Basin National Park.   I visited the park in 2015, so I'm now in the Delta Utah library, which is  90 miles from the Border Inn (which had terrible wifi with sporatic internet connection).   Nice to be in air conditioning with good internet.