I was on the road in Grand Junction by 7:00
am. The temperature was already in the low 70s. The 50 merges with interstate
70 at Grand Junction and for the next 3.5 hours I was running at about 75 and 80
MPH, the speed limits in Colorado and Utah.
The sights in Utah were incredible. I went
past the Arches National Park turnoff, which is one place I really want to go to
someday. Red and white rocks, while the road went up and down through the
canyons.
Then the 50 exits the 70 at Salina. The road is then a two lane road through some
great back country. You go north and then you hit Interstate 15 at 80 MPH and
go South for a few miles until the 50 once again exits and goes to a two lane
back country road. At this point the
landscape becomes desolate. It was also when the temperature started to rise until
it got to 96 at one point.
The road keeps going into Nevada and
immediately passes by the Great Basin National Park, which I motorcycle camped
at last year about this time. A very cold and rainy place at the top, as
compared to a hot dry climate at the bottom. I left Great Basin last year early
because I could not stand another day of rain and cold. You need to go there to believe it.
This is the point where I have previously ridden on the 50 and things start to get good with chaparral vegetation at 7.5k
feet altitude. All along the winds had
been picking up to about 30 MPH. I was
glad that I had carried and filled my spare tank of gas, since the winds
significantly decreased the gas mileage. I rolled into Ely, NV with hardly any
gas at all in my main tank. When I filled the tank it took 5.4 gallons and
holds 5.8 gallons. I was just working on
the bike and had my tool kit on the seat, when the wind blew the tool kit off
the bike. The tool kit probably weighs 10 pounds.
I arrived at Ely, NV at 2:30 PM Pacific Time, which was 3:30 PM Mountain. Today I rode 432 miles which took 8.5 hours,
and a moving time of 6.5 hours. You can see how going 75 and 80 MPH gets you
there faster.
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