Ahhhh the beauty of sleeping in (9 am). We lazed in bed, checked email, and crawled across the street to enjoy some oatmeal, eggs, and coffee. It was so nice to not rush out in a hurry to get on the road. This was in large part because we thought that we had an "easy" day ahead of us, only 63 miles and two passes. No biggie after the mileage we had been putting in. And naturally, we found ourselves completing an extremely hard day.
We went to the local grocery store in Ely because we didn't know what there was available in Baker as far as services and we wanted to be as prepared as possible food and water wise as we believed that tomorrow would be a 100 day, which we were very much dreading. We stocked up on ramen, spaghettios, tuna, lemon, avocado, apple and water (i dropped most the produce in the grocery store before i smartened up and grabbed a cart)
And then we hit the open road... And the relentless wind, as we were headed uphill. We knew then that this was going to be a struggle of a day. It was like a cruel joke.
A good headwind can cut your speed in half, and this wind did everything in it's power to do so. We were frustrated that after three long days in the desert, this sorry day would take just as long as the longer days. Lindsay's iPod broke. My seat was all messed up. The wind was atrocious. These may seem petty, but at the end of the day, music can be the toll that mentally gets you up a hill, steep or long and gradual. Sometimes we will ride along with one earphone in and chat, our sing, our try to dance a bit. It is very amusing through long repetitive stretches of desert. Music can be motivating up a hill or instigate reflection during a downhill pass. As far as seats go, i have been making adjustments to thread seat to help my hand s. Small adjustments can make a big difference, and while out can help one thing, it can make something else worse . We had no control over the wind, unfortunately. Fix the seat and shrug off the i Pod for the time being and overcome the fact that the only control we had was ourselves and our willpower.. This was not necessarily easy. The sun was still (out for a little while longer) and there was some beautiful scenery... Including an awesome lake (photo 1)
The climb was gradual and then became very steep as we reached the top of the pass at 7722 ft. It was the highest climb of the desert. (wooohooo) with the descent, we were shy of our halfway point, and stopped to grab some energy for our next pass, as the headwind quickly ate up the reserves we had from the oatmeal. We sat on the side of the road (conveniently i parked my bike next to a thistle bush without realizing it, and kept stepping into it), and overlooked a large field of white windmills against the backdrop of beautiful purple mountains (photo 2) the mountains were a tad deeper in color as they were shadowed by dark storm clouds. When we turned to our right, we saw storm clouds coming from that direction as well. We realized at that point that there may be terrible ahead. The wind only grew stronger as the clouds continued to encroach upon us from both sides.
We pedaled as fast and hard as we could against the wind. It does not help that in the dssert, what looks 1 mile away is actually 5. No joke, and it makes you feel like you are literally are going nowhere... Knock one mile off on the odometer and the corner leading up the hill still doesn't look any closer.
We finally reached the beginning of our last pass, "sacramento pass" at 7154 ft, and the whole sky was black and purple. There were three different storms, one from behind (we could see the rain from a few miles out) one coming from our right, just ahead of us, and a storm cloud coming at us (don't worry we only got hit by the latter two) we struggled up the steep hills that made up the first half of the pass. The lightning started to flash and we hurried to the trees up ahead. First, we were lucky to see trees in the desert, but even more lucky to see houses next to them. Usually the houses we see are ranches that have as mile or so of driveway, or houses in the desert town, not 17 miles outside off the next town right on the road. There was an open structure with a wooden roof that we made it under.. Right in time for the storms to unleash their madness. Of course the roof leaked and the wind blew the rain right at us and as we huddled there for 45 minutes, but it was shelter of some sort.
The storms passed, and cold and wet, (and laughing at what a disaster this short little day turned out to be), we descended (where we became even more cold), and made it into Baker at 8:00 pm. I should take this moment to say that we turned off of Highway 50... We survived it! At this point we also saw a sign for our destination tomorrow, Milford, that read that it was only 82 miles away, not 95-100. That, in and of itself made our day.
We landed at Silver-jack hotel and restaurant just as they were closing. The manager was outside with another man and told us to come inside and grab food and they would set us up with a room. We were hesitant to leave our bikes outside, but the manager said that there were only 62 people in the town, including his wife and two kids. The man sitting next to him smiled and asked us more about what we were doing, and tools us to get inside because it looked like we could use some food and a warm shower. The manager kept the grill open that they had already started sitting down, and made us some incredible burgers. I could have eaten that forever (in fact 1 hr later i was starving). The manager and his wife had been traveling for years in an RV, homeschooling their kids. They had just taken over management of the very eclectic restaurant and camp-esque hotel six weeks ago. They were very extremely friendly and let us on on some secrets of small town desert Towns. It was a breath of fresh air. The wife told us that she well see up top 40 bikers in a day. She met a family once with two young boys that traveled sound the United States for 2 and a half years.. On bikes.
The day was nothing like we expected it to be. It was tough mentally and physically. There were moments that w didn't think out was going to end, thst we were somewhat frightened in the storm. We took care of all that we could and left everything else to do the same. It didn't end up too badly for us. In those situations that is all you can do. As for the wind, put your head down and power through.
