Day 9: Rest day... AND ELK!
Rest day today. Slept in, lazy cycle to nearby towns for a coffee and steal their wifi, and catch-up with journal writing.
I pretended to be a bike mechanic for a while too. By that I mean I put oil on my chain… I also noticed 2 things.
First is gear shifting. When the bike is unloaded and I am off the bike, I can get into the lowest gear fine. However when the bike is loaded I can’t get into the lowest gear and the gears seem to “skip”. Not sure what to do about this but it seems like a solvable problem. Putting more tension on the chain I guess? I might try this during the cycle tomorrow.
The second issue seems a little more worrying. Seems like 1 or 2 of the teeth on the cassette are not meshing with the chain properly causing the derailer/chain to “pop”. Is only in 1 of the gears tho. Tbh I didn’t notice this cycling the bike, I only noticed it when pretending to be a bike mechanic. Again, no idea what this means or what to do about this other than stay out of those gears. But I am worried that if the cassette is damaged, it will be a slow and expensive problem to fix.
I guess the solution is to go to a bike shop. Will do this in the next big town/city I am having a rest day near. This problem can wait until then.
“Warm showers” is a website like couch surfing but for bike tourers. I have been meaning to set this up for a while now. I tried to do it today but ran into issues. A problem for tomorrow.
The plan for tomorrow is more interesting than it should be. I have an option to take a few days detour inland to Portland or to continue along the coast. I initially wasn’t sure so decided to get Instagram to decide via a poll. They said to go to Portland. But then the bike tourers from Portland at camp said the coast is way nicer and way better cycling. Also I haven’t been to a big city yet on this tour and don’t really want to go to one yet. So now I would much prefer the coastal route.
So the question becomes to “disobey” the wise 30 odd people who voted in this poll or not. I do like outsourcing some decisions that I am not sure about as it gives family and friends some say in the direction of the tour. Also I hate making decisions so less decisions for me to make is good.
… But I am using my veto power here. I am going to continue along the coast. Meaning tomorrow I will go to Manzanita and stay in Nehalem Bay state park. Seems like tomorrow will be my biggest day of climbing so far. I hope I can fix that granny gear tomorrow or those hills will be rough.
Tonight a family of 3 elk wandered right by my camp. This was absolutely stunning and a highlight of the trip so far.
Myself, Cris and Tyler from yesterday bought wood and made a campfire. We were too stubborn to buy the kindle to help start the fire however. So 20 minutes later we have a fire and then the good campfire chats.
Early night.
