Ely to Cedar City, UT by Van

We were on the road in the rental van by 5:45 which would get us to Cedar City 200 miles away by 8:50, just before the bike shop was to open at 9.  We weren’t the only ones on the road early this morning either.  

Shortly after we started driving we realized we lost an hour going into Utah. Len put the hammer down and we got to the bike shop by 9:15.  If you do the math that was a rate of speed somewhat higher than the mostly 70 speed limits in place.  While there was virtually no one on the road, there was this one nice state trooper who saw us before we saw him.  We explained the situation and somehow it came up in the conversation that Len was a retired cop. The Trooper also realized from Len’s license that tomorrow is his birthday and said slow down and have a happy birthday!! 

Brian at Cedar Cycle fixed Len up with a new 34 spoke aluminum rimmed wheel and reinstalled his brake disk and cassette!  I also got a new front derailleur cable installed and some new water bottles-my old ones were starting to taste like foot. We’re now all ready to ride tomorrow.  


We took the opportunity to sort through our gear and lighten our load for the climbs.  I lost 6-7lbs and Len dropped 2-3.  If it fits, it ships!!

After a follow up trip to the bike shop to check  our tire pressure and get a new water bottle for Len we rewarded ourselves with DQ. It was close to 80 degrees so almost a necessity actually. 

Day 12: Eureka to Ely

Oh my, what a day. Probably the hardest I’ve had so far. 79 miles and 4.500’ of climbing. Left Eureka at 6:15 with temps in the high 30’s and finished up in Ely at 2:45pm in the high 70’s. 

The Loneliest Road in America is even more lonely today without Len. He’s off in Elko trying to get a new rear wheel.  Will he be successful finding a new wheel or would he have to quit the trip and head home?


Just me and my shadow this morning.  A quick rest stop as I’m grinding up my first of four summits today. 

One of my “mini” rest stops through the day.  With no commercial or human inhabited places to stop I had to carry a gallon of extra water and snacks that I nibbled on throughout the day. My loaded bike was probably up to 90lbs today. 😬

One of my life savers was Lifesaver gummies.  I would chomp down 5 or so for a quick hit of sugar.  Peanut butter cheese crackers, a Slim Jim and trail mix also served as my food groups today. 

About 10 miles before I got to Little Antelope Pass (the toughest one of the day) a wonderful woman slowed to my speed in her Subaru Outback and asked me if needed an ice cold Coke?!  I told her I was doing fine at the moment and thanked her for the offer of help.  She asked me where I started and where I was going, and said she was a cross country cyclist too, wished me well and said she’d leave me a Coke at the top of the Summit just in case.  I savored the one, even though it was no longer ice cold and made this my 15 minute lunch stop of the day.  I drank the 2nd Coke over ice in my motel room at the end of the day, very refreshing. I’m always amazed with the kindness of strangers and it lifted my spirits up the pass. 

I call these the Four Horsemen of the US50 Apocalypse.  Robinson Pass was the last and the highest but it set me up for an almost all downhill run over 16 miles into Ely. 


On a sadder note I found the remains of a Western Express cyclist who couldn’t quite make it.  If he’d only been offered a Coke by a friendly driver like I had.  They never made it to Ely. 

Len and I are reunited again in Ely.  He had no luck in Elko but found a bike mechanic in Cedar City, UT which is 3 days further on our route.  I got a text from him about midday. We had trouble actually communicating because we both had weak cell service.  I surmised that he would probably be driving his rental car through Ely about the time I would get there.  I decided I’d hook back up with Len and drive with him to Cedar City which would allow us to keep riding together when his bike is fixed.  It would also take a few days  of what would probably the least pleasant riding of the trip out of Nevada and into Utah. 

I’d been dreaming of a pasta dinner all day so Len and I Carbo-Loaded at Mr. G’s. My Lasagna was very good, and very big so I’m pretty sure I’ve eliminated any food deficit form the day.  Tomorrow we leave early to get to Cedar City by 9am to get Len’s bike back into riding order. 🤞

Day 11: Austin to Eureka

A 70 mile day, 5:50am start and 1:30pm finish due to no lolly-gagging, supporting wind and not too much climbing after our first climb out of Austin.  We did have a significant development I’ll talk about later. 

