Thursday (post below should have been titled Wednesday) - Casinos, rain and salt

Woke up for our free continental breakfast at the motel which was predictably rubbish and after jack had 'fixed' his puncture we headed out to downtown Wendover around 11am to find some food to eat. As the road to our next stop was 120+ miles and pretty much desolate we decided to do it in two chunks by cycling out late Thursday night onto the salt flats, finding somewhere to camp away from the road and then completing the remaining miles early the following morning to avoid the heat in the flats.

To do this we needed some serious food so went to an all you eat buffet at Peppermills Casino, we wern't disappointed. There was so much food to choose from and they catered for every possible taste and cuisine so we filled our boots. The massive amount of food we consumed and the dark lights of the casino even caused Jack to fall asleep pretty much in his dinner which prompted our grumpy waitress to remind us that we were not allowed to sleep in the restaurant area. The casino was a bit much with mirrors, neon lights and old people everywhere...all in all a pretty depressing place! Finding the exit also proved to be a problem as the lights and mirrors turned the building into some sort of maze but finally we escaped back into the sunlight.

Tom then wondered over the road to an information centre to figure out the best way to tackle the salt flats while Ben and Jack went to have a sleep in the park. Ten minutes later the heavens opened and Wendover was hit with one hell of a storm leaving. Amongst all of the rain Jack made a new friend who just happened to be in the park with a load of booze hoping to have a bbq, sadly this didn't happen. The lady in the info centre was incredibly helpful and warned us about a second possible storm and gave us loads of information about the best place to set-up camp on the flats (apparently 30 miles out at a dis-used telephone switching station).

So we waited for the rain to stop and after a quick supply stop we left for the salt flats. Now they didn't look as cool as we had all imagined because of the rain but it was still weird just being able to see miles upon miles of neverending nothing. After a few miles we thought we'd spotted the switching station but upon closer inspection it was actually an airforce radar building on restricted land, needless to say we left that area pretty sharply. After a few more miles we found the building we were looking for and set-up camp. The wind out there can reach up to 40mph and it was pretty windy so to help us put up the tent we used Tom as a type of paperweight to hold it down while Jack and Ben pinned it to the ground. After setting up camp we messed around on the flats for a bit and found a message from 1995 and also left our own (keep an eye out for the photo Ulrika gents) message for future people to see.

After waiting for the sun to go down over the mountains we all climbed into the tent for another sweaty nice sleep. And if you're wondering yes the tent is beginning to smell, a lot.

Thursday - the long road to wendover

After a great nights sleep in the motel we all got up to have our free breakfast and got a bit carried away when making out own waffles, good though. Heard a funny michael Jackson quote from some guys at breakfast.....king of pop? More like the king of popping pills and children, brilliant! Our first stop was elki and to get there we had to cycle around the carlin tunnel by following a river meander on an old road and then crossing the interstate (like crossing a motorway) to continue our journey. After a scary five minutes we were back on track.

We stopped for more food and supplies in elko before the fifty mile slog to wells. This ride saw us climb up and down a fair amount of hills and by the end of it we couldn't tell whether we were going up or down or were on the flat due to the toads being so long and having no points of reference. Once in wells we stopped at another weird casino type place for some food and then chilled out watching some crap but funny American tv in a truckers rest area. It
was now 4pm and we decided to try and get to the top of the pequops mountain range (another 1500ft climb up to 7000ft) before dark and camp at the top, this would take us to 100miles for the day. After a long hard climb thru some lovely scenery (first time we saw proper grass and trees in Nevada) we arrived at the top around six. Here we met a welsh man called Morgan Bowen who grew in half an hr from where jack lives in Swansea, bot what you expect to find in on top of a mountain!

We had about an hour ot so of light remaining and made the risky decision of cycling the further thirty miles to wendover possibly in the dark so we didn't have to do them in the morning thud allowing us to have our first lie in of the trip, we will do snh thing for more sleep. The road to wendover had up hill and downhill sections with us managing to reach up to forty mph on thf downhill bits, was a pretty cool tide.

