More Than a Bike; a Journey into the Unknown

Wedding and Cherries

2013-07-06T10:34:00.000-04:00

We did it. We finally got married! It took us months to actually set the date, and then a week to plan the wedding. It was perfect, and very low-cost! A friend of mine painstakingly made my dress, and it turned out graceful and beautiful. The groom's suit was found at the thrift store. We paid for a photographer with a veggie share, and the dressmaker's work with a work day at her house, home-made cheese, and herbs. Seating was on home-made benches...boards supported on log sections, covered with a length of unbleached muslin. My bouquet was collected from my parent's backyard. A close friend made the cake, her sister did my hair, my sister made the flower decorations, bouquet, and some of the refreshments, and my mom made the rest of the refreshments. That same sister also played the piano for the ceremony, perched up on the back of my brother's pickup truck. I rode to the wedding in the back of a Madsen, pedaled by my father.

The ceremony was on land we lease, under a spreading cottonwood tree. We had no attendants, a friend did the 'marrying', and there was no reception; just a simple dinner with family.

We did take a short little honeymoon at Allegany State Park, in a rustic cabin beside a babbling brook.

It was just what we needed...a little break before diving back into work on the houses and garden.

I do thoroughly enjoy married life!

While my Dear Man and I were busy marrying and making merry, all the plants in our garden were busy growing...and the fruit trees were fruiting! We recently picked the biggest Chinese Cabbage I've ever seen...

Such a lovely head...it is very satisfying.

We also have Kohlrabi that is getting too big, broccoli and cauliflower growing to picking size, and cabbages swelling. Frustratingly, varmints are getting into our fenced-off garden, and doing their best to destroy our crops!

This spring we discovered four different cherry trees on our land...and they are all loaded with cherries!

And, for a day, with children...

We harvested quite the bounty! Yum! Yum!

Apple Blossoms!

2013-05-07T21:49:00.000-04:00

The apples are in bloom! Casting their sweet scent abroad and beautifying the view...

Preparations and Plantings

2013-04-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, celery, onions, eggplant, leeks, radicchio, cauliflower, cabbage, and ground cherries. All these veggies we've started inside on the plant shelf my Dear Man threw together.

Tiny tomatoes...

Baby brassicas...

And the onions were finally planted out in the garden...somewhat overgrown and rootbound, but healthy!

My Man, with help from my brother, turned under the sod in the garden area, and we discovered that most of the ground is saturated with large railroad gravel! We'll be pulling out rocks for years...but the dirt is lovely!

Pruning season is over, and we got more work done on the trees than we expected! We did stretch the pruning season in order to get some of the most urgent cuts done...
Now to wait and see how they respond!

On another note...isn't the spring weather lovely, when it isn't pretending to be winter?

The Beginnings of New Beginnings

2013-03-26T22:42:00.000-04:00

It is a new experience, planning a whole garden, just for two people. I'm accustomed to planning the peppers for Mom's big garden (you can read about it here... Wilson Street Urban Farm) and helping out with the rest of it, but planning my own? and for just 2 people? I'm trying, with plenty of help from my Man...

We started our onions and leeks earlier in March, and they are growing merrily on the mostly-assembled plant shelf with super-bright grow-lights.

We started celery too, which is also growing...

Last fall we rushed a few garlic bulbs into the ground, and they are starting to grow, but unfortunately the frost heaved them out. Next year we hopefully will have mulch to keep that from happening. I don't know if they are salvageable...maybe once the ground thaws we'll be able to shove them back in.

On a different note...but not really that different...

My perfect future home with my Dear Man is in a little dilapidated city home (that was free!) at the end of a notorious dead end street in an area of Buffalo that few people want to move to. The other thing that makes this ideal is the fact that there is a plot of land beside the house...and this plot of land is 6 acres of open grass, old apple trees, and tall cottonwoods. Surrounding everything are train tracks. Don't you agree? Perfection.

The apple trees are old, neglected and in desperate need of tender loving care. They have many broken and dead branches, and diseased and overcrowded limbs that we are trying to figure out how to start pruning.

The orchard is a little piece of heaven in the congestion of Buffalo for those who love and long for wide open skies...

Our future garden plot....the orchard is behind the photographer (me).

I think I mentioned the house needs work....but can you see the new life thriving within?

It is amazing, being in the city, but feeling like I am in the country.

A new chapter is beginning...and spring is coming. Life is good.

