Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Up and Down and Up and Down Again

Day 58 - July 31
82 miles. Milford, UT to Baker, NV

As if getting out of bed hasn't been hard enough in the mornings, doing so from an ultra comfy mattress didn't make things easier. The real motivator was getting back to that dinner where they were treating us to breakfast, which for me meant three huge fluffy pancakes and sausage. Three pancakes you say? To give you a sense of scale, this was probably the first meal i haven't finished on this trip and that says a lot. What a diner.

Being one of the first ready to roll out in the morning was really nice. Didn't have to feel the stress of rushing to make sure i leave with a group. The riding was decent and my legs weren't too bad until it became clear that we were doing a straight but subtle climb for 13 miles. Those long super subtle climbs are the worse since your mind thinks its flat and just totally messes with you, i think ive mentioned this before. That summit sign couldn't have been more welcome.

That downhill though, It was uncomparable to anything else on this trip. It was seven miles of straight downhill with no pedaling at about 25mph. There were maybe 25 cars in both directions all day today so the road was super deserted and on top of that the visibility was unreal. As in from the summit and all the way down, we could see the same road we would be on for the next 30 miles. Look closely in the pic to see what im talking about. The whole day was just this huge up and down of mountains, basins, mountains, basins.

Steven and I climbed again to lunch, where the sweat started pouring and the downhill afterwards was again satisfying. Its hard to describe how hilarious this was but there was literally one tree in the entire second basin we descended into. We're talking 30 miles of desert here. You could see it for 10 miles in either direction. Well Steven and I decided that it was Siesta time and took the prettiest 30 min nap ever under it. The silence out there is so intense. Its the kind where its so quiet that you actually hear ringing in your ears. Ugh great nap. The abandoned house next to the tree(again, the only structure for dozens of miles) added an awesome creepiness factor.

Pretty solid riding overall and just so much preoccupation with how overwhelming this desolation was. All Colin Hood, Steven and I could do was ponder how you could literally do anything you want out here and no one would ever know. The suggestions for carrying through with that got a little outlandish to say the least and you probably would rather not hear them. I mean you know somethings up when you need to weave between the lane dividers just to keep from getting bored. Whenever we called out car back, we had to clarify with "oh wait its actually 2 miles back" Also found a few carcasses which were not all the way decomposed as we unfortunately found out firsthand, so still no cow's skull.

Crossed into Nevada and the Pacific Time Zone towards the end. Crazy to think how i can't just get on the phone and call my friends since the times are so wacky. Soon we'll be on US - 50 for all of Nevada, "the loneliest road in america" You can't help but be a bit disconcerted when you see t shirts in stores saying "I survived US - 50!" Yea its gonna get that crazy.

But one thing Utah did put out before we said good riddens actually made me scream with delight. Can you guess? How closely have you been following the blog? What have i really wanted to see changed about roads as mentioned in my older post?

COLORED ROADS!!! All of a sudden there was a pavement change and the road became this amazing maroon for several miles until the Nevada border. I could hardly contain my excitement and didn't even know how to express such extreme happiness. It must've been like Ryan Farr jumping into a pool of free Cliff Bars.(inside rider joke) OK, but seriously think like actual effective health care reform getting passed. We're talking epic happiness here.

Baker is really interesting. Susan who gave a great dinner told us how the state is trying to drain the underlying water to bring it to Las Vegas and the residents are desperately fighting it since 1989. If the state wins, Vegas will probably have a few more golf courses, but this whole basin will turn into a dust bowl meaning environmental destruction, lung problems, and all sorts of nasty things. It was really eye opening to see what our need for growth has come to and to what extremes and sacrifices we will put others through for our own personal benefit.

Found this super cool cafe with all sorts of imported drinks and foods that totally didn't make any sense in a place with 300 residents in a 100 mile radius. Anyway, read a good part of todays New York Times and was so high off the brief intellectual stimulation. It was just so awesome to feel normal like that again in a way i can't describe. Interesting op ed on how the internet is like the new NYC in terms of people going there to make it big, the disorientation, etc.

Updated blog today which was good, and camera is nice to have. Also! did 2 consecutive sets of 50 pushups today. Big personal physical milestone. The trip just keeps amazing me at how its really not just about exploring the country but also exploring ourselves and our limits(or past limits i should say). Hmm...

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