Day 58

7/12/16 Eureka, NV to Austin, NV, about 68 miles.  The day started off very well.  I was moving quickly for the first 25 miles.  Then the headwinds started.  At first they weren't so bad.  I got up the first small climb of the day, and met two Norwegians going from LA to NY on the descent.  They were fixing a flat.  While chatting with them, holding my bike, a huge gust came that blew so hard that I lost balance trying to hold my bike up and fell over with my bike into the street.  After we chatted for a while longer, I kept going.  The winds had picked up considerably, and they were coming from straight ahead.  I was going on gently sloping uphill terrain at below 4 mph.  It was exhausting.  I was relieved when I finally got to the big mountain at the end of the day because it meant that the mountain would block the wind.  And it did help, although it was an exhausting climb given my state going into the climb.  The mountain was double peaked, with a second climb after the first descent, but finally I made it to the top of Austin Mountain, the final significant climb on route before the Sierra Nevadas in California.  That felt great.  I ended the day in Austin, a mountain town just a few miles down from the peak of Austin Mountain.  I met a guy named Gary there, who is walking across the country from Point Reyes, just north of San Francisco (he plans to take two years, though will stop in the winter to do something else and then go back to where he left off next year).  I'm camping in a city park tonight, with one week left until my planned arrival in San Francisco.

Day 57

7/11/16 Ely, NV to Eureka, NV, about 76 miles.  Woke up this morning to 33 degree temperature.  Decided to sleep in.  After the sun warmed things up a bit I got going.  Finally it wasn't too windy, and with a daytime temperature in the 70s, it was perfect for riding.  One of the best riding days so far, if not the best.  Got many thumbs ups from passing cars and waves from motorcyclists as well.  Ended the day in Eureka, which has a mostly boarded up downtown, and I really disliked the restaurant that I ate at.  Camped in a city park for the night.

Day 56

7/10/16 Baker, NV to Ely, NV, about 62 miles.  Got an early start to avoid headwinds, leaving around 5:30.  I still had headwinds, which required me to take frequent breaks as I was struggling even on the parts where the terrain was relatively flat.  Nevada has interesting topology, with big mountain ranges running north to south and long valleys in between.  That means lots of up and down, but I actually enjoy it since the passes are not very steep, so it's just pushing up for a while and then a nice long descent.  I ended in Ely, a former mining town that now has many closed up shops and lots of cheap motels and a few casinos.  I camped out in an RV park.

Day 55

Milford, UT to Baker, NV, about 82 miles.  Crossed my last state border til California, although that was just before town.  Today was a long, hot, and windy day with three small mountains.  There are no services between Milford and Baker, so I carried extra water, and I definitely needed that.  Went through four water bottles plus two sports drinks, and drank a lot more after getting to town.  I also passed a town called Frisco, UT, a former mining town that's now abandoned.  I saw a boarded up hole in the mountain that could have once been a mine entrance.  In Baker I met three eastbound cyclists Del, Engin (sp), and Derek, going from San Francisco, CA to Newton, KS, about half of the country.  They helped me with tips about the coming days through Nevada and California.

Also, I am of the suspicion that my speedometer loses track of a few miles each day.  The sign and map says there are 84 miles between Milford and Baker.  I will go with my speedometer in terms of calculating mileages, although I'm fairly certain it undercounts by about a mile for every 30 or so travelled.

Day 54

Cedar City, UT to Milford, UT, about 56 miles.  Had a great tail wind that pushed me most of the day.  I barely knew I was going uphill til I was near the top of the only hill of the day.  Cruised down at about 20 mph and had what I think is my fastest daily average so far at about 13.9 mph.  I got to town at around 2pm and spent the night in a motel.

Day 53

Cedar City, UT, 0 (3) miles.  Took a rest day in Cedar City.  Went down to the bike shop to get a new chain and brakes and a tune up.  Walked around the local college campus, Southern Utah University, which has a really cool Shakespeare theater.  Spent most of the rest of the day napping.  Joe, Jacob and I went out for Thai food.

Day 52

Panguich (Red Canyon), UT to Cedar City, UT, about 68 miles.  Cycling is not always a safe sport, and there are very high risks involved.  Please always wear a helmet, and when riding on highways with trucks, always have a rearview mirror.  These are the safety precautions that I take.

Today I woke up to a freezing cold morning.  The desert is a cold place at night.  Got started early and spent most of the morning going up Cedar Mountain, the last time I'll reach an elevation over 10,000 feet.  The 4,000 foot climb with strong gusting headwinds was long and slow and took most of the morning and afternoon.  The top had some great views of Cedar Breaks Canyon, although I was running late so I didn't go into the park area where I could get the best view.  The descent through huge canyons was beautiful, but also incredibly scary.  There was heavy traffic, lots of sharp curves, steep grades, a narrow road with no shoulder, and of course that headwind which required rebalancing at every gust and turn, which is tricky at high speeds.  I held onto the breaks for most of the descent.  I got to my destination in Cedar City around 5pm, where I'm staying with a Warm Showers host named Joe for two nights.  Jacob was already there.

I started this post with safety tips, and the reason is because I learned that Jacob wrecked on the descent from the mountain, and his bike was totalled so he will have to end his trip.  He was going at high speeds down the mountain when a truck coming around a corner passed too close.  It didn't hit him, but Jacob got caught in the draft and lost control.  He luckily was not badly injured, but he had some bad scratches to his elbow and knee.  The front wheel and fork of the bike took much of the impact.  A pickup truck stopped to check on him so he was able to hitchhike to Joe's in Cedar City.

Joe is an awesome host.  I learned about him from my friend James who came here on his cross country bike trip last year.  Joe took us out for pizza at an awesome pizzeria which had the best pizza I've had on this trip (and better than most if not all that I've had in my life).  After dinner, Joe took us to the less touristy northern edge of Zion National Park, where we saw the awesome cliffs of Zion Canyon.  It's a sight that really needs to be experienced.

I'll be staying in Cedar City for two nights, then I'll begin my planned 12 day ride to San Francisco on Friday.