Coming home last night, about a mile from my house at the bottom of a big hill I dropped a chain. I was trying to shift into my lowest gear and the chain fell between the cassette and the spokes (no dork disk.) The rear derailleur had been adjusted after my complete winter bike rebuild in October, but apparently things have settled in and need to be tweaked.

I put the bike on the kickstand and figured I'd just pull the chain out and get it back in place. No such luck. The chain was wedged to a degree I've never before seen a chain wedged. I didn't have the physical strength to pull it out. It would have been impressive if it weren't so frustrating.

I messed with it for about five minutes. In that space of time two cars stopped and asked if I needed a ride (gotta love the friendly people in South Dakota.) I politely declined, half of me thinking I could still get the chain free, and the other half not wanting my consecutive commuting streak to contain an asterisk stating I got a ride home in a car.

Eventually I came to the realization that the chain wasn't coming out, so I pushed the bike up the hill for a mile to my house. It was a warmer day so our icy packed snow base had turned into a slick sandy mush that made it tough to roll a bike through. The bike kept wanting to slide out sideways. If I were riding, my weight would have been pushing straight down and I wouldn't have any trouble. Walking though, the bike didn't have enough weight to dig in so I was fighting to keep it upright.

20 minutes later I got home. I wound up having to break the chain, remove the rear wheel with the chain still jammed in place and then remove the cassette to free it. Crazy. Then I put it all back together. Didn't have time to re-adjust the derailleur so I just have to remember not to use that bottom gear until I do.

Adventures in biking!