Nevada Counties - Day 2

In addition to worrying about the caches escaping from my GPSr I was concerned about the temperature starting out the second morning.  Milo and I had checked the weather report the night before and it was supposed to be 40 degrees.  That’s really cold on my motorcycle riding 75 mph on the Interstate into a headwind from the east.  I was on the road at 6:00 a.m. and fortunately the temperature was closer to 50 than 40.  Nevertheless, I did have the headwind and it was cold.

As I was heading toward Mountain Home I felt a bump on my left foot and I immediately knew what it was.  Sure enough, I looked down and saw my GPSr was missing from its clip on the handlebars.  Deja vue all over again!  Two years ago I lost one off my motorcycle in Oregon.  I stopped as quickly as I could hoping that since it hit my foot on the way down it may not be smashed to smithereens as the other one was and providing someone didn’t run over it before I could find it.  I got off my bike and to my immense relief it was hanging by the cord about six inches from the pavement thanks to the L shaped connector that I hate.  I have a new tank bag and it kind of pushes against the unit when it is in the clip making it release.  The rest of the trip I was very careful to make sure it stayed securely clipped.  

I had a list of the caches sorted in the order of my approach and also by county in the map compartment of my tank bag so I could see them without stopping.  I use this method to navigate as my GPSr will give me turn by turn directions.  My route took me to Mountain Home before turning south on highway 51 which would turn to 225 when it crossed into Nevada.  I stopped for a couple of caches before hitting the Nevada line – one to warm up and the other at Bruneau to get gas.  I wasn’t particularly low on gas but it was going to be a long way before the next town which was Elko.  The Bruneau cache was a neat bird house cache called “Buckeroo” that was conveniently located right behind the gas station.

This stretch of highway 225 was probably the most fun one of the whole trip from a motorcyclist point of view.  It was hilly, curvy, scenic and had virtually no traffic going up to Wild Horse dam where I logged my first Nevada cache of the trip.  This was Elko County and my goal was to get at least two caches, and preferably three, in each county.  I had already logged a cache or two in Elko and Eureka counties the year before on the chukar hunting trip but I wanted to do them all on the motorcycle.

At Elko I hit the Interstate and headed west toward Winnemucca and down to Lovelock which was to be my destination for the day.  I think I had a bit of a headwind but it was so minor compared to what I encountered later in the journey that it doesn’t stand out in my mind.  Crossing this part of Nevada (like most of the state) is flat desert with distant bare mountains on either side and about the only vegetation is sagebrush.  There are also some sagebrush-like bushes with thorns which makes for lots of fun searching for caches in those.  There are some shallow lakes and alkali fields along the way to somewhat break up the monotony.  I logged a half dozen or so caches along the way picking up Eureka, Lander, Pershing and Humboldt counties with only one DNF (did not find).

I arrived hot and tired at 4:15 at the motel where I had a reservation in Lovelock, having covered 445 miles which was my longest day in miles.  I was greeted in the office by a note saying “Be back at 5:15”.  I can tell you I was not in the mood to wait around an hour so I left a note telling them so and went across the street to another old motel.  It turns out this 90 year old motel (The Super 10) had the same owner.  However, the old Texas hillbilly manager was there and the price ($37) was the same.  Although it was old, it was well built, well maintained and comfortable.  There isn’t much in the way of restaurants in Lovelock but I did get a good club sandwich at McDonald’s.  My lunches each day were eaten on the road and consisted of smoked salmon or sardines.  I had not slept well the night before at Milo’s and after this long day on the road I went to bed at 8:30 and slept like a log.

To backtrack a bit, at one of my stops before Lovelock I had noticed my rear tire was going fast and had worn down to the cord in a spot or two.  Interstate speeds of 75 to 80 mph in the heat can take its toll on a motorcycle tire.  The fact that I slept so well with this worry can attest to how tired I was.  Of course, there is no motorcycle shop in Lovelock.  It was Sunday anyway, and most motorcycle shops are closed Monday as well.  With these problems looming I knew I would not be able to make Tonopah the next night so I called and cancelled my motel reservation so I wouldn’t forfeit my fee.  The closest town with a shop (1) was Fernley and it was about 45 miles away.  Next were Sparks and Reno which were about 45 miles beyond that.   

The second picture is the base of Wild Horse dam and the last one is the Super 10 Motel in Lovelock.  (To be continued)  M/W