However once it got dark things got a little scary as we could see we were cycling into a lighting storm, not good if you arein biked in the middle of nowhere. We finally rolled into wendover around 9 and automatically lost sn hour as we crossed into our first newtons zone. The cycle down into wendover was pretty cool as we could see all thr mental lights of the casinos. After some food we decided to check into a motel as we were never going to find the camp ground jn thr dark in a thunder storm. In the last mile of the day jack got a puncture and had to push his bike to the motel. Now this would have been fine in thr day buy it's not fun to walk thru a dodgy area at night pushing a bike, wearing Lycra with flashing lights attached to you!

Later today we plan yo cycle out to thr salt flats and camp there for thr night and thf cycle thf remainder I'd the way across tomorrow to meet toms mate jeremy who is going to pug us up for the night.

Dizzy on the punctured Broaster Coaster

Today started out well after a good nights sleep on the grass, the miles fell pretty quickly at the start of the day. Another first of the trip also happened with ben and jack taking there first al fresco poo which went well. After the first big climb of the day up to over 5000ft disaster struck yet again for ben as he got his second puncture of the trip! Jack and tom were three or so miles down the road and had to cycle back up the interstate to find a frustrated ben covered in oil. Upon arrival ben informed the boys that he replaced the inner tube twice as the first one he put on was the already punctured one from the first day, jack and tom laughed a lot and after some funny pictures of ben in dispair we were on the way again. The next twenty miles to battle mountain were pretty boring and when we got there we went for food in another weird casino. The food here was pretty awful with ben and ton going for broasted chicken...if anyone has ant idea how or why it's cooked like that let us know, was like a roasted papa simons, horrible! After that we cycled on to carlin, fifty miles away behind a mountain. On the way there jack took a dive and was feeling dizzy and unable to think properly either because of lack of water or food, plus we hadn't even started the 1500ft climb yet! Managed to find a rest area with some shade where we pulled in to sort ourselves out. Here we met a nice guy called bently brooks who happened to bs a cycling nut and also was the first person we had ever met that owned his own pedalo! After a quick chat and some water we headed off to start the climb to emigrants pass, it wasn't fun. The heat coupled with exhaustion made it quite hard, also the climb appeared in stages so you'd think you could see the top only to pass the corner and see it go up again. Ben and tom made it to the top first (6000ft) followed by a dying jack some ten minutes later. Thank god that was over. Some great views from the top which were probably wasted on us due to being so tired. After a big downhill section we arrived in carlin around 6.30 to find a cheap motel which was the best one yet and had free breakfast!!!! Jack quickly collapsed into bed whilst tom for dome reason tried to clean his teeth with savlon, idiot! Only two days left in Nevada now thank god!

Tell me why I hate Mondays (Mondays post...)

So after a storming two days of cycling through the mountains and then smashing out 110 miles in a day we thought we'd take it a little easy today and just do a quick 75 miles from Lovelock to Winnemucca, aiming to be there by lunchtime....

Well that was the plan, what actually happened was we had an awful sweaty nights sleep in a thorny camp site in the desert and were aching all over from the previous two days abuse. To make things worse there was a serious headwind blowing right at us which slowed us down from our usual 12-15mph to an agonizing 7-9mph, not fun. Demoralized and aching from hammering it into a wall of wind we rolled into Mill City (its not a city, more of a service station) for some much needed food and a rest. Went to a place that apparently does 'great home cooked food' and that would have been true if home cook food meant pre-cooked microwaved spaghetti and weird looking meatballs!!

We set off again around 12pm into the midday heat (not part of the plan) and surprisingly it we didn't find it that hot (found out later that it was above 35 degrees C), probably because we were too obsessed with other things such as our growing list of niggling pains so far...

