May 17, 2023
Day 5: Bumpass to Palmyra
Disaster strikes (chain stuck in cassette)
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The rain overnight got our tent pretty wet, but most of our gear stayed dry. So that's good from our first real rainy night.
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We stocked up on more water and set off towards Mineral. Mineral was a lovely town and looked like it had a lot of restaurants. Only the bakery was open when we arrived so we had a second breakfast of puddings, pastries, and cupcakes.
Heading out of mineral there were mixtures of perfect road conditions and average but nothing too notable. We're getting pretty used to the landscape of Virginia's fields and forests. We went down a long rural road when a driver pulled over and told us a bridge was closed a couple miles ahead and we'd have to detour. Sure enough, I looked online and Adventure Cycling Association has noted the bridge is closed for a month but didn't suggest a detour route.
We used the driver's directions out to a nice enough road with a bit of shoulder.. We were passed by two vehicles on this road, the second was enough to convince us to take the first turn off the road and get back to the mapped route along more rural roads. It was a shame the shoulder wasn't fully wide enough to fit us safely because the road would have taken us all the way in a straight line to Charlottesville, our goal for the day.
Shortly after this we stopped in Kent's Store, one of many tiny towns in the area. We decided we'd carry on through to Palmyra before booking a motel in Charlottesville. Palmyra would be our last stop to refill water bottles and we'd be getting in to Charlottesville at 5pm at the very earliest.
About 2 miles out of Palmyra, on one of the last big hills, disaster struck. I'd been dealing with some gear issues since day 2 but every time I put it on a stand they'd go away. I'm thinking it's probably a bent derailleur. Anyway, when I shifted into my lowest gear the chain got lodged very tightly into the gap between the gears and the spokes. It's still stuck there now.
We got a lift into Palmyra by calling Cindy, one of the lovely people who hosts cyclists in the church here. She's been more than helpful, setting us up with everything we could possibly need. I'm hoping I can remove a few links from the chain so we can limp onwards into Charlottesville without needing to ask for another lift. A bike shop will be able to sort us out easily but I'm feeling pretty frustrated tonight.
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Update: we fixed the bike. I removed the links from the chain that were stuck behind the cogs but they don't allow the bike to freewheel. However with a full chain I was able to use my compact cassette removal tool to remove the cassette and the chain links. Lots of damage to the spokes but they should hold. I'll go get a new chain and get my hanger straightened tomorrow in Charlottesville, and get a second opinion on the damaged spokes. Natalie had the idea of using the cassette tool in addition to the chain tool so I'm so thankful for having a real engineer to help problem solve. The cassette tool will definitely be in my toolkit forever, they're hard to find but I think every bike tourist should have one.
I'm enjoying having a dry place we can air out our clothes for the night, so far theyve been damp since Ashland. Tomorrow we'll probably take our official rest day in Charlottesville so that we can get back into it on Friday.
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 337 km (209 miles)
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