2024: A Bit of Touring - Day 3

My second day on the road had been very satisfying. I had moved along quickly despite the rain, and almost 2/3 of the miles were through parts of Indiana I had never ridden before.  I had great nights’ sleep in the tent, and the campground had been very quiet.

A rarity, sunrise visible from my tent

I was up early and enjoyed a quick oatmeal breakfast à la JetBoil.  I make my own travel oatmeal, with 1/2 a cup of quick oats, a heaping teaspoon of brown sugar, and a couple of tablespoons of dried cranberries, all mixed in a small baggie. To prepare it, I just dump the mix into my collapsible silicone bowl and add a cup of boiling water and mix, and then cover the bowl with my plate for 2-3 minutes.  Along with my fresh fruit— apples, oranges, and grapes— it’s a good first breakfast.  After finishing breakfast, I sliced up an apple, and that went into a reusable Stasher silicone zip-lock bag for on-the-road snacking.  My trail mix is another larger Stasher bag.  Along with being reusable, the silicone bags don’t break open at the wrong time and are very easy to reach into while moving.

Another cloudy start, with rain to follow

Unfortunately, there was more rain in the forecast for later in the morning, so I moved right along to break camp.   By 7:45, I was wrapping up my last pit stop to brush my teeth on the way out of camp when I realized my rear tire was soft.  Since I had fixed the flat using CO2 2 days earlier, I assumed it was just the bleed-off, so I topped it off with a frame pump.  I was quickly on my way, with just a quick photo op on the gate sign.  

The day’s plan was a new route for the ride home, with an estimated 75 miles.  Rather than head south after leaving the campground, I first headed east.  At 10 miles, I would turn south on the Nickel Plate Trail.  I have ridden sections of trail all the way from Kokomo to Rochester over a number of rides, but today I would be continuing through Kokomo, with a straight south route to home from there. 

As I had ridden east, the skies to the northwest had grown darker, and there were intermittent sprinkles of rain.  I turned onto the trail a few miles north of Bunker Hill, and by the time I entered the small village, the rain was starting to increase its intensity.  I paused to button things up and put on my rain jacket, and checked my weather app.  Unlike the day before, it was just solid green with no red and yellow, so I decided to just keep rolling.  

It was soon a hard rain with visibility dropping, but with no real shelter available and no traffic to worry about, I just kept pedaling.  At one point, over the sound of falling rain, I heard a loud metallic jingle near my rear wheel and stopped to see what it might be.  Everything appeared to be fine on my bike, and then I just happened to glance down the trail, and 15 feet behind my bike, my bag of tent stakes were in the middle of the trail.  The cord lock on the tent stuff had apparently loosened in the rain; I was just glad they had made so much noise when they fell out. (And this got me thinking about another solution, and one that would also deal with a soon-drenched tent.)

It was starting up after securely repacking my stakes that I realized I had a soft rear tire, again.  It was obvious now that this was not a CO2 issue.  Still without shelter, I just topped off the rear tire to 60 lbs, and was very happy I had a MightyMorph pump for doing this in the rain.  I figured I would just ride and top off the tire every 10 to 15 miles until the rain stopped or I found shelter.

The first flat of the day

Five miles later, the trail went under US-31, and I decided the overpass was as good a shelter as any.  I repeated the ritual of unhooking my panniers and my rack load, and started to change the tire.  I again found a pin-hole leak in the tube with no obvious stone or glass chip in the tire.  But lining up the tube and tire, and running my fingers inside the tire case, I finally found the culprit.  This tire had a layer of Kevlar fabric in the tire between the inner tube and the tire casing for flat protection.  What I found was a stiff strand of Kevlar, with a sharp edge poking up.  

On my previous inspections, I had been looking for glass or stone chips, and hadn’t suspected it could be the tire itself.  In looking back, I realized I had a couple of similar flats over the past year and a half with the same tire, where I hadn’t found a stone chip or glass in the tire.   With the apparent mystery resolved, I put some Gorilla Tape (part of my touring tool kit) over the rough spot, remounted the tire, and inflated it with CO2.   The tire inflated properly, but the bead refused to seat, even when I over-pressed it manually and shot water between the tire and rim.  Figuring it would pop in with some more miles, I reloaded my gear and resumed my ride into Kokomo.

At the north edge of Kokomo, the Nickel Plate Trail came to an end, and Kokomo’s Industrial Heritage Trail began. This 5.8-mile trail, built by the city of Kokomo, would take me through a number of parks, the center of downtown, and through some historic manufacturing areas on a combination of multi-use paths, sidewalks, and streets. It made for some interesting riding, though the southern terminus of the trail was a little confusing.  I managed to find my way to some southbound streets before making my way to McDonald’s for lunch.  

