Yup.
The ride from Molalla to Silverton was interesting. Aside from nearly getting heatstroke biking ten miles over hills in 90 degree direct sunshine (yes, it was stupid), getting pegged in the shoulder with a tomato while riding, and searching for camping for two hours, it was a good day. We saw kittens in a free box at the Molalla Safeway, and a nice gentleman at the MarKum Inn after our not-quite-heatsroke episode gave us bananas and a protein shake. Continued toward Silverton after a two hour recovery period (people in Colton told us Silverton would be the place to sell crafty things... the Bellingham of central Oregon, in theory), snagged a tomato with my shoulder and yelled some rather un-clever profanities, discevered that the Abiqua River - our camping destination - was actually a creek running through some yuppie backyards, entered Silverton, and crashed in another blackberry thicket in what appeared to be an empty carnival lot.
Camping for free should not be this difficult. I would love a law that said that every ten miles on every highway there was a designated spot where anyone could camp for free, provided they put their trash in a bin. I'm sure the state could find enough money to add small detours to their trash collection rounds to include these camping areas; a bi-weekly pick-up should suffice to keep them clean. Why is using unused land illegal?
Sunday. We tried to sell in Silverton, and after 4 hours the only luck we'd had was 1 old man who bought a wallet out of sympathy because his son had recently gone on a bike trip. Thankyou kind man! Using the bathroom in the wine bar across the street was fun. What I read on peoples' faces as I entered was 'You don't belong. What are you -doing- here? I'm too sophisticated to question strangers, so I'll just glare instead.' Found a nice patch of woods on the edge of town to camp, and slept -very- well compared to the previous night.
Day 5 started with a ten mile ride on no coffee, since everything's closed for the holiday. Sigh. -We're- laboring.... can't we have some caffiene????? We made up for it by yoinking a pocketful of espresso creamers from a minimart in Salem. Made it downtown, added cool duct tape to our pile, and promptly sold a wallet. Made off with a little over 12, so we're set for food for a couple weeks. A nice dude named Markly talked about music with Miah for a while, bought us kombucha, vitamin water, banana, orange, and SNICKERS. Love. Turns out he's in a band, has played with Autumn Electric, and thought Michael Trew was awesome. Small world :)
Camped in the riverfront park in Salem, slept forever, and are now on our day of rest. This morning we discovered that all Oregon rivers are public property, and that camping along the high-water mark is legal.
My left knee wants to give out. The tendon or ligament or whatever that runs along the lower inside of my kneecap is extremely sore.. any idea what's causing it, or what stretches/adjustments I can do to fix it?
We have some wonderful pictures to post, but the cam's outside with Miah. maybe he'll post them.
Your knee could be a number of things. Your seat might be too low, causing your knee to bend too much. You could be working in too high a gear. Or, you could be wobbling your knee left and right when you pedal, which can lead to a serious injury. If your other knee doesn't hurt at all I'd suspect this. One leg is usually weaker in people, but you've got to take it easier in the gears and give that leg time to get strong. Do an exercise where you sit on a chair or something and raise your leg out straight. Practice holding it there for a few seconds. This will strengthen the muscles that support your knee. Do 20, 2 times a day for a week. Then add weight to your foot when you do it. If you can get ahold of some glucosamine (supplement for joints, that will also help.) Is there someplace I could ship some to you in a week?
ReplyDeleteLove!
This guy wrote the bible for bike info: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/pain.html#knees
No way to mail stuff to us, but we'll try to pick some up. My left leg is actually my strong one, but I bet it's wobbling. Have a small bag tied to the bike frame that knocks against my knee if I keep it straight... will have to fix that. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI've had heat stroke before, in combination with some kind of weird hypoglycemia. (No water, biked in the heat for an hour, then ate a jug of icecream)
ReplyDeleteIf you suddenly start losing the ability to register faces, or read, or some random brain function seems to be shutting down... you MUST GET SOMETHING HIGH IN PROTEIN AND FAT (like a beef/bean burrito) a shitload of liquid, and then you need to rest until the episode passes.
Had that before, almost fucking died.
...
Man you guys are gonna be so ripped when you get back.