wanker, bloody ankle, valhalla, and my new racing tire

October 21, 2021

Day Thirteen: Collinwood to Duck River

I woke up at 7:45, ate, packed my panniers, then went outside to check on the bike. I was quite relieved to see the tire wasn’t flat. It SHOULDN’T be since it’s a completely new tube, but I was still wondering. Larry gave me a refill on my hand cleaner/degreaser since mine was getting low (it’s amazing how the grease gets everywhere when you have to touch the chain to change a tire) (also, it seems like it’s always the rear tire that goes flat, so you have to mess with the chain!).

When I started loading everything on the bike I wasn’t able to find the straps that attach everything to my rack. There are only a limited number of places they could be, and they weren’t in the cottage, so I suspect I left them in the van yesterday. As I was leaving Iowa and packing everything into the car, I had tossed in a net bungee cord in with my gear just as an afterthought. I’ve been using it to strap the Gatorade bottles onto the bike, and it came in handy now as I stretched it over my gear. Larry also gave me a couple of bungee cords which helped with strapping everything on.

I left at 9:45 and stopped at the hardware store again on the way out of town to see if they had any of the straps like what I’ve been using for the past 40 years. On a side note, the reason to use straps instead of bungee cords is that the latter are much more likely to break, and also more likely to get tangled up in your spokes. They didn’t have any, but I did talk to the cashier for a while, suggesting that if the owner could turn the hardware store into a “bike shop” and get on the ACA maps they’d likely get a lot of business. There aren’t any bike shops on the Natchez Trace itself. All of them are in towns off the route. He seemed interested so I gave him my email address and told him to message me if they had any questions. He said he’d pass it along. Interestingly, he was the first person in a store, employee or patron, I'd seen who was wearing a mask.

As I was leaving town I met a couple of cyclists who had camped at the fire station. Their names were Laura and Rod Wanker. (nope, not a typo.... it's Rod Wanker. Before I knew their last name I said "Todd?" and was corrected).

Since we were both leaving town at the same time I suggested we chat while riding together since we’re both going the same way, but they said that they wanted to stop at the Information Center first to make a donation for being able to camp at the fire station, and would probably grab breakfast before leaving. No problem… even if they eat lunch first they’ll still probably catch up with me eventually. Before they left Laura gave me a business card with their names and a URL for their blog of this trip. They typically ride between 30-40 miles a day. At 65 miles, yesterday was their longest day.

When I hit the Trace, it was 10:00. Whether camping or hotel, it seems like 10:00 is the magic number.

Today is overcast and a bit dreary, so I put on my yellow lenses. It’s amazing how they not only light up the day, they light up an attitude. They change a somber day to a sunny day. I tried taking some pictures through the two lenses but it doesn't show the true difference.

Here and there along the road there are small signs that say “Old Trace.” It's the one in which most backpackers and hikers travel, and I think it’s the actual road that people travelled on 200 years ago.

The 8-10 mph tailwind was nice today, the 98% humidity not so much.

I met a northbound biker, Tanya, who stopped to talk, and her companions, Jill and Loren, caught up while we were chatting. Tanya is an old hand at touring, and apparently pretty fast. This is Jill’s and Loren’s first trip and instead of jumping in head first they’re dipping their toes into the water. Their plan isn’t to ride the entire Trace, but to start in Nashville and ride about 50 miles to the B&B where they stayed last night. Today they’ll ride another 25 before turning around and heading back to the same B&B. In the morning they’ll ride back to Nashville. When I think about Mike, the guy I met on Day Nine who tried to do a transAmerican trip before doing even one overnighter, I realize that it’s probably a good idea to take a shorter trip. That is, unless you’re 23 years old, just graduating from college in 1982, and not very smart.

It rained today, but it was such a light rain that I was difficult to tell it was raining. The roads were getting gradually wetter, but it’s so humid that it’s hard to tell the difference between the precipitation and the humidity.

After about 25 miles my tire was low so I stopped to pump it up. Not too worrisome at this point because I did make it 25 miles, and it’s not flat, just low.

My med kit is really stocked. Prepandemic, I only took the basics… a band-aid and some moleskin (right, like, really basic). These days, for reasons yet unconsidered, I take enough medical supplies to treat a small town after a tornado. Some of the items include four classes of oral antibiotics (they treat different types of infections, okay?!?), two analgesics (acetaminophen, naproxen), an antiemetic (for nausea/vomiting), an antidiarrheal, five different creams (antibacterial, steroid for inflammation/itching, antifungal, vaseline, chamois butter (to prevent chafing), three antiseptics (betadine, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide). I still take moleskin, although now I have liquid and nonliquid, and band-aids, albeit several different sizes instead of one. I even have the equipment for suturing: a needle driver, suture material (three kinds! 4-0, 5-0, and 6-0 prolene), hemostats, syringes, needles, lidocaine, gauze pads, and pickups (aka tweezers), as well as sterile and nonsterile gloves and a suture removal kit. I packed an Ace bandage and Coban (the stuff they wrap around your arm after they draw blood).

As an aside, hydrogen peroxide will get blood out of any type of clothing. It lyses the cells and they just... go away. It's a good thing to know just in general, or when you've picked someone up in your white panel van and need to do some "cleaning" afterwards.

