The steepest sustained hills I’ve climbed on the bike tour thus far were on East Hill Road out of Belfair WA this morning.
I’m guessing they were somewhere in the 12-16% range, steep enough that I thought I might have to hike-a-bike parts.
A short time after I summited, I noticed some disturbing clicking noises somewhere in the bike’s transmission system. Hardly the sound you want to hear when you are 20 miles away from nearest town, and the closest bike shop on the route is 150 miles south in Astoria.
Thankfully the clicking seemed to go away as the temperature rose into the low 90s. I was thinking I would take a rest day in Astoria and have a mechanic check it out, if I got that far.
Also managed to get lost. This added six miles and another couple of major hill climbs to my day.
I was completely wiped out when I reached the Elma RV campground.
I felt better after the complimentary chocolate chip cookies and the 25 cent shower.
Great place for cyclists, at $5 per night
Is this place safe?
Well, the sister of Rea, the RV park manager, is the town’s chief of police, and she hangs out here.
That sick gnashing sound on the bike had returned. So I put on my master mechanic’s cap in the morning and had a closer look. Turned out it was just a cracked plastic spoke guard on the rear wheel that serves absolutely no useful function. I guess I cracked it with the cable lock back in the Belfair parking lot.
So I just broke the rest of the plastic disc off with a pair of pliers.
Thank goodness I hadn’t gone way out of my way to Olympia to have it checked out at a bike shop. The techs would have gotten a big laugh out of that!
At the campground, I also met Chloe and Katie, two friends from college who are riding unloaded bikes to San Francisco with the support of Chloe’s dad, John, and her brother, Ethan, who are following the ladies in an automobile.
Rea |
| Rea, the park's manager and head cookie chef |
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| The cookies |
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| Master mechanic Dougie Doride at work |
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| The fractured part |
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| Ethan, John, Katie and Chloe |
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