While eating, I checked my weather app and it looked like I was going to have more rain in the next couple of hours.  I wasn’t worried about charging my lights, but I did top off my iPhone for the afternoon as I ate. As I got back on the road after lunch, I was now on streets, and with my speed picking up, the off-center tire was becoming more of an annoyance. After topping off my Gatorade for the final push, I pulled into a strip mall parking lot to make one more try to seat the tire by over-pressuring it.  I began pumping, but rather than the ping of the bead seating, I was rewarded with the BANG of a blowout, as a 3” section of the sidewall blew out, and my rear tire, and another tube were both totaled.

Flat #2, and the tire is toast

I am not sure if the age of the tire (2000+ miles over 20 months), riding it improperly seated for a dozen miles, or just the repeated overpressure mounting that was the cause; and in any case, it didn’t matter. I already had the new tires at home, to be installed after this ride. And I always tour with a folding spare tire in my pack, and I still had 1 spare tube and patches, so I wasn’t stranded just yet. So for the third time this trip, and second time today, I began the process of changing a flat tire. (This is my all-time worst experience with tires in a single trip.)

The new tire was a little bit stubborn going on, and I finally had to start over after recentering the rim strip, but it finally mounted and reassuringly seated true with normal pressure.  But all told, I lost almost an hour, and by the time I came to the south edge of Kokomo, I was being chased by a squall line of horizontal rain, 40-45 mph hour winds, gusts, and falling tree limbs. I pulled off the road into the driveway of a dark home, and tucked myself under the eaves in front of their garage door, and watched the storm continue.

Slow clearing sky's after the rain

After about 10 minutes, I was startled by the garage door behind me beginning to open.  I turned around and was greeted by the homeowner, who had noticed me on his security camera.  He invited me into the garage, and I was completely out of the rain.  He was a work-from-home engineer for a large IT company, and we chatted for a bit while the wind and rain continued.  He had done some mountain biking and was curious about my 920 and bike touring in general.  Almost 20 minutes passed as we chatted while the last of the red bands finally passed on to the south and west.   It was going to be raining for a bit, but by now it was almost 3:30, and I still had about 40 miles to home.  I thanked him for his hospitality and started out again.  

I left the last Kokomo neighborhood, and after a few miles the scattered houses gave way to rural farmland.   A light rain continued to fall, and the southwest sky was still dark, but moving way from me.   I was still at least 35 miles of riding from home, and more rain was forecast for the early evening, so I had some decisions to make.  

All smiles with my wife and change of clothes.

I had been on talking and texting with my wife Linda throughout the morning and afternoon, and she was watching the weather as well.  I was also riding with only a patch kit now, no spare tubes, so another flat was not going to be fun.   We finally decided to meet at a tractor dealership we both knew on US-31, which we could both reach in about an hour; she would need to leave work and switch her car for our Caravan in order to have room for my bike and gear.

With that decision made, I settled in for my last 12 miles of riding.  Overall, it had been a great few days on the road, despite the rain and the tire issues.  It was good to know that I had everything along that I had needed to keep rolling.  It was frustrating to know I had the new tires at home, but I had made the decision to do all that work later, in preparation for a longer ride later in the summer, and wanted all the work at one time to seem more efficient.  I had been able to shake down a bunch of new gear, which would make the next trip easier, and also think through some ways to lighten and optimize my load for longer trips in the future.

Drying out gear after 2 raining days

Stats

• Departed 7:43 AM
• Distance 49.7 miles
• Average MPH 11.0
• Riding Time 4:30 / Total Time 9:13
• 849 Feet Ascending
• 753 Feet Descending
• Total Distance: 193.9 miles

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2024: A Bit of Touring - Day 2

After an uneventful and dry night, I was up at dawn and prepping for the day ahead.  I fired up my JetBoil and quickly had the boiling water for freeze-dried scrambled eggs.  I have had other freeze-dried breakfasts that were okay, but this meal was only scrambled eggs, and it was not very satisfying; I was glad I had fresh fruit to finish the breakfast.  Packing went well, and everything settled into place, and I was soon back on the road.

A cloudy start, but no rain early

My second day was headed north and west to the Mississinewa State Recreation area, about 75 miles away.  I have used this campground from home many times over the years, but today I would be approaching from a new direction.  After riding a few miles north from Summit Lake, I should have connected with the Cardinal Greenway, but I misread my GPS map and my first attempt had me crossing over the trail, and then I found a nature area path that did not connect with the trail. It was only after I scrambled down an embankment onto the paved trail and headed north that I found the on-road trailhead I had missed.

