We had to wait until 8 am for the reception in the hotel and the general store across the way to open up. We had breakfast in the general store and rolled out of Kirkwood around 9 am.
Some views of Caples Lake.
We reached Carson Pass in about an hour and 20 minutes and took the requisite photos in front of the Carson Pass altitude sign
Kate's friend told her that Hope Valley Cafe is famous for its pie. I had a slice of blueberry pie with a gigantic scoop of ice cream on top. Excellent.
We're in Vevada now.
We stopped at the general store in Genoa for lunch. They bring your order out to you as you sit outside at the picnic tables.
We did some errands passing through Carson City. Jim stopped at a bike shop to have his rear wheel re-aligned. Kate went to a sporting goods store to buy a canister of camping gas for their stove and some other items. I bought some gasoline for my camping stove.
On the way out of town Kate had a flat which took some time to fix.
We finally rolled into Dayton State Park campground around 7:30. We had time to make a big pot of tuna noodle casserole for dinner. The facilities consist of three unisex cold-water lavatories. It was sponge bath time tonight. Earlier today, while I was waiting for Kate at the sporting goods store, I talked with a local who advised against this campground. You do hear the traffic noise from the nearby highway, but other than that it wasn't bad.
The ride today was pretty flat and we had some tailwind. Most of US 50 has a nice wide shoulder except for a few miles with a narrow shoulder and rumble strip so we had to ride in the traffic lane.
This is open-range country.
We stopped at a pizza place for lunch. A large veggie pizza is enough for three cyclists.
We stopped in Fallon at a Walmart for some major shopping. Food, batteries, and some spare inner tubes for Kate an Jim.
We're camped at the Chuirchill County fairgrounds, just past Fallon. It's only $7 if you don't need hookups.
The showers are free and have planty of hot water. We all washed our clothes in the showers.
Once again, I did the cooking. We had couscous with two cans of chicken and a bag of mixed, pre-cut peppers, flavored with a packet of Lipton onion soup. Also a bagged pre-made salad kit and an apple for dessert.
Kate took photos to send to Sue to prove that I can really do it. Dinner:
and breakfast:
While we were eating a couple came up on mountain bikes. They are in one of the RVs. The man said that he had long wished to do what were were doing but never could get away from work and family committments. Now they are traveling by RV instead. Later, after their ride, he came over to check out my "da Brim" helmet brim.
We had to use Kate and Jim's stove, because my MSR Whisperlite gasoline-powered stove bit the dust. I had noticed the last couple of times I used it that it would spill gas on the picnic table when I first lighted it, but it seemed to run fine after that. This time the metal hose that connects to the fuel bottle broke off and I could see why it hadn't been working correctly before. A missing part. I've had this stove for many years and used it for many meals, so I guess I can't complain.
We need to hit a camping store.
We tried to find a certain sporting goods store in Fallon but it appears it went out of business. I have another stove at home, so I think I'll just have Sue ship it to me general delivery at a town a few days down the road.
We had an excellent breakfast at the Courtyard Cafe in Fallon. Our server said we have to try the award-winning burgers in Middlegate.
We stopped along the way at an archeological site to see the petroglyphs. The signs said they are 7000-8000 years old, the oldest in North America.
Other than that, there was little to see along the road today.
It was even hard to find a wide enough berm to pull over and have our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. We did hear and see the Navy pilots using their test range that we were passing by.
And we never figured out the stone graffitti along the road through the salt flats. They continue like this for miles.
It threatened rain much of the day and we finally got rained on pretty well toward the end. The day felt like more than 50 miles - no doubt the boring scenery played a part.
Sure enough the burgers at Middlegate Station were fantastic.
The Adventure Cycling maps say you can camp behind the store/restaurant but we decided to stay in the funky little motel next door. Cost was $35 a night. The rooms are small, the water runs either scalding or cold, there was a leak in the ceiling, and I couldn't figure out how to make the heater work, but worth the price nevertheless.
There sure is a lot of nuthin' out here on US 50, dubbed "America's loneliest highway" by Life magazine in 1986.
(Note the rumble strips.)
While there are almost no signs of civilization, there is a moderate amount of traffic. Several times I amused myself in the long boring stretches by counting the number of cars that passed in a 15 minute period. It typically came to about 1 car a minute, counting both directions, although it felt like longer than that because they would often come in clumps with much more than a minute in between.
It had been threatening rain for some time and then all of a sudden we got dumped on by a thunder and hail storm. There was no place to stop and pull over so we just kept riding. It felt like it lasted for an hour but I suspect it was more like 10 minutes. In the video below you can see the reflection of my blinking Cycliq headlight/camera in Kate's rear reflectors.
There was a nasty climb at the end of the day to get to our destination in Austin. The town is built on the side of the hill. I estimate there is at least 300 feet of elevation difference from one side of the small town to the other.
We stopped at the International Cafe in town for dinner. I had a steak sandwich. It was just a hunk of steak between a bun and fries. They did give me a tub of mayonaise and there was ketchup and mustard at the table.
We're camped at the city park on the north (higher) end of town. It is actually very nice. Cyclists can camp for free on a nice grassy lawn and use the toilets. We were the only people there the whole evening. Unfortunately the swimming pool was still closed for the season or perhaps we could have used the showers. There are electrical outlets in a little pavillion right next to where we pitched our tents so we could recharge our electronic devices.
This is looking down at the town from the parking lot at the campground:
I like to take photos of all the summit signs for bragging rights. Unfortunately Bob Scott Summit didn't have a sign but the Adventure Cycling map says it is 7267 feet.
We met the first cyclist we've seen since long before we passed through Fallon. He parked his RV at Bob Scott Summit (although the RV park there was closed) and is just riding his road bike between summits.
Jim was trying to call the hotel to make reservations but was having a heck of a time being heard because of the wind noise. Jim and Kate were trying to block the wind with their jackets.
We had a few sprinkles but they cleared up so we were dry by the time we got to Eureka. We're staying at the Sundown Lodge tonight and for the rest day tomorrow. It is nice to have a day in the hotel so I can have time to update my blog.
There are several hotels, several restaurants, three hardware stores within 50 yards of each other, a conveniece store, library, museum, county courthouse, etc. There is a supermarket about a mile north of town.
Last updated May 26, 2018