Author: greg

• After sadly dropping Alice off at the train station, Bill (our amazing warm showers host) and I rode together for a few miles swapping stories. Bill has done a ton of touring, and may be the most BikeBum of them all because he will often plan his route as he rides!
• Bill gave me a great tip on a route through forest roads to avoid the highway – he even rode the first ten miles with me! The ride was steep, but beautiful the whole way. In fact, when I reached the top, I decided it was so nice – and I knew the end of the mountains was coming soon – I decided to pitch my tent early and just spent the whole day enjoying the meadows and watching the weather change.
• I made it to the closest campsite to the final pass pretty early, and had enough time to: catch a movie (a quiet place: day 1 – so so plot, but great acting), replace my deteriorating bike shorts at the pearl izumi outlet, fix the leaks in my air mattress, and get in a quick swim/rinse before making dinner and going to bed
• The next morning I met a guy doing gravel rides in the area – he’s connecting them all by taking buses! He said he got a bus from Denver to Frisco for like 15 bucks! Also, he lived in Key West, and had worked on the sail boats at the boy scout high adventure base like I had taken when I was in high school!
• From Silverthorne to Breckenridge, there is about 20 miles of amazing bike path – beautiful!
• Unfortunately, the bike path ends and dumps you onto a pretty unfriendly highway with little to no shoulder and lots of RVs and gravel/dump trucks all the way up to Hoosier pass – it got better as I approached the top, but the beginning was unpleasant to say the least.
• A quick note about riding in Colorado: this is a beautiful state with some top-notch opportunities for unforgettable riding and great people, but wow do these highways suck! There is often little to no shoulder, and a ton of traffic – including a huge amount of freight traffic on these tiny backroad highways. What’s worse, the drivers are insane. It’s one thing for me to feel like I’m in danger from a vehicle passing too close, but I have witnessed many times when a driver could not be bothered to wait ten to twenty seconds for a safe opportunity to pass, and instead pulled into the opposing lane and literally ran oncoming vehicles off the road – when after that car the road was clear for half a mile! It’s like their cars have high-voltage electroshock hooked up to their brake pedals. But, whaddyagonnado…
• Summiting Hoosier pass – 11,539 feet – was fun. I definitely felt the elevation and was huffing and puffing at the end. The descent was a great rocket-ride too!
• I camped behind the bar in Hartsel, where I met a guy named Ed who was riding westbound on an ebike. We spent the whole night swapping stories and yammering about this and that – super cool guy! (To my dismay, I was too early for the Hartsel rendezvous that Mike and I visited in 2004)
• The next day I dropped around 4000 feet into canyon City. I had planned to keep going, but I ordered some prescriptions to the pharmacy here (one of the last Walgreens I’ll see for at least a week), but although they were filled in time, it closed early for some unexpected reason. It was hot, i was tired, and there were no obvious camping options, so I checked into a cheap motel, did some laundry, and spent the day chilling out in the A/C.

Well, dear readers, every tour has its high points and its low points, and I sure hope today was this trip’s nadir. Here begins my tale of a series of Very Unfortunate events..

