As you can tell by yesterday's report, I have a whole lot more energy now and will probably bore you with many details. To me, the details of the journey as I saw them and felt them and thought about them are what is important. The roads traveled are just the vehicle to produce thoughs experiences. This is day 17. I am looking forward to the end. I can feel that it is just about here. My plan is to be in Lynnwood, WA some time early tomorrow afternoon.
I have figured a route out. It looks short. Here I go and we will see what happens. One of the awarenesses that I have again this morning is that no matter where I ride in NV, I am surrounded by mountains in the far distance. I experience that same feeling today as I get ready for the road. I have a neat experience though. One of those gifts that God gives us on a continual basis, if we see them. A young couple (at least 5 years younger than myself) are in the room next to me. As I come out of the room to load up, they are there loading up also. The gal as a question about my rig and we start talking. Her husband joins us and we discuss manuverability of the heavily loaded Wing. He is riding a 2300 cc Truimp hot rod. He reports trouble with low speed handling. She has a V-Star with Yellow roses painted on it. It is a really pretty bike. I run my speal about how great the Wing is for handling, even with the load. We talk back and forth. They are Mike and Tammy from some place in TX. We talk over a Micky D's breakfast and then they are onto planning their day and I am on to mine. It is a refreshing break for the start of the day.
I leave Fallon and head north on 95 up to I-80. There is no irrigation in this area. All I see is dry high desert with some bunch grass and low bushes. I am not sure what all the bushes are but some is Sage. There is a lot of red dry ground between the plants. Where ever there is drainage, I see white salt flats where water has collected and then evaporated. As I go by them, the distant part of the drainage takes on a watery sheen. I understand how thirsty people could be fooled by that sheen and think that there is water only a short way across the salt flat. As I get some elevation, the sheen goes away and it turns out to be all salt. I also notice that the road has that sheen on occasion. I think about all the stories that I have read about the dry part of the CA trail. I realize that I am riding on or near that trail. The truth of those tales comes to rest.
I hit I-80 and head northeast. I stop at Lovelock for coffee, water and ice. I am ready to go for it. Traffic is light and I roll easily northeast to Winnemucca. This is another interesting town. Again, it is built along the connecting hwys. I fuel on the last stop north on US95 and then head for my real adventure for this day. I run 95 north. I seem to be riding on top of a ridge and am also climbing all the way. It is barren land with very little life or human existance around. I see signs to watch out for grazing cattle but can not find anything for them to eat in this area. Maybe there is more folage when it is wet.
As I ride I suddenly come to the junction I am looking for; NV140. As I turn I hit a 8 or 9% grade for what seems to be forever. It is actually about a mile. As I roll down the grade I can see the road go straight as an arrow away from me to disappear into the distant mountain. I catch the odometer reading as I hit the bottom and on I roll. The valley seems to be flat and baron. Again, there is the low bushes and some dry bunch grass. There is not much of either. In the distance I see a dust devil. Thank God for Sirius radio. I hold the bike straight, focus on the road and listen to the radio. I am not sure what is on but it keeps the dogs attentive so that I can focus on keeping the scoot on the road. It seems to take for ever before I see a bend in the distance. I check to odometer and I am at 20 mile when I see the bend. I still am no closer to those mountains. At 32 miles the road turns and now I am slightly climbing at I roll. Again the road is straigt and I keep riding. At a little over 50 miles I hit another junction. There is a combination gas station, bar and country store at the junction. There is also a sign that says next services 85 miles in either direction. I am at a point where I might be able to make it but make the same decision as yesterday about valore. It takes a while to fuel up. There is 1 set of pumps and a line up for fuel. I give them my card first as required and then fuel up. Once paid for I continue on NV 140 toward the northwest corner of NV and then into OR. I continue to climb but now the mountains are only small bumps. That is because I am now in the middle of those preaks that I had been riding toward forever. Again, it is high desert country with very little follage. I still wonder what the cattle that they warn me about would eat because there is only some small brush and not much of that.
I have my big WOW on this section of road. I am riding on the high plateau when I pass a sign "caution 8%grade for 3 miles". I don't think much about it until I come around a curve and all I see is space and a small pull off on the opposite side of the road. There are 2 bikes and a pickup pulled over in the area and i am past it before I can react. All I see from there on is the edge of the road with no sholder or guard rail. When I look over the edge I see the valley floor which seems like 10,000 ft below. My heart is in my throat, my pucker factor on the seat has hit about a million and I am focused on riding down this side of this mountain. As I look ahead of myself, I see the road curve around the side of the mountain, the shoulder and the sharpe drop off the side then the bottom a very long ways below. I can tell you now that I had the bike in 4th gear to use the engine brakeing to help control the downward pull. I was facinated by the scene on my left, the bottom of the mountain and also the fear and caution to not look that way. I did keep remembering the many times that I had looked out of an Airplane to leap from it and how this sight on my left looked so similar to those times. Only problem now is that I am riding a motorcycle down this road and I do not have a parachute on. I was really wishing that I had that parachute. I am not sure that it would have done any good but it sure would have been a comfort.
Oviously I survived that down hill ride in very good shape and with no close calls. I will let you know that it set me up for a hesitation on every divide that I had cross again that day and I crossed several more. None of them had anything close to that type a grade or cut out of the cliff. I continue to follow 140. I have now figured that that grade occured just after I entered OR. I donot remember any significance to crossing the line but someplace I did. I also noticed many motorcycle headed that way so figure that the cliff face mountain road must be a popular destination for local riders. I also now started to realize that what I had planned for this day was not going to get accomplished. I realized that I had read the milage right as I looked at the maps last night but my brain did not comprehend what that milage ment. I decided to head for Bend, OR and try to do an overnight there. I continued on 140 until I junctioned with OR 31.
OR 31 is a fun motorcycle road. It is listed as a scenic hwy in the atlas and very much fits the discription. I enjoy the twisty and the sweeper. The scenery is a mix of desert, scattered Ponderosa Pine and subteraineion irrigated grass land. My attention was fixed on what the next hill or turn would show me. I also was starting to get tired and toward the end of that section of road and all the way from La Pine to Bend was focused on dealing with the heavy traffic and just getting to Bend to find a motel. Upon entery, the sign said that Bend has about 80,000 people. Great I said to myself, I will easily find a motel room. Well, if there are a lot of motels in Bend I couldn't find them. The few nationals I found were all full or overpriced. My spirit finally led me to a nice little Mom and Pop that was clean, quite and reasonable. It was also close to a nice Chinese Resturant that served off the menu and not a buffet. The food was good. I left an early wake up call, took a good shower, then checked the weather channel and let that set for the morning. I was tired and needed rest. The odometer showed 501.4 miles. No wonder I was tired. At least the temps were down from what I had been experiencing for this trip. It had been 100 when I let the Interstate but dropped into the 90's north of Winnemucca and into the low 80's at Bend. I am looking forward to tomorrow, the last hard day. Milo
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