Day 87: Equipment Failures, Culinary Triumph

I heard some rustling early in the morning and saw Nick and Brad packing up at 6:30. I was still pretty much asleep, let alone packed and fed so I didn't bother trying to time it with them. It would be nice to ride with them but Brad is shooting for Gloucester on Thursday which is two days faster than my goal so we would have been on a different pace anyway. I slept some more, ate and packed, and left around 10:30. Not too far into the ride on the trail I heard a familiar rattling but had never figured out what it was. I also noticed my front rack leaning forward more than usual so I stopped to investigate. To my frustration I found that one of the bars securing it to the frame was broken! I've always known it wasn't the best rack since installing it, and by Missoula it had sagged and I was able to straighten it by hand (not a good sign) so I shouldn't have been surprised. But this close to the end?! I made a shabby splint using duct tape and a stick that didn't last longer than 5 minutes and just kept going to the next town.

In Utica I stopped at Nail Creek Brewing for a couple pints and a panini, then walked over to the hardware store. I ended up getting two small pieces of tubing and some zip ties to act as a sturdier splint, and at this time also noticed that the other side was cracked nearly all the way through. The rack has two attachment points on either side so if one on each side is broken it will pivot, and my goal was to splint the broken legs to keep that pivot from happening. It seemed pretty sturdy and I started riding again, getting only 4 block before it leaned over so far as to push the fender onto the tire. The zip ties simply had too much stretch and flexibility to them so I ran a chain of them around the top of the rack and looped it around the frame. This prevented the pivot but caused the zip tie to rub against the frame every time I turned the wheel and wear some paint off. I have three pairs of socks, one since the beginning of the trip and that pair finally started to slide below my heel today. Since they were now garbage I wedged one in between the frame and zip tie, the other quickly saw the trash bin. This contraption seems to be working, I'm now just crossing my fingers that it can make it another 5 days. It seems as if the 5000 mile threshold was the breaking point for a few things.

Back in decent shape I started riding along the Canal again. I was informed at Nail Creek that this area (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica) is known as the Rust Belt due to the once great industry and shipping that occurred along the canal to support the building of NYC among other areas, but was now struggling. That was fairly evident in the suburbs of Utica. The city itself seems to be having a renaissance but the outer areas have seen much better days. CAUTION: The following paragraph is likely to make your mouth water, it is recommended that you not be hungry while reading this. I finally got to camp at Lock 15 in Fort Plain. There are a few locks along the canal that provide free camping so I was going to try this one out. A trip to the grocery store provided me with the means to a feast and I set up camp and lit up the single-use size bag of coals in the stand-up BBQ next to my table. The meal that resulted from this was hands down the best of the trip. The store had single bottles of microbrews so I was able to finally enjoy a couple tasty IPAs at camp. I bought a small container of bacon and sour cream potato salad, then placed a halved bell pepper, two halved peaches, a salmon steak, and a personal size apple pie on the grill. The pepper was sweet and warm but still with a satisfying and juicy crunch. The salmon was the best fish I've ever prepared, the rub giving a caramelized sweet and spicy shell to a meat that was perfectly cooked through. It actually made me exclaim "wow!" at the first bite. The potato salad had a tasty balance of wholesome with some salty and smoky from the bacon. The pie was now warm and had a crumbly struesel topping and the grilling brought out the sweet flavor of the ripe peaches. I've always loved cooking and to make this happen for myself while touring and after such a long journey was an instant highlight of the trip.

I finally settled to bed with the stars above me having left the fly off, and laid down to rest after a superb evening with just the peaceful sound of water spilling over the dam nearby.