Not so stucka in Winnemucca

What a crazy week! Tons of ups and downs, and at certain times, my trip felt like more of an adventure than a gasoline free adventure. When I left Tahoe on Monday morning, I was feeling great and somehow not hungover after a whole day of watching football Tahoe style which, as far as I can tell, is finishing all the alcohol in the house before the daytime games are over, then buy some more for Sunday Night Football. Even though I was leaving Lake Tahoe, a place that embodies everything I love in life - beautiful scenery, refreshing water and friendly people, it felt great to be back on the open road. With the lake at our backs, Stanley and I took off for Reno along a bike path winding its way along the Truckee River. Stan ran and swam and I pedaled until it started getting a bit warmer and I had to throw him in the trailer for the last 6 or 7 miles into Truckee.
While preparing for this leg of our journey, I discovered the section of Google Maps that gives the walking route to a specific location, which I figured would be a good biking route too. It looked awesome! We'd be traveling by two large lakes and through a nature reserve while adding only 3 miles to the overall trip. This meant that Truckee would be the last dose of civilization until just outside of Reno (about 25 miles), so I had to fill up the water jugs and pick up enough food for my next two meals. I followed the directions north towards Prosser Dam Reservoir and, about 10 miles outside of Truckee, found myself on a dirt road with beautiful natural surroundings. Since I opted for the "Hybrid" style bike (part road, part mountain, but best at neither), I was able to continue on without much distraction. Stan was in heaven, constantly darting ahead, then coming back to show me the stick he'd found, an area of the lake he wanted to swim in or the deer that were playing in the woods. It was good that he loved it so much since the dirt road would have made it difficult to pull him in the trailer. The only bad part was that we were using way more water than I had prepared for when I thought we'd be on mostly paved roads. On paved roads, Stan would be in the trailer more using less water so I only brought us each a gallon. As the dirt road continued, we were getting lower and lower on water, but I figured it wouldn't be a big problem since the second reservoir was only 10+ miles ahead and someone told me that paved roads started again ahead. Unfortunately, the water wasn't very clean and the paved roads only lasted for a few miles. We came to the end of the pavement and were faced with a very rough gravel road that would go for 9 miles and over a summit before ending up at the bike path that would take me into Reno. Without enough clean water and, with the amount of running Stan had already done, I decided to flag down the next truck and ask for a ride to the bike path. The ended up meeting up with a prison Psychologist named Dave who was nice enough to give us a ride and provide me with a cold beer to boot. We went about 10 miles and I was telling him how it was the most gas I had used in almost a month. I was feeling a little bad about the situaton as it could have been avoided if I had done more research into the route, but I never would have thought that Google would send anyone down a dirt road.
Dave dropped me off at the bike path and we headed off towards Jess and Teddy's house in Reno. I didn't know Jess and Ted before staying at their house and was connected with them through The Couchsurfing Project. Couchsurfing is a global network of likeminded travelers that host people when they come through their hometown and are hosted by others while traveling. A Couchsufer can visit a website, find someone that fits their personality and connect with them through the website or e-mail. Some hosts show the visiters around town, give them a clean towel and/or cook a nice dinner. Jess and Ted hosted me and Sam, another traveler, on the same night and were amazing hosts. I should think that we will remain in touch and continue on as friends for a long time to come. We enjoyed great conversation and plenty of food and wine. It was a great first experience with the organization and I will definitely continue to meet couchsurfers along my trail to Connecticut and beyond.
Between Reno and Salt Lake City there are 520 miles and I would have 10 travel days to get there in time to meet up with my girlfriend, Caron, who would be there to visit me. I know that goes against what I'm trying to accomplish here, but it's been a long time since we've seen each other and I've always said that this trip is meant to inspire people to realize the impact they have on the environment and then do what you can to neutralize that impact. While we both still have a long way to go, Caron and I have both greatly reduced our carbon footprints and will be purchasing carbon offsets for the flight as well as the other gas I've used this week. Hopefully other people reading this blog are doing the same with their flights and other areas in which they are contributing to global warming. Not that carbon offsets are proven to be the answer to global warming, but it seems like it's the best plan that we currently have until other technology catches up. Hybrid cars and solar water heaters are already here and widely used and more cost effective versions of wind and solar power along with a fully electric car from Chevy are just around the corner and will also be a big help.
Back to the trip... the preferred method of biking through Nevada is along the highway which started off great for me, but bad for Stanley as it meant traveling in the trailer all day long. We had exits every couple hours and small towns to stop at each night. We were flying through the state, averaging over 10 miles per hour and feeling pretty safe on I-80 since the roads were smooth and the shoulders wide. Everything looked the same, so there's not much to comment on until we started having major issues. It seems as though the trailer's tires aren't tough enough for long, fast rides on the hot pavement and the thousands of little pieces of tractor trailer tires that had burst and ended up on the side of the road were no help. The tires have metal wires in them which had pierced the trailer tires and become a real problem. Fortunately, the tire popped at an exit, unfortunately, the exit had no services and no cell phone coverage. The tubes were shot and I had no extra tubes for the trailer, only the bike. Luckily, even though the only thing off the exit was an onion chopping plant, the sign said "Hot Springs," so a nice young couple from Columbus, Ohio was bamboozled into thinking that there was something cool and pulled off to have a look. They had both been repairing bikes in LA all summer and helped me rig something together with duct tape so I could move on to the next big town. As I started east again, it was getting dark and I realized I wouldn't make it to the next town in time, so once again I flagged down a pickup truck to assist.
