The last two days have been tremendous and eventful. After my day off in Fraser Lake, I finally woke up early enough to beat the sun, and was out of my tent by 5AM. I struggled with my jet boil a bit: there are two pieces that (apparently) serve to disrupt the jet of gas coming out of the stove, causing the fuel to mix with the air. Those pieces are not attached to the stove, and as a result I consistently drop them. Somehow, I managed to avoid losing them for about ten years anyway, until the day before I reached Fraser Lake. I'd always wondered if the stove would work without them...turns out it doesn't. I cut up a tin can and got the stove to work a little, but now the part of the stove that releases the fuel glows red hot and eventually fuel stops coming out of the canister. And then, if I remove the unscrew the stove from the fuel canister, fuel keeps spraying out of the can. I suspect that the stove is getting so hot it's damaging the valve in the canister...I'm hoping to find replacement parts somewhere...or maybe it's time for a new stove.
Anyway, I eventually managed some warm, mostly cooked oatmeal with salami, and hit the road at 6:15. And I felt tremendous! About 20k in I had my first flat tire, and I stopped once for 45 minutes to eat and refill my water bottle. But otherwise I stayed on the bike and rode fast|! The day was just starting to get hot when I rolled into Prince George at 1:15, 155 km from Fraser Lake. This was great! I thought I'd go find a hostel, be set up by 2:30 and have time to wander around town, get some food, and look for stove parts....Unfortunately, it took me about two hours just to find the visitor center, I couldn't check into the hostel until five, and all of the sport shops were closed for Sunday (and would be closed Monday too, for BC day). I showed up at the hostel at five to check in, but the fire alarm was going off and nobody could figure out how to stop it...so I had to come back later. By the time I stumbled into the hostel, I was hot, dehydrated and tired as though I'd been riding all day.
But the hostel was great! Eric's World, as the building was called, included a spa, hostel, and Eric's home. The live-in caretaker had grown up in Egypt and Italy, and provided hilarious conversation throughout the evening, especially after two English women showed up to egg him on (coincidentally, they're taking the ferry to Haines in a few days!)
The next morning I got up early for another big day ahead of the sun, and was ready to go by 6:15. But this was not my day. Just as I finished packing my bike, I realized I'd locked my bike shoes in the hostel. |The owner had gotten up early to get my bike out of his spa, where he'd let me store it for the night, but had since disappeared back to bed, and I'd left my keys up in the hostel as instructed. My only options were to wait for somebody to wake up and let me in, or ring the door bell and wake up the whole hostel to get the caretaker to come down and get me. I sat around for about twenty minutes, but the thought of roasting out in the sun eventually inspired me to press the door bell. The caretaker came down, rolled his eyes, and I was on my way.
I'd only gone about 20 km when I got my second flat tire. Seeing as I rode 900km on my way to Haines from |Fairbanks, and the first 600km of this trip without a flat, I figured these two had to be correlated and attributed them to wear on my rear tire making it thin. I switched to my spare tire, (which is only 23 mm wide rather than 28mm) installed my last inter tube, pumped it up hard to prevent damage to the sidewall of the tire, and kept riding. I got my third flat about 20 km after that.
Well, I didn't have to hitchhike quite yet: I had a patch kit with me with three patches left. I'd tried, and failed, to use one before (turns out I put it on backwards!), but in theory I could patch a tube and keep riding. I had about 80 km left to the next town, Quesnel, where I could go to a bike shop and get new supplies. Of course, they'd all be closed for BC day, but I could camp there and wait for them to open on Tuesday. I set to patching the tube, and picked the rock out of the tire that had caused the hole. The patch seemed to take well, and I was optimistic, but not particularly surprised when it failed. I took the tire back off (it seems risky to test the tube outside of the tire, when there's nothing to keep the patch from blowing off), and looked at the tube again. The patch still looked good. But aha! There were two holes in the tire. I patched the second one, and was relieved to find that the tube held air. I left it soft this time, hoping that would reduce the risk of a puncture. I got back on the road, and started pedaling cautiously toward Quesnel. Not much room for error now.
I got more confident in the tire as the day wore on, and had a decent ride for a few hours (except for a few minutes of discomfort when a bee managed to sting me while I was riding). I was cruising down the last hills into Quesnel, with about 5k left, when I hit a bump and got my fourth flat tire. What the heck! By now it was hot, hot outside, and I was really wanting to get to some shade in Quesnel. But there was no shade nearby, so I put my head down, pulled over into some grass, and set to applying my last patch. Again, there were two holes in the tube, but they were close together. I could cover both of them with one patch. I tried it, but the tire still didn't hold air. (I noticed later that there was yet another hole in that tube...probably from walking the bike with a flat tire to get to that grassy patch). I stashed the bike in the woods, (not an easy task as it turned out), and ran/walked into town. I eventually found the visitor center and learned that there were bike shops in town, and found out about camping options. I got some food, found that the bike shops were indeed closed, and eventually went back to my bike, again dehydrated and hot despite my early morning start.
I drug my bike out of the woods, and started walking the 7k to a campground, flinching every time I heard the rim of the $115 rear wheel ping against gravel on the road. As I walked, I thought...Maybe I could pull the patches off the failed tube, and try and patch a different tube. And I could put the 28 mm tire on...at least that would provide some more protection for the rim. I waited until I found a nice shady place, and tried to reuse one of the patches. It worked!
What a relief to ride rather than walk the bike. Soon, the sun dipped behind some clouds, I made it to my campsite, went for a swim in the lake, and went to bed feeling good. Now, I'm waiting for the bike shop to open while I type this out at the visitor center. Hopefully today will be a better day. It's mercifully overcast and rainy outside.
I think it's good to step back and see where I went wrong...the flat tires were caused by a combination of things, I think: a worn tire, too skinny of a tire for the load in the rear, and a bit of bad luck with sharp pebbles. So today I'll be a new fat tire (or two!). But the biggest mistake was giving up on the bike 5k from town. I should have found some shade, relaxed and gotten it going rather than running to town. It would have saved me a lot of sun!
In the meantime, I've been looking at courses and starting to plan out my arrival at Stanford. I get excited doing that, then get sad thinking about Alaska...I've been thinking a lot about values on this trip. Happiness, family, the world....the first two don't require education. But maybe the third? I had a conversation with Tim Shields before I left Haines... we talked about how parts of society really aren't sustainable now. The Tlingit probably had a sustainable lifestyle...maybe we could recreate that...or maybe we could use the technology, knowledge, and social structures that generations have worked to create and move forward. That's the vision for the lifestyle I want: small, locally focused living but still connected, and actively contributing to the world. A small cabin in the woods...but with an internet connection. At least that's my thought for today...I change my mind every 20 km!
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