Ely, NV to Eureka, NV — 69.8 mi, 3252 ft
giving you my WARMEST of welcomes (truly, it’s pretty toasty out here…) from the silver1, battle born2, and (tragically) most mountainous state in the union, the one i happen to call home—nevada! your friendly neighborhood nevadan sarah is here to give you the details on our stretch from ely (pronounced e-lee) to eureka! 💡
like many a day with spokes 2025, this one actually started very, VERY early. as in just past midnight from the previous day. this came courtesy of a late-night, spontaneous decision headed by ruth to film a spokes version of the trailer of the classic 1985 film “the breakfast club.” roles were assigned, clips were filmed, and everyone eventually set off to bed: as of writing this (slightly delayed) blog, the full production is in the final stages of editing by ruth, so stay tuned!!! 🙌🏻 so, the spokies ACTUALLY started our real day pretty late, not waking up until well after 8am in the otherwise desolate halls of white pine high school. i hit a quick shower (mostly due to the freezing temperature and EXTREME water pressure…i thought my skin was going to get blasted clean off), ate some granola, packed up, and set off around 10:30am…yikes 😬
after turning onto highway 50 to head out-of-town, i felt the familiar dread of looking down at my bike computer and realizing that the next turn was not for another 60-something miles 😐 i think i am ever so slightly addicted to the variety of data in order to keep me stimulated on the ride, but we all have our own coping mechanisms…right? it’s ok, though: i had left that morning with greta and ruth, and we eventually caught up with tian to have an almost all-spokes-girlies leg 1 (minus ramona, who understandably sped off a little earlier in the day after waking up at 7am. we all aspire to be like ramona). we passed a sign that said ruth (and took a picture with it, of course), talked about the potential state of our lives in the next 25-50 years, and before i knew it, we saw charles in the distance with the van. joseph eventually catches up to the rest of us after leaving last because he is slow to get ready in the mornings but refuses to get up earlier to compensate, instead resorting to putting in high intensity first legs (had to call you out on it…sorry not sorry). i had the absolute PERFECT combo of snacks—salty cheez-its and half a cheese stick, a few sweet strawberries, and some refreshing lemonade to wash it all down 😮💨 and set off in a wonderful mood to start our 1st summit of the day!
for my non-nevadans (which are probably all of you besides my family and friends—hello!), the title of this blog is a reference to nevada’s state anthem, “home means nevada,” with the first set of lyrics from the chorus going “home means nevada, homes means the hills”! and boy…they were not wrong writing that. pretty much all of our days in nevada have been up-down, up-down, and today was no different. after a decently comfortable climb to the top of robinson pass (elevation 7,607 feet), we reaped the lovely reward that is the downhill to cruise into rest stop 2, which was the side of the road (like usual these days). while i hadn’t wanted to get my hopes too high, by this point i was confident in saying that the winds today were MUCH better than my 1st day back home. the wind is probably my biggest mood-killer: the turbulent ride into nevada a few days prior made slow climbs even more painfully drawn out, turned speedy, fun descents into tedious balancing acts courtesy of some intense cross-wind and gust action, and constrained flat sections into a constant, agonizingly slow push against an invisible wall. if my vocabulary doesn’t give a good enough indication, i was NOT a happy camper.
moving on from the pessimistic though, i left rest stop 2 maintaining my good spirits for the next climb and the rest of the ride. i passed by some lovely lavender fields and flocks of sheep 🪻🐑 stopped by a historic marker talking about the silver rush of the late 1800s (and the ghost towns that followed), and pulled into rest stop 3 (sadly, the desolate nature of northern nevada has led to some plain naming and placing in rest stops for our rides). i was happy to see ramona for the 1st time that day, but i was even more curious about what she had strapped creatively to her bike bag—an abandoned nevada license plate she had found on the side of the road. i definitely did not start scheming of ways to get it off her hands…i guess i already have my own, though (even if its attached to the back of my car back in vegas). i ate some of the yummy sandwich ruth had made me (thanks ruth!) before setting off for legs 4 and 5. these weren’t too eventful, besides two more summits climbed, named little antelope (elevation 7,438 feet) and pancake (elevation 6,517 feet) summits, respectively.
