Day 1 Disaster...

Day 1 of the Continental Divide ride started with mild temps, clear blue skies and a little tail wind.  After a McBreakfast (about the only option in Cuba) Russ and I set out on the route.  After a quick 10 miles on the highway we turned onto the gravel part of the route.  The roads were fairly good and our progress was quick.  We were moving along so quickly it looked like we would cover the planned route of 45 miles by noon. 

The wind picked up but still manageable and even had a few sprinkles of rain, then the first sign of real trouble hit.  I was peddling along, but just spinning and not driving the rear wheel.  I stopped, unloaded the bike and pulled the rear wheel off.  The axle adapter was loss, so I tightened it back up and that seemed to solve the problem.  But in just a couple of miles the same thing happened again, but this time to make it even more fun we were hit with cold rain and sleet.  It was on a pretty good hill so I pushed it until the rain let up.

I unloaded the panniers again and pulled the rear wheel again.  The axle was tight but a spring in the rear hub was broken.  Of course this is not something that I have ever seen break in many thousands of biking miles.  So now I have a fully loaded scooter bike.  Fortunately we were less than a mile from our camp site.  So we pushed on while I kept checking for cell service as we climbed the hill. Before we got to the top I was able to get a text through to Beth.

Now I'm sure most of you reading this have at least 2 front suspension mountain bikes set up for cross country trekking just setting in your garage. So it should be no surprise to you that I,  just like you, happen to have a second bike at home ready to go into action.  I text Beth to bring my second bike to the campsite.

I send her the location from my Spot locator and she was able to get Google driving directions to our remote campsite. Luckily the roads were in pretty good shape and there hadn't been enough reason to turn them into mud bogs which can happen out here... see the sign.

She had a late afternoon meeting for work but was able to deliver the bike the 80 miles to our boonie campsite by about 7:30PM.  I can't thank her enough for bailing me out.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.  It has been windy and raining off and on so we could have some fun with the mud ourselves.