Dateline: Salem, AR
T-storm activity quit around 10:00PM last night. Slept quietly. In AM wind came up and sprinkles. weather forecast was for clearing and favorable for ride. Counting on rocky sandy soil to dry quickly.
Drove back down green mtn rd to TH. There were 2 rigs there. Rode White River Bluff. Lots of ice damage but trail cleared. Rocks were slippery and i rode cautiously and avoided overly technical moves. Back to TH picked up orange trail Bald Scrappy loop and merged onto blue trail Scrappy Mtn Loop. Saw fresh bike tracks, must have been riders whose rigs were in parking lot. Continued until hit uncleared trail. What a mess: not a simple walk around a tree trunk. Heard voices ahead, I had caught up w/ other riders. Trail is impassable. Their solution is to hike up the mtn to pick up trail on other side. A bit lost. Bashed thru poison ivy. Luckily so far i wore long tights, several of the other guys were only wearing shorts. Oh, big poison ivy coming for them. Found trail, continued around and came out @Scrappy mtn TH and rode road back to first TH. The other guys were from Conway & had to get back. I rode the orange trail the other way. Bit of rocks but several muddy h2o sections. Trail is on rock, not deep mud but spewed up h2o that had stuff in it. My drive train made grating sounds. My front brake squealed: I wore out the pads and the metal spring was grinding on the rotor when I squeezed the brake lever. No front brake! Luckily the trail never got steep enough to really miss it. Made it back to van OK.
CXT outhouses @ each TH.
Concern over condition of components. I had 1 new pair of brake pads. My Chris King bottom bracket I just knew needs grease and finding the grease tool would be a problem. I needed a shower and clean up bike, and then go buy parts.
Called Competitive Cyclist to buy King tool. They didn’t have. failure. I would have driven 125 miles backwards direction to score tool. Plan B is if bottom bracket is grit affected is to buy another bottom bracket and use until I would score the King tool.
Called usfs rs and asked about a shower in any of their nearby XGs. Said yes @ Blanchard rec area on rt 14. If I drove into town of 56 I went to far. I found the sign to Blanchard caverns but it didn’t say XG. Called back to RS and was assured that it is the same place, just drive further down road. trusted her and she was the one yesterday who said that trails were cleared. Free shower in a bigger CXT building. Washed bike off. replaced worn front pads, cleaned off rear pads seeing that there is a little meat still left, cleaned chain, & spun crank. Bottom bracket appears to spin freely. Maybe safe for more rides, tomorrow will tell.
About 6 motorcycle riders pulled in right across from where I was working. they set up camp looking much like back packers w/ their Shelter selection. 2 guys chose the covered hammock trick.
Back in the woods during my ride I saw many pieces of styrofoam and several pieces of sheet metal like siding or patio roof material. Deduced that it was debris the tornado sucked up and they finally fell from the sky long ways away from touchdown.
Drove hwy 9 again, still a windy twisty climbing dropping 2 lane no shoulder road N to Missouri. Managed to make Salem. Saw sign for airport on outskirts of whatever kind of town Salem is. Small airport, several single engine airplanes under roofs & cars. Decided if I got internet connection I would spend the night. No people around. No lights on runway so likelihood of airplanes returning to the cars was slim. Adding airports to sleeping locations.
Saw news story of CNN about tornadoes in SE USA killing people. One just struck Mena, AR where I was just several days ago. Staying ahead of bad weather.