The Grotto // I'm On A Boat

First thing in the morning I walked a few km to a cave on the shore of Lake Huron called the Grotto. I was on a deadline because I had t bike to and board a ferry at 1pm. On my way to The Grotto I came up behind an older man who stepped to the side of the trail and said, in an Eastern European accent, "I make room for strong man."

The Grotto is a natural cave half submerged in the lake. There is also a natural tube which leads ~100 feet underwater from one of its walls out into the lake. It is a unique spot. I elected not to try the underwater tunnel today, but rather swam around the various stone slabs and columns nearby. It was rainy and cloudy and the water was probably 50F. I didn't see anyone else swimming.

I rode the 17km to the ferry in 40 minutes, which is faster than my usual pace, because I knew it wasn't far and then I'd get a 90 minute break. The ferry took me from the tip of Bruce Peninsula to Manitoulin Island.

Yesterday after I got my wheel trued I noticed a slight wobble in again. I watched the guy true the wheel in a truing stand, and check the tension of all the spokes, so I was surprised. I inspected the wheel and found thata small section of the sidewall of the tire had a deep abrasion which allowed the tube to bulge slightly, deforming ther wheel. I decided to just put some gaffers tape on the outside of the tire over the abrasion and keep going. It has held up for >150km between yesterday and today.

When I got off the ferry there was a bike shop 30km away that was still open, so I pedalled over there and bought a spare tire with a folding bead, which gave me some piece of mind should my gaffers tape fail. As I was packing up the shop owner came outside and looked at my tire and asked me if I had a tire boot. I didn't know what that was. Apparently it's a plastic insert that you fit inside your tire should it develop a defect like mine has. I said no, and he handed me one. Thanks! (I've heard of people using a dollar bill for this purpose too, but never tried it myself.)

My bicycle is running really well right now. It is clear that as I've fixed some obvious issues, I've been able to find sand fix some smaller ones too, since my conscious avoidance of the larger ones seemed to mask those. So now my bicycle feels better than it has in years. I wonder if the same strategy works in real life is well.

At 7pm I rolled into a campground and the guy in the office told me it was $32 for a tent camping site. I told him I was just one guy with a bicycle and a small tent and didn't need anything special. I offered $20 for any flat spot where I could pitch my tent and he said no. This is the 2nd time I've had a campground turn down free money just for the sake of pride or winning or whatever. I pedaled a few more km down the road and pitched my tent in the back of a volunteer fire department building.