Middlegate is a favorite route starting point for many reasons. The Middlegate Station is a great place for a post ride meal, resupply, a place to park, and easily accessible off US 50. It has a gas station and EV charging station, RV park, motel and so on. It is about 120 miles from Reno/Tahoe, and about 2/3 the way to Austin which is ½ way across the State (I love fractions!) There is great bikepacking in each of the slices, it just depends on how much time you want to spend in the car. Or – find the backroad connections and get there by bike (though bike touring on US 50 is a popular route).

This is Doug’s route through the Broken Hills that avoids Gabbs Valley Road (SR 361). I hadn’t made this connection so this route has about 10 miles of “new to me” roads that I am really looking forward to. It shares a significant portion with my ride, A long way for a beer. And I was looking forward to another post-ride meal at Middlegate.

Conditions had been dry, but just when you think everything is set for a trip a fast moving storm moves through dropping snow just days before the trip. I checked in with my friend Nikki Hussein in Fallon. She assured me the snow fall had been light. We were prepared, we were fat bikepacking, slowpacking, and testing out our set-ups for the Mojave Butterfly.

We quickly left a dusting of snow behind and were driving through dry sagebrush, playas and mountain passes to Middlegate Station. The temperatures were cold but the sun was warm.

The route starts on the broken tarmac of the original Lincoln Highway. This is also the route for the Poney Express and the Overland Stagecoach. We turned south at the base of the Middlegate rock formation and started a long climb up a wash between Iron Rock and Greyback, in the East Gate Range. Washes of loose sand and gravel make you appreciate a wider tire. I think plus sized tires would be manageable, and fat tires roll through without a second thought.

As you climb through the wash the views change as rock outcroppings line the canyon. This is another example of a special place that isn’t designated a special place. The wrinkled East Gate Range has limited roads through limitless canyons so what can be seen on foot? We pass the corrals at dry Mud Spring then turn onto the “new to me” section of road. The corrals have a water trough for when livestock are on range. It has been a mellow graded climb over soft material (about 14 miles of climbing), so the going has been slow. Looking ahead we started picking some time and distance cut-offs for the day. Today will be a little shorter, more climbing, softer terrain. Tomorrow will be a little longer, less climbing, and faster rolling terrain. These rationalizations are constant, in my mind I am thinking how to best divide the loop over two days. Ultimately we don’t know what the conditions are ahead but we know where to go to close the loop.

We made it to Chalk Wells site (well and mine). I suggested we go 20 minutes further to see if we could get out of the canyon. It would be nice to have the warmth of the sun a little longer and a little earlier.

We picked an adequate spot on the bank of the wash overlooking the Lodi Valley below. For dinner I was trying the Knorr Teriyaki Noodles for the first time, but just wanted to rehydrate them not cook them as indicated on the package. It was fair in taste and texture, but seemed better than average on the economy of calories for space, cooking, and cost. Then it was early to bed. I was in my North Face tent, Patagonia ½ sleeping bag with my Sea-to-Summit synthetic summer quilt over the top. I was wearing my KUHL Klash pants and Paka base layer top from the day’s ride and Patagonia Down Sweater. I had wool socks and down booties on my feet. This is great northern Nevada winter sleep kit. Wearing the day’s pants is possibly a lazy choice. I should change into a dry base layer for warmer more comfortable sleeping. Or is wearing the day’s clothes to sleep a way to get them to dry out? If I had been cold I had dry layers to change into.

It was a cold night. My Govee thermometer/hygrometer recorded 5^o F. This is the lowest temperature I have experienced bikepacking. But both Doug and I were comfortable through the night and early morning. Typically on a night this cold I would want a closed cell sleeping pad (Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol) under my inflatable sleeping pad (Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Venture) but the night was fine. I kept my water under the edge of my quilt and it stayed liquid. But as we were packing up our bottles froze mostly solid.

We rolled out in bright sunshine to make the climb to Burnt Cabin Summit. We poked around the Porter freight station that supplied the local mining district with their sundries. The thunderstorm fueled flash floods didn’t leave much for our imagination to work with.

My memory of the climb to the summit was hot and crampy from our trip to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. The September 2022 trip took a lot out of the group. This time the climb (average grade 5%, max grade 17%) kept us warm as we crossed the Paradise Range from Lodi Valley to Ione Valley. There was some old crusty snow at the top. It was a bit of a homecoming, I have spent a lot of time crossing Ione Valley into the Shoshone Mountains. We turned north, Buffalo Summit was our next named place.

We had crossed back into the Desatoya Mountains. For my friend Pete Rissler, these are his favorites. When someone tells you a place is their favorite, it deserves a closer look. I have made a great loop through the “middle of the Desatoyas, and this portion in the “southern” Desatoyas. Now I am looking at the “northern” portion that connects to the New Pass Range. There are a handful of creeks that flow into Edwards Creek and Smith Creek Valleys that I would like to fish. I would like to ride the roads of the old Overland Stage Route.

From Buffalo Summit we descended to Buffalo Canyon, rode along Buffalo Creek, and in 20 miles we dropped 2,300′. But we did stop at Eastgate to checkout the “nearly forgotten” Overland Stage stop. Then we stopped at the State Historical Marker for Wagon Jack Shelter. As an prominent archeological site, this area was probably used repeatedly over 3,150 years by indigenous people. This serves as a reminder that we are traveling though the traditional, sacred, and stolen lands of the Western Shoshone, the original stewards of this land.

Then it was a short return on the broken road bed of ol’ Lincoln Highway. As always Middlegate Bar and Grill for a burger and beer was awesome! By the numbers the loop was 55.4 miles with 3,845′ of climbing. From Ride with GPS, Day 1 and Day 2. I asked for hot sauce for my fries and was brought the complete collection of Middlegate Madness. And then the route was named.

The future of this area is uncertain. The Naval Air Station Fallon uses this area extensively for training flights. For the sake of public safety the B 17 Bombing Range is slated to expand. This expansion will undoubtedly impact routes out of Middlegate through the expansion and future expansions. The greatest impacts will be access to Gabbs Valley, Ryan Canyon Road, Bell Flat, the Monte Cristo Mountains, and surrounding area west of where we were on this trip. You can follow along from the Navy’s Naval Air Station Fallon, Fallon Range Training Complex modernization website. I have already come across shiny new chain link fences in places I was not expecting. By the end of 2030 the project should be complete. I will re-route everything when necessary, but my trip through the Monte Cristo Mountains will be completely out of bounds, so get out there before access is gone.

Doug rode his Binary Cycles Gordita. I really like the water bottle cage on the seat tube. With the width of a fat bike bottom bracket there is room for a bottle as well as a wider frame bag. Doug carried extra clothing and a quilt topper for his Feathered Friends Lark YF 10 sleeping bag. He highly recommends the sleeping bag. He brought the Big Sky Mirage tent for shelter.

I rode my Meriwether long-tail fat bike. I carried an extra base layer of clothes from head to toe. I wore snow boots, tech pants from Kuhl, Paka long sleave base layer, Kuhl Airspeed LS shirt, and Marmot’s discontinued Sherpa Shirt (it is a favorite piece). I carried 6L of water and a flask of Frey Ranch bourbon. I cooked a hot breakfast and dinner but just snacked on trail mix during the day. The extra clothes fill one stuff sack on the fork blades and my chair and poop kit fill the other. The seat bag carried my sleep kit, and handlebar harness carried my tent. As an overnight nothing was overstuffed.