Jack - Pains in all areas of the bum, bad knees, been bitten to shit, crap cut on ankle which rubs, bad hands and a numbness in little finger that won't go away

Ben - Bad feet, bad hands, ridiculous sun tan and a sore bum

Tom - Sore back, sore nose from glasses rubbing on it, bad feet and bad hands

The cycling through Nevada is still pretty boring and we will continue to be on the same road (the I-80) for the next four days! Jacks passing the time by counting tires on trucks (saw a 20-wheeler today, on the look out for a 22-wheeler), discussions have also revolved around why anyone would live in Nevada, how on earth people first settled in the West and a special topic of the day was whether Jack had followed through after a consistent bout of farting.....upon further inspection there appeared to be no soiling of said cycling shorts.

We rocked up into Winnemucca eventually around 3pm, 3 hrs longer than we thought it would take! After a quick visit to McDonalds where we had a nice chat with a family who thought we were a bit mental but didn't look it we went to find a campsite.

The Winnemucca RV Park is where we ended up and its a really nice place, possibly the best place we have stayed so far due to the fact that it has grass, shade and a free shuttle to a cheap local restaurant where we plan to visit later on once Tom stops flirting with the old lady behind the counter.....some things never change.

P.S. Sorry about the poor grammar and spelling in previous posts. We are ashamed of ourselves and endeavor to do better for our avid fans around the world.

Snappy Snappy

Hello Blog followers, fractions and fans. We have just got to a campsite in Winnemucca, Nevada and theres a computer to use so I thought I'd belt a few photos up of some of the things we've seen. Bens been proper trigger happy with the camera so this is a small selection of the library we'll be heading back to Blighty with.

The 'Oh No' View from the Plane


Building the bikes in the Arrival Lounge at San Francisco Airport


Camping rough on a small beach patch next to a river in the Eldorado Forest

The view following a short descent from Echo Peak, this was the view. Ben and this photo do not do the incredible view justice. Breathtaking. This photo however does - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Peak


Then the Folk that bought us Lunch in South Lake Tahoe - cheers guys if you're following the blog

Cycling through the Desert in Nevada . . . Hot

Thats all for now. Keep reading blog fans.

Tom

Welcome to Nevada

After a great nights sleep we headed off for our first full day cycling in the desert. The plan was simple, get to Fernley as quickly as possible  which was about fifty miles away and then decide whether to crash there or risk it  by cycling sixty further miles of complete nothing to Lovelock. We were all quite suprised to find out that Nevada is quite s beautiful place even if it is completely desolate. After thirty or so miles we stopped for a quick flirt and some and then headed north to the I-80 which we plan to stay on for the rest of Nevada. The roads here seem to go on forever and it can get quite boring.....anyway we arrived at fearnley around 10 and after some food decided to risk it and do the final sixty into the desert during the hottest part of the day. One of the reasons behind this silly plan was that some locals told us there would be a rest area half way with running water where we could top up, turns out it was there but without the water! So here we were 25 miles from nowhere with no water. To get us out of this prediciment we had to beg other restees for some water, to make sure we maximised our total we hid the water as we got it to make us look more desperate and in need, it worked and we all had 3 litres each for the remaining 23miles to lovelock. Also met a bloke named dave who had just been on a cycling tour of Oregon abd was heading back home to salt lake city. The salt flats section of our journey was starting to worry us as everyone we spoke to said it's dangerous and gave us conflicting advice. So we asked dave a massive favour to see exactly what is between wendover and salt lake and to email us some info, also he gave us some water which was much appreciated! 

The last ride of the day was predictably hot and through the same old Nevada deserts, gorgeous to look up but pretty repetitive. To beat the boredom today conversation has revolved around whether one of jacks calves us bigger than the other and if flip flops help or hinder the modern ultra endurance athlete. Also jack has started counting the tires on passing trucks in hope if seeing an 18 wheeler......

We rolled into lovelock around 6.30 and after a spot of dinner at a casino we went to find our campsite. Now you'd think s casino would be a nice place but it turns out every small town in Nevada has one and on closer inspection it was nothing more than a shit arcade filled eye patch wearing old people. The lazy k campsite was our final destination of the day, lets just say it wasn't pretty and we pretty much slept on a bed of thorns, damn desert. Met a nice bloke there though called jake, he lived in a hut, much more upmarket than our tent! 

