Baker to Milford : 84 miles - 7.5 hours - 21 cars

On Tuesday, Art and Ben started out at 6 a.m. NV time. After six miles, they crossed into UT and suddenly it was an hour later. So they never got an early start, even though they started out early.

What was Hwy 487 in NV became Hwy 21 in UT. This was truly the loneliest stretch of highway. During the entire ride that day, they saw only 21 cars. It was even lonelier than Hwy 50!

They climbed the long, gradual first hill in the cool of the morning and that was easy. Then they came down into the flats and found the much-mentioned abandoned farmhouse with the single tree in front, and the continuously running hose hanging from the fence. Fellow riders had said, "You can't miss it," and they were right. The boys stopped for a minute to check it out. The farmhouse had a stove, a sink, a bedroom and maybe a bathroom off the back. There were a few dishes in the open cupboard and some salt and pepper. It was located almost exactly halfway between Baker and Milford, before the next big climb began.

With regard to carrying fluids, for several days Art and Ben had each been carrying 32 ozs of Gatorade in addition to three water bottles. They thought that on their long Baker-to-Milford ride they would need more hydration, but it was not to be the case. So they continue to carry two extra pounds each.

After the farmhouse, the climb was steep but relatively short -- Ben the record-keeper, estimates that it was about six miles. The final climb of the day was the real challenge, because by then temperatures had risen, and old Art was worn out. So much to Ben's chagrin, they had to stop several times along the way up. At one point Art yelled, "Let's stop at the top of this next rise!" Ben yelled back, "Oh come on, it's only another mile and a half to the top. Let's just go!" And so they did.

They reached Milford by about 2:30 p.m. local UT time. The high that day was 94 degrees. The miracle was that there was no wind until their final descent into town. They were lucky!

Milford is a mining town without much commerce. The boys checked into the Milford Affordable Motel. Leaving Ben passed out in the motel room, Art ambled over to the one-room public library across the street. There he found 4-5 computers with high-speed Internet access and local town kids gathered around each terminal. The librarian was more than happy to shoo away the kids when Art came in to check his e-mail.

All total, Art and Ben were elated to have ridden 84 miles in about seven and a half hours. On Wednesday, they will ride to Cedar City, UT (pop 20,000) where they will take a day off. I expect that Art will post his own news from there, maybe even with pictures. I will be taking a few days off from the blog, while I attend a reunion in southern CA with members of my Mom's family.

Across NV in Five Days

As it turns out, the last "decent" bike shop was really the last bike shop, period. There were no bike shops to be seen after that. So it was wise to wait for the shop in Carson City to completely fix Ben's bike eventhough it meant leaving at 10:30 a.m. By midday Art and Ben rolled through Silver Springs, where it was 95 degrees! But they made it to their overnight destination, Fallon, NV, and vowed to rise by 4 a.m. in order to beat the heat the next day.


On Thursday, the boys stopped for lunch at Middle Gate Station on the way to Cold Springs Station, NV (pop 40, because someone just had a baby), where they were the only guests at the local motel. They were quite pleased with their room in the converted trailer, that had AC and a fridge. Art was also happy to have convinced the proprietor to give them the low Bike-Across-America rate of $51/night. That day, the ride had been 63 miles with a few gentle rolling hills -- overall not too tough. Every few minutes a car would drive past, as if to prove that the loneliest highway in America was true to its name!

Again setting out early in the morning to avoid the heat of midday, on Friday they rode 51 miles to Austin, NV. The small town (pop 372) was half way up a steep hill, but still they managed to arrive by 11 a.m. Turns out that there was a wedding party in town, and two motels had no vacancy. Fortunately, there was a third motel with a room available, and at the edge of town they even found a 24-hr laundromat.

On Saturday, they rode 68 miles to Eureka, NV (pop 700) and on Sunday, they rode through a windy pass into Ely, NV. After a grueling climb, Ely lay at the bottom of a hill, so they thought the last 18 miles would be a breeze. But instead of riding 18 mph and arriving in an hour, the headwind was so strong that pedaling downhill as hard as they could, their average speed was 10 mph and it took them almost two hours! In the end, they rolled into town at 1:20 p.m. and in time for lunch.

On Monday, they rode to their final overnight stop in Nevada - Baker - where they found a room at the Silver Jack Inn. There was no cell phone coverage so Rick, the motel manager who used to grow pot in Pescadero, let Art use the motel phone. Unfortunately, he could not talk long because the Lectrolux Restaurant was opening to serve them dinner, then closing again so that all the workers could attend a party later that night. Baker is on Hwy 487 and as they turned off Hwy 50, Art had asked Ben if he was sad to leave the familiar road. Ben said "No way, it was so boring!" Just wait until they get to Kansas!

Tuesday is the long, hard ride to Millford, UT -- 83 miles with three big hills to climb and absolutely no services. Hopefully they won't turn into carrion along the way. Apparently there are plenty of crows in the desert, circling overhead just waiting for their next meal to come along. So every now and then, Art said that he looks up at them and shouts, "Crows, not today!"

The First Four Days

Art and Ben rode a whopping 80 miles from Palo Alto to Manteca on Saturday! They were helped by tail winds as they came over the Altamont pass on their way to Tracy. Their friends Jeff and Jordan saw them over the Dumbarton Bridge and until they got to Niles Canyon Rd, and friends Atri and Ravi rode with them to Tracy before turning back to go home at 2 p.m. Luckily, Saturday was a bit cooler than the previous few days had been.

On Sunday, they rode to Jackson which is a small town along Hwy 88 in the Gold Country of California. For a ride without much climbing, they were completely spent when they arrived, and that left them wondering just how long it would take them to get over the Sierras. As it turned out, it was just the heat that exhausted them that day.

On Monday, they rode to Silver Lake where they camped overnight -- opting for a $20 camp site at the Silver Lake Campground over a $150 room at the Kit Carson Lodge. This was a big climbing day -- from 1240 ft elev up over 8000 ft and down to Silver Lake (7200 ft). Since it was still early in the summer season, the Kit Carson Restaurant was not open yet, so dinner consisted of anything and everything they could find at the convenience store: Sun Chips or It's-It anyone? They planned to bike to breakfast in Kirkwood the next morning.

On Tuesday, they wheeled down from Silver Lake, up over a 7990 ft hill, and then down again to the Kirkwood Lodge (7600 ft) for a hearty breakfast outside and in full-view of the Sierra Nevada! Next it was over Carson Pass (8674 ft) and down, down, down at highway speeds into Carson City, NV. At this point, I should mention that the bikes are loaded with about 30 lbs of gear for Ben, and maybe 25 lbs of gear for Art. With both front and rear panniers, Ben is clearly the mule in this adventure. Unfortunately, Art discovered that Ben's bike needed a couple repairs -- a stripped screw on a derailleur cable and maybe even a slightly bent rear wheel. Yikes! They will plan to stop at the last decent bike shop on Wednesday morning, to see if they can get the bike in good shape before setting out across the hot Nevada desert where they must average 60 miles a day along Hwy 50 -- "the loneliest highway in America" -- to get from town to town.

The adventure begins

Art and Ben departed on their transcontinental bike trip on Saturday, June 16 at 8 a.m. They left from our driveway. To make the ocean-to-ocean claim legit, they pedaled from San Gregorio beach to our house on Friday evening, clocking in at 2.5 hours for an over the hill trip of 25 miles riding fully-loaded bikes. This is my attempt to chronicle their adventure, adding bits and pieces gathered from brief phone check-ins each night...