Middlegate, NV

We're in Middlegate at the only bar in town. Probably the only thing in town. It is a 100 year old freight station that also became a pony express station. There are a ton of one dollar bills on the ceiling. This place is pretty cool.

Loading up in Eureka,NV with some food and water before heading out on a 68 mile stretch of no services or service. These towns are small but they do exist.

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Majors Junction, NV

Yesterday was brutal with the head winds but we were able to pick up the much needed, and much appreciated, care packages.  There's a wind farm in this valley so that can give you an idea of how steady the wind is here. We made it to Majors Junction, barely, where theres only a bar/inn/RV park. I don't think i would have been able to keep climbing past this bar, so we went and grabbed a beer and set up the tent.  The night ended well.

What a day!

So we made it to Cedar City, not the way we wanted to but it was interesting. We camped just outside Zion the night before and had some trouble finding a safe place to put our panniers. eventually we found out we could leave them at the lodge after talking to many park workers.  We hiked up angel's landing at zion and got some food afterwards before finishing up our ride for the day.  We still had 60 miles to go at 3 pm.  Whoops.  On the way we ran into a couple of touring cyclists and stopped to talk to them for a while. So we didnt have enough time to finish up our ride at all.  They said we could stop for the night in Kanaraville which was closer but we would have to ride on the freeway.  So we kept riding through toquerville after i fixed a flat and made it to the freeway. It was a bad idea we only made it about 2 miles and we had about 7 to go but it was too dangerous.  We got off so that we could find another way around but there were no other roads up that way. We knocked on doors asking people for a ride to frontage road and eventually found someone willing to do it. We offered $20 and he actually took us all the way to cedar city.  So we gave him $30 and he dropped us off in a park to camp.  The sign at the park said "no camping". We should have listened to that too.  The sprinkler system turned on at about 230 am and i made a mad dash to get the fly on the tent but we were all pretty wet.  Then it turned on again at 5 am or another zone turned on.  And someone told us this morning that we should pack up the tent before the cops see it since it could be a $1000 fine. But we've dodged that one too. So, we're in Cedar City and we'll be in Nevada by tomorrow.

UT

Made it to Utah!

Leaving AZ

So AZ has been very interesting.  I was sick for a couple days after leaving the Navajo reservation but the person we were staying with was nice enough to let us stay a couple extra nights. We just saw the Grand Canyon yesterday and we're heading up to Utah today. Just so everyone knows we were not in Aurora, CO at all, so we're still continuing on to SF.

Care package

If anyone would like to send us something then we will be in Baker, NV in about 13 days. Send it to

John Innes
General Delivery
Baker, NV 89311-9999

Please make sure it will fit on a bike and isnt too heavy :-) and if you dont think it will make it to Baker in the 13 days then send it Priority and I'll be able to forward it to another post office.  Cheers!

Outside of kaibeto at a scenic overlook

I actually have 3G here! On our way to Page, AZ.

Whole new scenery

We've made it to AZ now and just visited the four corners. The scenery changed drastically after we left the mountains. Lush forests on mountainsides changed to deserts and plateaus.  Lots of prairie dogs too, and the sun feels much more intense.  I'm already burned. We should be camping in red mesa tonight, not entirely sure where but we'll figure it out.

Kayenta to Page

Rolling from Kayenta to Page I have no service but found wifi at an inn.  The sun is getting pretty brutal and we have a hundred mile ride today. We'll see what happens we should have plenty of water to make it though. Hopefully its mostly downhill too.

Spending the night in Kayenta, AZ. Someone approached us and asked us if we needed a place to set up a tent. He and his family are really nice.

Leaving the Rockies

So this is our last day in the rockies... pretty sad despite the tough climbs.  The scenery is beautiful and there was a lot of rain at lizards head pass but it was still really cool.  We finished off the day in Dolores and went to the Dolores River Brewing Company.  Awesome place. I suggest anyone who likes beer check them out. 