Today was the day we knew would have the most clImbing of the whole journey so we knew we were in for a long slog. We hit the road at 5.45 am and climbed solidly until around twelve. This saw is climb through about five thousand feet which of course involved various mishaps and rendevous. First we met some us forestry dude on top of a mountain and had a chat and a photo, he was blocking off a bridge to stop horsecriding clowns falling thru it. Next jack went AWOL looking fir water by knocking random doors, rumour us he went to find some loving with sone mountain folk. Anyway we got some water then carried on climbing to echo summit. At the top we had an outstanding view of laks tahoe which was a thousand feet below us. The cycle down that hill with a shear drop to the side was the least scary. In lake tahoecwecwentvfor a pizza and met some incredibly generous and chatty ladies who bought us lunch. Result. Manyvthanks to you guys, it's much appreciated. So next STOL was Carson city and we were told it should be downhil all the way, well it wasn't and we again had to dj somemore climbing to hit spooner summit at over seven thousand feet. It killed us, especially jack who now gates gravity. However after that we had a 2000ft dropbover eight miles into Carson. All the lovely trees and scenery disappeared and we hit barren hot Nevada, not fun. Stopped at an English pub for tea and then going to try find somewhere to stay after our day of conquering the sierra nevadas. On the way to the motel we bumped into de guy wa
ho was motorcycling across the USA and he gave us some heads up for the way ahead....basically it's going to be got and salt lake flats are not so fun!

Geary me

Ended up spending Thursday night on Folsom lake which was pretty nice and went for what accidently turned into an expensive italian but filled up on the carbs which was good after our 110 mile day from hell. Next morning we got up and headed to heat 50 hoping to be able to take it all the way to Nevada. True to current form however this wasn't doable as bikes can't go on that road....after asking a handful of mexicans and a clueless Indian shop owner for help with no response but blank faces we decided to stand outside a gas station and ask more people for help. As it was 6am this proved difficult and it wasn't until 7am til we found someone who lived in placerbille and knew a back road route. This route consisted of some serious uphills and we met a nice oldman cyclist along the way who was going up the hills as quick as us. After s few hours we arrived in placerbille where disaster struck again. Tom had an fml moment where he ended up bending a cog in his front mech rendering his bike useless. So back downhill to placerbille we rolled to find a bike shop. The guys in placerbille bike shop were complete heroes and deserve a bigvthanjs for fixing the bike and giving us directions for the rest of the day. This is also wherever met a quirky bloke ned ted who tried ti cycle America in the seventies with just one change of clothes, a sleeping bag and a fishing rid! Sadly ted only made it half way across as he ran out of money but managed to do 118 miles a day. So we went on to pollock pines which was a 2000ft climb taking us to around 5000ft total climbknv for the day. From here we cycled down ti the south fork erocan river basin and camped rough alongside the river on a beachm, romantic! Today was hard but the scenery wad incredible and weln worth all those hours of pain......pictures to follow.

Road works, the perils of planning your own route and pears. Lots of pears

So the day started with a dark and foggy introduction to american motorways but we were going quick and were on the right track. Disaster struck just outside rio vista first when we managed to wander into ten miles of roadworks (cue traffic chaos and the supervisor if the site driving us a mile or so up the road to safety) and then ben went and got our first puncture barely thirty miles in! Anyway fixed that, had some banter with some locals and cycled on to walnut grove thru some awesome scenery along sacremto river. Waltzed into walnut grove feeling confident only to double check the directions and have some hat wearing stranger to send us fifteen miles in the wrong way. After realising our mistake we predictsbly moaned and swore s lot and came up with a plantk continue the wrong way all the way to sacremento, find highway fifty and then cycle out for a few hours to try make up some if the distance lost due to the capped idiot. Our own fault I suppose as we disobeyed rule one......never trust strangers. Anyway in a subway now as it's pretty toasty outside.

Day 0 - And so it begins

our first message is a short one from motel6 in vellejo,ca after being awake for 23 hours. I'm typing this on an iPod touch so it's taking ages. Over 100 miles to cycle tomorrow so we need our cycle sleep. so far so good (we aren't dead). Night

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