Despite my self-inflicted motel aspiration to pull out two big days I get going late-ish by 9am. I switched time zones again back to pacific time so it's about an hour after sunrise. Still freezing.

I will take a bit of detour the next three days to get some off-road riding in through the remote valleys of Northern Nevada. To my surprise I still have plenty of food that I am carrying around since Boise and don't have to stock up at all. I still haven't really figured out how much food I need to carry here.

I spend almost an hour in the morning though, to figure out how much water I should carry. There are some creeks on the map but whether they carry water is more than uncertain. I fill up 3 days worth of water for good measure - the most I've ever taken with me.

I take the interstate 80 out of Elko. It's my first freeway, the equivalent to the German Autobahn [Highway = Bundesstraße, State Road = Landstraße, took a while for me to figure this out]. To my surprise the Interstate is amazing to ride except for the noise. The shoulder is as wide as one extra lane so I have plenty of space to ride securely. After 40km I take the exit through Hackey Valley, then some first, very fun gravel sections through North Ruby Valley, then Highway 93 up to 2000m of elevation. It turns out that all the creeks I pass are dead dry which confirms my decision to pedal around with the extra weight.

After 140km and just after sunset I reach my cut-off towards the Goshute Mountains. I'll be traveling on BLM land [Bureau of land management] for the next two days which is considered public land [wild camping allowed, just like in Scandinavia]. For a moment I am rather shocked that I find a closed gate and behind it a curiously looking herd of cows. Fortunately, the gate has signs that traveling through is allowed and it is not locked.

The cows follow me for a while before they give up and I can find a place to pitch my tent [which is a no brainer out here]. I watch a beautiful star sky, gazillions of shooting stars and try to take some rather unsatisfying photos of the sky before I sleep in.