Southwest Day 5: Johnson Village to Salida
August 28, 2021. 23 miles, 365 ft of climbing.
Today was a short day because of (fixable) mechanical issues. Yesterday I had noticed a slight creaking in the bottom bracket (though basically everything can sound like it’s coming from the bottom bracket). It didn’t seem very bad in the morning so I decided to head for Salida (about 20 miles mostly downhill). By the time I got to Salida it was making quite a racket. It wasn’t just when I was pedaling with force - it made a clicking creaky noise if you just touched the pedals.
The bike worked fine though, even though it was noisy, and I made it to Salida and stopped in at the first bike shop. They needed a couple hours to look at it, so I wandered Salida for a bit and made a stop at the grocery store. There was a very nice city part where I hung out for a few hours among tubers and mountain bikers.
Just as I was getting ready to go back to the shop to check on progress they called and said they had fixed the bike. Something about the spacers on the cranks letting grit into the bottom bracket. They took it apart, cleaned it, and put it back together with better spacers. It seemed fine, but it was late enough in the afternoon that I didn’t want to try to go farther. I biked to the other side of town along highway 50 and got myself a hotel room.
I mostly used the hours I had in the afternoon to finish replanning the rest of the trip. I made a bunch of reservations for things that seemed like they needed reservations, and solidified plans to bike to Durango, rent a car, and drive to St George. From there things are a little less sure, but I will probably loop north to Bryce Canyon and then down to the Grand Canyon from there. This has the added advantage of not having to hitchhike through the (closed to bikes) tunnel in Zion. I’ll probably still go through Zion by car though.
Anyway, even though today was mostly about getting my bike fixed and planning, I still took a few photos. There were a surprisingly large number of llamas.
