Nevada

September 4
40s again - brrrr! Not much for fun activities planned for the day anyhow. We crossed into Nevada, stopping in Reno to clean some clothes, pick up some supplies, and make a final Winco trip. As we continued on, something was squeaking, apparently from the van wheels, pretty obnoxiously. We stopped in Fallon and Rudy removed tires, inspected and cleaned up brake components, but didn't find any obvious source of the noise aside from one of the rear heat shields looked like it may be grinding ?? The squeak has returned on a few brief occasions, but not persistent, so semi-fixed... We continued on Highway 50 'The Loneliest Highway' through some salt flats and into high desert. It was fairly late by the time we reached our destination - Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest just outside Austin, so just put together salads and sandwiches and leftovers for dinner, then finished Game of Thrones third season before calling it a night.

September 5
Cool again, but sunny, but also breezy. I woke up semi-early and got in a short run on the little road we were on dubbed 'The Pony Express' by some local bikers. The 7,500' altitude seemed OK, though I did walk one hill and take a few breaks to look at rocks and take some pictures.

I like the variety of rocks! Lots of volcanics

'Pony Express Trail'

We continued east, stopping just outside Ely, NV to ride the 'Ice Plant' trail ~4 miles up, then back down. I didn't do the whole climb, I'm getting paranoid about doing too much these final days leading to Wasatch...Rudy verified the trail was much steeper and looser above my turnaround, so that made me feel better about bailing! We headed north a while longer and found a spot for the night just south of West Wendover. It was a cool little area, but extremely littered with broken glass, bottles, cans, and shotgun shells - people can suck. Red rice and refried beans for dinner and a game of Trivial Pursuit for fun!

Crazy crust of windblown sediment on the rocks

First glimpses of big salt flats

Beautiful sunset made up for the ugly campsite