Revenge of the 29'er Day 4

 

Day 4: Rest day–a couple of miles, little climb.

Hooray. I chatted with fellow campers, a couple of utlra runners who’d recently run Whitney in a blistering 4.5 hours, and a pleasant older couple who’d bike toured a lot in Europe. The husband noticed something that worried me–cracks around the nipples on the back rim of Ivan. Like an old Russian peasant, he had bad teeth. Poor, poor Ivan. But what of poor Scotty? This left me stressed and wondering whether or not to proceed. Probably they had been there for a while as the rim had been a little out of true, but what to do?

On a different front, Jodi was on her way through with Patchy to visit a friend at Red Rocks in Vegas. She could take the Death Valley route–recently re-opened (more good luck)--and bring me a sleeping pad that didn’t leak. I cycled back to the lodge to get wifi and research my options for the wheel. Had I discovered the problem earlier, I might have had Jodi bring the bike rack and bail on the tour, but she did not, and what I read online gave me some hope and some dread. Bike mechanics had seen these stresses endure for some time and NOT result in catastrophic failure. And while none had a story of the wheel going to pieces over this kind of problem, it could happen. Oy.

Jodi and Patch arrived in the early afternoon, having already been to the camp as cell was down. I waved as they pulled up, the big, familiar white Tundra and camper. It was strange to see them again on this tour, but I love my wife, so it’s always good. Patch jumped excitedly. I took the new pad and extra cereal. Finding decent chow is a struggle in these podunk areas. After just a few minutes, Jodi was gone.

A lovely trail angel, Susan, greeted me in the campground. She had befriended a French cyclist some years ago and had a soft spot for the pedal folk. I was happy to chat, and she ended up providing a beer and extra batteries. Superb.

So I decided to go for it. I’d lower the PSI on the rough stuff and take it slow, putting some extra weight up front. Worst case scenario with this mechanical is that I would have to message Jodi and wait for rescue–NOT something I even remotely wanted to do. No bike shops exist along my route, and waiting for a wheel to be shipped was not appealing. So I would ride carefully, monitor the wheel closely, and see how Ivan fared. Now, if this weird pain in my right forearm would just go away. Grrrrrr….