A Cold, Wet Day
Monday, July 12, 2010 at 1:33AM Today was just that… a cold wet day. It rained most of the night; great for sleeping, not so great for riding. I woke up once in the night to the rain and hoped that it would stop before morning. But it wasn’t to be. When I left Delta Junction this morning it was between 39-42 degrees and spitting rain. It rained all day, not the down pour that I rode thru on the Dalton but hard enough to soak me thru and thru. Being cold on the bike is one thing, you can always ride harder to bring your temp up. But being wet and cold it no good because the faster you go the more wind on your cold wet gear the colder you get.
I had two flat tires today. For those of you keeping track that’s; 1 broken derailleur, 1 broken saddle, 4 broken chains, and 8 flat tires. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that I have enough parts to get me to Whitehorse, Yukon which is where the next bike shop is, about 550 miles from here.
We stopped tonight at a small family run B&B / campground, outside of Tok, and the people were amazingly hospitable. They weren’t expecting us but still threw together dinner for us… it was delicious. It is few and far between that we will be able to get showers and hot meals -that Azure doesn’t have to cook, while fighting off mosquitoes- so we are trying to take advantage of it when the opportunity presents itself.
Both times when I was fixing my tires I had local’s stop and offer me help or a ride. Often times in small towns the locals get a bad wrap, but I will tell you what we would live in a better country if we had more Alaskans. There is such a sense of camaraderie and a thru and thru notion of helping your neighbor. It is truly refreshing, but hey that’s one of the reasons I fell in love with this place the first time I was up here. Do yourself a favor if you see someone who could use some help, whether that be lifting groceries, giving directions, or change a tire, help them out. It will make you feel good about yourself, I promise.
77.6 miles
16.2mph average
30.2mph max
4:42:49 ride time
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