Eureka, NV to Ely, NV Distance: 70 miles
Ride Time: 6:52
Average Speed: 10.2 mph
Altitude Gain: 4048 feet
Average Temperature: 86
Today was just plain hard. Like yesterday I fought strong head winds. It seemed like all the time I had to keep pedaling hard, even on the downhill. It was hard to keep moving and the wind just whipped me from side to side. We were told that there was at least one truck that was blown over by the winds. The power wires were humming loudly during the winds. Kathie and I stopped several times to try and capture the strength of the wind on camera.
Today was characterized by several valleys that I would enter downhill then pedal across a long flat valley and then climb up the mountains on the other side. There was one valley that contained a very large cattle ranch. There were several along the road, no longer with us, that put out quite the odor. On one occasion there were four pronghorn antelope that were wondering about me. One of them ran past me three times. It was fast and looked so effortless against the wind I was fighting.
We contacted David Jeppesen about the area around Ely. He lived there several years working for the Bureau of Land Management. He told me about a mountain lion that had attacked a bike rider. I’m glad I was already over that stretch of road that he spoke of.
Kathie, once again found a nice campground for our nights’ stay. There is nothing that feels better than a long hot shower at the end of a ride. The big trees blocked most of the wind and we slept well again.
ThruUSA2 