DALMAC Day 4 is finished…just one day to go! I biked 74 miles today with a total of 2700 ft of elevation gain.
This was the day where my bike just about broke. After the heavy rain two days ago, my gears have been grinding progressively worse. The suspect was a worn out chain and cassette, and the only chance at a fix would be to make it to the bike shop in Petoskey before they closed through the rest of the holiday weekend. If I didn’t make it, at best tomorrow would be really annoying with gears grinding constantly, and at worst the chain would break and I wouldn’t finish the trip.
This afternoon I pretty much went straight through without stopping (much) so I could get there. I made it at 4pm. They ended up replacing my freehub (the part that the gears on the back wheel mount to) in about 30 minutes and had me back on the road. Shout out to Mike at Latitude 45 Cycles.
I still had plenty of great times along the way. I wish I could have stopped longer in Charlevoix, because that’s a great downtown area. Maybe some other time.
Just 56 miles left of the tour! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over. Check the photos below for more stories from the day.
First light in Kalkaska. I was up at 5:30 this morning.This bear was at a park in Alden, about 14 miles into the day.Unlike the last two days, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.I crossed the 45° parallel on the way up.Torch Lake.This hill was the steepest one of the day. It’s over a 10% grade. I was wishing for some more gears on my bike for this one, or even gears that wouldn’t grind at that point. I made it all the way up without stopping.A view from the top looking back down.Coming down into Ellsworth for lunch.Okay, maybe one cloud in the sky. Just before reaching Ellsworth.Round Lake near Charlevoix.Riding along Lake Michigan between Charlevoix and Petoskey was great! The bike trail was fantastic.More of the trail towards Petoskey.They even had cool tunnels!At the bike shop with my bike up on the rack. They weren’t sure there’d be a fix at this point.Crisis averted, and the bike is riding good as new again.Home sweet home in front of Petoskey High School tonight.Here’s most of the route from today. I forgot to start the workout on my watch until I was 9.5 miles in, but you can add a squiggly line from Kalkaska to the green dot in your head. It was a really challenging route, but I think I expected it to be even worse. The scenery made up for the hard work maybe… Looking forward to one more great ride tomorrow.
