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Friday, July 4, 2008, Campground, Baker, Nevada
I got everyone up early so that we could get an early start. I left a note for Steve, the Ranger, to send me a camp survey at: General Delivery, Pueblo, Colorado, because I wanted to let everyone know how nice our experience was at Cave Lake. Our first seven miles to Hwy. 50 were downhill and pretty cool that early in the morning. At first as we headed east, the wind was against us for about 10 miles but later changed to a cross wind. We met a trio of cross-country cyclists heading to San Francisco from the east coast- Charlie, Jesse, and Annie. They were looking good and planned to stop in Ely for the night. Going over the second pass was hard. The wind was against us and twice I fell because while clipped in to my cleats, we slowed down so much I tipped and couldn’t get my feet unclipped in time. No injuries, but a lesson learned: Don’t clip in on extremely windy days. Gloria was delayed in the van because she thought she had a flat and had it checked out in Ely. Fortunately, the tires were only low in pressure and she didn’t have to fix anything. She arrived near Sacramento Pass at the 46 mile point where we ate and drank till our hearts’ content. Coasting downhill wasn’t as thrilling because of the headwind. However, earlier in the day down the first summit, Connor Pass, Adriana and I hit our all-time high speed: 49 mph.
Before entering Baker, we stopped at Great Basin National Park Visitor Center and watched two short videos about Lehman Caves and the Great Basin area, very relaxing. Not much action in Baker, a store, restaurant, post office, and a camp ground. Like always, I try not to pay money to sleep, so we checked out Pruess Lake about 15 miles away to see how camping there would be there. Mama didn’t like it, so we ended up staying back at Baker for $17. It had nice showers and a shady level tent site. Three black lab puppies came to visit us for about an hour until they became to pesky, so the camp worker took them to their owners next store. Later in the evening, we met Adrienne and John Alston from Colorado, who were on vacation, nice couple. Mama made a nice stew dinner before bed. John had a slight fever and went to bed early. Tomorrow should be our longest ride to date- 85 miles to Milford Utah. We’re planning to get up early. 62 miles.