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6000 Miles of Summer – Day 2

 As the snow comes down in Nashville, over a hot cup of coffee I thought it would be the perfect time to “rewind” and recap another day….Happy Friday (indeed!)!

Boise (ID) to Ely (NV)

(420 mi)

It’s been a short night; up at 4:30am, as the hotel parking lot got busy. Nothing big, early start is always good in the summer, right? Packing up, rolling off…. crack of dawn.

The initial stretch is the main Interstate to Mountain Home. Let’s get it over with. Little traffic, a warm breeze, smell of wildfires still in the air. Leaving Boise and the forests behind. It will be a desert (desolate?) day, dropping due South into Nevada. 

A final gas stop, with 160mi from here to the State line where (supposedly) the next decent gas station is located. Black Rifle Coffee Tripple Shot – check! 

It’s bone dry out here past the farmsteads south of Mountain Home. Smoke in the air, and forecast of thunderstorms in the area. A lonely road, and better have some tunes downloaded, because internet is gone….

Fire crews are out here, and grass and brushes still smoldering for many miles; the light is that doomy orange, and presumably the sun is up somewhere. There isn’t much else to see anyways, so I am plugging along.
Good news ahead – the sky is about to clear up, and I am getting closer to my gas stop at Owyhee (NV) in the Shoshone reservation. And not only filling up the bike, but there is also a coffee cabin! Real fresh brewed coffee! 
One of the great things when riding is that you get in a conversation with folks very easily; “where’s you’re from” (and, no, he did not take my Washington State “accent” seriously), “where you’re headed?” are just the conversation starters…. but you’ll get also some seriously helpful info about the area, and places to stop you’d otherwise miss; he told me about treacherous road conditions to the “beetles on the road” a few miles after town. Wow, bugs, seriously? “Go very slow, especially in the turns; it is slippery like oil!” – I marked his words, grateful for the heads-up, and well, I’m about to find out, because there’s no alternative.
 

A few beetles smashed on the road through town – that’s it. You folks panic too easy! Then you enter a

canyon and make your first hard left turn…. what the heck!! The road has a thick layer of “black/brown” over it, and it’s moving! Surreal. The whole road is covered! Of course, my GoPro wasn’t running…..and I fear if I stop, the beetles will carry and bike with them into the swamps and you’ll never be seen again…. later on, I stopped and took a quick video from the side of the road – imagine that black area just across the entire road…..

That invasion lasted about 10 miles through that Duck Valley Canyon; nothing beats the smell of freshly roasted beetle splatter on the engine and pipes…. yay!
Elko to Eureka was uneventful, gas and Starbucks in Elko. The forecast thunderstorm clouds are starting to build, and I am headed right towards them….at least that will wash down the beetle juice.
The “Owl Club Bar’ in Eureka is actually always good for a stop, just across the gas station (which you shall not miss!); yet I am getting hit by rain just at the town limits – no ice cream! But still mind the always present patrol car at the southern side of town (I took this road several times over the years). 😉

Going East now on Highway 50, dubbed the “Loneliest Road In America”, leaving the thunder clouds behind, but no stopping; I need a decent margin for catching that 10 for 24 coin photo opp. Blue sky again, and a lonely road (as advertised on the Highway 50 sign) ahead. 

Lonely, up until you hit a massive, oversized mining equipment convoy blocking all lanes [insert colorful words here]. Not crawling behind that; they are so wide, they can’t even pull over….so I turn around, take the road back a few miles, until the sky gets dark again, then turn around again and enjoy the twists and turns until I am back at the tail of that convoy. Hey, got to make the most out of it – and finally reaching Ely and checking into the Hotel Nevada (which is a neat place to stay, so you know). 

Overall, an interesting day; short, and more time to walk Main Street and scavenging for dinner. 😉

See ‘ya tomorrow!

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