Chad, an archeological equipment salesman, pulled over and gave Stanley and I a ride to Winnemucca. He went above and beyond the call of duty and brought me to Wal-Mart for tubes and then dropped me at the Motel 6, but not before we stopped by a taco shop that his sister owned for some dinner. I had flashbacks to the Goleta, CA Motel 6 where Stanley had his digestion problems and hoped that he wouldn't have a repeat performance.
As I'm writing this, the US is closing in on their first Ryder Cup victory in nine years and the crowd Kentucky is electric! I feel really good for the entire team, especially Captain Paul Azinger, who is a cancer survivor. On the flip side, the Mets just blew a late lead against the Braves and have, for the second straight year, squandered a comfortable lead in the standings over the Phillies. Luckily, the Brewers are doing their best impression of last year's Mets, so the Mets might still make the playoffs as a wildcard.
Thankfully, there was no repeat Motel 6 perfomance by Stanley and his stomach, so we were able to leave the room without incident. As we started east once again, I noticed that the back wheel on my bike was wobbling and I stopped into Winnemucca's only bike shop to have it checked out. I figured that I could have a few other things looked at and adjusted at the same time as nothing was in tip top shape after so many miles and so much stress on the bike with the trailer and 80lbs dog. The knowledgable shop owner recommended a new wheel, brakes and several other repairs. He didn't have the right size hybrid wheel and thought it would take clear into next week to receive the part. He recommended getting the bike to Salt Lake City where there were many more shops and I'd have better luck. I checked into ways to get there and found out that there was a Greyhound that left from a convenience store parking lot at 10:10pm that night. I boxed up the bike, transferred everything I owned from bike paniers to a rucksack that I bought at Wal-Mart and still had a few hours to kill in Winnemucca before the bus. Stanley and I wandered around town trying to find like-minded individuals to hang out with. We patronized a few establishments, shooting the shit with miners and degenerate gamblers before settling into a small bar blasting 80's power ballads and offering shuffleboard and billiards. It turned out that the bar owner had just settled a divorce that morning and it was her first day owning the bar outright. We celebrated with shots and a few beers until it came time to get back to the convenience store bus stop. When the Greyhound pulled up, the driver decided that he didn't want to attempt to fit my boxed up bike in the luggage bins and said that I could only ride to SLC without my bike. He actually wanted me to leave the bike at the convenience store where, at some point, when someone could fit it in the luggage compartment, it would follow me to Salt Lake City. That wasn't acceptable to me, so Stanley and I went back to the bar to be with our new friends. All day, I had been joking that I was "stucka in Winnemucca" and now I really was.
As soon as I got back to the bar, Eileen, the bar owner, poured me a cold beer and I struck up a conversation with a miner named Kevin that was wearing a cycling shirt. It turns out that he was driving to Salt Lake City on Friday morning to visit his daughters and do some cycling and offered Stanley and I a ride. At the same time, Eileen offered me a room in the yet to be completed inn/boarding house above the bar. It was great and the people welcomed me with open arms. Over the next 36 hours, I came to appreciate the town and it's people and saw first hand how booming the area was. I felt as though I was part of the gold rush of the 1800s, except that, instead of arriving on horses, everyone was arriving in gas guzzling pickup trucks. The companies will hire almost anyone and people are earning so much money down in the mines that they'll actually fly in from their real homes as far away as the midwest to work for two weeks a month. It was cool for a few days, but I was ready to go when Kevin showed up Friday morning. One more thing I'll remember about my time in Winnemucca is that's where Stanley officially became well behaved and cool enough that he can walk around town without a leash.
When we arrived in Salt Lake City, Kevin dropped me at my friend, Jessica's house where I was to stay for a few days until I could get my bike fixed. I met Jess when she went to Yale Midwifery school and she just happened to move to from Portland, OR to SLC a few months ago for a new career opportunity. Evidently, the Mormons love for big families creates a lot of positions for Mid-Wifes in the area. She also has a dog named George. George and Stanley have developed an instant friendship.
Once I got settled in, I checked out Craigslist and found a bike repair guy named Ben who went to town on my bike and made it as good as new. In addition, Jess offered to let me stay with her until Caron comes in next weekend so now I'm on vacation in Salt Lake City. How ironic is it that I'd be on vacation in a town that serves beer with reduced alcohol and metered cocktails?
From here, I will be going southeast towards I-70 in Colorado and then will conquer the Rocky Mountains before getting into the Great Plains. I anticipate following the path of 70 most of the way back to the east, so if you know anyone, or anything, along the way that I might want to visit, please feel free to e-mail me at toddaltschuler at yahoo dot com.