The motel free range grey kitty came over to say good morning before we launched off. 

It took 40 minutes of constant and often steep climbing from Austin before we reached Austin Summit at 7,500’.  This was a nice memorial for someone at the top. Note the stiff  breeze. 

After one more smaller summit it was off across a very large basin on our way to Eureka somewhere towards that distant mountain range. 

Last night as Len and I were going to bed Brad arrived for a room.  The motel manager wasn’t answering her phone so I helped him figure out how to get into one. We ended up riding together off and on this morning until this point, around 30 miles into the day, where he headed off onto the dirt road for a 4 or 5 day ride to Salt Lake City. He’s mountain biking with limited road use like this morning with me.  He has to carry at least 4 days of food and he’s filtering water out of streams when he finds one.  He teaches high school physics in McKenny TX and does a ride like this every summer.  After a few days in Salt Lake City he’s riding on to Kansas.  I’m amazed.  

Since we have no services between Austin and Eureka I’m having a Champs Convenence sandwich I bought last night.  Not so great but it was good enough to fuel my fire for the 32 miles left in the day.  We got very lucky and found a little rest area with picnic table and roof.  At lunch Len told me his rear tire was getting very squeaky and wobbly.  We looked at it and it appeared it had some spokes which were loose and caused the wheel to run untrue.   A real bike mechanic would be required to retrue the wheel.  With limited cell service it appeared there was a bike shop in Ely, NV, which would be our next town, and that they may have a mechanic skilled enough to adjust the spokes, maybe.  We pondered that if his wheel could make it to Eureka Len could catch a ride with someone tomorrow and I’d meet him in Ely and hopefully we’d be back riding together the next day. So that’s what we did.  

The exotic Sundown Lodge in Eureka for the night, checked in by 2pm. 

Settled in for the day Len thought he’d attempt a bit of spoke adjusting to see if he could improve things hisself as a last resort. That was when he realized that the spokes were pulling free from the carbon wheel. There were at least 6 spots where the carbon was fracturing due to too much load on them (I had been thinking that Len might be overeating). The builder of his bike should have specified steel rims.  In any case, this would require finding a shop that would have a rim in stock to rebuild Len’s rear wheel or have an already built wheel and install it.  This would definitely not happen in Ely. The best option was to get to Elko, NV where there was a better chance of repair and/or a rental car to catch back up to me down the road, like Cedar City, UT. The problem was how to get to Elko?

Len leveraged his career as an Omaha policeman and reached out one more time to the Eureka County Sheriff’s Dept.  After explaining his dilemma he got a call back in less than 10 minutes to confirm that Deputy Uder would be driving him to Elko in 15 minutes.  The bike and gear were quickly loaded and within seconds they were talking about new Tazer technology.  Len’s made it safe to Elko now and will know more tomorrow.  It was sad parting with Len, especially with the possibility that he might not be able to rejoin me.  So we hugged our goodbyes and we’ll see how this plays out.  🤞🤞🤞

Day 10: Zero Day in Austin

Brunch at 12 at The International where the only thing they had was Avocado Toast. Nicole showed me where the toaster was and the ready serve mashed avocado and a tomato already set out for me to make myself.  Small town USA. 

I washed my bike and did a few adjustments to the disk brakes and rear derailleur.  I did a little test ride on Main St and everything seems fine for our big day tomorrow.  

We took a little walk up to the Stokes Castle finished in 1897 by a rich old guy named Stokes. Supposedly they only stayed there for two months after it was finished and never returned again.  

Our little home away from home for two nights, the Cozy Mountain Motel, was adequate for our needs to have a day off. And we were adopted by the free range kitty.  The chickens that live here spent most of their time across the street. I don’t think they liked us.  Now we know why the chickens crossed the road!!!

Ian, our bar mate at Grandma’s Restaurant, leans into the moment as we get to know each other. He and his dad do concrete work and he was big into off road motorcycling until he broke to many things.  A lot of things.  Now he’s into 4-wheeling.  In any case, at 32 years old, after being knocked out over 18 times in his various adventures Ian is still a life lover and we had a good time at dinner with him.  He introduced me to Tequila, Club Soda and Lime. It was very refreshing and got the vibe going.  

