I had no idea what to expect with Nevada. All I knew is that we'd be biking on what his commonly known as the loneliest road in America. But sometimes it's fun not having any expectations - and so far Nevada has blown me away, in more ways than one.
So first, a fun fact: Nevada is the only state in which you can see mountains from any point. The mountains may not be as pretty as the ones we've seen earlier in the trip - they're rocky, sandy, and sparsely covered with trees and shrubs, but it's still amazing to be constantly surrounded by them. It's so vast and untouched here, it's like no place I've ever been. We've been traveling upwards of 80 miles a day without seeing any sign of human life off of the road.
The terrain makes for some pretty incredible riding as well - almost formulaic in a way. We climb, we descend, we cross a valley, we repeat. The climbs are great too. They are long enough to get into a rhythm, but short enough to not completely tire you out. Which is great considering we've reached the summit of 8 peaks in the last three days.
The flat parts are actually the most killer here in Nevada. The valleys between the mountain ranges create some kind of crazy wind vortex. Many a time we've seen dust cyclones in the distance, and sometimes passing way too close. It wasn't so bad the first couple days when the flat parts were shorter, but today we spent a good chunk of the day in valleys. The wind was just as intense as any wind we've encountered on this trip, but the hard part was that it lasted 60 miles. Wind is hard to deal with mentally because you never know when it will end, and unlike climbs, there's no reward at the end. Because of that, today was definitely the toughest of our 3 days in Nevada thus far.
So at this point we've finished 7 days of the 9 day stretch and spirits are still surprisingly high. It may be partly due to the fun evening events we've had lately. Two nights ago we had a talent show where everyone showed off their skills and last night we had prom! Our theme was science and I was excited that so many people took the theme to heart. We had Galaxy themed outfits, earth science outfits, nerdy outfits, and more! It's been fun to unwind with each other and make the most of these last days of the trip. Only 10 days left at this point! Woah!