Cycling 512 Miles through the Nevada Desert
seven months into our journey cycling from Alaska to Argentina we'd made it to the desert and as a nice warm welcome Mother Nature decided to Grace us with a fresh dump of snow it was the middle of winter after all so we waited out the storm in the only motel in town and after a few days of editing the sun came out again we've been in the hotel for a few days and today is the first sunny day so I've just handed back the keys to the room and we're going to give it a shot and the next Valley apparently gets much less snow. A lot drier so we're going to try and make it there what do you got to say about that in this episode we ride 512 miles through a very chilly Northern Nevada towards the town of Tonopah wow look at that bit snowy today but not too bad we do have to go up over a mountain pass up there so that might be a bit more snowy we got into Gerlach to a nice meal in the local bar and met some pretty interesting characters let's go good job! this is so cool one of those people we met was Fi who works for Burning Man festival which takes place just a few miles from here with another storm on the forecast for the next couple of days Fi kindly offered us his Sprinter van so we could have some shelter to wait it out and set off again when the sun returned the storm has arrived and this is just the start of the snow and this is going to go on for eight more hours so we'll see how much snow that adds up to hopefully not too much because we are down in the desert after all All loaded up, we're now headed for Winnemucca. Thanks Fi! thats Gerlach and this is the Black Rock Desert we were carrying everything we would need for the next three days in the wild our bikes were heavy with all the food and 20 liters of water but after so long being confined to the highway shoulder this felt like freedom and it was only just the beginning if you're a woman and you're traveling in a road like this, use a bra I think if we go up here a bit we can probably Camp between these Dunes somewhere the cool thing about Nevada is that 67 percent of it is public BLM land which means that on roads like this you can pretty much Camp wherever you like. It's extremely cold let me show you minus 4 already good morning so last night it got down to -9 which I think is a new record but we could probably survive lower I think minus 12. that would be the limit, we'll see cheers bye! This is the old town of Sulphur and this is the only building left standing out in the middle of nowhere gonna put a tent right there I think that's gotta be a cool shot come on dude! quickly! so that right there is Winnemucca it's a video welcome to Winnemucca we are headed up the hill from Winnemucca to a little free BLM campsite because we've got a very special visitor coming this is Daniel he's the head honcho at Tumbleweed and the guy who made the bikes we've been riding since Alaska Daniel from Tumbleweed has visited us and brought us many gifts that is a brand new Prospector. that is a beautiful bike
since Alaska Victoria had been riding Tumbleweeds slightly lighter and speedier drop bar model the Stargazer but some of the routes we had in mind would certainly lend themselves to something a little more beefy built around a Rohloff internal gear hub in the back, an obscene amount of Tire clearance and some comfy wide bars it's a bike that can handle some of the most heinous scenarios possible and it couldn't have come at a better time but Victoria wasn't the only one being spoiled look how shiny new Cog, new chain, new chainring, new cranks and also a fresh new rear tire and a set of Tumbleweed racks it's like Christmas Tumbleweed now is still very small we have, it's my wife and I my wife Margot she works behind the scenes and kind of helps us actually function as a business and keeps things from falling apart but we have our own finally our own little commercial space where we assemble bikes and I have two mechanics who are who are helping me out now so we're still just focused on growing organically and just keeping the quality as high as it possibly can we've had people ride them in you know the most remote, challenging places in the world we've never had a frame fail they're very very robust and really built for extreme extreme use Daniel and Tumbleweed have been a huge supporter of our journey ever since the beginning and I'm not even sure it would have been possible without their backing so it was very special to be able to meet the guy behind it all happy birthday to you! half a muffin of course yeah oh thank you very much Daniel's heading down the hill with Victoria's new bike which means that this is the final ride on the Stargazer I love this bicycle thank you Daniel yeah I mean I told you before but I'm really happy to be supporting you guys glad that I could be there from like the very beginning yeah so cool, well save travels. yeah drive safe man yeah let me know if you need anything else. well do yeah so since Daniel came to visit, I've made a few changes to the bike setup because he was able to bring a bunch of stuff so this is the new look for now so I've got a pair of mountain laurel designs panniers on the back a new set of Tumbleweed racks I've moved the license plate up front and then Victoria has a brand