Alea's 30 mile or so ride to Millerton (where we left our route to camp at Taconic State Park) was mostly a repeat of the day before: warm temperatures, sunny skies, pleasant scenery and generally low traffic volumes. The only differences were more hills and one stretch of road with a fair amount of truck traffic. But she also had nearly 10 miles of flat, freshly paved rail trail at the end of the ride.
We lucked out just before reaching that rail trail, which was just after Alea had descended a long, steep grade. Her front tire blew out on her, destroying the tube and ripping a hole in the sidewall. She had stopped and was attempting to fix it, so I doubled back a short distance to lend a hand. We were lucky because if the tire had blown on the descent, it may have been difficult for Alea to make a controlled stop. And if it had blown out on the rail trail, trying to figure out how to get to her could have been an interesting exercise. So like I said, we got lucky...
We are camping for two nights at the Copake Falls unit of Taconic State Park. We have a site with water only for $24 per night, but we had to pay a $9 reservation fee (to assure that we could get a spot on the only dog loop), so it's working out to $28.50 per night. We like the campground, as the sites are large and fairly well screened from one another. There are mainly tent campers here (and a Scout Troop or two): Lots of families and college kids.
On our day off, I dropped my bike off at Bash Bish Bicycles. I have been having some minor shifting troubles, so I let it to have the rear derailleur adjusted. The owner, Grant, was nice enough to have it back to me later in the day.
Grant pointed out that my chain was about 50% worn, which we had noticed ourselves a couple of days ago. That had seemed odd to me, as my bike has probably only been ridden a bit more than 1,000 miles since having the chain replaced. He said it was probably a KMC chain, which in his experience don't last nearly as long as Shimano chains.
He also warned me to watch for erratic shifting on my bike, as that would be a sign that the shifter cables are starting to fray. He advised to have them replaced right away if that happens, as it is a lot more costly to replace them after they snap, due to the extra effort needed to fish out all the tiny bits and pieces. So I suspect that somewhere around Saint Louis we'll end up doing a minor bike overhaul.
We took the time to look around the park, driving to Sunset Rock, Bash Bish Falls and the old Copake Iron Works site, before heading for Hillsdale to get some shopping done. It's a very nice area, and close to a mecca for bicycle collectors - every April there is the Copake Bicycle Auction, where hard to find antique bicycles and ephemera are sold.
On a side note, recently we signed up at warmshowers.org, a reciprocal hospitality site for touring cyclists. The idea is that cyclists invite you into their home on the premise that you will do likewise for others in the future. We didn't sign up for it 10 months ago when we started out, because we didn't see how it would fit our needs, since we are mostly self contained (except for the need for access to a toilet and a shower). Well, most of the self-supported touring cyclists that we have met this year have used the service and seemed to think that we'd we a good fit. And we thought there might be a few areas of the country where it would be nice to have an option other than an overpriced private campground.
So after signing up a couple of weeks ago (which including having to create a profile that gives an overview of what you are doing), we went back today to see what prospects there might be in western Massachusetts for later this week. But the site didn't recognize the username that I had created, nor our e-mail address. The confirmation e-mail that I had received from warmshowers.org said to reply if there were any questions, so I did. I asked whether my login had been deleted, and asked for an explanation.
I received a reply that we didn't fit the description of "private individuals (or couples or small groups) touring on bicycles." Then what the hell would you call what we've done the past 6,500 miles?
It's doubtful that we would have used warmshowers.org very much, as it is best to give potential hosts a few days heads up about when you plan to be in their area. That only adds an additional layer of complexity to our daily planning. But we thought on occasion it would be nice to spend some time with and get to know other passionate cyclists, and it would be a potential opportunity to meet some locals and learn about places of interest that might be under the typical tourist radar.
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