Last long day in the desert tomorrow. Crossing every finger and toe that there is a tailwind. Tomorrow we hit Utah.
We went to the local grocery store in Ely because we didn't know what there was available in Baker as far as services and we wanted to be as prepared as possible food and water wise as we believed that tomorrow would be a 100 day, which we were very much dreading. We stocked up on ramen, spaghettios, tuna, lemon, avocado, apple and water (i dropped most the produce in the grocery store before i smartened up and grabbed a cart)
And then we hit the open road... And the relentless wind, as we were headed uphill. We knew then that this was going to be a struggle of a day. It was like a cruel joke.
A good headwind can cut your speed in half, and this wind did everything in it's power to do so. We were frustrated that after three long days in the desert, this sorry day would take just as long as the longer days. Lindsay's iPod broke. My seat was all messed up. The wind was atrocious. These may seem petty, but at the end of the day, music can be the toll that mentally gets you up a hill, steep or long and gradual. Sometimes we will ride along with one earphone in and chat, our sing, our try to dance a bit. It is very amusing through long repetitive stretches of desert. Music can be motivating up a hill or instigate reflection during a downhill pass. As far as seats go, i have been making adjustments to thread seat to help my hand s. Small adjustments can make a big difference, and while out can help one thing, it can make something else worse . We had no control over the wind, unfortunately. Fix the seat and shrug off the i Pod for the time being and overcome the fact that the only control we had was ourselves and our willpower.. This was not necessarily easy. The sun was still (out for a little while longer) and there was some beautiful scenery... Including an awesome lake (photo 1)
The climb was gradual and then became very steep as we reached the top of the pass at 7722 ft. It was the highest climb of the desert. (wooohooo) with the descent, we were shy of our halfway point, and stopped to grab some energy for our next pass, as the headwind quickly ate up the reserves we had from the oatmeal. We sat on the side of the road (conveniently i parked my bike next to a thistle bush without realizing it, and kept stepping into it), and overlooked a large field of white windmills against the backdrop of beautiful purple mountains (photo 2) the mountains were a tad deeper in color as they were shadowed by dark storm clouds. When we turned to our right, we saw storm clouds coming from that direction as well. We realized at that point that there may be terrible ahead. The wind only grew stronger as the clouds continued to encroach upon us from both sides.
We pedaled as fast and hard as we could against the wind. It does not help that in the dssert, what looks 1 mile away is actually 5. No joke, and it makes you feel like you are literally are going nowhere... Knock one mile off on the odometer and the corner leading up the hill still doesn't look any closer.
We finally reached the beginning of our last pass, "sacramento pass" at 7154 ft, and the whole sky was black and purple. There were three different storms, one from behind (we could see the rain from a few miles out) one coming from our right, just ahead of us, and a storm cloud coming at us (don't worry we only got hit by the latter two) we struggled up the steep hills that made up the first half of the pass. The lightning started to flash and we hurried to the trees up ahead. First, we were lucky to see trees in the desert, but even more lucky to see houses next to them. Usually the houses we see are ranches that have as mile or so of driveway, or houses in the desert town, not 17 miles outside off the next town right on the road. There was an open structure with a wooden roof that we made it under.. Right in time for the storms to unleash their madness. Of course the roof leaked and the wind blew the rain right at us and as we huddled there for 45 minutes, but it was shelter of some sort.
The storms passed, and cold and wet, (and laughing at what a disaster this short little day turned out to be), we descended (where we became even more cold), and made it into Baker at 8:00 pm. I should take this moment to say that we turned off of Highway 50... We survived it! At this point we also saw a sign for our destination tomorrow, Milford, that read that it was only 82 miles away, not 95-100. That, in and of itself made our day.
We landed at Silver-jack hotel and restaurant just as they were closing. The manager was outside with another man and told us to come inside and grab food and they would set us up with a room. We were hesitant to leave our bikes outside, but the manager said that there were only 62 people in the town, including his wife and two kids. The man sitting next to him smiled and asked us more about what we were doing, and tools us to get inside because it looked like we could use some food and a warm shower. The manager kept the grill open that they had already started sitting down, and made us some incredible burgers. I could have eaten that forever (in fact 1 hr later i was starving). The manager and his wife had been traveling for years in an RV, homeschooling their kids. They had just taken over management of the very eclectic restaurant and camp-esque hotel six weeks ago. They were very extremely friendly and let us on on some secrets of small town desert Towns. It was a breath of fresh air. The wife told us that she well see up top 40 bikers in a day. She met a family once with two young boys that traveled sound the United States for 2 and a half years.. On bikes.
The day was nothing like we expected it to be. It was tough mentally and physically. There were moments that w didn't think out was going to end, thst we were somewhat frightened in the storm. We took care of all that we could and left everything else to do the same. It didn't end up too badly for us. In those situations that is all you can do. As for the wind, put your head down and power through.
Last long day in the desert tomorrow. Crossing every finger and toe that there is a tailwind. Tomorrow we hit Utah.
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