Saturday's tracking in the East Mountains
Yesterday I got in a decent ride, even though it was several hours later than I had planned for.
For one thing, when I arose, there was almost a quarter of an inch of FROST on the car windshields. The house's outside thermometer had registered 35 degrees for a low but obviously it was several degrees colder a few dozen feet farther away from the house's residual warmth.
As noted in the listings below, my lowest temperature was 60 degrees today but it was mostly feeling chilly all during the ride, even when I was working up a sweat climbing the hills.
I wanted to ride my new Catrike today but I still didn't have electronics mounted on it so I took out the good ol' 2-wheel recumbent and rode it instead.
Everything made for a lovely ride today, and I certainly was in no danger of overheating. A couple times, however, the chain got stuck when shifting into the highest gear, and the third time it happened, I pulled over to see if anything was out of whack, and mercy, what a mess. The middle idler pulley had somehow gotten tangled in the chain and bent sideways and upside down to where the upper and lower chains were crossed and fighting each other. It took several twists and turns with both sets of Gerber Multi-Tools to get them straightened enough to get going again. So far it's working fine but I fear there will be some welding required in the near future.
Today's Title came to mind as I was bouncing along our primitive goat-path of a road between our house and Frost Road, the nearest pavement about a mile hence.
My eyes seem to "Snap" to anything that's shiny, and it occasionally pays off. However, glittering rocks in the road often appear to resemble shiny coins or hardware, but turn out to be just a shiny speck of quartz or whatever in a very small stone or rock fragment instead, when I get up close enough to really view it. On very rare occasions I DO find something of value.
This time, as I was pushing the bike up the steepest part of the hill the last mile toward home, I noticed a dark form in the rocks in the roadway that at first looked like cheap plastic of some kind, but after a closer look it turned out to be a 6 inch piece of 1/4" thick iron strap about 2" wide. A very valuable piece of scrap iron to have since I have set of acetylene torches at home with which I occasionally weld or repair something. It was a danger lying out in the middle of the road , so I stuck it in the back basket and took it home for the iron pile, which isn't very large.
Shortly after finding this strap, I parked the bike in the shade of a tree at the top of the hill for a short break, and when I turned around I heard the sickening crash of the bike falling over. I had taken care to park it carefully where the dual kickstand was solidly planted in the gravel, but the dirt shifted and down went the bike.
With all the junk I carry, letting the bike fall over is no trivial thing. I have broken mirrors, antennas, and handlebars doing so. This time I could find no damage so I was able to get it upright again and on its slow way up the hill. The left hand rear view mirror had bounced loose so I had to dig out the Allen wrenches and re-tighten it.
Ride Started: 12:16 PM Ride Ended: 2:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 14.2 Ending Voltage: 13. Lowest: 12.5
Lowest Temp 60 F Highest Temp: 75 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 11.22
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
5.0 MPH 6.9 MPH 27.9 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
2 hours 15 mins 1 hour 37 mins 37 minutes
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