The handling was actually fine. The weight was well spread. Two low down in each front pannier, 3.5 in frame bottles, and 7 split between the rear panniers. Even going uphill I can't say it was a huge difference. I'm about 220 pounds depending how long I've been on tour. Call it 30 for the bike and 30 base weight for camping gear. A bit of food. So roughly 10% more weight with the fluids on board. of course not every bike could do it but my LHT was rock solid.
There was nothing between the two towns. Hence why most people biking across NV go Route 50. At the end of the day it's the USA. Get stuck and flag a car down. There was a dozen cars an hour or something like that.