Day 51 – Ely to Eureka

W00t! Back on the bike. After 4 days of rest, I was definitely looking forward to getting back in the saddle. JP had some work stuff come up and he’s currently out in Chicago for a few days. So it’s just Heidi, the kids, and I until Thursday.

Unfortunately, the drive from Vegas took over 4 hours. And once we got to the hotel in Ely, we needed to do laundry. Like, a lot of it. Vegas laundry. And for some reason everyone else in the hotel needed to do laundry. We eventually got it done, but we ended up getting to bed shortly after midnight. Not great for getting up early and beating the winds.

I ended up on the road around 8:30. The weatherman had once again lied. It was supposed to be near 50 in the morning but instead it was 75 by the time I was on the road.

The route today (and tomorrow, and the next day) is on US 50. Most of this part of Nevada has big flat sections with 1.5k’-ish climbs on each end. The climbs aren’t brutal, but they’re long… and a bit annoying. However, it’s nice to not be bashing the pedals up 15% grades like we saw out east.

The first pass was relatively uneventful. I hit the peak right about the time Heidi and the boys caught up with me in the MCC. BTW: we’re way back up in the air again.

Nevada has its own kind of beauty. It’s definitely not like the canyons of Utah, but it’s greener which is fine by me. In a lot of ways it’s like Kansas but with mountains. You can drive in a straight line for miles and miles… it’s easy to lose track of how far away things are.

Nevada is also windy. Today it got super windy. It was either a headwind (which is a bummer) or a cross wind (usually better). By noon-ish, the cross winds were getting crazy. Cross winds will make you a bit skittish on descents. Today, the winds were enough to make me nervous even on the flats. I got hit by gusts that seriously nearly pushed me on to the gravel shoulder when I was only doing 15 mph. I’m guessing that’s at least 30 mph winds.

Anyhoo, I made it about 53 miles before the lack of sleep, mid-90’s heat and the wind got the better of me. I called it a day with about 20 miles left and we cruised in to Eureka in the MCC.

Eureka is a small town, but it definitely has its charm. It seems to be a gold rush era town that actually lived to see modern times (versus many boom towns that disappeared in to the sands). It also has really good burgers. We had a late lunch at a local cafe/bar and then basically snacked for dinner.

A little Wii U and some showers and we’re all ready for tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get an earlier jump and avoid these crazy winds.