Left early around 7:30 am packing up tent and stuff. Decided to make some hot oatmeal w backpacking stove, but disaster struck when I unscrewed the fuel canister and the can didn’t self seal. In approx 10 seconds I lost all the contents and threw the darn thing like a bomb as it spewed gas. That was my spare fuel can and supposed to last 3 to 4 weeks. Now stove is just a worthless pack weight.
Left that morning to a heavy fog. Fortunately there was a rail trail I could follow, though it was muddy from rain the night before.
What’s That Noise?
When I got to Clarion I noticed a ticking noise that soon turned into a screech coming from front of bike. I immediately pulled over and removed panniers in order to remove front wheel. This wheel was a custom build I had done so I could incorporate a dynamo generator (that might be redundant) in order to charge devices with pedal power. It was obviously failing and grinding when turned by hand. This is not good at all.
I continued to ride to the next town of Humboldt. The last 5 miles were excruciating, and I hit the lobby exhausted. The host set me up in room 108 of the Super 8 on SR 3 and 169.
Where’s the Nearest Bike Shop?
Google was put to use in hotel room as I discovered the closest bike shop to be Walkers in Fort Dodge. This shop is located 20 miles away and directly south so definitely the wrong direction. Also tomorrow is Memorial Day, so the shop won’t open until Tuesday at 10 am. Decided to take Memorial Day off and stayed two nights at Super 8. Good thing, as Monday experienced heavy rain and T storms for the better part of day. I rode to the local grocery store called Hyvee which is 3 miles away and got wet. Since my stove was without fuel, I had to think of cold meals and ditch the rice and oatmeal plan I had been depending on.
So I bought lots of bars, black cherries, summer sausage, brick of pepper jack, tortillas and granola. Give this a try for next few days!
Also grabbed a large beer for the Titanic showing that night as well. Still love that movie though tragic.
Rest Day
Extra rest day was nice. Sent Jane some blogs. Dried all gear. Only issue was air conditioning didn’t work in room. Called front desk but the host was hard to understand – I’m sure he said the same about me.
Eventually got moved to another room, which took about 1 hour as I had stuff everywhere in original room. New room had a recliner so it was an improvement.
Will have to decide in morning if I should just get up and bike to shop or wait to 10 am and call to determine if he can help. Decided to put off decision until morning.