And the dinner was excellent!!  Pork chops, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn and beans.  

I finished with my old faithful Margarita and we waddled back to the Cozy Mountain Motel to end our day of rest.  Tomorrow a very steep climb out of Austin to Eureka, about 70 miles away and no services between the towns. It will be our longest ride yet. How will we do?

Day 9: Middlegate to Austin

A 63.5 mile day with 3,500’ of climbing. I mention that last half mile because it was a killer. We started riding at 6:30 and arrived at our motel at 3:15. It was chilly and we were gloved up to start but the day warmed up into the low 80’s.  

The glow of the dawn when we left Middlegate.  

We had an uphill and a very stiff headwind to our breakfast stop in Cold Springs, 14 miles up the road.  It gave us pause for what the rest of our day had in store for us.  Would it continue?

What we used to call Crotch Crickets are actually called Mormon Crickets, they travel in large groups, often miles along a highway, and they eat each other.  Is that something Mormons are known for?  I guess the highway serves the purpose of ready to eat food for crickets? It wasn’t so bad crunching over them as we rode but they don’t smell so good when they’re dead. 

33 miles in the books, 31 to go.  I took my midway stop here, a light snack and within 15 minutes I was back on the road. 

The last remnants of our cold morning start, my Merino wool socks are to come off exposing my 10 little piggy’s to the sun. 

At the top of New Pass Summit, 6,400’,  the wide plateau and the building of afternoon clouds and even distant rain.  The clouds were appreciated as they took the heat of the sun off.  

Our last pass before climbing part way up the snow capped mountain range ahead to Austin where we’ll end our travels for the day.  

We had a fun 8 mile ride down from Mt. Airy summit to the Reese River. I’ve actually seen seasonal streams today and in this case there’s enough snow melt to generate a river. It was only about 10’ wide but it’s more signs of water than we’ve seen in many days.  

Itchy-O-sore is what I try to avoid on long bike rides. 

“It rubs the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose”* or saddle sores.” Applied frequently. Just a little dab will do ya. 

*Silence of the Lambs quote. 

Finally approaching Austin. Who knew they’ve been “Social Distancing” since 1862?  The population is listed as 192. 

Looking back on the last basin we just crossed and figuratively, the last 9 days.  Today felt like a day that I had anticipated when I began imagining this ride over a year ago  The openness of the land, the desolate beauty, feeling alone but not, challenged but prepared. 

Mmmmm, ice cream….but they weren’t open yet!

Finally the last steep climb is over, arrived in Austin for the next two nights. 

Nicole was our waitress at the only open restaurant in town, The International.  We had the choice of a hamburger and fries or beef stew. I chose the stew, it was very good.  Nicole was raised in Greenville, OH and only moved here 9 weeks ago.  She and her sister found out from 23&Me that her unknown biological father had lived in Austin for many years, kind of a fixture of the town.  Victor, 83 years old now, originally from Serbia, owns The International. Nicole moved out here to be with Victor and her sister is doing the same in a few months.  I’m continually amazed at what people do. 

Brad, Brian and Jim are staying at the Cozy Mountain Motel near our room.  Very nice and funny guys from the Bay Area, they’ve been on a 10 day motorcycle ride to the Utah Canyonlands and they’re headed back home tomorrow. We shared stories from the road and a lot of jokes.  They all chose the hamburger. 

After a little after dinner walk to scope out the town we returned to The International Bar and had so much of a good time with the locals.  Charlie, 83, has been a real cowboy among many other things like working behind this bar off and on for more than 20 years, running a bulldozer, running mustangs and now operating an RV park just up the hill. He’s even worked on a few movies or TV shows like Bonanza. He told us he was in a National Geographic documentary in 1964 or 65 about the wild mustangs of the West and they gave him the moniker of “Mustang Charlie”. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of Eddy whose grandfather was a Shoshone and grandmother was a Paiute.  His mother married a Spaniard from Mexico so he’s 75% Native American Indian.  Eddy’s a retired Cat D9 operator and continues to live near where his family has always lived.  Drinking with Cowboys and Indians, so much fun. 

It’s after 10pm, time to get some sleep. A great day today.  Good night.