My rear tire has developed a slow leak. My damaged pump air pump was also acting up, as it took a tremendous amount of effort to pump any air with it. This was beginning to become a serious issue. In desperation, I sprayed the pump’s working rod with some WD-40 that I bought in New York after getting rained on a few times. I figure the the Water Displacement version 40 formula should do a good job keeping the rust off waterlogged mechanical components. I don’t know about the bike, but after spraying it on the air pump and making a few strokes, the pump was working much, much better.

I had it in my head that I would cycle straight to Great Neck Beach in Ipswich and then return home. I was rolling along pretty well. However, both tires went flat on the Bruce Freeman rail trail at the same time. Fixing them took a while, as I messed up the valve stem on one tire and had to fix that tube a second time. I decided that given how things were going, patching might be a better option as compared to just switching in the tubes I had patched the night before. Since I was still thinking of going to the beach, before going home, having a spare tube or two would be a good idea.

After getting the tires inflated and eating a snack, I got going. Almost immediately I passed by two bike packers that were on the side of the trail reading a trail side sign. They only had rear panniers which made me think that they were only out for a weekend, so at first I kept going. Weekend bike packers are more numerous than long distance bike packers, so often we just wave, instead of stopping and getting acquainted. However, something about how the woman looked at me as I passed by, made me turn around and meet Anne and Marcellin.

Anne and Marcellin were from France and were just completing a Montreal to Boston trip. They had done a 7 month trip in Euope that ended in Turkey. It was real fun to talk to them, but while we were talking this fellow rolled by.

I didn’t get his name or more likely forgot, but this veteran lives in Lowell and was out on a training run. He said had a run in with a car and suffered a severe head injury and was using cycling to recover. He is planning on riding the Erie Canal Trail, the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Trail as a loop. We asked him how heavy his rig was, and he said he didn’t know. I’d say that it was the heaviest rig I’ve run across, and second place might be half the weight of this rig. I didn’t have the heart to warn him that the Erie Canal Trail isn’t completely flat as portions of the trail don’t follow the canals exactly. I don’t know about the other two trails. I hope the setup works out for him.

After the delay fixing the tires and chatting for a long time with the veteran, Anne and Marcelin, I was starting to run late. I decided I should stop at home, and assess the situation before continuing to the beach. Turns out the front tire was leaking now and I wasn’t sure about the rear. I decided it was getting too late, as I have a personal policy to avoid cycling after dark, especially in the evening, when the drunk drivers are more numerous. I’ll have to load up my rig and run down to the beach and back on the next nice day. I don’t think it will be tomorrow, the forecast is for rain. Meanwhile, I will keep this blog going with a couple of observations that I haven’t yet shared.

Since I wasn’t riding to the beach, I decided I might have a beer and looked in the fridge to see if I had one. I don’t drink much, but there was one Ipswich Ale in there, which was perfect. You see the fellow I was talking to at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in New York asked me to drink an Ipswich Ale when I got to Ipswich. Well, I’m not quite there, but I figure I’m close enough.

45 Miles for a total of 3554.