Why couldn't we end on a downhill?

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Day 7 - Sand Mountain to Austin, NV
Total Miles: 86.6 (458.6mi to date)

Nevada wins the prize (I may bite my tongue tomorrow)
for having the best graded roads. Despite the
elevation profile being absurdly intimidating (highway
50 rides like this: mountain range, descent, basin,
ascent, mountain pass, descent, basin, ascent … repeat
this 14 times ranging from about 4000 - 5000 feet for
the basins to 6000-7500 feet for the passes) the
climbs are fairly gradual and the descents are
cruiser. Today we must have ridden about 7 miles
downhill going about 30 mph - fantastic! We
experienced stereotypical Nevada - “towns” 30 miles
apart from each other often consisting solely of a bar
and populations of 8.
As the sun was going down we approached Austin, NV.
We had to practically drag ourselves up the three
miles of switchbacks that lead to the town. When we
arrived we were famished. We stopped in a little café
(the only place to eat in Austin, which is a fairly
large town - being the only place to eat, these cafés
can charge whatever they want for food) and had some
of the best taco salads ever. We contacted the
sheriff regarding sleeping arrangements and he told us
the park would be a great place (we were lucky the
sprinklers didn’t come on during the night). When we
asked one of the locals about internet usage, he
laughed and said the place next door just got
electricity - hence the infrequent postings.

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Comments

[josh]

best...blog...ever...