Sand Springs Pass by Bicycle - Velo

Sand Springs Pass

US50 hops over a number of summits on its way westward from Fallon to Austin to Ely. It starts out with this one. Slowing westward winds have deposited a huge sand dune at the edge of the plain, that Fallon sits on.

On the map another summit point follows after this one heading west. It is labeled Drumm Summit. However it does not even come close to having the 500ft minimum elevation gain on the other side. Instead the road just keeps on climbing towards Austin ever so imperceptibly.

1.START-END WEST:jct US50 - access road to Sand Mountain rec area, 3950ft
2.TOP, Sand Springs Pass, 4640ft
3.START-END EAST:low point in Fairview Valley, 4140ft

Approaches

From West. US50, heading south from Fallon, is a fairly busy road and the shoulder has been rumble stripped to make cycling as dangerous as possible. The profile does not start until the jct with the access road to the Sand Mountain Recreation area, a big sand dune that is managed for motorheads. Traffic on US50 is much lighter at this point. Still I had one very dangerous moment west of here anyway. It is a short climb to the top, and there, assuming perfectly clear weather a fine far view onto the Toyabee Range opens up.

From East. (described downwards). On the initial decent the quintessential Nevada east-west summit experience happens. Suddenly the road ahead comes into sight. It crosses the valley ahead with a line, as straight as a ruler, very close to perpendicular to any and all mountain ranges in site. The road remains dangerously rumble stripped.

I had a very close call here on the way down with a double trailer truck. He announced himself with blaring horns, maybe a 200ft behind me. The opposing lane was occupied by another oncoming trailer truck. I managed to stop the bike in the dirt next to the road. He sped by me with at least 70 miles an hour, ceding not an inch of the road, blaring his horn. There were just a few inches between me and the truck. l'll be glad when the human species is finally finished on this planet, and with it incidents like this.

That being said, the traffic decreases to a minimum by the time you get past the profile and closer to Austin. So that anything like what happened to me would seem very unlikely, the further east you get. Also - the shoulder starts to be ridable with a paved over rumble strip, just past the intersection with Nv722

Dayride with this point as highest summit:

COMPLETELY PAVED

( < Lucky Boy Pass | Earthquake Faults Road s(u) > )

Sand Springs Pass x2 , additional out and back: Sand Mountain Rec Area <> US50 east <> Sand Springs Pass <> Drumm Summit(shp) <> turnaouround point ~7miles east of jct with Nv722 to Carroll Pass: 65.3miles with 2530ft of climbing in 5:14hrs (garmin etrex32: r5:23.5.16)