For those with concerns:

The street retains its bad reputation from a few years ago. Now all the drug houses have been demolished and 'those people' are gone.

It is Finished!

2013-02-26T19:03:00.000-05:00

One thing fun about Camembert cheese is the short aging time. The other is the transformation facilitated by the Penicilium Camemberti mold. The cheese goes from being mild, firm and boring, to having a snow white exterior, and flavorful, lusciously silky inside.

Yes, the Camembert is already done!

Actually, it could stand to go another week or two, but it tastes amazing and has lovely texture as it is. I would like it to get a little oozier, but am also wondering if letting it go longer will cause it to develop an ammonia flavor. The last batch I made had a hint of ammonia, and this one has none! The rind on this cheese was even delicious...and I don't normally appreciate rinds.

Camembert Update!

2013-02-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Camember are well on their way to being runny, flavorful cheeses!

Here are the four wheels, just starting to develop whiskers of mold...

And then a little more mold...

Once the mold became thick, I patted it all down, to limit its growth slightly.

Technically, I was supposed to wrap them in cellophane, but since I didn't have it, I had to do without. Patting down the mold has pretty much the same effect as wrapping in cellophane...

I am very pleased with their progress so far!!

Fancy Cheese...Camembert!

2013-01-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

Soo....I started making cheese again a couple weeks ago.

An interesting cheese I just made is Camembert. For those that may not know, Camembert is a mould-ripened cheese. The mould causes the inside of the cheese to become runny, and develop a flavor quite a few people enjoy. It can be difficult to get right, since you only want one kind of mould to grow on the surface of the cheese. This particular mould is called Penicillium Camemberti and is bright white and fuzzy. You can buy it freeze-dried, in the form of yellowish powder...

Camembert cheeses are made in small rounds in order to let the mould do it's work all the way to the center of the cheese.

I started making this cheese by heating two gallons of whole, raw, cow's milk to 90F.

As soon as the milk reached 90F I inoculated the milk with mould powder.

I stirred it in for a minute or two; basically until I was sure the mould powder was thoroughly mixed.

After adding the mould powder, I added starter culture. Starter culture is the bacteria cheesemakers put in the cheese to develop flavor and acid levels.

I made 'mother' culture by sterilizing milk, inoculating it with store-bought, freeze-dried bacteria, and then freezing the resulting coagulated, bacteria-laden milk.

Here are the culture cubes...

I added 4 of them...about 4 ounces of culture.

After adding the starter culture, I allowed the cheese to 'ripen' for 90 minutes.

In that time of waiting, I prepared a place for the cheese to age.

I already had a Gouda and a Cheddar

and a sausage, down in the cheese room.

I decided to age the Camembert in a tiny fridge in the room, in order to be better able to control the temperature and humidity.

I wiped it down with vinegar to hopefully remove any residual unwanted moulds.

After allowing the cheese to ripen the proper amount of time, I added 30 drops of rennet dissolved in 1/4 C water.

The milk rested for an hour (which was probably too long, considering that I seemed to have added a little bit too much rennet).

After that, I cut the curd into 1/2 inch cubes, stirred it for 15 minutes, let it rest for 15 minutes, then ladeled the curd into Camembert forms.

I used four cheese molds to drain the cheese....four small cheeses!

...and a funny contraption to catch the whey.

I allowed them to drain for five hours, turning them once every hour.

Then I took them out, spread Kosher salt all over the outside and let them sit 10 minutes.

Finally, they went into the basement, into the mini fridge, to grow mould and become runny...

What a Long Hot Summer!

2012-09-27T08:28:00.000-04:00

For the first time, I am actually looking forward to Autumn!

This summer was the hottest and driest most people can remember. We had to lug water for the garden nearly every day...in order to actually produce produce. The heat was great for peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and some of the other veggies though...
Look at the size of those Lemon Drop pepper plants!!

Since the harvest has been coming in, I have made a few varieties of hot sauce, dried cayenne, dried sweet peppers, smoked varieties of hot peppers, a couple ristras, and sold and eaten lots of fresh peppers.
I even made a connection with a local hot sauce maker to piggyback onto his bottle order to make my hot sauces look professional!
5oz Woozy bottles with Cayenne sauce and The Redheaded Stepchild hot sauce mix!! (we haven't finished making labels...)

I sure do enjoy working with peppers! Next year I plan on trying some rather unusual types of super-hot peppers...

