Sunday, August 4th, 2024
Ely, NV -> Eureka, NV
83.69 mi, 4298 ft elevation
Today was overall a really good day, although most of it can be summed up in a few sentences. We left the hotel and biked through the Nevada wasteland for 50 miles. We ate lunch on the side of US 50. We biked 30 more miles. We made quesadillas and set up our camp in the county fairground. I saw the best sunset of my life (see the end of this blog). We attempted to work on blogs and then went to sleep.
I could have added a lot more detail to that description, but to be honest today was pretty uneventful, so instead I will dedicate this blog to one of Spokes 2024’s most beloved traditions - stickers! Over the last 63 days, we’ve been collecting stickers from various locations and adding them to our bikes. By the end of the summer, our bikes will tell the story of everything we've been through.
The first sticker of the trip for all of us was from Shenandoah. This started our tradition of collecting WPA-style stickers, which are based on artwork created by the WPA program in the 1930s. When we bought these stickers we were super hyped after just completing our first big climb of the trip to get into the park, blissfully unaware of the chaos that was about to occur.
Breaks Interstate Park - forever remembered as the place where we discovered how cool hammocks are. But then we spent most of our day planning for our next learning festival rather than using the hammock :(.
Sophia found this sticker at the bed and breakfast we stayed at in Hazard, KY. It both matches perfectly with the color of the bike as well as serves as a comment on the local economy. It's also the easiest way to figure out which bike is Sophia's.
Mammoth Cave - the park where we learned that squirrels have no problem opening bike bags. And the St. Louis Arch, the only non-natural national park (still very cool).
In Osawatomie, KS, we stayed with Jeff and Sarah, who operate a bike shop out of their home. Osawatomie is at the start of the 118-mile Flint Hills Trail, which we took for part of that day. Without the Flint Hills Trail I could have been swept away in a flash flood, so this sticker means a lot to me!
After braving 15 miles of the worst headwinds we had ever experienced, we took refuge at the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve visitor center, where we could not resist buying some more stickers!
A few of us got these stickers at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. A unique shape to add to our collection of mostly rectangular or circular stickers.
The first sticker is from the Hungry Moose Caboose, the only restaurant in the small town of Jefferson, Colorado that we visited a few miles into our ride from Kenosha Campground. I had an amazing breakfast sandwich and we ran into some other bikepackers heading the other direction. The second sticker we got from a coffee shop a few days later in Gunnison, CO after our learning festival.
The first two are stickers Varsha acquied in Fruita and Cisco on our ride from Grand Junction to Moab. Varsha and Amulya report that Best Slope was one of the best coffee shops on the trip. I unfortunately wasn't there because I went the wrong way for 20 miles, leading to a catastrophic 127 mile day with two flat tires. The last sticker is from JJ Mercantile, the only place to get water for about 20 miles in either direction on UT-128, where the power went out while I was in the middle of filling my bottle.
Behold, Cosmo the cat! Cosmo is a former stray cat adopted by the library in Moab and now has his own merch.
We spent the next week visiting national parks across Utah. Some notable moments included getting lost on a hike due to our apparent inability to read signs, hanging out with my uncle in Bryce Canyon, and having our campsite overrun by squirrels once again, so catastrophically that the park rangers came over to check on us.
Baker, Nevada ended up being one of my favorite stops on the trip. With a population of just 21, we didn't expect much to be happening in this town, but not long after we arrived people starting setting up a night market outside the general store where we got these stickers.
With 12 days left in the trip, I'm sure there are still many adventures and stickers yet to come!
And here's the sunset as promised:
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