Burlington SP, CA to Leggett, CA
49.47 miles
4:12.44 hrs
48.0 max
11.7 avg
Waking up surrounded by redwoods was awesome! I met two ladies this morning cooking breakfast next to my site. It was nice to talk to them for a while and found out that they were on a significantly detoured (they left from Seattle) trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving.
I made it out of the campsite in a timely fashion and was looking forward to a great ride. Cycling through the rest of the redwoods was amazing! I love this place! The trees are just so wise and majestic that time flew by.
After leaving the redwoods I had quite a bit of climbing to do but this did not bother me because I was utterly happy to be where I am. Sadly, this feeling of happiness did not last too long. I broke another spoke about 25 miles into my trip. The break was on my rear wheel and I did not hesitate to stop and try and fix it. In anticipation of cycling on my own again I purchased a cassette bolt (to remove the cassette from the freewheel) and an extra piece of chain that I figured I could use with a piece of cloth as a chain whip (I had aspirations to make my own chain whip when I got the chance). Much to my disappointment this method did not work and I could not produce enough torque to loosen the cassette from the freewheel. The According to the cyclists pamphlet that I had there was a shop in a town just 6 miles away. So, I used my Kevlar spoke to temporarily true the wheel.
At first I thought all I needed was a pliers big enough to grasp my cassette remover bolt. So, I stopped at a hardware store to check out potential tooling. I did not want something heavy, bulky or expensive and the first place I went did not have anything that met those needs. I then proceeded to the bike shop where I came to find that they did not have the tooling I needed either. To top it off, the mechanic was only there on Mondays so I couldn't even pay to have it fixed! I could not believe that California would produce a cyclist map that said there was a bike shop in this city when they were only open 1 day a week, without any notification on the map. Sounds like a proper place for the usage of an asterisk (*)!
I asked the clerk if I could use some of their equipment to fix my wheel and the lady said, "NO!" I was quite struck by this answer and then proceeded to tell her a little more about exactly what I was doing. You know the whole I am raising money... blah... blah.. blah... schpeel! Much to my surprise, she held her ground. I definitely approached the whole thing the wrong way but I didn't think it would really matter all that much, I was mistaken! I asked about other shops that might have the tooling what I was looking for and she pointed me in the direction of NAPA auto parts.
I found a locking pliers on sale at NAPA (cheapest and lightest option), purchased it and attempted to fix my wheel. (Very nice people at NAPA, they let me try out a couple of pieces of tooling before purchasing any of them) I found my method of wrapping a piece of cloth around the end of the chain and holding onto it, to be a poor alternative to chain whip. A few bloody fingers latter from the chain slipping off the cassette, I was in a very poor mood! I put my wheel back on and went back to the bike shop to purchase the ridiculously expensive chain whip ($25). Upon returning to the bike shop I went behind the counter looking for anything that I could purchase as an alternative to the chain whip. As I was sifting through a couple boxes of bike parts, an older gentleman approached me asking if I needed help finding anything. I then find out that he is the bike mechanic at the shop and was in for about an hour while the clerk went to lunch.
After talking to him for a bit he allowed me to use any and all of his tooling to fix and true my wheel. After all that I spent the next hour fixing my wheel. With this experience behind me I decided that I should suck it up and purchase the expensive chain whip.
I left that town two hours after I entered with all the tooling I needed to fix my own wheels from now on. About 13 miles down the road my purchases made up for themselves due to another broken spoke that I was able to fix in about 20 min.
What a day! I should have been able to ride for another 2 hours and had high goals of cycling 80 miles. I guess I will have to make up for it tomorrow! I did have free lodging in an abandoned church yard though!
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