Saturday, April 20, 2013

Cache Dash

At the Havasu V-Strom rally, last week
 John aka jdubyap, handed me the Stromtrooper Cache.
So now I have to find someone to hand it off to, A Strom rider from Oregon, Blake aka Tater (but my runaway mind keeps calling him Topper because he spends his days in the tops of trees), offers to meet me in Austin, Nevada and take the Cache. Blake is riding to California to spend time with family, Hence the Austin meet-up spot. This will be a quicky ride down to do the hand off and then back home (the lawn needs mowing..).

I leave on CHILLY Thursday and head south.
 Finally I reach Austin, where Blake is waiting for me. We each get settled in our rooms then we take the short ride to the local hot springs (15 miles out of town).
 The springs are kept clean by local volunteers. There are three spas. We choose this one.
 Yes, 132 degrees.
You control the temp of the hot tub by moving the pipe back and forth to put more or less hot water into the tub.


These fish seem to thrive in the crystal clear warm water.
After a very nice soak we return to town and have dinner here. The chicken fried steak was reasonably good.
Our lodgings.
Austin is a pretty cool town, they call it a 'living ghost town'.  It's a fun place to visit, and if you are staying overnight I highly recommend the Pony Canyon Motel. It's old and small, but spotlessly clean and friendly!
 Austin.
 Mainstreet. 
 Blake suggests the "Castle" for the hand off spot.
This castle was built by Anson Phelps Stokes in 1897 as a summer home for his boys. It was occupied for about 2 months, June and July, in 1897, but has been empty since.
No explanation as to why it was abandanded.
 The hand off.

The current care-taker of the Strom-Cache;
Blake.
We decide to ride Nevada SR 722 to Middlegate where we will have lunch and then part ways - Blake will continue to Santa Cruz, I will ride south and make a loop back to Utah.
 A ranch alongside 722
 A few miles east of Middlegate on US 50, a shoe tree.
 Middlegate, come here hungry and be well fed! The mushroom burger fit both my requirements for excellence: big, greasy, and tasty...

 Gabbs, Nevada church.

 The sky is busy while I'm riding to Tonapah.
 Not everyday you see a boat converted into a lounge in the middle of the desert.
I'm a little hungry, so I stop for a quick bite, but the menu here is not what I expected...
 Tonapah main street.
 Previous generations fought so hard to win what our generation is so blythely giving away... how sad.
 Mural in Tonapah.
 I was hoping to observe some secret plane flying as I rode through, but this is as close as I got...
US 6 was dedicated to the American Civil War Veterans, named in their honor.
 Lots of long, straight, lonely roads in Nevada.
(from Tonapah to Ely)
 Ely mainstreet.
I stay in Ely overnight, and head for home the next morning.

 Hat tree south of Wendover on hwy 93
I make it home a little after mid-day. It was a cold ride, but I'm so happy to meet Blake and ride a few miles with him. What a great guy!
Day 1 was the coldest - 465 miles.
Day 2 was the most fun - 403 miles.
Day 3 was the windiest - 222 miles.
1090 total - any ride is better than no ride!

6 comments:

Erik R said...

Great pictures. I've been through Nevada on a motorcycle a couple of times. I rode hwy 50, camped in Rachel, did the train in Ely.
I want to go back! I missed the hat tree. A couple of months after one of the trips, someone cut down the huge shoe tree along 50. It's nice to see that there's a new one to take it's place.
I also have the same picture of the Tonopah Test Range sign. It looks repainted sine I was there last.

Thanks for all the pictures and memories!

Trobairitz said...

Looks like you saw a few cool things despite the lonely roads in Nevada.

We have shoe trees in these parts but I've never seen a hat tree, cool.

Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

Ken said...

Erik - Thanks for reading.
Yes, I think the shoe tree west of Ely was the grandfather of all shoe trees. So sad that someone cut it down.
I want to go back to hwy 50 also, I think a tour could take a week or longer.

Trobairitz - I saw three shoe trees on this trip, they are becoming epidemic...
At the hat tree I observed several hats that had (apparently) blown off the tree, I briefly thought about putting them back on, but then decided I would be interfering with natural order.
Thanks for reading!

Unknown said...

Ken:

I think it would be cool to find a hot springs in the middle of nowhere.

Those are some lonely roads, with few gas stations.

I've only seen one shoe tree and no hat trees. Either that or I have been traveling too fast to stop

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

R. Bushnell said...

Ken, I thought I had been everywhere, until I viewed your video. Awesome blog and video. There is a lot of 'out there' that I haven't seen yet. Keep ridin' stay safe.
fellow Diamond 6 wheeler

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