More wild flowers along the way

This section of the greenway was well maintained and marked, with a nice canopy of trees as it passed through rolling farmland.  A few miles up the trail, I found a small bike shop, and after chatting with the owner, who was also a long-time cyclist, I picked up a couple of spare tubes to replace my punctured tube from yesterday.  (This turned out to be a very wise decision.) 

A Mile Marker on the Cardinal Trail

As I continued north, my weather app and texts from my wife were updating me on possible severe storms in my path that were moving south and due over the lunch hour. I was almost through Muncie with 22 miles when I saw a Chic-Fil-A was just a 1/4 mile off the trail.  No sooner had I parked my bike and pulled out my charger kit, a light rain had started. By the time I had placed my order and settled in, the sky darkened and a very windy squall line arrived bringing with it very heavy rain. The rain continued on for another 90 minutes, including a second squall line of strong winds and heavy rain.  During my lunch, I was able to fully recharge my power bank and top off my iPhone battery; I had used about 25% of the power bank charging things overnight in my tent, so it was working as I had planned.

By 1:30 p.m., my weather app showed all the red and yellow storm bands were now south of me, though a light rain continued. With 50 miles still to cover to my overnight, it was time to move on.   Back on the trail, most of the rain was just the water falling from the trail’s canopy of trees.  Within the first mile, a 50-foot tree was down across the trail; fortunately, it had fallen into some open green space, extending almost 15 feet beyond the trail edge, leaving enough room to walk my bike around it.  The 

Waiting the storm out

The Cardinal continued north and west, taking me through Gas City and Marion.  On the north side of Marion, I picked up a snack and some Gatorade.  I was now off the Cardinal, but I soon picked up the Sweetser Trail, which runs west out of Marion.  It is a relatively new paved trail situated in a nice greenway.  By now I was 40 miles north of my lunch, and I had been dry but overcast most of the afternoon. Riding west, I again encountered a scattering of small trees and branches fallen across the trail.  It had been quite a storm front.  

The 9 miles of trail ended in the small town of Converse, and I made my final grocery stop.   It was now a little after 6 with about a dozen miles to go.  Even though it was 6 p.m., late June meant there were still 3 hours until sunset.  It wasn’t too long before I was on familiar roads from my other rides and tours I had done in the area. Just before 7, I reached the campground entrance and checked in, and my day ended at my campsite with 78 miles, with 6 hours of riding out of 10 hours on the road.  All things considered, it had been a great day of riding.

There were no squirrels investigating my campsite as I set up my tent.  It was damp from the riding in the rain, but it dried out quickly.  I had a full clothesline of gear including my rain jacket, gloves, and clothing I wanted dry before packing.  My gear in the back, almost all bagged in Ziploc bags, was all dry.   

Before I started dinner, I started charging my gear.  Throughout the evening, I would be charging 2 Bontrager Taillight’s and a Headlight, a Garmin Varia radar light, and a Wahoo Bolt GPS. I was using the campsite 110 AC with my Anker multiport charger, new for this year since I now needed USB-C charging.  Along with charging the bike tech, I would also need to charge my iPhone and my Apple Watch, which I usually charge with me in the tent, using a power bank. My routine for campground charging is to drop all my chargeable items in an empty front pannier, and hang that from the campsite RV outlet. As each device finishes charging, it gets moved to another pocket in the pannier.  It’s easy to keep an eye on, and can all be brought back into the tent in one trip.  

The first of many trees after the storm

With my tent up, clothes drying, and gear charging, I decided to eat before showering, and my freeze-dried dinner was much better than my breakfast.  Over the course of dinner, an awesome C-17 Transport made a high pass over the campground, apparently on a landing approach to the nearby Grissom Air National Guard base.  It brought back memories of another trip decades ago when I had ridden under a B-52 make a landing approach while I was biking toward Sue St. Marie in Michigan’s UP (yes, there was a SAC base in the UP with flight-ready B-52s until 1977!). It was otherwise a quiet evening in the campground, with the multi-family campsite next to mine ending their corn hole tournament with the sunset.

After a quick shower, I returned to my tent to start bringing in my now-dry gear.  I even had my phone battery topped off before I closed up for the night.  There was a little more distant rumbling from the airbase, but it was mostly outdoor noises as I settled in for my second night on the road.

