Day 57: Ely, NV to Eureka, NV

• Team distance: 93.92 mi
• Team elevation: 4,245
• Dedication: My teammates
• Van group: Bailey and Grace
• Host: Diamond Valley Baptist Church

There are a lot of incredible feelings on this trip, but it’s hard to top having a scheduled van day after our longest ride of the trip. Bailey and I lucked out in that sense today– I did get some doubtful comments from the team because I make the van schedule but I swear it was random! Grace also joined us to rest her knee after pushing through the ride yesterday.

The team had a 90-mile ride to Eureka with a few solid climbs, some rain, and a lot of wind. The wind in this part of the state has been very strange. It swirls around you and rarely feels like it comes from one direction, which is very frustrating on the bike. After pulling everything out of the water van and reorganizing it, we made sure we had a nice spread of food for the riders. Our hosts last night sent us off with fresh veggies, hard boiled eggs, and cheese, so we basically had a little charcuterie board spread for the team.

Today was one of my happiest days on the 4K. We had such a great time in the van, taking care of the riders, cheering on the riders and runners, jamming out to great music, and drinking way too much caffeine. At one point I committed a little too hard to cheering on the runners as we passed them and lost my hat while hanging out the van window– running up a hill to retrieve it was a very humbling moment lol.

One of the best parts of van duty is an almost guaranteed coffee stop in the morning. We only had to chalk two turns for the team getting out of the host and then they were then on the same road for 80 miles. We went back to Ely’s singular coffee shop but they were closed so we were without caffeine for the morning :( Before lunch we were close enough to Eureka that we drove up to a gas station and bought two coffee drinks each– we were buzzing at the lunch stop.

We’re staying at a church 15 miles outside of Eureka, which is not a very big town to begin with. It feels like we are miles from civilization. One thing I didn’t expect about Nevada is how incredibly vast it is. We are often surrounded by mountains on all sides but can see for miles and miles (and rarely have to go over them, which is nice). Host van treated us to ice cream today, so I enjoyed a few scoops while the sun set over the mountains around our host.

Until tomorrow!

Lauren