PowerCycle

07/23 Wow did today ever go from one extreme to another. This morning I was lucky and the rain that had started at 6am let up by 9am. I packed up before it started again and hoped it would stay dry. It didn’t. It started raining not long after I left and didn’t stop for the next 4 hours. Luckily the wind wasn’t bad and it was still in the low 50′s so I wasn’t cold. At 3pm the clouds loosened up a little and I could actually see where it was. It’s about 7pm now and there are actually some patches of blue sky.

I’m knocking on wood now but my tire held out today. I’m pretty sure it’s going to blow out any minute. Made for a stressful day since I knew I’d be fixing it in the pouring rain. I’m also riding it on 20 PSI which makes it a lot harder to turn/pedal.

My not-so-smart move of the day was to drink untreated water right from a stream and the second time from a pump. If I get sick in a few days I know what happened.

I finally arrived at the lodge and I ate like a horse. Meatloaf, several beers and 2 desserts later I felt 100% better. The shower was the biggest morale boost.

Met another touring couple right before it started raining. I didn’t catch their names but it was a bf/gf riding from Anchorage to Seattle. This route seems to be very popular since almost everyone I met heading South is going there. They were from Quebec so their English wasn’t very strong but we still ended up talking about the crappy weather and our bikes for a while. The guy said something pretty funny when I asked him about the tripod he had strapped to the back of his bike. He said he likes to take pictures of his girlfriend and they turn out better when he used it. Well, let’s just say that if she was my gf I would have been taking a lot of pictures of her too. She was stunning.

Update: I have a new tire!!!!!! I’m so freaking happy right now it’s not even funny. At the CG here I spotted a truck towing a trailer parked in one of the sites. On the back of the truck were 2 mountain bikes. I headed over on the off chance that I might be able to buy a tire from them. I knocked on the door to the trailer and Ron opened the door and listened politely as I rambled on about my problems.

Sure enough, in the back of his truck he had an older but completely unused 26 x 2.2 mountain bike tire. He wouldn’t take any money for it so I owe him many beers next time I’m in the Vancouver area. Just got done installing it. I had to pop off the front fender to make room but it fit perfectly. It has some serious tread on it so I’m not going to be sliding out any time soon. Thanks a million Ron!

GPX Track