• Packed up out of the hotel and grabbed breakfast before the pharmacy opened at 9. Everything was looking towards a great day of pretty easy riding
• I spent twenty minutes searching for one of my medications all over the Walgreens, convinced I had somehow dropped it or thrown it away, when it turns out there was a miscommunication with the pharmacist and he had not actually given it to me. Not a big deal, but the beginning of my stress level rising
• I admittedly am guilty of great hubris for thinking, as I rolled out of town on another beautiful bike path along the Arkansas River, that everyone was going so smoothly and that I had zero mechanical issues with my bike in 2100 minutes – not even so much as a flat on the tires that had 2000 miles on them before I started!
• I noticed my chain wasn’t running as smoothly as it had been – it was skipping around every so slightly. I was about to turn around and ride three miles back into turn to the bike shop when I finally diagnosed the problem: one of the plates on a chain link was slightly bent. Aha, I thought, I can fix this pretty easily! I got out my trusty chain tool and removed the bad link, thinking it would be no problem to make it the fifty miles to Pueblo and one of its several bike shops to assess if I needed a new chain. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for diagnosing and quickly resolving the problem in less than ten minutes!
• When I got to Florence, I noticed a cool bike shop/rock shop and decided to take a peek inside. The guy who ran it was cool and very talkative. He used to do custom Harley motorcycles, but got out of that biz when his clients started going broke and “I was suddenly in the storage business”. Now he collects old bikes from all over and fixes them up. He had a huge collection of bikes, including a Finnish army bike from 1918! Anyway, this shop becomes relevant later
• There was a long, gradual climb out of Florence, but I was making great time and feeling pretty good (despite the previously mentioned insane drivers) when just before noon, “clunk!” my chain broke. I checked and it looked like another link was damaged, probably I had not gotten the pin set right when I fixed it before. No big deal, I just popped off that link as well.
• Half a mile after that and my chain fell completely off. I removed another link, but while threading it through my bike, I lost the pin. After some attempts to use a pin from the link I had just removed (I found it nearly impossible to push in a new pin with only two hands) I decided to try removing another link. At this point I was hot and frustrated and moving faster than I should have been, and managed to bend the pin setter on my chain tool. And now I was really in a pickle, because I had no way to get my chain on my bike, and bikes don’t work so well without a chain
• My first thought was to try and skip-push (like a scooter) my bike the two miles to the next town, but I checked the map and realized the only thing in that town was a post office. So I figured my best bet would be to try and hitch a ride back to the funky bike shop in Florence. I called and verified that he had a nine speed chain, and threw out my thumb. I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to catch a lift, since it was only about 12 miles and literally everyone on that highway was heading there, so it shouldn’t be too hard. I was wrong. After about 40 minutes with my thumb out, and escalating to the point where I had my busted chain in my thumb hand, and the other hand holding a sign saying “Florence” and a twenty dollar bill, truck after truck passed by. The weather was starting to look like rain, so I figured I might as well start trying to coast downhill back towards Florence, pathetically holding my thumb and busted chain out as I rolled. I actually made it about 3 miles this way (half coasting, half walking up the rolling hills) when finally someone stopped, and gave me a lift to the shop. Salvation! Everything would be fine now!
• So, the guy at the shop was super nice, and I appreciate him helping me out, but I asked him a few times to just pop out a link and put my own chain back on, but he insisted that the whole chain was shot, and instead put on a slightly used one. He charged me five bucks, I gave him ten, but as soon as I rolled out I could tell something was wrong. I went back and we found one of the links was stiff. We worked out it, and I took off again.
• At this point it was 3:00 (over three hours after the initial break) and I hadn’t eaten lunch and had gone through all my water, so I just wanted to get into downtown Florence for some food. In just that half mile, I realized that this ‘new’ chain wasn’t working well – most likely because it was a thicker chain made for a seven or eight speed drivetrain. I didn’t want to take it back to the funky spare parts shop, and decided it was safer to backtrack 9 miles to the small bike shop in cañon city vs trying to ride 40 to Pueblo. I called the shop, and confirmed they had a proper, new 9 speed chain… But now it was 3:15, and they close at 4
• 9 miles in 45 minutes isn’t that hard over the mostly flat terrain, but I knew it was going to be tight, especially since the chain kept skipping, auto shifting, and even occasionally getting stuck when I shifted. So I rode as fast as I could, ignoring the trucks that had no regard for my life or the lives of the oncoming traffic.
• I finally made it into cañon city with about 12 minutes to spare, when, while turning on to main street, and only three blocks from the bike shop, I shifted and the chain got stuck again. I did what I had been doing.. pedaling backwards and shifting around to try to get it unstuck, when CRUNCH! pieces of my rear derailleur went flying through the air! At that point, I was at my wit’s end after everything that had happened and having not eaten anything for seven hours…I didn’t even try to figure out what had happened or collect the pieces of my surely ruined derailleur from the road. i just skip-pushed my bike to the shop as fast as I could and collapsed into a defeated heap
• As I waited for the mechanic, I assessed the damage: the chain was looped multiple times between my cassette and spokes, the half of the derailleur remaining was bent to hell, and at least one spoke was wrecked. Unfortunately, this shop didn’t have a derailleur that would work in stock. I called a shop in Pueblo, and they have one, but they are only open tomorrow. The mechanic came up with a plan wherein I return tomorrow, he tries to repair my wheel and sets me up with a nine speed chain, but shortened so my bike essentially becomes a single speed, and then I try to ride the fifty miles to Pueblo like that with hopefully enough time to get the repair done. Long odds, but thems the cards I’ve been delt
• The only silver lining is that, while eating my feelings with a much-needed pizza, I remembered that Ed, the westbounder I met the other day, had told me he had stayed with a great warmshowers host here. And so, after some back and forth texts, here I am at Matt and Gina’s wonderful house. Well, Gina moved to the Netherlands, and Matt is soon to follow, but in the meantime he said he’s hosted about 20 people so,far this summer, including a few westbounders I had met earlier in the trip! We had a few beers, I took a shower and managed to get most of the grease off of me, and now I am staying up too late writing this overly-detailed post. Good night!

What a turnaround in 24 hours! First off, I’m so grateful to Matt for letting me crash at his place, and for all the ways he helped me out!

The amazing mechanic at the Red canyon bike shop, Daniel, opened early, and replaced my broken spoke, trued my wheel, and bent my derailleur hanger back into place.

