We need to start out this post with a big thank you to our sponsor, Jonathan Nisly. With his contribution, we were able to purchase a few raisins.

We set off on our journey through the loneliest road in America. There are very few towns with very little in between. We decided that our best option was to go 110 miles to Middlegate Station. The only thing closer was 60 miles away and we needed to go farther than that.

We took off down the open roads of Route 50 averaging about 15 miles an hour over the sixty miles to the last real city for over 100 miles. We traveled through huge valleys that allowed us to see for miles in either direction. Huge mountians loomed in all directions. The landscape was very bare with almost no trees.

This section of the route is often dangerous because of its temperatures and lack of available water. We were fortunate to go through while it was cooler and cloudy with even a few drops of rain here and there.

We intended to make a quick stop in Fallon to get lunch and any last groceries we would need for the next couple days. After lunch we discovered that Aaron’s wallet was missing. We called all the places we had been since he last remembered it but had no luck. A few calls to cancel the cards later meant we could continue on our journey. It was a very unfortunate mishap but certainly not one that would derail our trip.

The first 20 miles went by like a breeze. We had a slight tailwind and a slight descent so we were able to cruise through that. Both sides of us were massive expanses of sand. It was all flat except for a large dune in the distance. The locals in Fallon had complained about all of the Californians that come through to ride their all terrain vehicles on the sand. We could see a few zipping over the hill when we took a lunch break near the dune.

While we stopped for lunch, we wtinessed a semi pass 6 other vehicles at once by spending at least a full mile in the oncoming lane. We were very thankful that we were not riding when that happened.

We went up one hill and descended into another valley. It was kind of unbelievable how far we could see. While in this valley we crossed the 100 mile threshold. This broke our previous best from just two days before.

We celebrated but still had 14 miles to go and the sun was going down. The miles weren’t counting up as fast as they had been the rest of the day when we were going slightly downhill. Because the land was so flat and expansive, a slight uphill or downhill looked the same but one felt easy and one made you struggle. After what felt like forever, we pulled into Middlegate Station, a restaurant that had a lodge and free camping. We ordered burgers to celebrate the day and replenish the energy that somehow managed to get us through the day. It was definitely a huge accomplishment but the delirium of biking for so long took hold.

We were shown to a site behind the restaurant where we could camp for free. The Nevada nights are surprisingly cold so it’s always a good feeling to get in a sleeping bag.