new bike this is a prospector which is the same model as mine but just a size small I have my new handlebars bag here we're definitely very heavy loaded right now just because we have five days of food and a lot of water okay lift that now try and lift yours. I think yours is heavier not too bad. haha yeah all right let's get back out into the desert should take us around four or five days to get to the next town the Rohloff man, it's so smooth, so nice I can change from from 1 to 14 with no problems yeah thanks Daniel thanks Daniel thank you so much BLM land I think right here will do the trick just a little bit of wind protection what's up guys tonight we're gonna make some dinner! black beans, summer sausage, and avocado lets gooo! and habanero sauce its a spider no it's it's like a kind of spider scorpion cross but it's definitely disgusting got some more Hot Springs here right off the road the question is, will Victoria swim? she's going as fast as she can ah! no way you could become a shrimp in there thats just boiling water thats boiling man! all packed up Victoria's nearly all packed up this is just glorious! look at that beautiful tailwind, sun is shining and it's a very gentle downhill this felt like the bikepacking I would dream about when I was planning out this trip years ago effortlessly cruising along a lonely dirt road through endless wide open desert landscapes I've always been a little obsessed with the desert and to me this felt like paradise we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere now but there is a geothermal plant over there that we're gonna see if we can nab some water off couple of litres, not bad better than nothing better than nothing we don't want to ride through this when it's raining I think we've got some Jets practicing their dogfighting that is the highway after five days it's been a while Fallon so we're cycling next to you a U.S Air Force bombing range I just caught a sick bomb check out the clip here come on one more bomb whoa whoa sick there's no way! thats sick! its sick after a few days in Fallon we are now heading out again we've got six days of food three days of water to get us to Tonopah and halfway there's a little town called Gabbs which we can fill up on water hopefully so yeah we've got around 10 miles and then we'll be on a nice little dirt road that we found I was just able to finish editing episode seven which I'm really proud of I think that's my favorite yet that's the one where we were in Canada and winter struck I hope I've done it justice because that was just such an incredible few weeks look at her back there vlogging away I've turned her into a little YouTuber now well maybe by the time you see this she'll be a huge YouTuber this is a great Road literally I think if you choose any dirt road through Nevada it's gonna be stunning, I don't think you can go wrong out here I think I've never been more happy for being outside in the dirt and being full of dirt and sweat it's just I highly recommend it man this is so fun man I'm gonna have a body after this you have no idea how sexy and then things started to take a turn for the worst what is this? what? what should I do man? there's nothing you can do, just gotta keep pushing I'm so glad I have a prospector i know, yeah your derailleur would be f***ed right now what has happened here I'm stuck I'm so stuck man three two one you okay? you ready? three two one whoa, thats crazy! yeah after that ordeal we set up camp and woke up to a fresh blanket of snow both outside and inside the tent it's not too bad which surprisingly worked out in our favor as it froze the mud and allowed us to travel over it without too much trouble this is absolutely stunning thats our road back on pavement, feels very well deserved after the last few days run for your life! we have to outrun this storm do you think that's it? looks like it's about to end yeah it was quite nice how cold is it gonna get tonight? minus eight it's our very last cold day our very last one, so we're gonna use all the hand warmers we've got because we're not gonna have a use for them after this we're gonna put them in our socks hello I gotta say that today is a very hard day I'm in the worst day of my period and the wind, we have a headwind with and we're gonna have a headwind tomorrow too and nothing I just wanted to tell you I already cried like three times but well, we don't have enough food and water to stay one more night and just rest so we're just gonna get to the next town and yeah sometimes that's just how it is and you just need to keep pedalling I'm afraid and we've just hit pavement again makes it nice but the headwind today is absolutely crazy so it's gonna be quite a tough ride into town sometimes I just dont understand why am I doing this I think this is officially the most intense headwind I've ever experienced in my life we've got another 15 miles to Tonopah and we're moving at like walking speed then I remember I decided to do this nobody's telling me what to do and still I am here am I a f*ing idiot? who knows maybe yes after a crazy day we've arrived to Tonopah, Nevada are you enjoying Tonopah? I love it it's incredible here so nice A&W yeah we got the A&W, thats the most important thing everything you need, its here
2023-08-05 21:05
