Monday, June 20, 2011

day seven

June 16th
Twanoh State Park to Grays Harbor Hostel - Elma, WA
57 miles

Thankfully, no rain all night.  Lot's of fog, but clearing up.  Going to be a nice day!  Stretched good and hit the road around 6:15AM.

Encountered first bike trouble of the trip.  Left pedal started feeling loose.  Pulled over and found left side crank arm bolt loose, very close to falling off.  Afraid it had been loose for a while.  Tightened it and started riding again.  Still some play in the crank arm, determined it to be from the square taper of the crank arm getting rounded out by it being loose.  No big deal, just really annoying.  Clunk when pedaling.  Checked bolt after 5 miles or so, loose again.  Tightened as hard as I could this time.  Still coming loose every 5 miles or so.  Worried bolt will shear off, which would leave me stranded.  Decided to take it easy to Shelton, and stop and get some loctite at an auto parts store.

Arrived in Shelton around 9:30AM.  Found an auto parts store and bought some red loctite, which I normally wouldn't use but this situation called for it.  Removed bolt and didn't like what I saw.  First 3 threads stripped - must have happened when crank arm was loose.  That explains why it wouldn't stay tight.  Its a bike specific bolt so a hardware store is out of the question.  No bike shops til Centralia - a day away.  Put loctite on anyway and will just hope for the best.

Started pedaling out of Shelton, taking the back roads.  Kept checking bolt - nice and tight now.  Now I can finally just concentrate on riding.  Knee feeling good.

Lots of deer between Shelton and Elma.  Strong headwind, making it hard to make good speed.  Very frustrating.  Last 10 miles to Elma seemed like they lasted forever.

About 2 miles outside of town while climbing a hill, got passed by some biker guys that said they were camped next to me at Deception Pass State Park.  I remembered... they were the obnoxious ones.  Talked for a few as they rode by.  They're headed to San Diego.  Hope they're not staying at the hostel tonight.

Got a little mixed up in downtown Elma trying to find the hostel.  Eventually called my brother Conor, who was in Orlando at the time, and he hooked me up with directions via his smart phone (thanks again dude!)

Rolled into the hostel around 1:30PM.  Met the owner Jim Klemp, super enthusiastic older guy.  Gave me a tour of the place, along with his 18 hole disc golf course on his 9 acre property.  Really cool.  Jim is SUPER into disc golf.  Said bed wasn't ready yet, so I rode into town to get some food.  Had a burger dip at the Rusty Tractor.

Rode back feeling tired and full.  Jim wanted me to play some disc golf and tell him what I thought of the course.  Wasn't really in the mood just because I was so tired, but he wouldn't let up.  Not wanting to hurt his feelings, I said sure.  Introduced me to his "local yokels" that play there almost every day.  They invited me to join their game so I jumped in.  Was only going to play a couple holes but ended up playing for almost 4 hours.  Had a good time playing and enjoying the sun.  Funny group of guys.  Jim even played with us - at 66 years old, he kicked everyone's asses.  He also maintains this whole operation by himself.  Cool guy, never seen anyone so excited about disc golf.

Had a beer with Jim and the other guys, then headed into town for dinner at the Rusty Tractor again - chicken sandwich.  Showered, updated blog, then hit the sack around 11:00PM.  Long, fun day.
proof I was in Shelton

leaving Shelton

portrait in the men's bathroom at The Rusty Tractor

front entrance and first hole of the disc golf course

looking down, course goes back into the woods - sorry, too lazy to walk down and take more pictures

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