Battle Mtn to Elko, NV 72 miles

Today in Pix

Probably 15 K feet climbing. - more soon!!

Winnemucca to Battle Mtn with Manny

Today in PIX

I left my motel room at 6 this AM, with Manny Garcia, the manager of Cardinal Bike Shop in Palo Alto. He came up here on his vacation to ride with me because, in his words, "he wants to learn from the best". I made sure to remind him he would be learning from someone who is the best at being crazy. 

And crazy we were. The ride started out with the cool and very big skies of the sage brush filled desert. On a delicious shoulder (the speed divots went away by the time we had rejoined the interstate) along the lightly traveled I-80. Of which I commented that back home, some of the roads cyclists use are far more heavily traveled than what were were riding. with better sight lines for the drivers out here. And if you get hit by steel at 40 mph, it is not a lot different than being taken out by a 75 mile-an-hour truck locomotive. 

It was fun watching Manny as he barely pedaled while taking lots of photos of me. And the Penny Farthing Winery people will be happy as I had their handsome T-shirt on that you can buy to help keep me on the road, hint, hint. 

At about mile 25, we looked out on a road that winded up the mountain ahead. Roads always look steeper until you are actually on them. Nor did I think this ascent applied to us because I-80 generally made the same wide sweeping turns that the rail line did to get across these lands. However, as it turned out, it was a climb that I would have to make. To 5200 feet. I was probably out of the saddle for at least a solid mile and maybe two. I did stop a hundred feet from what looked like the top because it appeared as though either the summit was at hand or more climbing was in store for us. And I wanted to be fresh in the event that the latter was true. To my surprise, we had summited! 

Manny said that on the steepest part, I was going 8 miles an hour!! And he said that even he felt it on his multi-speed, state-of-the-art touring bike.

The downhill, however was not that fast and it wasn't long after we were off of it that the freeway was being resurfaced. And as such, the shoulder which we had grown to love had  now become the lane of travel for all the cars and trucks and motor homes. Manny didn't notice the pounding on his bike, but I did. For five long, bone jarring miles. Ugh ............

And then a few miles later for another eight miles, the stamped concrete speed divots, IN and ACROSS the full width of the shoulder returned. All this just as I was beginning to think that Nevada's I-80 could very well become the National Bicycle Greenway route across this state.

Heck there is enough of a right of way that a bike lane could be laid next to the shoulder and separated by a jersey wall. As well, there is so much history out here.. And on a bike, it is a pleasant part of the country through which to ride.

Guess I just have to make sure the Nevada state bike coordinator, Bill Story, knows what we need out there. Now and in the future. So many possibilities!!

THX for all of U!!

Tough 72 to Winnemucca with rumble divot trauma............

Today in Pictures

Up at 4AM. On the road at 5:15 after I attended to a pedal that had gotten loose. And I didn’t stop pumping this 85+ pound fixed gear until almost 3PM. Big gut suck. And I was hammering so hard that I drank all the water I had aboard with 35 miles left to go. And ate all the food I brought along save one energy bar………….

And as I said in my Facebook post, I need hotel lodging to clean up, and recover. The reason I am getting so beat up is because I am either pedaling a 2 or 3% uphill grade and sometimes more. Or I am going down the same graded descent and I have to pedal it since the downhill stuff is not steep enough to rest my legs by coasting. And it’s hot out here. High 80’s all day………..

The above said, my dollars are rapidly dwindling. My food and drink needs have soared and along with the hotel expense, my per-Diem is now easily $100 a day. Ugh. At this rate, my ride is gonna end pretty soon. Unless there is dollar help ………….

On the road today, tho I didn’t stop for him, one guy knelt down in the middle of I-80 to get a series of shots of me going by. It was uphill so all I could do was drop my business card for him.

A while later, just as my 100-ounce Camelbak started to go dry, a guy in his 20's in a red pick-up, with a bike in back, pulled over well ahead of me and waited. Since he was at mile marker 150 and I took a short break at every 10th mile, I stopped and talked to him.

When I told David Weidinger I was dangerously low on water, he filled up everything I had and even threw in a couple of vitamin waters! An engineer doing field work out here, he showed me a leech mountain that he patrols among his many other duties. He explained that the way they mine for gold now is by pouring a solution over rocks that have been left in a pile on such leech fields and letting that bond with the silver or gold or whatever they are looking for as the chemical then extracts it. Wow!

10 minutes later I was back pumping the pedals when a few hours later and maybe 90 minutes from Winnemucca where I now am, another guy took to the pavement for a shot. Only this was not just another photographer. I found out who he was because Dale just so happened to be at at one of my ten mile rest stops. Besides the fact that he did professional work for a number of well known magazines, he went around the world on a bicycle from 1990 to  1992. While doing so he saw well over 50 different countries and was even joined by his wife, who is now a doctor, for a large percentage of the journey.

He invited me to come stay with him in S Lake Tahoe if I ever get there again. And we had so much in common, that I know we'll be doing a lot of work together going forward when my trip is done......

