Day 18 - Breaks to Elkhorn City

June 6, 2002
3 min. read

This post is part of the Trans-Am series.

I woke up late and listened to the rain fall on the tent. I think it was residual rain from the trees. I laid in the tent for a while, and enjoyed the lack of motion. I was planning on staying in Elkhorn City at a $30 room, so my Dad would have an easy place to find me.

I strung up a line to dry out my rain cover for the tent. I laid the bike on the picnic table and pulled off the rear time. When I pulled off the flat tire, I noticed the bonehead move I did yesterday. When I put on the spare, I didn’t wipe around the inside and check for rocks, etc. A small sharp rock had found it’s way in the tire and stayed in when I mounted the tire. I patched the tube and totally cleaned out the tire. I remounted the wheel and started packing things up. I heard the thunder coming and started packing faster. I got everything on the bike just before it really started to come down. I waited for a little while in the restroom, but the rain didn’t stop. I pulled out my rain gear and decided to go riding.

I took selfies before they were a thing.

About ¹⁄₄ of the way out of the park, I was hit with a flashing white light. It was Bob and Mary out for a walk and caught in the rain. They were under an information sign. We talked for a while and they told be that they too are heading for the motel in Elkhorn City, to wait out the rain and dry out gear.

I headed out of the park and started into Elkhorn City. I wanted to get a picture of the Breaks park sign, but it was pouring. I also didn’t get a chance to get a picture of the state line sign. I rode up and down hills for a while, until I hit a rock slide. The rain had caused the rocks to drop in the road. After seeing a few cars almost hit them, I decided to clean the rocks off the road. Most were small rocks, under 60 pounds. There were two large ones (about 90 pounds) and one really large one (around 150 pounds). The last one I had to more roll than carry off the road. Proud of my work, I looked at my muddy gloves and started cleaning up in a little mud puddle. I couldn’t get them really clean, so I took them off for the rest of the ride to the motel. I passed the unknown soldier grave and stopped at the motel.

After checking in, I changed into dry clothes and headed over to the restaurant. I had a fish dinner with green beans, corn and coleslaw. Then I came back in the room and started working on my pictures. After a few hours of work, I have the first three days of pictures ready to put online. Hopefully I can get them uploaded to the website soon, but it depends on the cell signals around here.