So, after my pedal raked against the inside of my right ankle (easily the most frequently injured part of my body), I was prepared. It looked worse than it was so, after examining it, I didn't feel the need to extract the portable hospital from my pannier. However, when the blood started dripping down into my sandal I pulled a small handiwipe from my handlebar bag and stuffed it below the wound to catch it. This is the same ankle I sutured while in a treehouse last summer (the materials I needed were in my pannier, so why not?). My quick fix seemed to work okay, so the med kit wasn't needed.... this time.

Not long after my injury, I needed to pump up my tire again. Here’s a picture of the double bummer of having to pump up a tire + having a bleeding ankle.

Mile Post 400!!!

I never pass other cyclists but, nearing the Meriwether Lewis Monument and Gravesite, I was actually gaining on a couple. As I approached, I realized it was my Amish friends, Melvin and Amanda. They stopped under a bridge just as I caught up to them and we had another nice visit as we ate a snack. Unsurprisingly, they had started really early and were just about done for the day. They only have another five miles before their exit to the Fall Hollow campground. (They had told me yesterday at the restaurant where they were going this evening... Fall Hollow.. and I kept hearing "Valhalla." Getting to Valhalla requires dying in combat. I wondered "Is this some sort of Amish ritual I've never heard of?")

After a brief chat we started riding together, but stopped shortly after that to say our goodbyes again. We keep thinking we won’t see each other again, but our paths continue to cross. This is most likely the last time I’ll see them since tomorrow is my last day, but you never know.

Just before we went our separate ways I noticed that my tire was flat again. They wished me luck and I pumped it up, then started riding. The road past Fall Hollow was the steepest and longest grade yet and instead of 25 miles, this time I only made it four miles before it went flat. This is a brand new tire. What’s going on??? I keep wondering. I pumped it up and made it only four miles before I had to stop. I pumped it again and only made it two miles.

I’ve pumped up my tire so many times over the past few days that I now know how many times I have to pump it to fill the tire. My pump is small, made to be used on the side of the road in an emergency, is about the length of a forearm and slightly thicker than the diameter of a cigar. Because of its tiny girth it takes about 150 pumps to reach 70 psi. As the tire gets more pressure in it, there are diminishing returns with each pump.

I pulled over at Baker’s Bluff to fill up the tire again where I met three cyclists, Anne, Benny, and Ellen, on the southern route. They were with a touring company even smaller and more expensive than Lizard Head, one that’s more personalized in which they only stay at the nicest places along the route… boutique B&Bs with home-cooked meals, etc. This tour company, Natchez Trace Tours, only takes 5-6 people at most.

At this point I only had about five miles left to make it to my campsite and was thinking I might be walking part of it when Benny said, “You know, we have a bike mechanic with us. Why don’t I give him a call?” My eyes lit up and he dialed the number for Philip Martindale, the owner and tour guide.

While I was waiting, I enjoyed the scenic view of Baker’s Bluff.

Philip pulled up in his van, which was packed full of all kinds of gear. Over the next thirty minutes he went over my tire, tube, and rim literally millimeter by millimeter, carefully inspecting it for some tiny piece of embedded glass or metal which might be causing the problem. He even turned the tire inside out and looked again… nothing. On the one hand, I was pretty disappointed he couldn’t find anything, but on the other hand I felt vindicated that a former racer/now tour guide/bike mechanic wasn’t able to find the cause, either. Not sure what the problem was, he put in a new rim strip, a new tube, and a new tire. Now, at last, I felt pretty confident that I won’t be having any more problems. He did say the tire was a high-performance racing tire, and therefore smaller, so “don’t ride over anything.” I thanked him and assured him I wouldn’t. When I insisted on paying him something he made up a ridiculously low number and I doubled it. I was just relieved to finally be able to ride again.

It felt good to be back on the road with a tire that wasn’t going to go flat and I continued on, enjoying the scenery and the weather.

I was getting low on water so I stopped at the John Gordon House, which is about a mile from my destination for the day, to refill my bottles. It even had an indoor restroom as well, one of the very few along the Trace. The Bike Route Navigator app took me to my campsite, which was a Natchez Trace hiking trailhead and horse staging area near the town of Duck River. This is where my route and the Adventure Cycling Association’s route diverge. From here on out it’s Google Maps.

The horse staging area was okay, but I walked my bike up the hiking trail to a small clearing which I found to be even nicer, and more secluded. It was a short walk, but even so the mosquitoes beat me to it. There were more mosquitoes there than I’d seen during the entire trip combined. I brought some picaridin, which works great, so they didn’t bother me.

Knowing this was my last night of the trip was bittersweet. I could easily keep going, but I realize that I have another life outside of bicycling and I need to go back. It was a very pleasant evening: in the 40s outside, but cozy in the tent. I decided on the Tuscan Style Grilled Chicken for dinner and a chocolate pudding for dessert.

Later, zipped up in my sleeping bag, I sipped some wine and read my Kindle until I got drowsy, then slowly drifted off to sleep listening to the crickets.

54.8 miles
2152 feet climbed
7.3% grade
7:34:59 total time
4:21:45 moving time
34.4 mph max speed
12.5 mph average moving speed
2809 calories
633.9 total miles

Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 621 miles (999 km)

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