Welcome to Nevada! The orange stake says “State Line.”
The Silver Jack Motel and Lectrolux Cafe in Baker.
Baker, NV, pop. 52, sits in the Great Basin’s Snake Valley, one of the longest valleys in the US. We crossed the Continental Divide earlier in the trip, so rain falling west of of there is supposed to drain to the Pacific. However, the Great Basin has no ‘drain’ - all precipitation that falls here either evaporates or drains into the ground.
Further, according to the Lectrolux Cafe’s menu, Nevada has 314 mountain ranges, making it the most mountainous state. The Silver Jack is a funky but cool place. A large beer selection and wifi are among the The Silver Jack/Lectrolux’s attractions. (There is absolutely no cell service in Baker.)
This was one of our easiest days so far - 161 miles in under 8 hours.
Baker to Eureka today. We tried to get an early start, but the Silver Jack/Lectrolux folks didn’t open up for breakfast until almost 8:00, when their hours say 6:30.
Wonderful weather for us today, the thunderstorms kept things cool.
We made really good time on some parts this day’s route. Unlike most motorcycle ride we were able to see exactly where we would be in several miles.
Ate a late lunch in Lund. It seemed like we were making good progress, and it kept looking on the map like we were getting closer to Lund, but the going was slow because every time it looked like we were almost there, the route would turn off onto some winding jeep trail for several miles.
This was a gas station, store, and restaurant all in one, and only had one person working, so service was very slow.
Toward noon the weather started getting hot, but then it clouded up and we went through or near a number of thunderstorms, and they kept the temps pretty reasonable.
This was a really long day for us, but also really neat - crossing mountain ranges, then flat valleys to the next range, it was fun.
There was a “bug and contact lens incident.” We crossed Hwy 50 after 6:00. We started on this last 25 or so miles of TAT route to Eureka, but when it became clear that the route was going to cross another mountain range before getting to Eureka, and the sun was going set in 40 minutes, plus it was sprinkling and looking rainier that way, we decided the smart thing to do was to go back to Hwy 50 and get to Eureka before dark.
I hit reserve on the DRZ at 217 miles, and we ended the day with almost 230 miles in 11.5 hours.
My mud pit video didn’t come out very well, so this will have to represent day 9.
After having skipped some of the TAT route going into Eureka last night in the rain, we skipped some on the way out of town as well because several people reported that mining claims or operations had fenced off parts of it. We re-joined as it crossed Hwy 50 again.
The roads started off easy, but then some of the low parts in the flat valley were muddy, and really slippery. We made it through, and the roads got drier as we went along.
We passed some mines, and went over this little pass, then took some very silly little roads into Battle Mountain.
125 miles in 5.5 hours. Short day of riding so that we could change our oil and do some laundry.
The wild horses get spooked by the motorcycles and usually we would see them from a fair distance. Sadly one of these horses was lame, perhaps with a broken ankle. The other horse staying with the lame one still makes me sad to think about.
Absolutely incredible day of riding today, it just took too long (240 miles in 12 hours). We did a couple of our own routes today, and they were really scenic. Arrived in Fields, OR after 9PM. Unfortunately that meant the last hour or more was in the dark.