06/05 Today turned out to be good and bad. The good part first. I was dodging a mean looking storm for a couple hours when it started catching up to me. My goal was a town called Ennis but it unless I wanted a cold shower for the last 28 miles finding a CG seemed like the prudent thing to do. I was also riding into a very strong headwind and there were no guarantees it would let up even if the rain caught me. So my GPS lit up this place for me and the race was on.
There’s a mile of rough gravel to get here, going downhill, but it’s actually a pretty cool place. The CG ($8) is in a valley with the Madison River running alongside the camping area. The camp sites are out in the middle of a huge field with no trees so you feel like a settler in the old West. There’s a water pump and bathrooms (primitive). The highway is also far enough away so you barely hear the trucks. I quickly set up my tent and within 1 minute of getting the last thing tucked away it started raining. The lightning sucks but there’s not much you can do in the middle of a field. That was the good thing of the day.
The bad thing is that my rear tire is once again shot after about 1500 miles. The sidewall is worn out which I didn’t catch it so after patching the tube and getting everything back on I rode for 2 feet and the tube burst right where the tire is worn. I popped on my spare and strapped the Continental Travel Contact tire onto the trunk bag just in case I need an emergency spare. The initial leak happened half way down a big hill which made it even worse because I had to walk it the rest of the way (guard rail left no room).
The first damaged tire I can kind of understand (piece of reflector glass) but this is ridiculous. The spare I had with me is their Touring Plus model so maybe it’ll do better. It only inflates to a max PSI of 58 vs. my front one (Continental TC) which goes up to 80 PSI. Not sure if the difference in pressure will affect anything. Seems to ride just fine but does 58 mean I’ll have more problems because I have so much weight on it? A lower max PSI seems to mean less durable to me. The chances of another Continental tire seeing my bike again are slim to none.
Riding through the mountains was a blast. Rode by a couple lakes, one of which was formed when an earthquake choked off the river by sending debris crashing into it. After a while this huge lake formed and you can see all these trees poking up out of the water. This is the part of my trip I was most looking forward to (geography-wise) and so far I haven’t been disappointed.
Saw 5 touring riders today. They were all heading the other way though. I guess since I’m on the TranAmerica Trail now I’ll see more.
And finally some woman came up to me while I was working outside on my laptop at the CG last night. She asks me if I’d seen her husband’s Blackberry. I hadn’t but being the nice guy I am I offered to check the men’s bathroom for her (not sure why the lazy husband wasn’t looking or maybe try calling the stupid thing?). Nothing there. I swear she looked at me like I stole it. Does this officially make me a hobo now? 
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