Something else that has been making this summer busy is my dating/courting someone! I've been trying to keep up with my responsibilities at home, and do as much as possible with 'My Man'.

Just recently we decided we wanted to get married, so are working on figuring out an appropriate date for that event.

Wow! It is strange to think, at this time last year, I had no idea this was coming!

I didn't end up taking any bike trips this year, and haven't ridden as much as I would have hoped. I even got my driver's license...

I am not getting a car, though. No way! Bicycles are the way to go!

The milk supply I was using for cheesemaking stopped, since the farmer ended up with calves...but hopefully this winter I'll be able to start that up again.

Sorry it has been so long since I posted....I'll try to post more regularly, but I really can't promise anything....especially when my life is busy with unblogworthy stuff...

The Gorgonzola is Finished!

2012-04-27T11:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I opened up the Gorgonzola!

It had aged just over 60 days. Sadly, there wasn't much blue veining inside the cheese, but it still tasted quite good! It was sharp and creamy, but just a little saltier than I preferred.

I consider this a success!!

I'm a Farmer Pirate!

2012-04-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't talked much about the things I do at home in Buffalo, but the time has come!

I am involved in a co-operative for urban gardeners/farmers called Farmer Pirates. My family runs the Wilson Street Urban Farm, and we work together with other budding gardening operations on the East Side of Buffalo. Our goal is to bring good food and the awareness of nutritional and environmental issues to city-dwellers. Unfortunately the urban soils have been so neglected and abused that it is very difficult to grow in them. The solution to this is huge amounts of soil amendments, the most important of which is compost. We are unable to obtain the amounts of compost we need, since we have inadequate equipment. You can help us raise the money to buy the tools we need! Just go to Farmer Pirates Compost Program and you can donate...

Bag for sale!

2012-04-03T11:34:00.003-04:00

Well, I finally got around to doing it....I put a handlebar bag I made up for sale. It is on Etsy at this address....Canvas "Necessary" Handlebar Bag.

Gorgonzola Goop...

2012-02-23T11:10:00.000-05:00

One reason Gorgonzola isn't as strong flavored as Stilton is because the surface growth gets scraped off periodically.

I just scraped it for the first time...very interesting!!

The surface was covered with white mold, blue mold that seemed to be dying, and yellow-orange bacterial smear.

I scraped it off, and ended up with a lot of goop!

The cheese smells quite repulsive, but I tried a small piece that broke off the side, and it tasted amazing.

It was creamy, with nice blue mold flavor.

The final scraped cheese looks a little less wild than before....and hopefully the blue mold will be able to take over the rind.

It goes to the basement to age for a couple more months....

Neck Carving...

2012-02-20T11:24:00.001-05:00

I was somewhat intimidated by the prospect of carving a new neck for the fiddle, but it has turned out to be less complicated than I thought.

All I've done is carefully follow instructions, and remove small amounts of wood at a time!

I started by making a pattern from a piece of paper and tracing that onto a block of straight-grained maple.

Next, I roughed out the shape with the bandsaw.

I then used a microplane to remove the extra wood outside the lines.

The next step was to start shaping the scroll. That began by tracing the pattern onto the scroll area. Then the bandsaw and a fine-bladed Japanese saw were used for roughing it out.

My brother let me use his carving tools to do the fine shaping. It took a while, and I forgot to take pictures of the process...but here's a photo of the scroll today, when I was working on shaping the peg-box.

The book Violin Making: a Historical and Practical Guide has been very thorough in explaining the process, and I would be lost without it! I'm also using the old scroll as a visual aide...

Will it work??

2012-01-24T14:48:00.003-05:00

I pulled the Gorgonzola out of the mold today, and wasn't terribly impressed by what I saw.

Because there were no holes in the sides of the mold, the whey had no way to escape. (pun intended)

I salted the cheese, and put it in a small fridge in the basement, to potentially stay at 55*F for 30 days.

I hope it doesn't just fall apart!

Gorgonzola? We'll see....

2012-01-21T13:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I made my very first batch of Gorgonzola cheese! We shall see, in time, how it turns out...

Here's a photo of the beautiful Jersey milk I used.

