Bishop Bike Adventure Day 58 August 27, 2010

Today we started out early (for us). At 9:05 we were on the road headed to Osceola for breakfast 5 miles down the road from Redfield N.Y. We knew we had a big day ahead of us with lots of hills and many calories to burn. Breakfast at the Outpost (recommended by our Redfield proprietors) was delicious. Starting out with pancakes, juice, toast, eggs, and meat always gets us ready for the day with oatmeal to stick to our bones whenever it is offered, or we can make it ourselves with our Jetboil.

On the Garmin at the end of the day, we climbed over 3,600 feet and burned at least 4,600 calories. We rode for 6 hours and 40 minutes and enjoyed every mile along the way. This was one of our most physically demanding days, up there with our ride up Lolo Pass back in Idaho. The good news is that we are in much better shape now than we were back then!

We headed north and east today. The air was clean and crisp and the sky was a beautiful blue. It was rather nippy out with both of us having base layers and arm warmers on to keep our muscles warm. We were headed toward the Adirondack Mountains and the temperature in the morning was only in the 60’s, a far cry from our 100-degree temperatures in the west.

A couple of “issues” came up today. The Camelbaks that we are so dependent upon for easy access to water contain a “bladder” that we fill with ice and water each day. Well, the bladder on Debbie’s Camelbak sprang a leak around the opening causing her to shiver even more as it trickled down her back in the morning. Thankfully, duct tape patched the leak up and she dried out as we pedaled on for the day.

Tim has been hearing a mysterious noise from his bike, causing suspicion that his crank set may be wearing out. As we pulled into Boonville, he randomly parked his bike across the street from a store Debbie ran into, whereupon a man came out and struck up a conversation with Tim. It so happened that he was a biker. As Tim described the concern, along came another fellow who knew the first and was also a biker. This individual had just rebuilt a bike and made some diagnostic comments that helped allay concerns that the bike would fail within the remaining miles of the trip. The concern as to what the issue was continued, so when we arrived in Inlet, NY, we pulled into a bike shop for further help. Their diagnosis was that there was rubbing on his brakes. Of course the noise stopped when the man adjusted it, but as soon as we headed off to Raquette Lake (our final destination for the day) the noise recurred. We just want to make it through our last 300 miles or so without having to stop for a major bike repair. At this juncture, we don’t feel this problem needs future investigation and can await a more thorough diagnosis after our trip.

Along the road today, we went through some tourist towns. The Adirondacks are enjoyed by New Englanders, and folks from New York and New Jersey especially. The deer are so used to tourists that we caught a few right in town or along side the road we were on. You can see how close we could get from these photos.

The area is void of cell service so when we stopped at the bike shop in Inlet, neither of us could call ahead for accommodations. A girl at the shop called ahead and found a room available at a local establishment just down the road.  As we arrived around 8:00, the bar folks were hanging out, smoking their cigs and drinking their beer. We walked through the bar and the bartender assigned us our room after taking a shot of whiskey himself. Another day (and night) of ADVENTURE CYCLING!