Day 55 - Austin, Nevada

Expected an easy day but the headwinds once again made it hard work. It was pretty flat though, except for one 1500 ft climb at the end. In the morning it was nicely cool and it's probably the first day I didn't see any rain or lightning since... western Missouri.

At one point we dropped down maybe 1000 feet which was enough for the temperature to shoot up at around 40°C. Still bearable but I wouldn't wanna do that in July when it's even more. As soon as we climbed up again it became cooler, cycle touring not only teaches you about geography but often also about meteorology.

We saw wild antelopes, sadly too fast to take pictures of them.

Austin, like every town we've come trough in Nevada, is a strange place. Some of the buildings easily could be the set for a western movie. During the silver boom up to 8.000 people lived here, now it's 600.
People seem not to like strangers, something I haven't experienced before in this country.

Tonight like the days before we're having some beer in the motel room before we get our well-deserved sleep. Early start tomorrow, 100+ miles to Fallon.

The Yosemite area wildfire is about 250 miles away but the smoke is visible from here! We expect to ride into smoke tomorrow...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChFJkjhIcUY

Day 54 - Eureka, Nevada

The distances between towns allow only relatively short (60-80 miles) or extremely long days. The terrain though makes 100+ miles a day extremely hard so I'm just riding from town to town.

Yesterday night was fun, Shaun and me went to a Mexican restaurant and talked to some people there. Two of them had been stationed in Germany for the military, they loved Oktoberfest :D
Eventually they left and surprisingly paid for our food! The waitress told us, we didn't even have a chance to say thank you. Wasn't the first time that happens but you don't get used to it. Amazing how generous people are to strangers!

Shaun had told me everyone was believing he's an Australian and indeed two people in the restaurant asked "are you an australian?", probably not that funny if you haven't been there that moment though ;D

Got told that Lake Tahoe is affected by the fire in Yosemite NP, but the guy said the smoke should be gone by the time we're there. Hopefully. Rode through smoke last year and didn't like it, you don't see anything of the beautiful landscape around you if it's too dense.

Day 53 - Ely, Nevada

Just 100km today but some of the hardest. Headwinds!
At the end we got trapped between two storms, both with lightning. We didn't want to ride in the one ahead of us but we couldn't wait because the other one was approaching from behind. Like always - I've mentioned that before - it worked out perfectly. No rain.

Sharing a motel room. At $25 it's a no-brainer.

I'm in "Basin and Range" country now. Many people think Nevada is flat but not at all, it has more ranges than any other state, most of them going north-south. The elevation profile looks like a saw blade, up and down and up and down. Like the old man on Monarch Pass when I said "now it's all down hill": "Down hill to the next hill".

Each of the passes is 1000-1500 feet (elevation gain) with a valley in between. I got about 12 of them to California. The first one of a day is easy, the second one still fine but the last one is hard work.

So that's what I'm gonna do the next days, working my way up a ridge and coast it down. Maybe Hemingway was in Nevada before he wrote the quote you see in the header of the blog.

So sad what's going on in Yosemite NP these days... The road I took last summer (hwy 120)  is closed due to the wildfire and it gets closer and closer to Yosemite Valley. Other roads I rode in northern California also where closed because of fires this summer...

Day 52 - Baker, Nevada

Another long day, 225 km Pinto Nevada.  I'm eager for getting to California and don't wanna hang around in little desert towns after just half a day riding.

Again I was surrounded by storms all day long and amazingly I didn't get into one. Only a bit drizzle that I was able to outrun.

One time the rainclouds formed a gate just where the road was, spectacular!

Met a British guy, we're gonna ride together the next days.

By the way: just out of Cedar City I crossed I15, could take that one trough Las Vegas (two day rides) to Los Angeles.

Day 51 - Cedar City, Utah

Day 50 - Panguitch

Sorry for not writing recently. I'm  just to worn out at the end of the day. The pictures should give you an idea of how mind-blowing southern Utah is. The variety and the sudden transitions in landscape are amazing. Sometimes I start between massive red rock formations and just miles up a pass I'm in dense forest. Minutes later I drop down to even more rugged cliffs. Beyond all description!

Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Grand Staircase - Escalante NM, Cedar breaks NM... Music to my ears!

Met three Germans the last days. Andreas from Berlin. He had contacted me weeks ago when he was days behind me and I never expected him to catch up with me. We rode the 210km day together but he's already ahead of me now.

then I met two students from southern Germany, they started in Canada and go down to Vegas. It's like four German cyclists within a hundred miles :D

Generally Germans are abundant out here. It's a phenomenon. This time of year, whatever touristy destination you are at, you find Germans. Lots of em. Today, no exaggeration, in every store or gas station I came there where other Germans. Sometimes several groups. I've become very good at guessing the accent. Usually few words are enough and I know they're Germans, many times I even guess by their general appearance.

Fun to see the cultural difference. Americans randomly say hi and ask me lots of questions about my trip, many offer help and of course they're all exited about what I'm doing. Germans are just peeking at my bike trying me not to notice it. Of course I do but they are not used to talk to strangers, so they decide to stay curious and don't ask.

My fellow Germans probably don't like to hear that, but just this example tells a lot about the culture I'm coming from.

When I wrote Lizard Head Pass was my last five digits climb I was wrong, tomorrow is the last one. And the biggest single climb by elevation gain, about 1229m! Famous Tourmalet (Tour due France) is just 200m more. Gonna be a tough day...

It's raining all the time, not what I expected from Utah! But the locals like it, they've had enough droughts.

Day 49 - Escalante

Day 48 - Torrey