Day 11…Baker, NV to Milford, UT
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We got up before 5 am today, expecting a long ride, strong southerly winds and hot temperatures.
They call Hwy 50 the lonliest highway in America…no way! Highway 21 was so isolated, it was unbelievable. I rode one stretch of 15 miles without seeing a soul.
At one point, I was off the bike watching some pronghorn sheep rip it up through the desert. I heard a noise down in the ditch next to the road. I looked down to find a whole family of badgers romping around in the dirt. I looked by my front tire, and there was another one five feet from my bike! They seemed very unconcerned by my presence until a truck went by…great timing…and they dashed into their burrow. I have seen one badger in the park, and that was at a distance at dusk. To be so close to these normally elusive creatures was a treat.
At 58 miles, I decended into a very hot, very windy basin. This was painful, and I was not having much fun. It took me forever to get across and start the climb.
About halfway up I ran into a camper broken down by the side of the road. Helping the owner was Klaus, a German living in Mexico. He was driving a Land Rover Defender and it seems he lives out of it, camping as he goes. Klaus gave me a root beer that got me to the top.
There are some very cool lizards out here…sand colored and banded with black, they run like a critter out of Jurrasic Park.
After a very tough day (the toughest in my opinion), I pulled into Milford and had a cold drink. Today’s ride was 84 hot, windy, difficult miles.
I covered 40 miles in the first three hours.