Thursday, June 8: Great day. Got up and ate my rabbit food, this awful tasting granola stuff I’d gotten in St. George, while Judy and Dave went to the cafe. I usually work first thing in the morning so eating in and working at the same time lets me mult-task what when I just have a really tough time working after a day of riding. Anyway, that granola is just so tasteless and sickening. I’ve been whittling away at it for days now, seeing that I bought three pounds of the shit. But after this morning, well, I’m stopping at the first cattle ranch and dumping the remainder in the feed trough. 

So we got rolling at around 7:30 for our drop off point on Rt 722. And as we were going I kind of thought about not hitting a couple of these Forest Service routes in leu of hitting some more established gravel. So we came up with the idea of getting on Reese River Rd and taking that to our main route, FR002, which will take up up over the mt range for today’s 8600 ft pass. We’d make up the remainder of the ride after Judy picked us up and we’d come back and do a berminator section. This would save us from riding north to ride southeast, and would put us further west on the second ride. 

Dave was down with it so off we went down Reese River road, which immediately turned into pavement, which was NOT supposed to happen according to the NV gazetteer. But we rode desert berm for about a mile to the junction with Big Creek Rd, which was nothing more than primitive double track, and in the track was some pesky looking thorn bushes and pseudo-sand burrs. So we really tried hard to stay off the thorny stuff. This road was the very same kind of road I’d changed our itinerary for, and there we were riding through the desert. Now the track itself was easy, it’s just all the potential flat causing plants that worried me. 

Well, we dead ended on Gold Rd, NOT FR 002 which we should have landed on. Now remember all the problems I’ve been detailing in the past, the problems with GPS, gazetteers, Google Earth? Take 2000, because it happened yet again. Now my Garmin Topo 24K NV told us that Gold Rd dead ended into nothing but desert. So the big decision was what to do. The gazetteer page that I brought with me didn’t not present us with any way to bridge over to FR 002, Which we could see about 2 miles to the east across the dessert. This because we could see plumes of dust from a few farm vehicles on FR002. 

My first inclination was to ride south about a mile or so to where we saw a pole line, which sometimes parallels a road. So we rode that way hoping to find a road to take us east to 002. No luck. They were just electric lines out in the middle of the dessert. Now Dave suggested we ride south and see what happens with Gold Rd. My thought was if we keep riding on that road it will dead end into nothing as the gazetteer and my Garmin indicate. I told Dave it’s sometimes like riding into a black hole, where you go further and further and finally get committed to a real bad ride. 

So we flipped it and road to the north, hoping to find an east trending road. Then, near a ranch, we decided to go in there and ask for directions, but before we made the turn we saw a truck turn on Gold Rd and come towards us. Turns out Dave was spot on and my mapping gear was spot off. Gold Rd junctions with a road that went east/west and would take us to 002. Hurrah for my mapping gear!

Back we went south on Gold Rd. And be darned if we didn’t T into another unnamed road which my Garmin and the gazetteer did not even list. Did the series of turns the rancher told us and smack dab there we were riding east on 002. From the get go we were climbing. It was just nice and easy at first, like about 2-5% grades for miles and miles as we slowly gained altitude. Scenery was just stellar. Gradually went from big ring to middle ring as the miles ticked on. Crossed Big Creek several times through ankle deep water. About 6-7 miles into the climb the grades started to get into the 8-10% area, which pretty much told me the little cookie was in my life from then onward. And we just continued to climb and climb. Stopped several times for pictures and drink, then chugged on. Dave rode strong and steady and I actually felt pretty damned good, though I would fall a good bit behind him within 10 or so minutes of climbing. 

Now a good way into the climb I spotted this sick looking track way up above us. My first inclination was to think that it was a side track, but as it continued to loom in front of us and the track we were riding I began to wonder out loud to Dave it that was our future. I mean this thing had bike hike written all over it for me. Now Dave, well God bless him if he could clean that witch! So we climbed on wondering if that son of a gun had us written all over it. That’s about the time the grade pitched up to 15-18%, and whooo, was that some SLOW cycling. The pup was a good grunt from there forward. I mean you really had to crouch down and sit seat forward to keep that front end down on the track. 

Dave was a good bit ahead of me by that point, and I just wanted to keep my HR down in the Z2-3 area if at all possible. I did but some of those steeper pitches, they had me at the top of where I wanted to be for this climb. Just kept spinning away. A guy in a 4WD came by me in a section where the pitch was just crazy steep. Stopped, let him go then I continued to churn away. Well, after a couple of sharp switchbacks I was just pounding away and then I saw Dave. Damn, I know then and there that I was nearing the pass. And be darned if that was it. That super steep section, that was a side trail that spurred off of the main track. 

Did it, and man did I ever feel better than last year when I had to bike hike the final mile of a 8100 ft climb. Yea, I guess I really am better having had a 5-bypass, despite my disgust at my current fitness level. I really felt good at the top. We high fived and then got ready for a pretty dang steep descent to start off with. Hell, Dave was bloody out of sight before I hit the second steep switchback. Now I’m going to be honest, I’m just NOT a descender. Love to climb but I get ass-pucker on steep gravel descents. And this was one! Took my time, then ran into Dave who had waited for me a mile down the track. From there onward the descent was fun as hell, just this flowy, wonderful descent that was awesome. We finally reached the bottom in Kingston where we met up with Judy. 

So at this little grocery, and I do mean little, like a few cans of baked beans, chips, frozen burgers and a smattering of other canned goods, we ran into a gal named Kim. She works for the forest service and knew the gravel road network. I asked her for beta on some of the tracks that Dave and I would be riding tomorrow. Well, she gave me some info, then asked if we were riding the Pony Express Trail. Heck, I didn’t even know that it was established trail. So she filled me in on it, and it cuts out a butt load of this desert riding we’d have to do for the next three days. 

Right then and there I asked her about a different route I’d been eying, one that went up over a 7K peak to the north of my original desert track. She said she thought it was a good track, and said we could pick up the Pony Express trail off of it and go west to Fallon, NV. Perfect! I hope! That’s when we decided to do a route change for tomorrow, swapping desert riding for another pass through the mts. I’d much prefer the mts anyway, so to with Dave. So we just needed to go back to the day’s start point and ride about 12 mile of berminator to get to the new start spot for tomorrow. 

But once again, the wind was blowing out of the south like nobody’s business, like 20-30 mph gusting. So we opted to have Judy drop us off to the south, and then we’d ride back to the north. Got out at Railroad pass on Rt 722, so we had to descend down on desert surface and berm for 2-3 miles, riding through all kind of shit, sage, tumble weed, burs, thorns, you name it. Both our bike tires seemed to do just great. Once we descended we hit some pretty solid gravel berm for several miles. Then I see Dave up ahead jump up on this cattle trail. I followed and rode that baby for miles until it dead ended into a cattle yard. From there the van was just a mile away of berm riding. 

Finished the day with 42 miles and some absolutely stellar climbing. Great day for me personally because I just felt so damn good compared to last year. Hell, last year there was no way I could have done two rides in a day. Came back to the Pony Canyon Motel, had a beer with Dave in celebration of a good day, then we cleaned up and went for dinner at what we call the Trump Diner, that because there’s still a huge Trump/Pence sign hanging over the doorway. They actually had some great Veggie soup, and we got a large pizza to go with it. 

I’m working on computer right now, Jude’s falling asleep, and Dave’s watching a moving in the other room. I’ll finish this and join him shortly. Super day, and I cannot wait to do another pass tomorrow.