Day 7: Austin to Carroll Sumit
After having a few too many beers the night before it was tough waking up at 6 in the morning, though Brad and Stacey had made us a hearty breakfast if scrambled egg and oatmeal to get us going. We said our goodbyes and went on our way with a few gifts from Brad, 3 neck coolers which were extremely useful and with Brad being a taxidermist He gave me the skin of a sheep's testicle, which I now use as my iPhone cover...
Now out into the desert once more! We left Fallon and had a pretty quick 30 odd miles to the first hill. It was hot but not too hot by this point. From the top of the 1000 ish foot climb Charles told us it was 13.5 miles to Middlegate, our Lunch stop. Those 13.5 miles were difficult, and by now it was hot! with a strong cross wind and a steady climb after a short descent my moral was low when we turned the corner into Middlegate but a hearty plate of Chips soon chered me up. Middlegate really was a wired place, a one house town as they are called with a pub that served the typical burgers and fries. we found out 14 people lived there and they were all related so you can imagine the sort of place it was. We did get a good burger in the bar and relaxed for 3 hours out of the heat and planned our next move.
Next problem was realising the two foldable 8 litre water bottles me and Charles bought had both broken and we had no way of carrying extra water out into the desert. We asked around and got given an old vegetable oil container which Charles strapped to his bike, luckily he's fit and could just about handle the extra 10kg. We had to climb to the top of Carroll summit, the alternate route that went up into the mountains instead of around then on highway 50. We went that way on recommendation from Brad. It was a really tough 20 mile climb but the 3 mile descent led us to a great little abandoned house with a little creak. Now It was time to use our new cooker that we had bought in Tahoe and we Cooked some mac and cheese with our new stove and then all passed out soon after and slept really very well seeing as we had cycles 75 miles in tough conditions. - JH
Day 8: Carroll Sumit to Austin
We slept through our alarms and had a leisurely start to the day with some more ration pack meal which was actually kind of tasty before completing the decent we had started the night before.
What greeted us as we turned the final corner of the decent was the longest, straightest road I have ever seen! It just seemed to go on for ever to the eye and cylcing on it was somewhat sole destroying as it felt like we were not making any progress.
After what felt like an éternaty, we got extremely got extremely excited as we turned a corner and cycled back on to highway 50 before rolling into Austin, Nevada (not Texas). Like always, the first priority was food and then we made a plan. As we were ahead of schedule by 40 miles or so we didn't want to risk taking off into the desert and being caught short of a settlement when it got dark so we gave ourselfs the afternoon off and decided that the best plan of attack for the long days ahead with no services was to town hop.
We rode up to the park to find our free camping spot for the night before bumping into another cyclist. Unlike us novices, this bloke was a pro. He had been touring for 5 years!! He started in Manchester snd went to New Zealand before flying to Argentina and cylcing up South America to San Francisco and now he is on the same route as us cycling to New York! Impressive though it was, it was slightly sad. Eitherwsy, he had some crazy storied that he told about cycling thought places that you would never dream of going such as Iran and Pakistan! If anyone thought we are mad, this bloke was on Another level.
We used the half day off to get some washing done as well as have a very long conversation with the sherif about the area trying to hide as best we could that we were 21 because of the pack of beers sitting on the park table! It was rally intresting talking to the Sherrif about Austin. He warned us about the rattle snakes which has been lodged in my brain ever since!
After, it was dinner and bed. But not before we had worked out where the sprinklers were in the park which came on at night. We guessed right snd had a dry night.
Day 9: Austin to eureka.
We woke early again at 445 to try and beat the sun, heat and mostly the wind. However, the first thing I noticed when I opened my tent at the god earthly hour was that the wind hadn't changed direction and we still had a South westerly which meant ANOTHER cross wind!
After a quick breakie in the park with our fellow trans American cyclist Kenan who we had pursuaded to camp out by the deserted house that we had two days earlier we hit the road at 6, with a decent 4 mile climb to warm and wake us up. Hills continued to be story of the day with three more large climbs and two over 1200 feet. We roughly climb 1200 feet an hour so we spent most of the day cylcing up hill.
After slogging out the 78 miles from to the next settlement ely we arrived parched and hungry. After wandering round the slightly dodgey town, we asked the sherif where we should leave our bikes. His respeonse wasn't quite what we were wanting to hear: 'if I were you, I wouldn't be leaving my bike in the street because when you come back it ain't gunna be there.' The admittance of the truth didn't quite settle our nerves. None the less, we had cycled 78 miles snd selling us hungry was an understatement. After looking up and down the street, the only place we could eat ( remember we are still in Nevada) was a casino so we wandered in gingerly to expecting to be turned away, it wasn't to be the case and we proceeded to spend the next hour snd a half stuffing our faces with burgers!
Next objective: place to sleep. Realizing that we haven't actually slept in a bed since we left San Francisco 10 days earlier we decided to bite the bullet and fork out for a motel. The afternoon and evening was spent catching up with the World Cup goals we had missed before heading out again to eat.
An early night is the order of the evening as another early start is on the cards tomorrow morning to hopefully avoid the sun and wind.
Day 11: Ely to Baker.
We planned another early start this morning but that didn't quite materialize because of the sorounding comforts of a bed and a duvet. 6 o clock became 7 and everything got pushed back an hour so we ended up hitting the road later than expected after another hearty breakfast.
The going was slow to begin with and morale was at one of its worst yet due to the 20mph headwind we had to cycle into. The headwind turned into a hill and things didn't get much better until we turned a corner and got to the summit of the hill all within 100 meters. Unsurprisingly, morale went skywards and we contined on our merryish way through the desert.
The second hill of the day was somewhat like the first with regard to headwinds although this climb was made easier by the fact that we had a light drizzle to cool us down, not that the drizzle lasted long and as we climbed higher the dry midday desert heat returned.
Towards the end of the day with five miles to go, we turned off Highway 50, the road we have been on for 6 days and 314 miles. We have ended up camping in the back yard of a cafe in baker which isn't the most scenic campsite but when your this tired it doesn't matter.
Tomorrow is going to be our toughest day to date with 84 miles through the desert with no services so we will be carrying 8-9 Letres of water. And tomorrow will also mean the end of Nevada, which is a huge relief to be honest as it's been bloody tough. It's beautiful but very hard work and we are all looking forward to a much needed day off in Ceder City on the 5th July.
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