Day 4

Lake Quinault to Elma, WA
Distance 59.9 miles -- Cumulative 184.8
Time 5:03:47 -- Cumulative 15:15:27
Elevation Gain 1985 -- Cumulative 6284

The best weather so far. Started in the mid-50s and worked up to the mid-70s with sunshine all day. The wilder, deep forest of the central peninsula slowly gave way to forested hills dotted with single or clustered houses, then to flatter, wooded areas almost reminding me of western Virginia. Not much new scenery but I did have lunch just outside of Humptulips, only so I could mention its name.

The interesting part of the day came around mile 35. But let me back up a bit.

A couple of weeks before the trip the family spent a few days in western Maryland. I had wanted to do a multi-day prep ride so I rode out to Cumberland on they're C&O Canal Towpath with all my gear and camped along the way. In hindsight, that was a mistake. The trailer I am pulling was not built for the rough, gravel, dirt, off-road surface.

When I was packing the trailer to ship I noticed the rubber hubcap had come off one wheel so I covered it with electrical tape, no biggie. But when I was putting it together in a Seattle, Doug and I noticed that, in fact I had stripped out the wheel bearing. After trying in vain to find a replacement in Seattle, I ordered one online to be delivered in Oregon to my friend Jean Ann, who I planned to visit and stay with to see the eclipse.

These first few days I have kept my fingers crossed that the wheel would make it to her house. Today my luck ran out. So there I am, 35 miles from where I started with 25 to go and the wheel is in no way attached to the trailer. After a fair bit of staring and head scratching I started digging through everything I had while thinking "ok, worst case I can walk this 25 miles and get there before midnight if I can't get a pickup truck to take me."

Then I found string and I was struck with inspiration. I put the wheel over the axel and looped the string around the end of the axel inside the existing nut until I created a knot big enough to act as a bigger nut to hold the wheel on. No one would have been more surprised than I was that this worked. I road conservatively but it actually let me get up to 21-22 mph on the downhills. I made my destination only about a half hour later than I expected.

So I now need that new wheel I ordered. Here is my plan. I am staying here until Friday but tomorrow I will ride to Olympia, only about 35 miles, without the trailer. I will rent a car and come back to Elma. There are some things I want to see around here like Mt. St. Helens. On Friday I check out, drive to Portland and spend Friday and Saturday in the city as I had previously planned. Then Sunday I go to Jean Ann's and see the eclipse on Monday. Hopefully the wheel will arrive by the end of this week or early next week and I will drive back to Olympia, where my bike trip was officially paused, and start again with a slight alteration to the course but no interruption to the cross-country flow.

I will post tomorrow but probably not again until after I am back on the road.

I worked with an Air Force officer, John Wohlman, years ago. Whenever we traveled and there was a hiccup he would say "flexibility is the key to air power."  I get it. I view this as a minor setback and one that I have been expecting since I started.

Oh, I am getting closer on the pictures.