Stats

• Departed 8:47 AM
• Distance 79.1 miles
• Average MPH 12.0
• Riding Time 6:34 / Total Time 10:24
• 1514 Feet Ascending
• 1783 Feet Descending
• Total Distance: 144.2 miles

Continue to A Bit of Touring - Day 3

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2024: A Bit of Touring - Day 1

I started my first touring day with a simple breakfast at home. I then finished loading up, said goodbye to Linda, and was on the road.  It’s nice to have a tour that starts from your driveway; otherwise, you have to load the bike, confirm you have everything, then strip it to load the car, and repeat the process at your remote start. I rolled out of the neighborhood for the easy mile to our Monon trailhead, and then started north. I had 4 miles north on the Monon Trail to Westfield, and then heeded east on Midland Trace for the 6 miles to Noblesville.

Wild Flowers along the way

Leaving the Midland Trace, I worked my way across the White River and through downtown Noblesville.  The Midland Trace trail is currently a work in progress, with a White River crossing into Noblesville due to be completed in the next year or so. From downtown, I continued east on quiet, tree-shaded streets with older homes, which gradually transitioned to newer homes and the area high school complex.   After crossing a state highway, I was riding past subdivisions on the outskirts of town. By the time I left Noblesville, I had almost 20 miles, and the riding transitioned to rural farmland on a quiet two-lane road for the next dozen miles into Anderson.

Rolling hills east of Anderson

I entered Anderson on some quiet side streets and used a state route to cross under I-69.  This brought me to a Culver’s for my lunch stop.  After lunch, I made a quick stop at a supermarket that was right next door, picking up some fresh fruit. Back on the road, the transition back to quiet 2-lane rural farmland took just a mile or so, and that would continue all the way to my overnight stop. 

Tire troubles

About a 1/2 hour after lunch and at the peak of afternoon heat, I encountered a stretch of recently applied chip-and-seal, a stretch a 1/2 mile after the last intersection. The road had streaks of oily sealant seeping through the fresh coating of sand and stone, and soon the sound of stones being thrown into my bike fenders was pretty constant. When I noticed my bike felt like it was bogging down and was getting harder to accelerate, I first thought it was the loose chip-and-seal surface, or that I had a soft tire. But then I came to dry pavement, and I continued to hear stones hitting my fenders, and my bike still felt slow. I stopped to check the tires.

Looking at my rear tire, much of the center band of file tread was filled with tar, small stones, and sand. It was almost the same for my front.  It must have added at least a couple of pounds to each wheel, and it was not coming off easily.   I assumed this was enough to make the bike feel like it was bogging down and started down the road again.  Rather than the normal buzz of tires on pavement, I was treated to the constant ping of small rocks hitting my fenders as my tires slowly shed the small stones.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the start issues which would continue over the next couple of days.

More rolling farm land

I continued on, enjoying the quiet road and new scenery, while the sound of the thrown stones slowly decreased.  But my bike continued to feel like it was bogging down. Finally, as I pulled away from a crossroad stop sign, I looked down and realized my rear tire was very soft, and I pulled off the side of the road into some shade.   Since it was a slow leak and not a blowout, I considered using my frame pump to top off the tire and see how long it would last.  But on the other hand, I had good shade, and I had time to spare, so I decided to change the tube.  I found a pin-hole leak in the tube, but there was no apparent stone chip or glass tire in the tire case.  Assuming the cause had fallen away, I replaced the tube with one of my two spare tubes, and was back on the road in about 20 minutes. 

The afternoon continued to be pleasant riding.  The terrain was mixed with short rolling hills and small creeks, but nothing challenging, even with my touring load.  What I didn’t realize until the end of the day was that I had gained almost 400 feet in elevation over the 40 miles since leaving Noblesville. As the afternoon went on, I passed through a few quiet crossroad villages and an abandoned grain elevator.  By about 4:30 in the afternoon, with 60 miles, I was riding along the north boundary of the park with a view of the lake.  It was another half dozen miles until I was at my campsite, riding 3/4 of the way around to the south side of the lake.

My first day destination

The campsites were all on fingers of land extending into the lake.  Like most campgrounds, with each passing year, it is becoming more “motorized” oriented, but I was able to find a level and soft spot for my tent.  While I was setting up, a squirrel was trying to investigate my gear and tent, and acted like it was used to hand-feeding.  As a result, I recruited a couple of kids from the next campsite to watch my tent while I grabbed a quick shower.  Thankfully, the squirrel appeared to lose interest as night came on.  I used my JetBoil to prep my freeze-dried meal, and enjoyed some cold water and cold Diet Coke, thanks to the bag of ice I purchased at the camp store on the way to my site.  With everything cleaned up, I settled in for my first night on the road.

Stats

• Departed 7:49 AM 
• Distance 65.6
• Average MPH 11.7
• Riding Time 5:36 / Total Time 10:16
• 1,612 Feet Ascending
• 1432 Feet Descending

Continue to A Bit of Touring - Day 2

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