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We didn’t linger on purpose, but it was hard to say good-bye to Pauly, and he made us kick-ass coffee in his variety of coffee machines (& yesterday, too; I forgot to mention that). I reviewed the route to our next target with him — Platte River National Park Campground — and he showed us a two-mile detour that would take us to a closed-for-business blueberry farm where you could have your fill of berries for the picking. I quickly added that to our route and Dana called to confirm a reservation in a rustic, walk-in site.
Off we went about 10 am, fresh laundry in our packs, duly caffeinated, well rested, and well cared for in the short time we got to spend with Pauly. Truly an exceptional person and a great Warmshowers host.
We made our way through Traverse City and stopped for some food supplies before heading due west. Today’s hills were a bit more challenging but only for the first 8 miles or so and then the terrain reverted to gently rolling. Everything was going great until “I have another F.L.A.T.!” I fumed at the prospect of fixing yet another one, but we found a paved driveway and set up the repair process there. The hole was in the same spot and something had come through the boot again. This time, however, I took out a knife and another tool I had and kept prodding through the tread until I heard a metal scraping sound. I pushed in and got another small wire to pop out — but I was still hearing metal-on-metal sounds when I dug the knife further. Eventually, I worked the culprit out — another shard of metal from the original a few days ago. I also used one of the old tubes to double-boot that sucker this time.
Just as we wrapped up the repair, it started sprinkling. I asked Dana if she wanted to skip the blueberry picking and head straight to the campground, but she still wanted to hit the patch. After we got a good pint or so of berries, we headed for the campground. It was raining more steadily now, and we hurried to get that last 4 miles in. At the campground, we checked in and having a better map to look at, asked to move our site a bit closer to the restrooms/showers. Still about 200 yds of walking our bikes. The ranger also warned us of bears and to put all our food in the bear box that each site had.
We sat at the ranger station for a while as it was still raining and we had Wi-Fi and could check the weather and our route for tomorrow. There was a small break in the rain coming and we waited for that window to get to our site. We set up the tent and put in our sleeping gear et al. I also strung up the tarp we had been using to cover the bikes as a secondary fly. The coming storms promised to be strong and long and I wanted us to stay as dry as possible. I had other covers for the bikes that would be fine as long as there wasn’t a big crosswind.
We got our showers and rode through the drizzle to a covered pavilion at the entrance to the park to make and have our dinner. It was just enough cover to keep us and bikes dry while we ate. We cleaned up and headed back to the ranger station to grab that Wi-Fi, but it was short lived. Apparently it shuts off shortly after the rangers leave. We rode back to the trail and walked the bikes up to our camp, dropped all our bags into the generously large bear box, covered the bikes, and crawled into the tent. We fell asleep listening to the rain pounding on the tarp, but happy that there was no water getting in. Ahhhh.
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