I added mesophyllic starter culture, let it ripen for 30 minutes, then added rennet. Here I am checking to identify the flocculation point. "Flocculation" is the point at which the solids begin to separate from the liquids in the milk. The evening milk took 11 minutes to flocculate, and the morning batch 10 minutes. Therefore, I let the evening batch rest 45 minutes total, to get the best curd set for this cheese. The morning milk set 40 minutes.

After the designated time for setting up, I cut the curd into 1/2 in cubes and let them rest 10 minutes.

The next step was to dump the curds into a cheesecloth to drain. The evening bit drained for about 17 hours, and the morning curd drained for only one.

While waiting for the morning curd to finish draining, I mixed up an inoculate so the cheese grows blue mold. I used 1 tsp of Gorgonzola cheese (the moldiest part I could find) and mixed that thoroughly with 1/4 cup of cool water.

Finally I was able to cut up the two batches of curd and mix salt and the blue cheese slurry into them.

I put the larger bowl of curd (the morning curd) on the bottom and sides of the mold. The smaller bowl of curd went into the center, surrounded on all sides by the newer curd.

Now I have to flip the cheese every 15 minutes for 2 hours. Then it goes into a cool room for 3 days. I still have to flip it a few times each day, but not quite as often. After that, it will go to start growing mold!

Disappointing Discoveries...

2012-01-03T11:07:00.000-05:00

Well, removing the fiddle neck in order to re-set it turned out to be much more complicated than I originally thought.

The block refused to be loosened from the back and ribs of the fiddle, so I ended up removing it in pieces.

The neck job was revealed, and much worse than expected.

There were wide gaps between the neck and the block it was supposed to be anchored in.
After much careful work, I successfully removed the neck without damaging anything other than the block.

I smoothed the surfaces with a scraper, then tried to take apart the broken rib to re-glue more neatly. Whooops!!

I gave up after the break, and just glued it back on as neatly as I could...

My plan at this point was to make a new block to correctly fit the neck into. After a little investigation, I realized the base of my neck was missing far too much wood to be re-set properly. How frustrating!

A few options now presented themselves: I could make a new neck from scratch, buy a neck blank, or risk getting a bad neck and buy one from a parted out fiddle off ebay.

I decided the most economical option for me at the moment was to try my hand at making a neck myself. The blanks from Stewart MacDonald were more than I wanted to pay at the moment, and plus, if I made one myself, I sure would learn a lot! Wow! The prospect of carving a neck out of maple myself is a rather daunting idea!

Fiddle Trouble...

2011-11-30T10:51:00.001-05:00

The repairs necessary for making the fiddle playable ended up being much more extensive than I was expecting.

I was hoping a new bridge, strings, tailpiece, and a re-set sound post would be all...but I was wrong.

When I strung it up, the neck was slowly pulled forward...bad news!!

I now have to take it out, and re-set it properly. A previous repair was done very badly, so that needs to be un-done. What a pain!

Oh, well...that is why I bought a damaged instrument....to learn!

Dad did some research on how to get the neck off, and I have started that process by removing the front...

It appears that the fingerboard was glued on with something other than hide glue...so it cannot be removed.

That could be an issue...but...I'll need to build a new block anyway, since it is cracked....

There is also a messy repair that I'll hopefully be able to fix on one of the ribs near the neck.

You can see in this photo the bad neck job and the broken rib.

I know this is a huge undertaking...and I'll do my best.

The fiddle is a beautiful instrument; I hope I can make it playable...and not ruin anything!

What have I been Doing?

2011-11-17T13:52:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry, it has been a very long time since I posted anything. I haven't been doing any interesting cycling-related activities.

I have just been regularly riding across town for various reasons. My ankles healed completely, and now I am sure to remember the correct height for my saddle, to avoid any other such mishaps. My knee doesn't give me trouble, unless I exert it more than normal without stretching.

A local cycling group recently advertised my canvas bags to those on their mailing list! I haven't gotten any responses, but it is a first step...

A fellow bicycling traveler who decided to stop in Buffalo contacted me through Warmshowers, and now we are making a bicycle bag for her bike together!

I've been renovating a room in the basement to turn into a cheese cave, for aging cheese. It has been a lot of work, but it is nearly done.

Just recently I was the happy recipient of a supply of milk for cheesemaking. The farmer gives me milk, and I give him some of the cheese I make! A pretty swell deal for me I think!

I got my first shipment of milk last Thursday, and made Gouda, Neufchatel, and Ricotta out of the three gallons. Neufchatel is similar to cream cheese; just made with more milk than cream.

