Sunday, June 11: Man, today was one of those route finding/planning nightmare days. 

So we got up early, ate the hotel brekkie, loaded van and went off to get the day going, with a bit of expediency, because of rain in the forecast for early afternoon. Seems a cold front is moving into the area with some temps today and tomorrow that are very atypical for this time of year in Fallon, NV. This area is usually in the 80’s and 90’s in early June, not the 50’s like we’re feeling today. 

Got rolling early, like 7:30 AM so we could recon our meeting point with Judy about 30-some miles into the ride. This was a crucial meeting spot because Dave and I would have to don our backpacks for a long supportless section of about 20 miles through the desert. So what we decided to do was to actually drive part of the route to this crucial support point. Thank goodness we did because we had nothing but trouble the whole time. Now what we’re trying to do is bypass the city of Fallon by riding south of town past this massive lake/wetland area that’s absolutely massive. And we’re trying to do it on gravel and dirt, so it becomes even harder. 

Anyway, we drove south on Rt. 95 to this crucial support point first. NOPE! The road we were interested in meeting Judy at, Simpson Rd which is gravel, was partially submerged in water for the large volume of precip that’s fallen as of late. Heck, not only that but there was no road sign, it didn’t register with my Garmin 810 or my van’s Garmin, and it was almost impossible to see since it was surrounded by a sea of floodwater. So we were nuked there, as we were hoping to take that road 20 miles west. Good thing though was that we did this recon and found it out before sending Judy out there by herself to meet up with us. 

We ended up going another 2 miles south on 95 to this unnamed road, which according to the gazetteer goes in the same westerly direction as Simpson, and would get us to the same place. Even had Judy drive down the road about a mile until it kind of got close 4WD material. Nonetheless, we hopefully found a road to get us back on track. So with that issue solved we decided to work backwards on the route that I put together last night. And that too was a total mess. Seems the Army Corps. of Engineers is building this massive irrigation ditch, which has essentially created a barrier that’s like 5-7 miles long that prevents any westward movement. Now you might think that all we have to do is to bike hike down and across…WRONG. No chance, because this thing is about 10-15 feet deep, with sheer vertical walls, and the RIVER that flows through this thing is like 4+ feet deep and as wide as a two-lane road. This is a barrier to everything and everyone. Any east-west road that came in contact with this man made river was closed. 

That took the wind out of just about everything I’d mapped last night. We would have to go way to the north and then ride way back to the south to go west. Anyway, we came up with a route that involved a ton of berminator riding. Ended up blowing about 1.5 hours of time retconning a route back to where we left off yesterday on Rt 50 out in the middle of this alkaline flats. By the time we got riding it was 9:30. The wind was just blasting out of the west, and that rain front that was forecast to blow in in the early afternoon, well, it was pretty black to the west. Looked ominous indeed. 

Got rolling on this gravel berm on the side of 50, with mushy alkaline flats on each side of us. Dave did the pulling with my sorry in back of him sucking his rear wheel like a leech. We were able to maintain about 8-10 mph into the headwind for the 4 miles of “penned in” riding. Once we broke free of the flats we got on the here-again-gone-again section of Old Rt 50, which is anything from crumbling asphalt, to asphalt gravel, to dirt track. When it disappeared we got on this ATC track along the barbed wire fence line along both sides of New Rt 50.  And this worked out pretty well until the ATC track became nothing more than a beach of thick, dry sand. 

Finally got out of the *&^&$# sand and onto Wilder Rd, asphalt. More BS followed when we tried to ride this irrigation ditch path that paralleled Wilder - nothing but brush-hogged thorn plants as far as the eye could see. Dave took off ahead of me and I got going about 100 yards into this mess, with my tires crunching over all these dried, dead thorn plants, until I stopped, dismounted and walked my bike back to the irrigation ditch crossing to get the hell out of there. It was a total mess. Got on the gravel berm and began riding west into this 20 mph headwind hoping like heck Dave would do the same as me and give the middle finger to the thorn fest. He did come back about a minute later, looking for me. Told him of the thorns and he to got out of there. 

Did the berminator thing all along Wilder to the jcn with Pasture Rd. We were able to ride some ATC track alongside Pasture for a short stretch, then we went to combination of berminator or the fence line  track along the Fallon Navy Airborne Base, which is totally fenced in with warning sigs posted every 100 years about Government Property. No trespassing, no cameras, no nothing…or else! Finally had to get off that when the signs were posted on the track to. I actually think we were riding that track illegally the whole time. 

Back onto Pasture berm, just fighting the wind every pedal stroke. Next up was our only gravel road for that whole Fallon bypass stint, Norcutt Rd. By this time Dave was several hundred yards ahead of me, and I was left to my own sans a good draft for the remainder of the ride. What’s more that storm was just starting to spit some rain, and the western horizon was pretty dark. We were heading right into the teeth of the storm front for sure. By the time I got to Rt 95 for the last stretch, I was seriously wondering if I was going to make the final 7 miles to the van before the heavens burst forth. 

The 95 section started out with some good ATC track along the highway, but that soon evaporated into nothing but crap. Back to berm. And both of us, from there onward criss-crossed the road time and again trying to find the Holy Grail of gravel berm. Most of the time it was pretty worthless stuff, and there were times, when the road bisected the massive wetlands section, that we just had to ride on the asphalt apron. Dave probably hit the van 5 or so minutes ahead of me, and I got there just as the rain got fairly steady. With the wind, the rain, and temps in the 50’s we pretty much decided to pull the plug. Ended up with a paltry 32 miles for a total. Dave suggested we head back to Fallon to a Starbucks for a nice hot coffee. The vote was unanimous, to Starbucks we went. 

Sat in the Starbucks as the rain ebbed and flowed from drizzle to light. Nonetheless, we were done for the day. After a nice hour coffee stop we headed back to the same BW hotel as last night. The weather is still pretty cold and windy, with the potential for rain at any time. We’re still a bit ahead of schedule, probably about a half day since we had to quite early today. So we’re hoping that tomorrow will not be the total rain day that’s been forecast. If we can just get in 2 20-mile stretches tomorrow we’ll be in good shape schedule wise. Dave has contacted a bike shop in Reno and their going to help us create a route from Dayton, NV to Verdi, NV, which is on the CA border. So it looks like we have anywhere from 70-100 miles to finish off Nevada. We’re getting there! Okay, Judy is prodding me to get off the computer so we can go to dinner. I’m out.