Eureka!

Today, I rode from Austin to Eureka. 72 miles in 4 hours 42 minutes. The ride was cold, wet and windy in the morning. After passing a flipped VW bug above town, (it had just happened.. the ambulance and sheriff passed me with sirens blaring just down the hill) I reached the top of the Bob Scott Summit with my eye gear steamed up. Coasting down the other side of this sizeable hill, I bested my speed record at 43 mph.



Looking back down on Austin from the hill above.



Passing the first summit.



Descending into a rainy basin. My toes got pretty cold through this stretch, and I had to use my rain pants and rain gaurds for my bike bags.



One more significant hill to climb.



After passing under the storm, the day proved to be warm and breezy. It didn't take long to dry off completely. I can't help but think how fortunate we've been with the weather in Nevada.



And of course, today's obligatory shot of the crickets. All the little smashed cricket bodies in the wet weather smelled pretty bad. As I was passing through one particularly thick section, a semi went blasting past in the other direction, blowing the crickets all up into the air, and causing the ones on the ground to leap around. I had to turn my head aside to avoid catching a mouthful.

I was feeling yesterday's miles during my ride, but still managed to feel pretty good on the bike. Still lots of distance to cover on the way to Salt Lake. I met Greg and Boo for a meal after arriving in Eureka, loaded into our hotel, ate some ice cream, took a hot soak, and now I'm gonna sleep my ass off.