Day 4. Colonial Creek Campground
54 miles 2,628 ft
We started biking to breakfast in a small cafe in Grassmere near Concrete then continued on in a leisurely way until...Molly's rear tire was impaled by a large nail which made through-and-through holes in her inner tube. She had a patch kit but not a spare tube, and the holes left by the nail rendered the tube unpatchable. No bike shop until Winthrop. We tried putting in a spare tube for my smaller 26 inch tire but it didn't work—bead on the rim was way off. Someone driving by offered help but our true savior for the day was a retired teacher biking by who gave us a spare tube for his tire, intermediate in size between mine and Molly's. Mostly it was his finesse with slipping the tight beaded tire into the rim that did the trick. He declined our offer to buy his tube telling us to 'pay it forward' to the next cyclist in need. So early into our trip we've benefited from the kindness of strangers.
We biked on, stopping periodically to readjust Molly's rear tire which is out of true, but enjoyed the Bike Route 10 to Steelhead Park then Marblemount. The afternoon light and tailwind made the right to Newhalem easy. We paused there before the climb to Diablo Lake and Colonial Creek campground. This was the first big climb of the trip and a harbinger of tomorrow's climb over Washington Pass. For it me it was a test: How would it go with full panniers? The answer: not as badly as I feared. We stopped often but using the granny gear I could make slow steady progress without feeling exhausted and spent and before long we pulled into the campground. (For Molly the climb didn't seem to be much of a challenge.)
The campground is beautiful! And there was site 17 reserved with our name. All the sites seem to be reserved and occupied—I'm so glad I made reservations. We set up camp, set rear flashers to be recharged with my battery pack and had a great freeze dried dinner on the shore of Diablo Lake. The weather could not be better, and there are no mosquitoes!
So to bed early for an early start up to the passes, hopefully before traffic picks up.
We started biking to breakfast in a small cafe in Grassmere near Concrete then continued on in a leisurely way until...Molly's rear tire was impaled by a large nail which made through-and-through holes in her inner tube. She had a patch kit but not a spare tube, and the holes left by the nail rendered the tube unpatchable. No bike shop until Winthrop. We tried putting in a spare tube for my smaller 26 inch tire but it didn't work—bead on the rim was way off. Someone driving by offered help but our true savior for the day was a retired teacher biking by who gave us a spare tube for his tire, intermediate in size between mine and Molly's. Mostly it was his finesse with slipping the tight beaded tire into the rim that did the trick. He declined our offer to buy his tube telling us to 'pay it forward' to the next cyclist in need. So early into our trip we've benefited from the kindness of strangers.
We biked on, stopping periodically to readjust Molly's rear tire which is out of true, but enjoyed the Bike Route 10 to Steelhead Park then Marblemount. The afternoon light and tailwind made the right to Newhalem easy. We paused there before the climb to Diablo Lake and Colonial Creek campground. This was the first big climb of the trip and a harbinger of tomorrow's climb over Washington Pass. For it me it was a test: How would it go with full panniers? The answer: not as badly as I feared. We stopped often but using the granny gear I could make slow steady progress without feeling exhausted and spent and before long we pulled into the campground. (For Molly the climb didn't seem to be much of a challenge.)
The campground is beautiful! And there was site 17 reserved with our name. All the sites seem to be reserved and occupied—I'm so glad I made reservations. We set up camp, set rear flashers to be recharged with my battery pack and had a great freeze dried dinner on the shore of Diablo Lake. The weather could not be better, and there are no mosquitoes!
So to bed early for an early start up to the passes, hopefully before traffic picks up.
