Today we got off to a bit later than expected due to Graham's late night waking up. However, Andrew and I were on the road by about 8:30AM for our 80 miles of riding. I should mention we were well fueled from the remaining cake we had left from our hosts the night before. Today was a challenging ride as we climbed just over 4000' and crossed over four mountain passes/summits.
I had switched my bikes yesterday from my very compact, light and fast Litespeed to my more comfy and upright Lemond. Although it took about four hours of work to switch components last night it was worth every bit of the effort and I am looking forward to the next few weeks of riding on the more compliant ride.
We started the day climbing up to Pinto Summit.
It was about 1000' of climbing in around 3.5 miles and was a perfect warm up. We then had an amazing 10 mile decent into the valley below before crossing over Pancake Summit. This was an easy climb compared to the next two passes we had to clear. We encountered a bunch of road work for the next 30 miles which started as chip seal roadway that had not been oiled yet to fresh oil climibing up Little Antelope Summit.
The flagger let us go up alone but we were passed several times by lines of cars on narrow switch backs as our tires got stuck in the oil. It was a rough few miles of accent.
Once we made it down that pass Rebecca met us for a second lunch in the camper before we hit our second section of road construction. This time it was only about 3 miles of loose gravel before we made our final accent of the day over Robinson Pass. It was actually a great climb and nice smooth roads.
In theory we should have had a very easy down hill 30 miles into Ely. However, we had a headwind from hell that required us to peddle down a 4% grade. We reached Ely tired and proud of our 80 mile trek. It was a great ride and I am looking forward to a 60 mile ride tomorrow!
From Rebecca:
I think the kids and I are getting a little tired of each other. They were acting out pretty terribly in the grocery store today. Graham was screaming as load as he could and enjoying it...this is the kind of scream you go deaf from for a second after it stops. Ugh! Charlotte was doing the usual...everything I specifically told her not to.
Normally doing laundry isn't a relaxing break, but today it was.
When we stopped to give the guys a break we saw this awesome dirt twirl (as we are calling them)..or whatever you call it.
Tomorrow is our last night in Nevada.
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