Crank disaster

Eric called Monday afternoon from a cabin near Kame and Sudden streams, pictured in the center of this Google Earth image. The guys are stalled out right now with a major mechanical. Here's Eric's report:

We are at Kame Creek and Sudden River, basically the outlet of Malaspina Lake. We had a good day riding. It's pouring rain and so we actually found this little old fishing cabin that we holed up in for the night. Then we left today and like five minutes down the beach my crank self-destructed. Uh, so the granny gear basically stripped down to the bolts and ripped the threads out and broke in half, so we're ... screwed. But, luckily we have this little sat phone so I actually called Speedway. They're going to send another crank for repair that's hopefully going to get here tomorrow on the beach. We might be back in business in less than 24 hours, but that's a best case scenario. Anyway, so we're just, yeah, hanging out. It's a little rainy. But all is well. Talk to you later. Bye.

After I listened to the first part of that message, I was sort of hoping Eric would tell me about some kind of amazing field repair he engineered right out there on the beach. Like Gilligan's Island and the coconut radio. But it's great that this is the new millennium and stranded cyclists can call in for emergency repairs and supplies from any remote corner of the world. I hope they will be spinning again soon. Maybe the waiting period will give them time to scout out their route around the Malaspina Glacier, a glacier so large it can be seen from space. I believe this is the glacier Eric told me reportedly has a small oasis of vegetation growing in the sediment on top of the ice. It would be a nice, gravelly place to ride a bike if it exists.