The saga continues of that long ago epic solo bike tour around the Nevada Test Site that helped set me on the path toward becoming the Iron Tortoise of cyclo-commuting fame. For those who may have missed the earlier installments, Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.
Day 3 (Monday, April 10): Soaking It Up at Warm Springs
Tonopah Summit
Monday morning dawned brisk, bright, and crystal clear — reflecting a mood of growing confidence that I might really be able to complete this tour after all. Though in some respects this would actually be an even tougher day than the preceding death ride had been, with 78 miles to cover and a total climb of 3800 feet over four separate summits, at least I could anticipate an equal amount of downhill riding and the less extreme heat of higher elevation. Following another icecream sandwich breakfast, I left Goldfield at 7:15 am on my first true descent of the tour.
Tonopah Test Range
The climb up to Tonopah Summit, though quite comparable to the grade up Goldfield Summit the prior day, proved much easier after a good night’s sleep. I reached the top by 9:30 am, riding the first 25 miles of the day in fairly respectable time, and breezed on down to Tonopah to resupply for the long haul ahead. Without so much as a convenience store, a diner, or even a water fountain until Rachel 112 miles down the road, I knew I would have to carry supplies for at least a day and a half; so after an early lunch I headed east on US 6 at 12 Noon on the loneliest leg of the journey.
Toiyobe National Forest Rest Area
Riding past the dirt road into the Tonopah Test Range, part of the larger Nellis Air Force Bombing Range to the northwest of NTS, a long climb brought me up to the day’s second summit; and then a delightful descent down to a rest area offering the only semblance of shade for many miles around — another 24 miles in just 2 hours. Though well within the boundary of the Toiyobe National Forest at this point, the only trees to be be seen were those few struggling specimens residing in the rest area itself. Only in Nevada it seems could one find a forest without any trees! A sign warned visitors that the water at the rest area was unsafe to drink, but just to drive the point home, the faucets had all been removed.
Warm Springs Cafe
Water or no water, it was time for my now customary afternoon siesta, so I took advantage of what shade there was and waited for the sun to settle a little lower in the sky. Leaving the rest area a little after 4 pm, the first real tail wind of the tour helped relieve the effects of a short but still intensely hot climb to the highest summit on the route at 6500 feet. A long and exhilarating 30+ mph downhill and one last easy climb brought me to the fourth and final summit of the day. Here, under a now thankfully cloudy sky and many miles from the otherwise treeless Toiyobe, stood a grove on pinyon pines that actually seemed to be thriving.
Warm Springs Pool
Thanks to a now gale force tail wind, I hit 44 mph on the winding descent down to Warm Springs, and was more than happy to have the beefed-up brakes and extra stability of my mountain bike relative to my previous touring bikes. For the first time on this adventure, I had arrived at the day’s scheduled destination with plenty of daylight to spare — having covered the last 25 miles in just over 1.5 hours.
Warm Springs once offered a cafe and small motel for road-weary travelers, but a pronounced lack of traffic thru this part of Nevada had led to their demise some time back. The most disturbing aspect of the place was finding a radiation monitor, an unwelcome reminder that “accidents” could still happen, even with the underground nuclear testing then in effect. At least the pay phone was still working, so I could still make my daily report back to the American Peace Test; and the swimming pool into which the local hot springs fed, though thoroughly encrusted with carbonates, was still quite usable.
Warm Springs Motel
Despite the No Trespassing sign, I hopped the fence and settled in for a nice long soak. After cleansing the accumulated road grime from both body and soul, and a gourmet dinner of canned sardines and green beans, I discovered one of the rooms in the derelict motel had been left unlocked. With a wind that was showing no sign of abating, I decided to sweep aside the accumulated debris of previous occupants, both human and nonhuman, and took up residence for the night. Though the plumbing had long since been ripped out, the electricity was amazingly still on. In addition to an actual bed of sorts to sleep on, I actually had a light to read and write by.
To be continued...
