Day 5

Day 5,

July27, 2003.

Mojave Desert Run.

The day started with a beautiful sunset, that I was proud to watch ;). This was not happening very often before.

After packing the sleeping back and the tent, I discovered that a front tire was flat. Okay, so here it is - first flat. :)

I looked closely and saw a sticking thorn. That's from riding on the grass last night. I pumped the tire, pulled the thorn and wetted the place. Sure enough, it was bubbling. Pulled the tire, patched the tube and in 10 minutes was back on the road. Pretty easy.

I stopped at Mc Donald's for a breakfast.

Sierra Highway ended in Rosamond and next route will be highway 14, going to Mojave.

It took about an hour to cover 14 miles. It was still morning, so the air was not yet hot. Arriving in Mojave, I stopped at Taco Bell and filled bottles with icy water, putting red cool-aide in one of them. I wanted to see if it will have any difference compared to regular water, which de-electrolyzes the body. I heard some recommendations to put a bit of salt in it, but I instead added sugar, as by itself, cool-aide tastes completely flat.

Last year, I was passing Mojave on the way to San Francisco, and met a nice guy. He is the owner of a little computer store. He kindly let me check e-mail there and download pictures from the digital camera. He was also interesting person with broad interests. He was really up to date on the international news, acquired from different sources. I had great time talking to him last year, and later sent him a greeting e-mail. I still have his business card.

However, since it was a year ago, I couldn’t exactly remember what street the shop was on, but after seeing the Carl's Jr. Fast food restaurant; I recognized the area and remembered that the shop was a little further on the same block.

Indeed. I met him again. Nice, he didn't change. One of those people, you know, that have their long beard, so the aging can only be seen with the change of the color of the beard and mustache. :)

This time, he once again let me check the e-mail, and download the pictures from the camera, which he was also curious to look at. I thanked him very much and was back on the road.

Since last few days I didn't ride very many miles, today I was going to go as far as I could.

Stopped at the last Mc Donald's and ate another ice-cream cone. They go so nicely in such a hot weather. The temp was past 100 degrees F that day.

I am cycling North-East on Highway 14. The road was actually going down for good 10-15 miles as I was going fast for about an hour.

The temperature was so high, that people passing me in the cars couldn't understand what a person is doing out there... Along the side of the road, there we emergency call boxes occasionally, and when I stopped to drink near one of them, few cars slowed down to look at what was going on.

Real desert now. It's not sand, just rocky... as far as you can see - till horizon, just same color red rock, and very hot.

Right when I was getting tired of pedaling, an abundant trailer appeared on the left side of the highway. I turned off the road and went to explore what was left there.

Nothing really interesting - old tires, broken glass, pieces of home appliances.

I took a picture and got back on the road.

It was around 1 pm. The sun was shining extremely mercilessly and I was drinking less water than I wanted to, which by the way has heated up so much, that it was burning when poured on the skin.

At this time, I also started feeling burning sensation on the exposed parts of the skin - hands and lower parts of legs. I will have to buy a sun screen cream in the next store.

In another kilometer, there was a little store - first one since Mojave, which was already about 15 miles away. When I walked to the porch, I saw a big old dog, and a man, sleeping and enjoying the mist of the water spraying near the ceiling. When a dog made some noise, man woke up and asked what I needed. I needed water, and he pointed to the tap in the yard. I filled up the bottles with hot water and exchanged few phrases with a man. He said that trails in the mountains behind, were a busy attraction for the four-wheeler riders during the cooler seasons but nothing much was happening at this time. When I asked him about the water misting system, he stated some great numbers of gallons of water used in a single day. They apparently consider it’s worth it the expenses.

After this, an extreme part of the day begun. I had enough of the sun with hot air and was looking for a place to stop for a rest. There was, however, nothing but the open desert. Now I was riding slowly, especially since road started going uphill. Some guy in the RV pulled over to the shoulder, and when I was passing him, he pointed the camera at me and snapped the picture.. Probably for his vacation memories. hehehe :)

Finally, I saw few Joshua Trees not far from the road, so pushing the bike through the deep sand, I came close to one of them. Never seeing such trees before, I was surprised to discover that those "leaves" are actually rigid and sharp. I put the bottle top under the kick stand; spread a shirt in the shade under the tree, and started relaxing. There I spent few hours, until it was past afternoon; around 3 or 4, so the air was suppose to start cooling down.

In few more hours of walk/riding, occasionally stopping right on the side of the road, to rest, I noticed something strange with the bicycle. With every revolution of the crank, I would hear a knock. If, however, I don't apply much pressure to the pedal, the knock would not be heard. So, for several miles I was guessing what could cause that. The knock, meanwhile, was becoming louder and more frightening.

Since the front axle did get lose in the beginning, I thought maybe the same thing is happening with the rear one. I did rebuild it before leaving for the trip. It had new axle, bearings, enough grease. Maybe the old hub caused some problems? Well, I had plenty of tools with me, so when I saw an old, abundant motel, on the left, I pulled over and looked around. There was a trailer behind the property. I walked to it, and saw a middle-aged lady working in front. I told her that my bike needed some repairs and I might need some water to wash the hands. She allowed me to do the repair in the driveway and showed where the water hose was. Meanwhile, her husband came out and asked if I needed any tools. I indeed needed another 15 mm wrench, which he nicely let me use.

Unfortunately, after taking the wheel off, and carefully expecting the axle, I didn't see anything apparently wrong with it. It did have a little axial movement, but it felt like within the acceptable clearance.

I put everything back together, washed hands, thanked the people for their hospitality, and went back on the road.

Knock was still present and I kept guessing what it could be. By the way, it would only be heard when I push the right pedal down, which means it has something to do with the chain. Looking around the actual pedal didn't reveal anything suspicious. Maybe the clearance between the hub and the bearing balls, in the rear axle were slightly more than normal or either the hub was out of shape; so when the axle was pulled to one side, it would move inside and cause the knock I was hearing.

Anyhow, I didn't want that thing to break here, and decided to look for the bike shop in the next town.

Inyokern was several miles further on Hwy 14 and then another 4 miles to the right, downhill, as the people from the trailer explained me.

When I approached the turn, I was very excited to see such a downhill. The whole grade was smooth transition from the mountains to the valley. Rolling down the hill, I reached the maximum speed so far - 37 mph (59) km/h.

What a little nice town, right at the entrance I saw a Trek bike shop, that from the show windows looked better supplied than some shops in LA. Since it was around 7 pm, on Sunday – it was closed.

First thing I went to, was a little grocery store, where I got a liter of cold milk and potato salad, which I ate at the tables, near a gas station, across the street. What a nice lunch. After that, I rode to the motel, a block away. While in the office, talking to an old man, my nose suddenly started bleeding, which concerned him. I asked him if there were any pakrs in town where I could pitch the tent, but probably influenced by my bloody appearance, he said I could pitch it in the little, old car lot, next to the motel. Great, now I had a place to spend the night.

I returned to the tables and started writing the journal notes, when I met Erick (15). When he was walking out, he became interested in the loaded bicycle. We started talking and I found out that he once used to live in Los Angeles, but few years ago, his mother and he moved here to Inyokern, where she now works in a health care. He goes to school in Ridgecrest, which is 10 miles away. Every day he rides his roadmaster bike there which he depends on so much. He also goes there almost every day during the summer, as there was not much in Inyokern, he said. We agreed to meet tomorrow near the bike shop.

I put up the tent and went to sleep around 10.

Today - most distance so far - 62 miles.

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