Day 38,39 - June 23,24 - Tonopah, NV

I slept in because my plan was to leave for Tonopah late in the day and ride through the night. I got some lunch at the café and it started to rain again. I looked to the west and there were rain clouds over the first summit I would have to climb for the day. There were 4 summits I would have to climb over and then end on top of a 5th summit at Tonopah. Around noon, it was cool out and there were storm clouds everywhere. The waitress at the café told me it was the beginning of the monsoon season. I decided to head out while it was cool out. That way I could travel on the Extraterrestrial highway during the day which was a small highway which had cows and snakes in the road and make it to highway 6 by night time and ride that, hopefully without any trouble.

I left a quarter to one in the afternoon and made my way up the first summit. Since it was early in the day for me, I took it really slow and walked part of it so I wouldn’t wear out too quickly. By the time I got to the top, it was clear skies above me with storm clouds kind of scattered throughout the sky. There was a flat ride after the summit to the ghost town of Warm Springs, about half way, 50 miles from Tonopah. It was an interesting ride on my way to Warm Springs, I had had winds for the first part of the ride and noticed about 10 miles after the summit that there was a big storm cloud following me from on top of the summit. About 25 miles from Warm Springs I got tail winds and noticed the storm was right behind me. I started to haul ass to try to get to Warm Springs and find some sort of shelter. I got about 10 miles away when the storm caught up with me and I heard some major thunder and I got in the ditch to wait for the storm to pass and try to avoid getting struck by lightning. I was in the ditch for about an hour before the rain stopped and the thunder and lightning calmed down. For the second day in a row I saw a rainbow appear in the middle of Nevada, weird. The rest of my ride to Warm Springs involved being circled by jets that were flying low and dropping chaffs and flairs. I finally made it to warm springs after 60 miles and just around dusk.

I rested up for a bit and attached my lights to my bike. I thought the storm had passed but they were starting to appear again. Immediately after Warm Springs was another summit. As I was riding up it was getting darker and darker. Rain started to come back and there was a lot of lightning in the distance. I made it to the top just as it got pitch black. There were no stars because of all the clouds and the lightning looked even more menacing in the night. I couldn’t tell how far away it was because of the open landscape but I didn’t feel like getting in the ditch in the middle of the night in the desert. It cooled down fast and it started to rain more and more. This was the longest ride I attempted in the night. My light wasn’t very bright but I pretty much had the entire road to myself. There was a rest area about 25 miles from Tonopah which I was shooting for to take a break from the rain. It was just over the next summit. I normally look at my miles constantly to check my progress and see what time it is. I couldn’t in the dark so I was just riding and riding. It’s weird riding in the dark on a bike, I couldn’t see anything other than the road 5 feet in front of me. I was started to feel really cold and miserable. My shoes and gloves were soaked so my hands and feet were really cold. My glasses and lights were wet so I couldn’t see very well. I was really tired but just kept pedaling, hoping to get to the rest stop soon. I started up the summit and it seemed like it took forever. I couldn’t see so I didn’t have any idea what it was going to be over. When I finally started down the hill I got really excited. I was hoping to dry off in the rest area and warm up. When I got to the rest area I was really disappointed. There was just an outhouse and some gravel. I was too tired to be pissed so I set up my tent in the rain on the rocks and got inside to warm up. I stayed inside until I was warm and the rain stopped. Then I took a nap.

I set out a few hours later. It sucks unpacking everything in the dark, it sucks even more packing it back up in the dark. Oh yeah, and since I lost my mat I was just sleeping on a pile of rocks, which was not comfortable. Most of my clothes were wet so I did the last 25 miles in a wet jersey, khaki shorts and flip flops. I was tired from not getting much sleep and sore from riding for so long. The next summit was just about 5 miles of climbing but it seemed much worse, I was ready to be done for the day as soon as I started. Even after the summit, riding on flat land seemed horrible. The sun started to come up and it got hot quick. Riding in flip flops and regular shorts is horrible. I got to the bottom of the summit up to Tonopah and I could barely even walk up it. My feet hurt from the flip flops and hurt even worse when I had to walk up the hill with my bike. I finally got to Tonopah and got to McDonalds to consume an unhealthy amount of calories and fat.

After that I decided to take the rest of that day off and got a hotel room and sat around watching HBO and eating nonstop.