May 30
I took yesterday off to wash clothes and give my feet a little break before today’s ride. I did go to the John Wesley Powel museum. It was a nice little museum. I really enjoyed it.
Today started out with a stiff headwind for the first 16 miles. I felt like I was crawling. Then it got bad. I started up the San Rafael Swell which turned out to be 10 or 15 miles of very steep 3 to 7 % grade. More 5 to 7 % than anything else. There was over1,500 feet of elevation gain. I was sweating so much it was running into my eyes. When I would try to wipe the sweat away I would veer all over the shoulder. Someone seen this and called the state patrol. When I was stopped to get a drink after the worse of the climbing a state patrol officer pulled up beside me. We talked for about 10 minutes. Then he wished me luck like I was crazy and drove off.
While in the swell I developed a sound I thought was the derailleur being out of adjustment. I would stop every few miles and make adjustments to no avail.
The day continued to have steep climbs and short downhill stretches until I was about 48 miles from Green River. By now I have climbed to 7,200 elevation after leaving Green River at 4,100 feet and over 4,800 feet of total elevation gain. Note this is way more elevation gain than I have done in a number of years. I was very tired. I was worried about water as there was no place to fill up. I stopped at a over look hoping they had water. There was a couple from Wisconsin that offered to fill up my bottles. They had a 7 gallon tank. It was a big relief as I only had a couple bottles left and many miles to go.
After 50 miles I had a wonderful 6 or 7 miles of steep downhill. When I started to pedal again I had a nasty noise from the bottom bracket when I put lots of pressure on the pedals. Thinking I would ruin the bike I pulled over into a over look and called a friend to ask if he could come and get me. While talking a the phone a man came up and started looking at the bike. I got of the phone and told him what was going on. He loaded up my bike and took me into Richfield UT, to the only bike shop in the region. I tried to buy him dinner but he would take nothing. He was fun to talk to.
The bike shop owner did not find much. He did repack the bracket and tighten some other things. So tomorrow I am going to backtrack a little to get back to the planned path and go to Delta.
While in the bike shop I was talking with owner and a local. The local told me I will have a steep climb not to far from here, that at will let me know if the problem is still there or if it is gone. If it is gone I will continue. If the sound continues I will have to decide what I am going to do. I don’t want to be in the middle of Nevada 50 miles from anything and have the bike stop working.
I will not be able to talk about elevation gain any more as my Garmin was left in the man’s truck. Oh well.
The next couple days look to be much easier than the last couple. Should be fun. Speaking of fun, some of the scenery was breath taking. Must also admit I probably missed more than I saw as I had down trying to pedal up some of the steep climbs.
I will talk more tomorrow.