Day 50

Off bike path
I woke up to the sound of bicyclists on the bike path. Luckily, no one went by as I packed up and got back on the trail. The plan was to travel 90 miles today in order I get to the next warm showers host. There were several hosts near the REI. I needed to return my back paniers. They were almost completely ripped in half by now. I also needed a new pump- my 7 dollar eBay pump finally stopped working. My back tire was a bit low, but I hoped I could make it to REI. I had about 2 miles of blissful bike path left and then bam, it was gone. I had to ride on the side of the road again. This street was much more busy than I was used to. I went through some parking lots and rode on sidewalks to avoid the traffic. My back tire was really worrying me by now, so I decided to head to the nearest bike shop. Another customer there asked me a bunch of questions about me trip, one being where I was heading tonight. She told me there was an REI that was closer than the one I was heading to. I looked at my map and I had to go right past it anyways. Perfect. After my tire was sufficiently inflated with my new pump, I headed to Maple Grove. I arrived at REI a little after 7. This one didn't have the wide varity of paniers that the REI in Salt Lake City had. I decided to go with small front paniers. But when I tried them on my back, I discovered that I would need to adjust them a bunch to get them to work, and even then, they would have the ability to move around. I took them back. Now my only option was the same set of paniers that had ripped. Hopefully this new pair would last. I returned the old pair and the bike computer that had stopped working. I'm pretty sure I discovered the problem with it- the battery case on the sensor wasn't completely secured. But I had already cut it off my bike, and I didn't have the zip ties to put it back on. Oh well. I will have to keep track of my miles with google. Now was a good time to panic a little. It was almost sunset, and I was in the middle of a city. No one had replied back from warmshowers.org. I looked at my map. There was a park in the direction I needed to head anyways. It looked like there weren't any houses around it. When I got there, it was pretty dim, but the trees made it much darker. I passed by several people- one had a flashlight but he didn't have it on the whole time. The others didn't have light at all. I was pretty sure I was going to get mugged. I kept going until I was pretty sure no one was near. I went into the woods. I picked a terrible spot- there were downed trees everywhere, so it was really difficult to get my bike through it. I kept breaking tree beaches, so I was far from quiet. I finally got to a point where carrying my bike was too much trouble. I walked a bit farther without it, found a spot that would work for camping, and then made a few trips back to my bike to retrieve my gear. I got lost once- I made a wrong turn. I quickly found my way back. I set up my tent and crawled inside with my gear. One good thing about this spot was that if someone took the same route I did, I would definitely hear them coming.