Day 6 (5/28/09)

We got on the road today with our earliest start, about 7:30. The ride started with a climb out of town, with a quick decent before another climb and decent. The temperature was just cool enough that we had to put on a jacket for the descents. Day6's ride and terrain was identical to Day 5, same headwind and scenery. I was reminded of the Henry VIII song, "... second verse same as the first ...".
Today was a short day, only 69 miles (even with the car option, since towns are far and few between, we still have to plan our next stop so the distance is not too short or too long). According to Tim, we are on course and on time. We ended in Eureka, Nv. Just outside of town was a huge gold mining operation. Apparently, the operation was idle for awhile, but now that the price of gold is up, the operation has became lucrative again.
Adventure Cycling's magazine has a section for people to advertise trips they are taking and soliciting riders to join them. I had noticed one gentleman, seeking companion riders, that intended to ride the same route we were traveling and leaving about when we were. Before I started the trip, I had e-mailed him and told him we had our own group, but wanted to introduce myself in case we saw each other along the route. Roger (from Australia) e-mailed back and said he found two companions, one from the UK and the other from San Francisco. Coincidentally, we met the group in our hotel in Eureka. They had left San Francisco on May 17th and are traveling unsupported and generally camping. Jere offered to perform a maintenance go over on their bikes and later we all joined them for dinner. We also offered our support team to cache their water at their intended camp site, 40 miles down the road, to save them some weight. We intend to ride a hundred. We are a lean, mean riding team.
Still no cell phone coverage, but obviously wireless Internet. Still great weather, but for the headwind. Day 7's forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms, maybe our luck will start to run out.