Here's what the Gouda looks like...and for some reason there are holes in the surface...I guess the curd was more firm that it should have been.

Another project I've wanted to get started is repairing a fiddle. I was able to buy a damaged fiddle off Craigslist, and now have to figure out how to fix it up. I'll get some books from the library on repairing violins, buy some tools and supplies, and carefully try to make it sound like a quality instrument. This will be my first time repairing an instrument, and I'm hoping to do well and learn a lot!

Here's the project as she looks now...

So there you go, these are a few of the things I've been doing while not updating my blog.

Life really is a journey into the unknown. I had no idea at the beginning of the year that I would be able to get back into making cheese. Not in my wilder dreams did I think I would get good milk for cheese making in exchange for just some of the product. You never know what will happen, what opportunities will present themselves. Always be open to the unexpected, it is probably the beginning to a great story.

I could use this blog to document all the random adventures of my life, or I could keep it focused on cycling. You, my readers, help me decide! Focus on cycling, or allow for any adventure life throws at me?

First Flat...

2011-09-14T15:08:00.000-04:00

Well, finally the inevitable happened.

Yesterday I rode across town, and just as I was reaching my destination, I discovered my rear tire was almost completely deflated. I was pretty bummed. I didn't want to fix a flat tire!

Thankfully it was very easy to find the puncture...a wire had gone through the tire and into the tube.

I took the wheel off, unnecessarily, to fix it. The hole in the tube was quite obvious, so I didn't have to do anything fancy or complicated...

After patching I pumped it up and two hours later rode home. Today the tire is still as firm as when I inflated it yesterday!

Hurray! I can successfully fix flat tires!!!

The Ride to Allegany

2011-09-13T13:58:00.000-04:00

Family and friends were planning a vacation at Allegany State Park, so my brother Willie and I decided we wanted to ride, instead of drive there. It was a little over 70 miles, and predominantly uphill. We left shortly after 7:30am. Getting out of Buffalo was terrible! We had to traverse rather busy shoulder-less 4 and 6-lane highways. Thankfully most drivers were nice and gave us room. Once out of the city and suburbs we were in farming country for a bit.

We witnessed a group of workers harvesting cabbage...

Then we got on route 75, or Sisson Highway...which took us through a variety of areas...from farms to hunting cabins. It was very low-traffic and we enjoyed riding it.

There were a lot of tanker trucks hauling manure, but they didn't bother us at all...they didn't even smell very bad!

We paused for a snack at one point and I documented the

Mom's Mini Bag...

2011-08-31T16:15:00.002-04:00

Since I'd been home for a few weeks, I was ready to start making bags again.

Mom wanted a small handlebar bag that would work on her light speedy road bike. She only carries a handful of necessities with her, so I designed it to fit just those objects.

At 6 inches wide, 4 inches tall and 4 inches deep, it is a very tiny bag....

It could hold about 11/2 liters....the volume is 96 square inches.

It weighs 0.9lbs...400 grams.

I put pockets in this one...a little one in each side...

There are two inside flaps, closed with elastic, for keeping stray raindrops

To Sum It Up...

2011-08-26T10:30:00.000-04:00

It was good to get home, but it sure felt like a big part of the trip had been completely skipped. Driving in a vehicle rather detracts from the journey...

We got to the house and it felt very strange...it didn't even feel like home!

It took me a couple of days to adjust...but I eventually got somewhat used to normal life again.

My ankles healed quickly, and in a little over a week I took a 30 mile ride with very minimal discomfort. Thankfully they are healing faster than my knee did!

My bicycle was well worn and desperately needed a thorough going-over before she was taken on the road again.

The rear brakes were completely shot; front brakes, severely worn; chain, filthy. I replaced the rear brake pads with a pair of new ones my Dad had lying around. The front brakes still work, so I'll wait on those...

Dad was concerned that my chain could have stretched, but it was just fine! I cleaned it with a toothbrush and kerosene....then thoroughly lubed it with Tri-Flow chain lube. That stuff worked great! We used it when our chains had been rained on every night...it eliminated the developing rust and kept them well lubricated.

I was very happy with my Bontrager Select Invert tires....I had no flats or leaks despite having to ride through broken glass occasionally. Over 1000 miles...and no flats!! They probably aren't as fast as smooth road tires, but they do well on both dirt roads and pavement.

