2010 July 7th:
Mark:
We woke up feeling refreshed. We went downstairs and ate a very good breakfast. Once we were all fueled up we got everything packed and loaded onto the bikes. Today we were going to do the long haul across the state of Nevada. We left Carson City Nevada and took highway 50 dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America” to Ely.
We stopped for fuel in Austin Nevada and then saw a diner with a sign advertizing ice cream cones. We stopped and they were out of ice cream so we left disappointed.
When we reached Ely we fueled up and grabbed something to eat. We ran into another rider that was on a Gold Wing. He was from New York and had ridden his bike through Canada and then all the way to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. This guy was quite a character and was full of stories. I wish him safe travels. When we finished eating, we turned and headed out the Great Basin highway which led us to the Great Basin National Park. We turned before this to take a short cut, according to the GPS, and ended up on a gravel road.
This road was a completely rocky diversion where both of us dropped our bikes twice. The first one for me was when I tried to turn around and I simply lost my balance on the slippery surface. No damage done, continue on. The second was when Niko had fallen and I tried to stop and I lost my balance again and the bike fell over. My bike is so heavy that when it gets just over too far, down it goes. It takes both of us all we have to pick it back up.
This “Short Cut” took us over an hour to travel 12 miles. The road was intertwined with many other roads right and left so just trying to follow the GPS was difficult. After riding on this road for so long we came to a small shallow river to cross. This was the easiest part of the road. Eventually we came to a gate across the road and Niko thought that we would have to go back the way we came. I opened the gate and we passed through and then closed the gate and kept going. The last section of this crazy road was much more fun and even entertaining.
We finally made it back to the main highway and then to the Visitor’s Center, but they were closed. We headed up to the campground at the summit, 10,000ft, but that campground was completely full. We had to go back down the 12 mile road and we went through the other two campgrounds and they were full also. We ran into a Ranger and she told us about this other campground, so we went to check it out.
This campground called Baker Creek was down a gravel road about 4 miles. We were able to find a camping spot but it was getting dark. We setup camp as quickly as we could but it was getting very dark quickly. This National Park has been heralded as the darkest place in the USA. It was a little cloudy and we were a little concerned that we wouldn’t have much of a view. Once the sun went away, it was extremely dark and the clouds went away and we could see more stars than imaginable. This campground was at 7,500ft. Niko and I took a bunch of timed exposures of the night sky and then went to bed around midnight.
We met a fellow camper who was very nice and offered us ice and water. Thank you Greg, it was nice to meet you.
Our day turned out to be much longer than we had originally anticipated with 432 miles achieved. Thanks for following along. Good Night.

Niko:
We woke and began packing, then went down to a great breakfast of powdered eggs, handfuls of bacon, yogurt, toast, cereal, juice, and a muffin. We quickly geared up and hauled out of town in the direction of Ely and the Great Basin.
We could hardly keep our eyes open for very long because there was absolutely nothing to see or look at. Seeing sage bush after sage bush for many miles tends to hypnotize a person.
We decided to stop for restrooms and some ice cream, but when we picked out some shakes, they were out of all their ice cream. We thanked them anyway, and continued to Ely.
When we arrived in Ely, we pulled in for gas. The station had an Arby’s built into the convenience store, and we went in and ate. When we went back out to the bikes, we met an interesting character on a Honda Goldwing.
He had modified his Goldwing to have an additional seven gallon tank of gas, a three gallon water tank made of PVC pipe. He had ridden from New York to Prudhoe Bay on his bike, and we had found him in east Nevada. We now wonder where he’s headed.
We continued on to Great Basin, and the GPS wanted us to take a “shortcut” down a dirt road. I said “sure, let’s have an adventure” and did we ever! That road was full of fist-sized rocks, sand, washboards, tight corners, steep inclines, river crossings, barbwire gates, unstable boulders, and potholes that benches could fit in.
The road had about 50 turn-offs, and it was difficult to tell which road the GPS wanted us to take. We both dropped our bikes a couple times, and had to stop and pick them up. After an hour, we reached the point where the 15 miles of extra highway met up with our road. Some shortcut that was! Actually, we were both happy with that road.
We talked with a park ranger when we arrived at the entrance, and he told us the visitor center was closed and that the campgrounds may still have Vacancies. And we continued up the steep road to Wheeler Peak campground.
As it turned out, there were no sites available at the summit, so we turned around to check other sites down the mountain, and we still found full grounds.
A ranger told us to try Baker Creek campground, and we rode in search of it. I actually started my bike via a push start just for the sake of trying, and it was easier than I thought it’d be (though it was downhill).
We took a few wrong turns, but found it as the sun was setting. We set up as fast as possible before the sun was gone, but still needed headlamps and flashlights. It got suddenly cold when the sun went down and I had no hat to wear. Dad put on his hat, and I took a trusty towel and draped it on my head like a hood with an ode to Douglas Adams for “the most useful object in the galaxy”.
Speaking of galaxies, we saw the Milky Way in full color, and vibrancy. It was an awesome sight to behold. We had our cup-a-soups to keep warm and took a few timed exposures with the camera. Now it’s far from early and I must say goodnight.