Matt had some errands to run in Colorado springs, and offered to take me and my bike to a shop that had the right derailleur for my bike. After calling several shops – it’s getting harder to find nine-speed components – I found the Great divide bike shop in Pueblo, and they even were willing to do the install that day! We drove there, dropped off the bike, and then I hung out with Matt while he ran errands, getting some tasty boba tea in the process. Then we drove back to the shop, and found my bike back in tip-top shape! Matt then continued to be a hero and drove me back to where I originally broke down so I wouldn’t miss a beat or need to backtrack. We caught the tail end of a pretty epic rain storm, and then I was back on the road, bombing into Pueblo!

I’m now rolling along the eastern Colorado prairie. I can still just barely make out the shadows of the mountains far behind me, but before me is nothing but flat, open country – and thankfully I’m finally off the busy highways! Looking forward to hundreds of miles off backroads!

The weather turned very warm as I entered the plains. For the first few days, I had a bit of a tailwind for some of the time, and was making pretty good progress. But the past few days have been mostly cross or headwinds, and combined with the heat have really felt like a slog. I think it was 4 days in row with the high above 100. Each day I’ve gotten up early, trying to be on the road before 8 am, and get in 40-50 miles in the cool weather as quickly as I can. Then I’ve been finding a restaurant, bar, or park to hang out in until late afternoon before continuing to ride. I’ve gotten a few cheap hotels, because the forecast said it would still be 80 degrees at midnight, which makes it pretty tough to sleep in a tent.

Each day I head East, it has gotten slightly more humid, slightly greener, and starting yesterday, I started seeing trees again. Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas is mostly dry rangeland, but that soon gave way to wheat and corn fields. Today I even stopped at a farm stand at an orchard. The towns are slowly getting bigger as well. Tonight I’m sleeping in a town park in a town just northwest of Wichita.

I’ll soon be veering off the Transamerica trail to head north to pick up the Katy trail in Missouri, where I’ll be meeting up with Zach on Monday. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Katy trail, and am looking forward to hundreds of miles of traffic-free riding – as well as being close to a river!

Whoops been a bit since I posted!

• Kansas continued to be hot, and increasingly humid, but also greener and with more trees
• In Toronto, Kansas – my last spot on the Transamerica trail – I stopped at the lizard lips grill. For 17 years, the extremely nice guy running it has been giving cyclists little plastic lizards to adorn their bike. Also, he refused to take payment for a delicious cinnamon roll. He wished me safe riding, and at least 3 times advised me “don’t hit any buffalo”
• I picked up a bike trail for 30 miles heading north out of Iola – it was great except I lost one of my shoes (my non -riding shoes). I went back about 5 miles looking for it before giving up – the road gives, and the road takes
• I was excited to find a campground on a large lake, only to find out there was no swimming because it was the cooling outlet for a large power plant
• I had breakfast in the first town I hit in Missouri – Alexandria – and the owner, after seeing my bike, refused to let me pay! I spent about an hour talking to him and the server. I’d recommend the place, but he said he was closing it in a week to retire. I later learned that retirement for him was moving to Branson and finding a cool job there
• I met Zach at the beginning of the Katy trail in Clinton. We camped at the trailhead, where we met a dad and five kids who were riding the trail together with a small armada of bicycle trailers
• I finally met some other bike tourists on the Katy trail – the first I’d seen since Ed in Hartsel, Colorado. We spent some time with one guy who worked as a meteorologist for the Wisconsin Air national guard, and had built his own boat for sailing on lake Superior. (I regret that I didn’t ask if he was familiar with the legend Dick Goddard). He had an amazing story where he had messed up his knee and wasn’t able to walk for 14 years, and started having heart problems. The doctors finally figured out how to fix his knee, and he started riding and lost 100 pounds – he was riding the Katy trail back and forth as his first foray back into bike touring!
• We made it to Zach’s place in Columbia, and our friend Joel drove down from Cincinnati to shuttle Zach to a wedding. We spent a day kicking around Columbia – including hitting up a pierogi restaurant – and then stayed up till 3am watching nostalgic 80s videos on YouTube – Zach is a connoisseur of old local TV news intros.
• I got my first flat of the trip in Columbia, which is pretty good considering I’m using last year’s tires, so they have about 5k miles on them
• The plan was Zach was going to come back from the wedding and then keep riding with me, so I spent a few days just chilling at his place. Unfortunately, real life reared its ugly head, and Zach got scheduled for a bunch of meetings for his new job, so I pulled out of Columbia a sad solo cyclist again
• I wasn’t solo for long though – as soon as I made it back to the main trail, I met two guys from San Jose – Pat and Ralph (I think) – who were riding from Kansas City to DC following pretty much the same route I was taking. They had also ridden nearly the same route as I had last year!
• We stayed in another very cool bike hostel that night – it had originally been a general store I think from the late 1800s. There was even a local family that would deliver food if you called them – those guys did it and they got a huge dinner
• I was riding faster than them (they were in their late sixties) so I peeled off the next morning
• I finished out the rest of the Katy trail – it was really nice to be out of traffic for so long, and all the little tiny old towns it runs through were very cool.
• I crossed the Mississippi into Alton, Illinois and found a cool brewery. Instead of riding back south along the Mississippi to meet back up with the Transam route, I decided to take the “eastern express connector” route which shortcuts straight across Illinois and Indiana, saving me about 250 miles of solo riding
• The weather cooled down a bit, and several nights in my tent I was treated to a light show from nearby thunderstorms, though none ever really hit me
• I don’t have a lot to say about riding across Illinois and Indiana. A lot of the route I’m following is on us-40, which runs parallel to I-70 so it doesn’t get much traffic. It’s also the old “national road” that was built out in the early 1800s, so there’s a lot of interesting history along the way. The riding has been really pleasant – lots of rolling hills and cool little towns
• My brother Chris is meeting me tomorrow and we’ll be at my brother Mike’s place – in Ohio! – tomorrow night! Definitely getting to the end game