It wasn't long after I left him that the rumble divots that cursed the beginning of I-80 for me in Reno, now fill the entire bike lane every 20 feet. And this has been the case for the last ten miles. Too wretched -- as in what could be worse.....

THX for all of U!!

Fernely to Lovelock NV

Here is what it looked like

The ride from Fernley worked me pretty good today On interstate 80, the road way itself was excellent. Up at 5AM, I left the hotel I stayed in at 6 AM and enjoyed a peaceful desert freeway and the lands around it made cool by the huge thunderstorm I missed being indoors last nite….

I mean it was so ferocious that I saw puddles everywhere. And to give you an idea how serious the speed divots are that warn errant drivers should they cross the fog line, several inches of water still stood inside them for many miles as I pedaled away.

And I pedaled and I pedaled. And as always, the same 50-inch gear the whole way. Since there was little to distract me from my pedaling effort out here, at times when I didn’t focus my mental energy on other thoughts, turning the pedals at times became laborious. But usually not for long.

I found great humor in all the bungie cord wealth out here. If it wasn’t so hard to stop and then start my loaded bike, I’d probably have 50 or 60 of these load strapping devices to try to figure out what to do with. I did however stop for a stainless steel spoon. I’ve been using the plastic one I got from Marilyn and Sue back in Placerville. I also stopped for a pair of mini-channel locks! Just what I wanted, I added them to the 8” quality crescent wrench I found yesterday.

Nor is this desert as difficult as the one I rode through Eastern Oregon or Southern Idaho back in 1979. Or for that matter, through Southern California or Arizona on my second 1986 ride. The road itself is very nice to ride on. And there is a lot more life out here. I even heard birds chirping away before the cars took over.

As for the Truckee River, I don’t see it any more. The train line and telephone/telegraph poles I talked about yesterday disappeared from view until the last third of the day. They, as does I-80, follow the contour of the mountains that dominate the landscape of this, the most mountainous state in the union.  And in doing so, the wide sweeping turns they take send them through the valleys that ancient rivers carved through the mammoth hills that rise everywhere one looks.

Staying at the Lovelock Inn, in Lovelock, NV. Feeling blessed for WIFI as I recharge my batteries in the full knowing that I need a Bigger Power to keep all this going………

THX 4 all of U

Reno to Fernley, NV

Up at 6 at Mike’s house, I did an unusual shower to kick off my ride day. Soon, Mike and I were sharing the eggs with tofu chorizo that he whipped up for us. And at about the same time, the famous Tim Healion, promoter of the Tour de Nez bike race series here in Reno showed up. Too much wow as he and I had talked a lot over the years (6) but never met.

Soon the three of us were riding to the downtown Reno Truckee River bike trail. Along the way, we stopped at Tim’s brother’s house. Jeffrey had just moved to Reno with his Panamanian wife,  Ana, and her two kids, Joana and Jose. He used to surf professionally.

He felt the magic of this ride and kept asking me if there was anything I needed. Jokingly, I told him I needed shoes with a 3.5” sole. In size 10. He had a pair! And he insisted that I take them…….

WOW. I rode with his good mojo on my feet the rest of the 56 miles I logged today. Mike left from Jeffrey’s house and Tim guided me out the river path for a mile or so past its downtown beginning. From there on out I was  on my own on a green-lined river within which the trail sat for the next 7 miles.

It was a good way to leave Reno because next up for me was an Interstate 80 that began with rumble strips right where the bike traveler needs to be. I almost turned around and began to set out for US 50. More mountain passes and less water services were better than this.

As I thought about quitting this road, I thought about Steve Stevens. Why would he recommend it and why would Nevada State bike coordinator, Bill Story, tell me the rumble strips had been fixed?

I soldiered on. Finally seven miles later the pavement divots moved deeper and narrower next to the fog line! Yahoo, I could relax a little bit. I began to notice the history that this path cut. Below me, I could see the rail line that Thomas Stevens used when he became the first man, in 1884, to cycle across America. However, I could not see any dirt path where he was supposed to have ridden. All I saw were rocks and sheer drops from the rail bed that formed the first transcontinental railroad.

I also saw the telephone poles that made up the first transcontinental phone line. While all the while the Truckee River blessed all of this with a small ribbon of green. And this has been my view all the way to Greenly where I am staying in a Super 8 motel so I can get work done. Here for example is the map for today’s travels http://www.bikeroute.com/BRdC/routeViewer.php?routeid=207

But unless I start getting some cash flow coming in once again, I will soon run out of money. I spent $95 on food and a room with internet today. I might be able to get through Nevada, where friends of friends do not exist, at that rate, but after that I may have to call it a ride.

I cannot do the work that needs to be done from city parks or under bridge hollows. That is not what this ride is all about. I’ve done the adventure style ride before. This one has the express intent of collecting data for a SF to Boston bikeway as I meet and exchange with the city leaders and bicycle shakers and movers from each of the areas through which it passes..

Btw Do get to the Mayors’ Ride Schedule. Lori Yung has posted a lot of the pictures I have been taking there………..