Sadly, there weren't many donuts in Nevada.
Anyways... where did I last leave off? Ah, yes... Nowhere, NV. Okay, so there's not actually a city called Nowhere, but that's only because if there was, it would encompass all of Nevada. We were out of the boonies and into... the real boonies? Our map frequently stated "No Services Next X Miles" (where X was greater than or equal to 50 miles -- between 57 and 83, in these incidences). The first night we slept in the desert, some Apaches flew overhead. I'm sure they were doing drills or something but they flew within maybe 200 feet of us... the drill was probably called "screw with the crazy people camping in the middle of the desert." *ahem* in any case, we took off early the next morning, biked through a place called "B-17 Testing Zone," and then made it to a city called Middlegate.
It was in the middle of the gate between a good sense of humor, and... hm.
They had good food and apparently free camping, which we missed out on, and offered some advice on water:
"Oh, exactly three miles from the top of the hill, there's an abandoned building on the right, and 100 paces behind that building is a creek with great water."
(...and that's also where we hide the bodies).
So we didn't take much water, but we did get to use our filters for the first time. I mean, only after 2700 vertical feet or so.
Ken is in this photo somewhere.
We made it to nowhere again that night shortly after filtering water (climbing 2700 feet in the heat with a headwind was, needless to say, a little draining) -- about 6 PM, one of our earliest quits. This was the first night we camped almost completely visible from the road, but we didn't really have a choice:
I promise, mountain, I'm not doing anything illegal.
We counted that six cars passed us that night, and all that passed with enough light to see us immediately called the police. I mean, waved. They waved. Pretty enthusiastically. Oh, and we woke up to coyotes about 4 AM.
I'm going to premise the next day by saying I use my photos to help me remember what happened, and I have about four photos of that day. Also, photos take forever to upload, and it's getting to be go time, so... that's convenient? I'll just do one or two more.
Oh, THAT's where we are! -- special thanks to Ken's Droid.
After two hours and a countable number of cars (7, I believe) we made it to Austin, NV. Austin has a sign outside that says, "Austin: There's so much to to!" Apparently they have reputable mountain bike trails but everybody who rides them must die, as we didn't hear anything about them from the people who lived there, or see anybody else with bicycles. We stopped at the hole-in-the-wall hardware store which was stocked warehouse style, with stuff piled everywhere, to buy some alcohol for my stove. The owner said, "Ah! I think I have that!" and dug through the pile for about five seconds before pulling out a can of denatured alcohol. It was priced at $5.50 (everywhere else we found it, the price was $7.50) but he took a five and sent us on our way.
We had about 75 miles without service and it was already halfway through the day. Needing water to make it up three mountains and cook at night, we decided to hire some unwary travelers to carry water for us. We bought water at the only gas station in town (this water was much less affordable than the alcohol for whatever reason -- $2.63/gal) and handed it off to some willing volunteers. We didn't get their names, but we are incredibly grateful!
After finishing the hill-that-is-Austin (complete with more switchbacks), we met some more Germans on the downhill. They conversed with us for a bit in English before communicating with Tim at light speed... it reminded me of biking behind the Bosnians. Anyways, more hills, pace lines, Clif bars, headwinds, and hot weather later... Ken broke his second spoke. It was only about 6:30 but we took it as a sign and made camp in the Nevada tradition -- right in the middle of nowhere.
Did you hear something?
The highway was a bit busier that day, and nobody waved, but we're pretty sure it was the same deal as yesterday -- nobody cared. More coyotes. The only difference on this night was that it was FREEZING COLD. I was in my mummy-style sleeping bag with the draw string tight and was still a little cold. The next morning, we discovered that any water left outside our tent had turned to ice. Oh, Nevada.
Alright... it's go time! Lake Powell, here we come. Free swimming... heck yes.
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