A complete day of contrasts today, we set off at 6am again, into a red desert that wound up into the hills from the back door of Richfield, this changed after 5 or 6 miles into rolling green hills of Fish Lake Forest that were both very pretty & also required a fair bit of concentration on both the surface of the trail & the route, then we moved into the white desert that ran alongside a massive salt lake & the rather odd looking Crystal Mountain before dropping to the plains & to the Nevada border.
We're staying at the Border Inn, its literally on the Nevada/Utah state line, it's a motel, cafe, fuel stop & a casino, all in one... rather an odd place as it's virtually empty & on a road that is dubbed 'The loneliest highway in the US', sound depressing or what?? :-)
We've changed our routine the last few days, getting out of bed around 5am, then on the road by the latest 6.30am, riding until 2 ish & then finding a place to stay, this has mostly been to avoid the heat, it's so much more pleasant to ride & concentrate when your not baking your brains out...
We've covered 160 miles, in what felt like a fairly quick time today, mainly because the trails have had good surfaces & also it has been better to ride at a steady 60 mph on the gravel roads we encountered later in the day so that the steering on the bikes was less all over the place. It seems if you ride around 40 ish, the front wheel is forcing a path through the gravel, & thus suddenly can veer in any direction, the whole thing is very insettling & you often find yourself on the edges where the gravel is deeper thus making the problem worse... by contrast when you find the right speed the bikes seem to float over the stuff & its a whole lot more relaxed journey... then you just have to stay in the tyre groove which takes a lot of concentration believe me!!
We've seen Deer, Birds of Prey, Jack Rabbits, loads of little things that run quickly across the road for now reason, but I have no idea what they are...much more variety of wildlife in the hills again today, with the salt lands & plains having nothing except lots of small birds darting around all over.
Crystal Mountain from the east can be seen from about 30 miles out as an odd white lump against all of its neighbouring rolling hills, it stands at about 7100 feet & the road that leads to it is a mix of sand & limestone shale & it's very straight!! The peak itself looks like some kind of limestone plug with a lot of white chalk in it, it really is very white & stands out against everything around it, the trail winds through a small pass with CM on it's left then drops pretty quickly to the long flat plains that eventually lead you to Nevada. Great place, I'd like to try some climbing on here to see what it would be like...
So tomorrow is Nevada, with the last two states of this traverse left to do... they also look to be the toughest from both the trail point of view & with the warnings about flash flood & fire damages, so we'll see what we encounter, we also go past one of the staging posts for the Pony Express riders, so a cracking bit of history to be seen too, now them boys were hard core!!
The hot desert winds are blowing tonight, there are big grey clouds all around & thunderstorms forecast for the next few days, more fun to add to the mix...
Have fun all...
We're staying at the Border Inn, its literally on the Nevada/Utah state line, it's a motel, cafe, fuel stop & a casino, all in one... rather an odd place as it's virtually empty & on a road that is dubbed 'The loneliest highway in the US', sound depressing or what?? :-)
We've changed our routine the last few days, getting out of bed around 5am, then on the road by the latest 6.30am, riding until 2 ish & then finding a place to stay, this has mostly been to avoid the heat, it's so much more pleasant to ride & concentrate when your not baking your brains out...
We've covered 160 miles, in what felt like a fairly quick time today, mainly because the trails have had good surfaces & also it has been better to ride at a steady 60 mph on the gravel roads we encountered later in the day so that the steering on the bikes was less all over the place. It seems if you ride around 40 ish, the front wheel is forcing a path through the gravel, & thus suddenly can veer in any direction, the whole thing is very insettling & you often find yourself on the edges where the gravel is deeper thus making the problem worse... by contrast when you find the right speed the bikes seem to float over the stuff & its a whole lot more relaxed journey... then you just have to stay in the tyre groove which takes a lot of concentration believe me!!
We've seen Deer, Birds of Prey, Jack Rabbits, loads of little things that run quickly across the road for now reason, but I have no idea what they are...much more variety of wildlife in the hills again today, with the salt lands & plains having nothing except lots of small birds darting around all over.
Crystal Mountain from the east can be seen from about 30 miles out as an odd white lump against all of its neighbouring rolling hills, it stands at about 7100 feet & the road that leads to it is a mix of sand & limestone shale & it's very straight!! The peak itself looks like some kind of limestone plug with a lot of white chalk in it, it really is very white & stands out against everything around it, the trail winds through a small pass with CM on it's left then drops pretty quickly to the long flat plains that eventually lead you to Nevada. Great place, I'd like to try some climbing on here to see what it would be like...
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| East face of Crystal Mountain |
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| West face of Crystal Mountain |
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| A Salt Lake in Utah |
The hot desert winds are blowing tonight, there are big grey clouds all around & thunderstorms forecast for the next few days, more fun to add to the mix...
Have fun all...
