Ride the West: Magic ride to Winnemucca

Saturday
June 9, 2018
Riding day 7
Lovelock to Winnemucca, NV
75 Miles
1,834' elevation gain
4 hours, 14 minutes
2,099 calories
17.7 mph average speed
35.8 mph maximum speed

Left Lovelock early after having family style breakfast at the Cow Poke Cafe. Mid 50's with blue skies and few clouds. Fairly flat ride today but the first 20 some odd miles were a struggle. I suspect wolfing down pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon had something to do with it. But we did have a favorable tailwind from the west as we traveled east. After our first SAG stop, we hopped on the Interstate again for an 18 mile stretch and we started to fly. Average speed between 20 and 24 mph.

The Interstate had beautiful wide and nearly pristine shoulders that made fast travel possible. It was loud but focusing on cadence, speed, and the wheel ahead made it less distracting. We pulled off I-80 for some frontage roads for a stretch of miles before returning to I-80 again for another 16 mile segment. The tailwinds increased and pedaling was not effortless but sure seemed close to it.

Along the way today we saw some California Quail and what we believe were round tailed ground squirrels, cute but fast scampering buff colored rodents. We also had a couple miles of locusts (some believe were Jerusalem crickets, others believe they were Mormon crickets) trying to cross in or out from the Interstate. At first there were one or two here and there but soon they were hard to avoid and crawling jumping and flying towards the dry brush off the highway.

Because of the amount of highway travel, we also saw many flats. We had one in our group, too. One of our newly acquired habits is upon exiting the interstate, stop and take a quick moment to check tires for wires in our tires. They will eventually work their way into the hardest shelled tire and cause a puncture of the inner tube.

My traveling buddies, Matt, John and I agreed to go past the hotel today to the DQ John found in an online search last night. What we were a bit surprised to find was a limited service DQ (no burgers and fries) inside a super market. We asked some teenagers working a fundraising car wash to watch our bikes while we went inside. Luckily, the deli department made hamburgers to order so we got our burger and finally checked into hotel around 1:15 or so. Earliest day for me so far. Had time to shower, do laundry, update photos, and backfill some blog items, I'd missed.

Dinner at local BBQ joint, The Pig went fast and included ice cream for dessert.

Getting tired. More riding tomorrow. Start looks like chilly temps and high winds. Is our weather bubble bursting?