My bags worked satisfactorily. They kept all the pouring rain out, securely held our stuff, and weren't troublesome to access...unless the sleeping bag was strapped on top.

I do wish I had designed pockets into my handlebar bag. Having my loose change mixed with all the other small junk in the bottom of the bag was extremely messy and inconvenient. My next bag will definitely feature pockets!

I really enjoyed this trip, and am ready to start planning another! I'm definitely hooked.

A Trip Cut Short...

2011-08-22T10:15:00.001-04:00

It was a beautiful morning that we woke up to. Chilly, but lovely. Mist quietly rose off the creek water. Everything on the mountains was completely shrouded in fog.

A pair of Bald Eagles came and perched in a tree near our camping area. I was able to get a couple pictures, but they were shy of the camera.

Our legs and ankles were still painful, but we could ride. I came to the conclusion that my saddle had been set too high. I had adjusted it during our visit, and must have put it just a little too high. It caused my feet to extend with each pedal stroke, placing unusual stress on the Achilles tendon. I lowered my seat, hoping that would enable me to ride the rest of the way home.

Once again, we got going around 8. There were about 10 miles of the trail left to ride before we came out at Route 6, or Grand Army of the Republic Highway. We wanted to avoid the steep dirt road we had taken on the way down, so that meant we were on Rte 6 for probably 20 miles.

20 miles with little variation. There were a few small towns to ride through, lots of rolling hills, woods, and a few farms. There was also a significant side wind that felt like a headwind. After 10 miles, I was ready to be on a different road....

Finally we turned, and my mindset improved dramatically. The side road was more interesting and fun to ride with decent downhills and lots of curves. Twisting winding back roads I find quite enjoyable...

And...in only about 20 miles we would be in New York!

Unfortunately my Achilles tendons were becoming more and more painful as the day went by.

We stopped for lunch at the same place we had on the way down, near a little creek and a side road. I tried standing in the creek to cool my tendons, but it didn't help.

In the little Pennsylvania town of Genesee, we stopped at a gas station for some water. There was less than a mile to go till NY! We were pretty happy to be getting to the state line. It was a very clear sign that we were nearing home.

Not long after riding into NY, we noticed that the driver here were definitely less courteous than PA drivers. How annoying! Why would a thing as small as a state line have such an impact on the behavior of a person? I found it fascinating....

We made it to the little campground between Wellsville and Scio that we had stayed in on the way down. There were only 80 miles between us and home, but my tendons were extremely painful. I called home to find out if they thought, like I did, that it would be a bad idea to ride 80 more miles on an injury like that.

Mom decided she could come out and get us that night.

Here is a picture from when we were waiting...

We were very grateful to her, but I was sad to miss the last leg of the trip, and not finish the way I had planned. I am glad I didn't further injure my tendons, though. I hoped they would heal quickly, so I could get back on the bike before too long!

Wet Gravel and Jerky...

2011-08-19T11:22:00.001-04:00

I slept better this night, but Tuck didn't sleep very well. Strange.

We ate dry cereal for breakfast, and then were on the road by 8:30.

This time I was planning on nearly completing the Pine Creek Rail Trail by evening. First, we needed groceries and water. In Jersey Shore we stopped at a gas station to relieve our bladders and bought a gallon of water and some pretzels. I asked the cashier if a grocery store was nearby, and he gladly informed me of a Weis just up the street.

Since our diet had deteriorated considerably during our visit, I wanted to bring it back up to a somewhat healthy level. I bought cabbage, apples, grapes, granola, cookies, soy milk(so it wouldn't spoil un-refrigerated), and peanuts.

We then proceeded onto the trail. It was a lovely place, but I got very tired of grinding endlessly along a flat gravel trail. There were no downhills, and that meant few brief breaks. Just pedal, pedal, pedal, until it was time to snack or go to the bathroom. Ah, well, at least it wasn't uphill!

We met a group of interesting elderly cyclists on the trail. They were from near Wellsville, NY and were working on riding 100 miles this year. It was fun encountering them repeatedly on the trail, since we were headed in the same direction.

We stopped at Cedar Run for some more of the amazing jerky we had eaten on the way down. This time I bought 10 pieces! It had started pouring just as we rode up to the little store, so we sat on the porch and chatted with a couple guys that were also sitting there. The rain didn't let up very quickly, so Tuck decided we should eat some ice cream while we waited for it to quit. The ice cream was good, and the conversations floating around were interesting. By the time the ice cream was gone, so was the rain, so off we went.

