The Cognoscente Group hosts an invite event occasionally where some of the most hardcore riders descend on Ely, NV and it’s 4  major highway departures.  Go about 2-20 miles in any direction from Ely and you’re out in the middle of nowhere with a whole of distance and sparsely traveled road until the next smallish outpost of humanity.  Essentially, if you look at a map of the U.S.–the areas we typically ride are the most barren in all the U.S.

Riding parallel to Area 51 is one of them.

This year’s theme is Wild Wild West and includes the opportunity for firing lever action firearms, a unique puzzle, and undoubtedly some serious long distance riding in the Great Basin.  I’ve ridden two events of their so far and look forward to a third.

One was called “White Pine Fever” and included completing a substantial and non-specific number of miles in a 24 hour period (meaning you’d have to liquor me up to confess how many)

Another was called “WORD!” and I attempted to play a twisted game of 36 hour Scrabble where I failed rather resplendently to spell correctly the word “ZZYZVYA”, but still had the time of my life.

What will be guaranteed is the sick & twisted rallymasters will be flogging and hazing us in a empathetic manner and not turn our gray matter into oozing puddles of tapioca pudding.

So, I’ll be riding down sometime between very late Wednesday evening to possibly Thursday evening depending on how my work schedule goes.  I haven’t yet decided on a route, but will either be the boring and quick way down I-84 to Twin Falls and the South through Jackpot and Well or perhaps something more meandering through Burns, OR and possibly Denio, Battle Mountain, and Austin.

Friday is registration and decompression day with Saturday morning beginning this epic event.  And after the event…I won’t be coming back home.  I’ll be meandering to Northern California for another FJR event I’m organizing later that week.

Here’s my GPS tracking for the commute down to Ely.