Day 8 (9/15/09) Fallon to Cold Spriings Station

We leave Fallon, still on a wonderfully smooth road surface and accompanied by Naval fighter planes out of the U.S. Naval station located just to the south of town. What a tremendous roar they make. We see them later after cresting Sand Springs Pass @ 4644 ft and heading down into Edwards Creek Valley. You could hear them but not see them. However the thud of the bomb and the large cloud of dust it produced was evidence of their target practice out in the old dry lake bottom valley. On over Drumm Summit @ 4600 ft and down to Middlegate where we meet up with Bill for a break at the old pony express station there. It was quite the Nevada experience which included cow punchers we had seen while riding come in on their horses. The station itself has probably not had cleaning or maintenance in 20+ years but it was entertaining and they made good hamburgers. We take several pictures one is to the left with us by I Survived The Lonest Road sign. The next picture is THE SHOE TREE just to the East of Middlegate! Guess this is what one does for fun in these parts. We end the day with a nice little climb over a rise (this is what we call a hard climb with no name) and down to our destination for the night, Cold Springs Station. This you would miss if you were driving by at 60mph. It was an old pony express stop. The main part burned down a year ago but luckily they still had four rooms, which while not camping, were almost like camping. We are ready for a rest and hot shower as somewhere in the middle of our ride the road surface turned to chip seal and the vibrating was tiring on hands and behinds. But then those two parts would get tired no matter what.

TOTALS: 2 passes - 64 miles