Everything was wet, so the gravel stuck to my tires and swished through my fenders annoyingly.

Here's a photo I took while waiting for Tuck near Rattlesnake Rock. I took a quick walk down to the rock, and was pretty impressed, but saw no rattlesnakes. Tuck had already run over two snakes today. One may have been a small rattlesnake, but I'm not sure. Yes, they were alive and slithering!

We stopped at the Tiadaghton Camping Area for the night. We didn't have a camping permit, so we hoped any officials would just stay away. It rained again, so the ground was rather wet. We ate random food that we could find in the bag, such as cabbage, apples, grapes, fig newtons, and so on. It was a very lovely place to camp, and we had it to ourselves. We even saw some Bald Eagles glide majestically through the gorge.

Both of us were having great difficulty walking. My Achilles tendons were extremely sore and had been most of the day. Tuck's thighs were very sore. I figured the extreme soreness was a result of the mountain yesterday, and hoped it would recede by morning.

The rain stopped enough for me to set up the tents. Tuck was fixing his front tire, which had acquired a slow leak towards the end of the day. The leak gradually got faster and faster, and by the time we were at the campground, he had little difficulty finding the puncture.

The sunset was very picturesque...

We bedded down and fell asleep hoping nobody would show up to kick us out...

Rain on the Mountain

2011-08-17T15:44:00.000-04:00

Tuck slept well in the graveyard. I had a terrible time falling asleep, and then didn't sleep very well anyway. I wasn't tired enough, after only 40 miles. We got out of the cemetery early, rode to Boyer's to get milk for our cereal, ate there, and then were on the road by 8:30.

We took Rte 61 to Sunbury and though it was mostly a 4-lane highway, bicycles were legal, and the shoulders were wide enough for us to comfortably ride.

We picked up the PA bike route J in Northumberland. A few miles later, we stopped to eat lunch at a little river-side park in Milton.

Here I discovered my back brakes had worn down so far they completely ceased to work! I had no back brakes, and still had a steep mountain to descend at some point! My front brakes were very worn also, but still worked well, thankfully. I now know to carry an extra pair of brake pads!

In Milton we used the library - for their bathroom! We appreciated the existence of public bathrooms in gas stations, grocery stores, and libraries. It was very convenient!

Here is a random photo of the town of Milton...

It is right on the lovely Susquehanna River....

In Dewart we abandoned bike route J for motor vehicle route 44. That took us through some Amish country, and I snapped a picture of a team of working mules patiently waiting on their driver.

This particular farm had at least six huge mules instead of draft horses. It was nestled prettily between some mountains. One of which we soon would reach the base of. Which I did not want to climb. It was late afternoon and there was a threat of thunderstorms, but Tuck convinced me to do it anyway.

It was a very long ascent. I took my time, and had a lot of breaks, because I hate feeling sick from riding too hard. It took us over an hour to get up to the top. Near the top, the wind started blowing, the sky clouded over, and thunder could be occasionally heard. Tuck was quite a distance ahead of me, and it suddenly started pouring. I had put my holey rain poncho on just in time. Now I just walked up the mountain. Around the next curve, and there was the top! Finally! The rain was coming down like a water main upstairs just broke. I took off my helmet so it could wash the sweat off my face. It felt amazing! In just a few seconds my face was clean and cool. I wanted to take advantage of the free shower, but it would have been too chilly, and rather indecent, considering the circumstances. The rain didn't last very long, but I enjoyed every minute of it! The view from the top was lovely; of the sun on distant mountains, rain in the valley, clouds moving away and the blue sky spreading.

We made it safely down the mountain, despite wet rims and no back brakes, in my case. In a way, the water on the rims was helpful - water cooled brakes!

The sun came out at the bottom and turned the wet road into a silver ribbon...

Our moods were suddenly improved - I think getting poured on at the very top of a mountain was the best thing that happened to us all day - other than the spaghetti...

We stayed in an old cemetery at the base of the mountain, in Collomsville. We were right next to a cow pasture.

I cooked up some spaghetti for our supper...

It was very tasty, especially with cheddar cheese melted into it, but unfortunately I didn't make quite enough. We finished it all, and were still a little hungry.

As we set up camp, the locals looked at us curiously, but nobody bothered us. It was a pleasant spot, and I was glad we had come over the mountain.