Railing It In The Wild West
Riding the rail towns of Nevada

Zoe Binder

I’ve been lucky enough to ride my bike all over Australia since I was young and more recently a good part of Europe, but the United States has always eluded me. So when the opportunity to finally go riding stateside, I knew I couldn’t miss it. Any keen cyclist, especially one who tends towards the knobblier end of the tyre spectrum, is well aware of America’s more obvious destinations. There’s Colorado, including America’s answer to the pro cycling hub of Girona in Boulder, or Moab in Utah, or perhaps northern California and even more recently Kansas, thanks to the rise of Unbound Gravel. But my first trip across the Pacific wouldn’t involve any of those. I was headed just past area 51 to the alpine deserts of Nevada.

As it turns out though, Nevada has much much more than the flashing lights and rolling dice of Las Vegas to boast about. The state lies sandwiched between the famous mountain ranges of its neighbours, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, but Nevada itself is in fact the most mountainous state on the continent. Where there are mountains, there is almost always some incredible riding to be had. It was about to become clear over the next seven days of riding that there was no need to fly any further east, I found the gold standard right here in the Silver State.

My week was filled with A-grade cross country mountain biking and world class gravel riding; starting at the town of Caliente and ending in White Pine County’s Ely. It’s rocky, hot as hell and the highest altitude I’ve ever ridden at. All in all, the riding trip I didn’t know I needed. The towns we pass through are reminiscent of a Western, and rolling through the streets was just as entertaining as the singletrack.

Nevada has a rich history with rail, having long been a hub for the great migration westwards, from the days of horseback and onwards as the transcontinental railroad was laid through the north of the state. The true wild west. You feel this thread through every town in Nevada and never more so than my final day of riding. The historic Nevada Northern Railways have thrown open the doors of their original coal trains to the public and we jumped on the rattler to hitch a ride out to our ride. “Rails to Trails” ticket in hand, I boarded the 110 year old train for the most surreal shuttle I’ve ever taken, plumes of white coal smoke billowing from the sooty black smokestack.

You can ride the rattler to the end of the line for a 30km ride back to town, but that day we hopped off at the first town on the line, Ruth, a tiny copper town that may be familiar to fans of Stranger Things. It’s just a 10km trail back into Ely but we made the most of it. We hit every little lump and bump at full tilt, railing berms and sending every section of loose rock or sand. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face all the way into town. While I spend most of my time on a road bike now - this really reminded me why riding off road is where my heart is.

Back at the Northern Nevada Railway Museum, I leant my bike against a century old sign. It’s a remarkable contrast, the intricate, very mechanical details of these old carriages next to the technology of my bike’s dual suspension and hydro disc brakes. Towns and regions like Ely and White Pine County can so easily fade into history as mines close and these old trains grind to a halt. But time rolls on in Nevada and now, more excitingly than ever, it’s on two wheels.

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