Yesterday was a rest day. Cold morning. Furnace ran all night. Skipped exercises for a rest day. Made French toast. Cleaned up and made for underway. Drove into town 11 miles away.
I stopped in parking lot of Chile Pepper bike shop in case I needed help converting my drive train from a 2 by to a 1 by w/ a Oneup 42 tooth rear cog and a 30 Tooth for the chain ring. Pleasant working outside. I removed the baby chain ring 22T, the middle a 32T, and the bash guard and attempted to install the new chain ring and the bash guard. Wouldn’t fit as the bolts to chain ring were too short. A trip to a wrench inside steered me to not attaching the guard which I did and the bolt threads were long enough. Really…. no guard is required because the chain covers all the bashable damage teeth. The cluster was converted by adding the 42T sprocket behind the stock 36 and removing both the 15 and 17T sprockets and replacing them w/ just a 16T gear. Put it all back together and walked my bike back to the shop to adjust the rear derailleur. Shifting is spot on. I left the front derailleur and shifter on in case I do not like the new set up.
I buy my propane from a local feed store. I figure I burn about a gallon a day. My tank holds 5.8 gallons.
Drove back to Willow Springs by late afternoon to secure a camp spot as this place is crowded. I scored my spot
Forecast for today still called for high winds, gusts to 40mph. Winds picked up just after sunrise. I wanted to ride to experience the new drive train. I watched winds blow snow off the La Salles: big plumes of snow carried into the air. Down here it was windy. I chose Bar M trails because of the lesser amount of loose dirt that the wind could blow into my lungs. At the trailhead I felt strong gusts. I checked the velocity w/ my wind gauge 23mph gust from the SW. The TH is about 2/3 of the way downwind from upwind trail end. I rode the tech stuff into the wind enjoying shelter occasionally.I rode the slick rock back with the wind at my back. Jogs in the painted route would swing back into the wind which is like pedaling uphill. I was glad I chose this way. I didn’t plan it, I just wanted to ride the tech stuff first off.
The new gears are great. I am spending more time further down the cog set because of the smaller chain ring. But when I climbed I had low gears. I hardly used the 42T low gear. I am sold on the change. I will remove the front shifting stuff.
I drove back into town for a shower then turned around and drove back to Willow Springs and scored my spot. Lots of traffic continued to drive back the road. Never seen so many campers back here.
Tomorrow is Wabasabi Thanksgiving feed. I’m volunteering for the second feeding. The volunteer coordinator called me yesterday to remind me of my commitment. She said they have 130 volunteers. A front page article in the local paper said they had 70 but needed 100. Great that people are stepping up for this community activity. I plan on doing my wash first. If I manage my time I could ride Pipe Dream and take a shower before eating.
I ordered shipment of my in box mail at Earthclass, the mail forwarding service I’m using, to be shipped to Moab. I’ll be here until it arrives. Next stop is Hurkin on the other side of the state. My route takes me thru AZ to get there, road conditions will determine departure date. Friend Les from Spokane is in ST George now. He stopped at OTE in Hurkin. He sent pics and words from Clayton that I had better show.
Zags beat the Huskies.