• Chris met up with me in Cambridge city, and we headed east towards Ohio!
• On our way out of town, we saw a pretty cool model railroad setup, and talked to one of the guys who helped maintain it
• In Richmond, IN we got chased by a pack of 10-15 dogs. When a few of them started nipping at my panniers and sandals, I employed the “squirt them in the face with my water bottle” tactic to great success
• We had a pretty easy ride to our brother Michael’s place outside of Dayton – lots of gentle rolling hills through country backgrounds, very little traffic
• Picked up the bike trail network outside of Dayton and started seeing a ton of other cyclists
• Stayed at a cool trailside campsite in London, and met another eastbound tourist! Mike left San Francisco a few weeks before I started, and is heading to Long Island! He’s riding solo at the spry young age of 61! We rode with him for a good amount, swapping stories
• Had a pretty smooth ride into Westerville to meet up with our aunt and uncle. We made plans to come back in a few weeks to ride the last final TOSRV (Tour of the Scioto River valley) ride – Uncle Jim has been doing that ride for over thirty years!
• Chris had been plagued by flats, so he picked up some beefier tires. Then, the next morning, it was my turn to have flat tire woes: two tube swaps before we made it half a block!
• More great riding on the Ohio to Erie trail – had savory and sweet kolache for second breakfast
• Camped outside of Millersburg at a campsite that was up (and down) a huge, steep gravel hill – too steep even for my touring bike to get traction, so we had to end the long day with a bit of hike a bike
• Had lunch on the final day at the Dutch kitchen – all you can eat buffet with tons of desserts!
• More great trail and backroads riding to get us to our great-nieces birthday party – ice cream cake!
• The adventure will continue at the end of October – Alice and I will be riding from Akron to DC via Shenandoah!

I picked up Alice last Saturday, and we rolled out on Sunday morning for the final leg of BikeBums 2024 from Akron to DC!

• Chris escorted us for the first 20 miles in to Akron – we started north of there so we could ride through Cuyahoga Valley National Park
• We had a very wet opening to the ride, and were quickly covered in trail grit. At least I have fenders – Alice and Chris didn’t!
• Discovered Apple cider sorbet in canal Fulton, which is pretty dang tasty
• We made it to a nice free campsite on the Tuscawarus river, where we could rinse off. There was also a pub just up the trail where we got hot toddies
• Monday was more rain as we finished out the Ohio and Erie canal towpath trail. We camped in a state forest campground, where it was just us and the racoons
• Had a very rolling ride into steubenville, where we learned that they had just closed the bridge across the Ohio River! Luckily there is a shuttle service that had us back on the trail within an hour
• We rode the panhandle trail in West Virginia to the Montour trail in PA, which eventually led us to the Great Allegheny passage trail – no traffic for us!
• We slept at another cool free Trailside campground on the Montour trail – it even had free firewood and an Adirondack shelter
• The weather got drier in Pennsylvania, but every morning there is a mist that soaks everything anyway… Our gear is starting to get funky
• The GAP trail is absolutely gorgeous in the fall… Really great, easy riding through the forest
• There’s a ton of other folks riding the Pittsburgh to DC route – this trail is a giant funnel for bicyclists
• We met a cool couple – Kevin and Kate – from Richmond VA that we leapfrogged with a few times
• The riding has been great, the weather pretty good, yadda yadda yadda here’s some pictures
• We’re getting some tuneups done to Alice’s ride here in Winchester VA before we head into Shenandoah National Park