Rousted by the cops, ran out of propane, frige quits working, hard rains & high winds, and its not over yet.

About 11:30 cop beats on side of van and hollers: Police, open up. I crawl out of bed & open the door to stare into a flashlight beam. He asks for my id and registration. I struggle to remove my license from its holder, that’s after I find the pocket it is in my pants. The last piece of paper from the glove box is the registration. There are 2 cops. One asks me what I’m doing and I say sleeping and ask if it is ok to be here. He says its ok but they are investigating unfamiliar vehicles as there have been burglaries in the neighborhood, I hear them laughing over my license plate. The 2nd cop talks this time and says that I am ok but I need to keep my doors locked as I might be  a victim. They leave, I crawl back under covers. OK, the worst that could happen tonight has and the rest was gravy.

The temp outside stayed warm with cloud cover. I ran the heater on low. I heard rain on the roof and smiled with satisfaction that I covered the bikes before going to bed. I awoke and saw on the frige panel a big F for frige off. I noticed a chill or at least absence of hot air. Deduced immediately that the propane tank was empty. Friday I pulled partially into Jim Thorpe XG w/ intent to buy propane. I chickened out. The frige is out. I push buttons attempting to turn frige over to DC battery power. I receive a failure error and push another button and the frige goes lights out.

OK I can deal with this.

Yogurt & slice of jellied bread and off back to XG for propane and phone book for frige repair. Great proprietor at XG. Tank only takes 5.7 gallons not the 7 gal capacity. Worrisome.

Check yellow pages for RV repair shops nearby. First one I call is Blue Mtn and is open and they will work on my frige today after originally saying next opening is 11/13.

Drive S of Broadsville to RV. Rob sees me right away and fixes. I blew the fuse. Again, I missed an important detail: I pulled the wrong fuse  missing the frige circuit that had blown. I replaced fuse and it blew again. Rob said that the install was wrong: I needed 1 heavier gauge wire and a 15 amp fuse circuit. He disconnected the DC equipment to prevent the frige being switched to it as it would blow the fuse and error out on the controls. Ended up w/ a 20 amp fuse which is the largest the wiring could withstand.

Ride at JT was rained out rightfully. Decided to drive to Bethlehem to ride Salisbury on Sun. Rain and high winds. High density of traffic on rt 33 & 22 near Bethlehem. drove to Action Cycles to inquire of local rides. Gave me Salisbury validating my search.

wandered out looking sort of for the TH. Found grocery store parking lot for internet work & croceries. rains and wind picked up. The roof fan leaks: hard rain and wind pushing it. Windows steamed up with all openings firmly shut.

Going to check out bar in parking lot for sports. Series in Philly has to be rained out as they aren’t far from here and no way is the weather better 60 miles away. OSU vs Penn State. Maybe sleep in parking lot.

At WInd Gap crossed the AT. Took several pics. AT doesn’t stay far from population.

Did laundry and hung clothes to dry in side. Sure, 100% humidity. I asked attendant where the hikers coming off the AT get a shower. She came up empty and I didn’t search further.

Leaves almost all down. See way into woods.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for sunny. Ride Salis and drive down to visit S & Barb.

Slept well. Temp dropped to 46 degrees. Kept toasty. Sunrise is almost 7:00AM.

Made store mix pancakes with real blueberries and VT syrup. Worth throwing off the covers and sparking up the heater.

One of these days I will change to long pants. I am wearing a wool sweater and riding with knee warmers & a long underwear top.

Turned to the right leaving sleeping spot & ended up in Conway and drove up to EMS store. I walked in just looking. I ran into Rob ( I later learned his name) that was with the Red jersey bike group from yesterday). We visited. I asked about The Nan and he suggested a route. I bought the map & headed out.

Small TH. FS road being returned to nature.  Soon I learned that the trails on the map, while labeled where not so on the ground and they were just XC trails. Maybe the XC took over the hiking trails. Anyway, I rode 19.75 on deteriorating logging road. I did try a trail off the road & learned what bog riding is about: Roots, rocks, & deep bog mud. Gave up. Maybe a local has the trail dialed in but I failed.

Drove back into town looking for a shower. Saw a road sign for a hostel. Not well signed. Drove by it. Saw a woman getting her mail from road side box. I asked her for directions. She said I drove by it. Back again. Opens at 5:00 and it is 4:30. I decided not to wait and continued my drive to N Conway to Red Jersey shop for ride ideas for tomorrow. I passed a XG & took a flyer for a shower. The owner let me put my quarter in the slot for my shower.

Made bike shop. Screw balls. Both town shops open at 9:00 and close at 5:00. Shop closed. Try again tomorrow.

Drove back to same spot at Echo Lake for sleep.

Frige isn’t keeping ice cream frozen hard. Wonder if my not parking level wise is now affecting the cooling.

Took pictures of Echo Lake in AM with steam wafting from lake surface. Still pretty.

Picture of The Nan River:

Gap of 2 days.

North Country pathway left me short. Camped out in the forest. MI State XG have showers, got another one.

Drove thru the Elk Capital of MI, Wild Turkey, & saw a black bear splayed over the dog pen on a toy pickup, head first. Hiked into an alder thicket. Brought to mind Tom & Cal brushing @ 49N.

I hiked the Dune @ Sleeping Bear national Lakeshore, a rest day, but a trudge out to the lake shore. Dune was about 300′ above road way back towards the lake. Couldn’t see across if even from that height.

Drove to Big M trail system near Wellston. A foot race of marathon & 50 miler were sharing the trail system w/ me. Rode backwards made more sense that riding with them & trying to pass. Played w/ saddle adjustment & cleat locations & didn’t force hills lessened knee pain.

Short note. Got to get towards Ann Arbor & into Ohio Sun afternoon.

Slept @ NPS XG.