Days 12 & 13 

77 miles to Ely and a rest day.

We woke early, 0500hrs as we wanted to be on the road as soon as possible and definitely by 0700. As it was we were out just after 0630 and straight onto the hill of Main Street. This dragged on a while and was a painful start to the day for our aching legs.

The route to Ely was long and had 4 summit to ascend to. We took our time (on the road about 10 hours including breaks) but kept going with the confidence that we could reach our goal.

We passed tgrough some lovely scenery once again. Mountains all around us capped with snow while the flats were hot with headwinds much of the day.

We passed a group of people who were ‘walking across America’ at first we were impressed then we realised that they were in fact walking small sections then getting in a car to do the hills! This irritated Tracey and I as I suspect that they may have pushed their plan / venture as a walk not a walk / car ride. Anyway, we all have our standards. 

We hit Robinsons summit about 1630 with about 10 miles to go to Ely. It was amazing, after the hard work to the summit we coasted most of the 10 miles down hill. Bloody brilliant it was too! 

We arrived in Ely having decided to take a day off to rest. We have cycled 148 miles in 2 days and we need to just regroup. 

So today (Wednesday 8th June) we slept in at a cheap motel, got up at 0800 and had a leisurely breakfast. We then posted some unwanted kit home before visiting the splendid White Pine Museum. Here we looked at the mining history of the town as well as other artefacts from WW1 &2 plus some social exhibits such as an old 50’s Coke dispenser, record players and one or two medical devices like an old diathermy set. 

A day or two ago, I mentioned that we met a very kind Italian gentleman whose name began with C. Well I was a few letters out, it was Nicola! Anyway, Nicola mentioned that there was a radio station in Ely called KDSS who may be good to connect with. How right he was Karen and Eric at KDSS 92.2 fm were lovely. They are going to mention us tomorrow, they would have done an interview but are only live in the morning and we didn’t make it to the office till 1300. We left our cards with websites along with our thanks for a very warm reception. 

We ate astounding pizza and then sorted out our remaining kit for an early start tomorrow. I cleaned and oiled the bike chains as we don’t want excessive wear from sand and dirt. 

At 1900 we went to the Central cinema (open since the 1940’s and family run) to watch X-Men Apocalypse which was superb. 

And so to bed after a nice day off. Our legs are grateful. Back on to Highway 50 tomorrow and on to Baker our last stop in Nevada before we enter Utah.