Be prepared for Hot and parched, silt, dust and dried mud travel. Embark north across the playa before any wind starts up. The playa is part of the East Alvord Wilderness study area, but vehicles are allowed to travel anywhere on the playa. At the north drainage, sage brush returns and probing leads to a gravel road through Mickey Basin. We bypass Mickey Hot Springs this time, a very small, but delightfully warm spring to warm your feet in (on a rivulet away from the main cauldron). Sulfur Spring-Mickey Road crosses federal BLM land where aside from cattle, the main signs of life are wild mustangs and a curlew. We close every gate behind us that we open. We pass through a final gate, reaching the main gravel “highway”, Folly Farm Road. On the outer side a sign reads “No Trespassing.” I guess the rancher didn’t feel like cyclists would be approaching from the desert side and fortunately left the inner gates unlabeled. Always interesting how the final kilometer on private land can block access to public land, while the landowner enjoys private access to public land. The barbed wire fence didn’t mean much to the cattle either as I watch a full grown steer, jump over the barbed wire fence with his front legs and drag his underside over the wire. I wonder how that feels. Obviously cattle ignore signs as well. Fences seem like Ranch Management Theater. We leave sagebrush country, climbing steeply up Stonehouse Creek road. Amy fills her bottle with water from the creek, the first water we have seen all day. We’ve learned how to visually ignore the round brownies scattered about, though we do treat the water with UV light. Further up the incline, we pause to rest for a few moments, a dog appears and around the corner a pickup truck and tent are parked off the road under trees. Waving, John wanders over, greeting us with two beers. We don’t happen to drink alcohol but really appreciate his generosity. He suggests that we get our water further up the creek though as he found a dead cow in the creek there. Amy empties her water bottle. Back in the saddle, we meet the only other cyclists we will see on this journey coming downhill. Chatting for a few moments as the sun descends below the rim, leaving the canyon in shade, two friends are attempting Oregon’s Big Country loop (https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37925779 or https://bikepacking.com/routes/oregon-big-country/ ), a somewhat popular multi-way loop in the region. As the road diverges from the creek, we fill our water bottles and water bladder at this upstream location, presumably near a spring. Dusk is settling, we are tired and it is difficult to find a level place. I wander across a ridge finding a slightly tilted area beneath an ancient juniper on an otherwise steep slope composed of loose rectangular rock. Owls hoot us to sleep. Wild winds, mud and snow. Wildflowers