naturally, the highest summit to be climbed that day was in the very last leg. our route planning site says it was almost 1400 feet over about 8.5 miles, but i think our garmin bike computers said something more like 1100 feet over 5 miles. no matter the exact numbers, it was a slow and steady one. the REAL strategy i have realized that works best for climbs is actually NOT trying to drown out your miserable thoughts and aching legs with loud, hype music (while that does work pretty good)—it’s actually distracting yourself by yapping with someone else! since the shoulder was too small for pairing up with one of my fellow spokies, i called one of my friends from back home (who actually goes to college in northern nevada! go pack) to catch up on life. after she kept me distracted for a solid 30-40 minutes (even amongst the occasional gust of wind that made me unintelligible—bless your soul, farrah 💗), greta and ruth caught up to me with about a mile to go. with loud downhills and the end in sight, i let my friend go, and the trio yapped our way to the top. at pinto summit (elevation 7,376 feet), we met up with joseph, took some pictures, and got ready to make the final, speedy push into eureka!
while our route for the day ended in eureka proper, our actual destination for the night was diamond valley baptist church—about 18 miles north, or COMPLETELY out of the way and off our overall route. ishaq was speedy enough to do the extra mileage before dark, but the rest of us decided to at least partially shuttle in stages via the car. ramona had went up with the grocery crew of charles and tian earlier, so joseph, greta, ruth and i chilled out in front of a convenience store while we waited for the car to return. joseph and i got snacks, and in the meantime greta and ruth decided that they wanted to bike the 18 miles…you go, girls! 🔥 after trading lights to appear as bright and visible as possible on the road, they set off, and eventually tian showed up for me and joseph. we gladly racked our bikes and hopped into the tian biker uber :))
after arriving at the church, joseph realized and informed tian that the car had about 20 miles of gas left, the nearest gas station was 15 miles away, and closed in about 10 minutes. oh, and greta and ruth (who went on an escapade involving rodeos and quesadillas…quite the shenanigans) should probably be picked up since it is now DARK, and the road is a bit sketch. thankfully, all parties arrive at the church safe and sound (if not slightly traumatized). for dinner, charles serves…questionable fried rice (which some of us flamed a little too hard, sorry charlie), and BOMB ramen and potstickers. we all shower in the girls bathroom (since that is the only shower in the building), and lay down to sleep on the PADDED! PEWS!!! i slept not only SUPER comfortably, but peacefully knowing that i would be taking a break and behind the wheel the next day!
“but sarah, where’s the philosophical spiel? you’re in your home state, after all!” and you’d be right! while i am technically back “home,” the north is a bit different from the south. they share similar climates and scenery—hot, dry, and mostly barren—but the northern mountains i was complaining about earlier do provide ideal conditions for the occasional flora and fauna, which i much enjoyed while flying down the other side of these climbs. surprisingly, though, it was in the more unassuming, recognizable valleys in between where i felt the most awe. i grew up surrounded by sights like these, yet seeing them in this totally new context (and slightly different location) made me feel a fresh appreciation for their simplicity. after weeks of stunning scenery including lush forests, vast fields, towering peaks, and vibrant canyons, home, in its simple familiarity, has become a comforting mental palette cleanser. i found a sense of peace and beauty in the seemingly plain and boring, in how the landscape didn’t demand too much of your attention with complex intricacy or mind-blowing sights. the scenery was content to be just what it was, and i was content to exist in it—simply. just me and my bike, in the valley of my thoughts and nostalgia…
how’s that for a mental tangent? well, if you thought that was bad, get ready for my next blog…which will also be my last official spokes 2025 blog…totally not feeling a LOT of feelings about that….hahaha…💔💔
with that, i’ll see you on our LAST RIDE before we head into san francisco!!! 💗
MIT Spokes 2025 
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