The Route is Complete!

***Drum roll please!*** After months of studying maps and thousands of miles of trail scouting... here is the final route for the 2015 Nevada Discovery Ride! (You can click the map to enlarge it.)The ride will begin at the geographic center of Nevada. From there the route runs east through central Nevada, drops south down the spine of the White Pine Range, a short jaunt east again, north all the way up near the Idaho border, west across the northernmost part of Nevada along the Oregon border, and then drops south again to finally end in Reno. Whew! With the same plan of averaging 20 miles a day, and rest days built in weekly, this 1,100 mile route will take 70 days to complete. I plan to leave mid-August and should arrive in Reno at the end of October. 

In many ways this route should prove to be much more exciting than last year's route. It includes a whopping 23 mountain range crossings, wilderness areas, desert crossing, forests, one interstate and one highway crossing, the Pony Express Trail, Hasting's Cutoff, the California Trail, primitive pack trails, and active railroad lines. Of course, it will also offer plenty of ghost towns and other forgotten sites. This time around we will only ride through one town: Jarbidge (population 182). Cell service will be spotty (just like last time) but I can promise there will be some epic photos and stories to share with you all.

Now that the route is finalized, I can get on with other ride preparations. I have some more gear to acquire, sponsors to find, and conditioning to do with Sage. We also need to set an actual ride start date. On the plus side, I may have secured a house/pet sitter (fingers crossed!) and I have already gotten the okay from my employer -- thank goodness! The next few months may be light on updates, but that's only because I won't want to bore you with behind-the-scenes ride preps. But things will definitely pick up as the ride date gets closer! Stay tuned :)

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