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| Riding up the hill out of the town of Eureka. |
Today was to be the easiest day of the trip. The ride was to include only 75 miles, three passes to cross (with elevations equaling less then 4000 feet), and some of the best scenery (though I thought that the first three days had some pretty nice stuff to look at)? I'm not sure why this is the case, but everyday's ride seem to have a large uphill climb first thing. Yesterday leaving Austin I had to climb a 1500 foot pass, and today it turns out coming out of Eureka I was met with almost the same? Looking at the glass half full, this is a fantastic way to get warmed up on these chilly Nevada mornings.
I was glad to get some quality riding time in with Steve. Steve's been a life saver for me on this trip. He's support me with ice for my water bottles, someone to pull me in through the last 15 to 20 miles of these long, hot days on the bike, and also just to have somebody for company. I think that he got in 50 or so miles today? I know that he would most likely rather be riding the whole distance across Nevada, but someone has to drive the support car (and I thought of riding across Nevada first).
I seemed to be getting stronger everyday? Today the miles just evaporated under my tires, and the hours just flew by. I surmised that when you have varying terrain the "on bike time" seems so much more manageable. As the morning (again another very beautiful September day in central Nevada) moved into the afternoon I started seeing new types of foliage, and I was riding through rock wall canyons. I stopped to take a picture of the Illipah sign at just over the 55 mile mark, because this is a lake that I had fished a great many times in the past, and it brought back some great memories. This day I had tried something new during the ride; not turning on my GPS watch. I wanted to see if the time would go by faster when I just rode the bike without thinking of my speed, time, or mileage? This new technique was working well, because I was surprised when in to view came the Ruth mines, so I knew that I was less then 10 miles from Ely.
I had this nagging voice in my head telling me to ride through Ely this afternoon, and push for 90-100 miles today, instead of the 75 that I had planned on ridding. Why, well my voice was sure that if I rode for what would have been 75 miles (the last day is from Ely to the Utah border, and that is about 75 miles) and that would have taken me 6 to 7 hours which means I wouldn't have finished the ride until the late afternoon. I figured that I needed some rest time before the "BIG" xterra race on Saturday morning, and if I could finish this ride in the morning of Thursday, I could get 36 hours of recovery? These thoughts just rode along with me for a good part of 20 miles as I rode closer to Ely. Just about the time I was totally immersed in my thoughts, Steve comes riding up on the opposite side of highway 50 (he looked a little to fresh for my likes). I got some welcomed news from Steve; the last 10 miles or so into Ely was mostly downhill. Yes, I needed some positive news to cover for the pain that was nipping at my right calf/knee area. I sat on the rear wheel of Steve's Litespeed bike, and he proceeded to pull me into the town of Ely. As we made our way past the center of town's park, Steve shared with me that his father proposed to his mother in this park. I could definitely understand why, the park was so cute and had that small town, homey, romantic feel. I sure that any future bride would be tickled pink if their Knight in shining armor ask for their hand in marriage here?
Steve had driven ahead into Ely to make us a reservation at the LaQuinta hotel (after the last three nights of staying in some flea-bag motels, I was ready for a little upper end accommodations). So he and I continued on until reaching highway 93 south that led us to the Hotel. I hadn't mentioned to him about my voices during the day, telling me to ride on and complete enough miles today, so I could limit the time in the saddle tomorrow (day 5). I think that Steve thought I was a little crazy when I told him to drive south on highway 93 and pick me up in about an hour (I figured this would allow me to ride close to 15 miles, totaling 90 or so today. More importantly was the last day of this journey would only consists of 60 miles. I refueled the water bottles and set off at my natural pace of about 15 mph, with the biggest smile on my face. I was not only going to make this epic adventure across Nevada, I was going to ride another 90+ mile day. This would make the third in four days of my trip (remember I had never even ridden my bike more then 72 miles before 4 days ago). I'm not sure I have ever felt better? I could imagine how tomorrow would feel as I approached the "Welcome to Utah" sign? This is as good as I could imagine ever feeling, can it be topped?
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| Comins Lake 8 miles south of Ely, you could see the reflection of my big smile in the water. |
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