Telluride, CO

Telluride is a really cool place. A lot of shops but it would really be cool to snowboard here.  These pictures are taken from the top of one of the mountains of Telluride and one of the trail signs.  The gondola was free. There is so much to do here if you're into extreme sports.  We even bouldered a little bit at Gravity Works for $11. We even checked out the brew pub Smugglin Joes and tried some beer from the Telluride brewing company.  The Juniper Rye at Joes was really good, I've been noticing a lot of breweries selling the Juniper Rye or some other kind of rye beer. So we'll be heading out to climb Lizards head tomorrow toward Dolores. That will be a nice climb almost as high as Monarch.

Blue mesa lake hydro

This is blue mesa lake hydroelectric plant. This and 2 other hydro plants in the area generate 246,000 kW, total. The water is so blue too.  The west side of the continental divide has so many fewer trees.

We've made it to the Rockies!

We're in Gunnison now and we just rode over Monarch pass.  11,312 feet elevation. I was sweating at about 9000 feet and then the temperature dropped about 30 degrees then it started raining and that turned to hail.  Lightning was striking less than a mile away.There was a river of water running down the side of the road and the road was covered in ice. The excess water running down the cliff sides was causing rocks to fall onto the road (small avalanches). But we all made it up safely, just a little cold. I dont have any pictures of the road conditions during the storm but i have some nice shots of the road from 12,012 ft afterwards. I'll upload those photos later. So here's a photo of some mountain goats we saw. They scale the cliffs effortlessly!

Arkansas Point Campground

We made it to Pueblo and took a day off to see the city.  They have some good Mexican restaurants and the Shamrock Brewery. We also celebrated Tamar's birthday with some fried ice cream.  We had lunch at Bingo Burger which uses locally raised food and serves locally brewed beer.  We're camping at Arkansas Point campground just west of Pueblo.  We can see a little bit of the Rockies right now since the weather has been cloudy and rainy today.  We'll see what we can see tomorrow, but we'll be diving into those climbs tomorrow. We should be camping in Howard CO tomorrow night and making it to Telluride in the next few days. The weather will be cooler so i just hope it doesn't rain too much.

Welcome to Colorado!

We made it through KS. But CO looks a lot like KS. Actually it looks flatter.

Tribune, KS

We've made it to Tribune, KS which is just over the mountain time zone line.  Apparently, there is a sliver of KS that is in the mountain time zone.  Most of these towns accommodate cyclists and let them swim in the pool for free and use the showers.  KS loves pools and water slides.  It's been really helping to cope with the heat in the afternoon.  But nobody bothers us when we camp in the park, except on the fourth when EVERYONE sets off fireworks. There were fireworks Everywhere! I dont think I'll ever have the chance again to bike through a town when thats going on again but it was really cool.  It didn't help us getting to sleep though.  Soon enough we'll be in CO, probably tomorrow.  And hopefully it will be just as awesome as KS has been. The headwind still sucks,  though, and the gradual uphill all the way through western KS. But other than that it's awesome!

Wind farm.

This is the first wind farm I've seen in KS so far but its in a great location. The wind is almost blowing me off the road here.  Only two of them are not turning and they look like they're all cranking out a good amount of energy.

Batman!

Apparently Adam West has been living in Larned, KS.

Fourth of July

After riding 100+ miles yesterday we're ready for a day off.  Checking out Fort Larned today in Larned, KS. These towns in KS have been pretty good about letting cyclists camp and use showers.  Some of them have let us use the pool for free.

Eureka! ...Kansas

Camping now in a town called Eureka.  We've had some pretty amazing hosts but camping in a park is still pretty fun.  This town isn't too big but they really try to accommodate cyclists.  Apparently, the park we're camping in is where they send all their visiting cyclists and they've built bathrooms here specifically for cyclists too.  There's also a race across KS that comes through here. AND we went to the pool, normally they charge $2, but it was free for us to swim and shower. This place is pretty awesome.

Flint hills of KS

Yes Kansas has hills. The flint hills actually. The last untouched prairie lands in the country that stretch on for miles. There's some beautiful landscape out here