This morning there is a change in plans. It has been raining all night and there is another rain front moving in from the South, so that my plan to make it to Reno, NV or Carson City, NV are washed out. Since there is a small, about two hour window of no rain around Klamath Falls, OR this morning I decide to take this chance and make my way South-East. I pack my stuff, dry the bike (which works as a quick wash too) and make my way to Bly, OR on the OR-140 continuing to Lakeview, OR. Even so dark clouds are threatening me, there is no single drop falling on me as I climb up to Bly Mountain at 5087 ft. I follow the Oregon Outback, yes you read right, not only Australia has an Outback, Oregon too.
I stay at about this elevation, crossing some more passes like the Warner Pass, 5845 ft, then crossing into the Great Basin with the Black Rock Dessert to the South, and the Alford Valley to the North. There are some more climbs to to, some leading to more than 6200 ft in altitude, but I don't care, as the dark clouds are left behind the Warner Range in Oregon, and sunshine is greeting e in Nevada.
Going through the Great Basin one gets once more reminded that climate change is happening, as once big lakes are now barren land and bone dry, and rivers only a trickle of their once mighty flows. I descend into Winnemucca, NV and are surprised by the haze the sky has turned. Those are no wild fires blazing the earth, but sand and dust the wind has picked up from the dessert ground, making visibility only a few miles. I pass the Winnemucca Sand Dunes and find my spot for the night.
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