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...