Day 7 - Petrolgyph State Recreation Area, NV to Eureka, NV

48 miles / Day 7 of 54 / Petrolgyph State Recreation Area, NV to Eureka, NV

Today was a day.

We woke up in the middle of desert sweating around 7 am. It was going to be a hot one.

Our neighbors to the left of us at the no water campsite were a retired couple from England and had been traveling around the western US by van for the past 12 weeks. Linda started the day off by giving us a gallon of water and some granola bars.

Feelin' the love early in the am.

John was a former teacher for 20 years in England and told us about how he thought the disparity in quality of education between high income and low income students in England was not as severe in
US because England has stronger social supports and less severe poverty.

Lesson #20: Teamwork makes the dream work.

John talked about how him and Linda were a team, he was the chef and she was the bookkeeper who kept them on track. He talked about how important it was in their relationship and travels to not blame each other but figure out how to make it work.

Shout to John and Linda for figuring out your dream vacation, and make it happen by being thrifty. John and Linda have been traveling for about 10 weeks and have spent a very minimal amount of money ($160 on lodging thanks to camping!).
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My back spoke was still broken and we had made it about 160 miles without a major problem. We rode out of the campsite crossing our fingers it would hold the next 115 miles to the nearest bike shop in Ely.

The first 35 miles were downhill but required a lot of effort and pedaling as the headwinds were strong. Jack was absolutely crushing me. I was feeling the fatigue in my legs from doing 190 in the past two days. That boy Jack is a machine.

While I was a good 30 to 40 minutes behind Jack he ran into a 62 year old man named Jo from France. He had a warm smile and was incredibly calm. Jo left New York City about 51 days ago and was heading for San Francisco. He is riding solo and unsupported (meaning he carries everything he needs with him on the bike). He said he had a stroke four years ago and his doctor said he needed to be less stressed and work out. He sold his company and the journey began.

Jo has averaged 80 miles a day. And he's 62.

Lesson #21: Age ain't no thing. Ball out while you still can.

Check out his blog here.
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About 8 miles out of Eureka (population 500) a second spoke blew on my back tire and the wheel started wobbling severely. It was hitting the metal crossbar on every rotation. Jack and I pulled over to side of desert and decided it was best to keep pushing to Eureka and then figure out how to get to the closest bike shop one town over once we were there.

About 30 minutes later limped into Eureka and headed for the local grocery store before dealing with the bike. A pound of turkey, loaf of bread and gallon of juice later we were sitting at the local Chevron station writing out a cardboard sign.

We really out here.

About an hour of holding up our sign in the middle of the road and we struck gold. Jeff pulled over in his 1990 VW Westfalia and we loaded our bikes into the back.

Lesson #22: People are kind and giving. It's a numbers game to find those who are willing to go out of their way to help you.

Jeff was a "semi-retired" geologist turned gold prospector who was traveling north of Ely to check the local courthouse for mining claims. He was planning to dig for gold.

The man who saved the day. Thank you Jeff.

Jeff gave us a brief introduction on hunting for gold. 80% of Nevada is public land, and as Jeff told us, it's incredibly hard and rare to find gold in the Nevada mountains. The state has a formal system set up where anyone can stake a claim on any plot of unclaimed public land to incentivize people to go find gold. No risk, high reward for the state; if Jeff finds gold the state takes a nice cut.

Lesson #23: If you can't grow it, you gotta mine it.

Every resource we use is either grown or mined according to Jeff. He lived and worked in Central America for many years being a geologist. It was in Argentina where he worked for a group that found a, in his words, small pocket of gold. Three million ounces later and Jeff is now "semi-retired".
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We made it to the Ely Bike Shop and dropped off the bikes to be fixed & serviced and are heading back in the morning.

We bought Jeff dinner to say thank you at a local Mexican Restaurant and then headed out to Cave Lake State Park. We watched a beautiful sunset over the reservoir and learned about; the fight for water rights in Nevada, resource wars, China's current and growing global dominance, and how our culture's current obsession with vampires stems from the 1968 image of Earth from outer space and how it serves as a metaphor that we as humans are all vampires who try so hard to and want to be good but ultimately are evil because we are cannibalizing the planet by destroying all our reserves of every natural resource. Whew.

Lesson #24: You're never too old to party.

While setting up our tent Jeff told us stories of the Burning Man festival. It sounds unreal. A six story burning man encompassed by tens of thousands of people partying in the bottom of a dried out lake bed in the middle of the desert in nowhere Nevada? My goodness.

Thank you to John and Linda for the stories about England and the water / food to get us started in the morning.

Thank you to April at the gas station for giving us Sharpie markers to make a cardboard sign out of.

Thank you to Jeff for getting us from Eureka, NV to the closest bike shop in Ely. You are a life saver.

Thank you for the stories, and additions to our bucket list (travel in a Westie VW Van, attend Burning Man).