DEFLATING Day

Day 34—Sunday, September 4—Pinnacles Campground to Strawberry Creek Emergency Shelter

42 miles

Beautiful start to the morning

Began easy as pie as the first nine miles were all downhill to the start of a four mile climb on gravel. After that climb, there was another climb up to above Union Pass which I rode down to a 9,200 ft (similar to the previous day). Fortunately I have become mostly acclimated to the elevation so not a lot of wheezing going on. Periodic stopping gives me a chance to take in the surroundings and rest my legs.

Looking back at pinnacles on four mile climb

This is a holiday weekend and everyone is out and about enjoying the outdoors. To the detriment of non-motorized vehicles, the “enjoying” is done in these souped up “side-by-side” vehicles with two to four people…think if a golf cart and a dune buggy had offspring. Often no helmets, even on the kids. The colloquial name for these things is “Texas wheelchairs” perhaps based on the accident rate.  

These are bumpy roads and the buggies are going by at 30 mph, kicking up all kinds of dust. Nothing like the great outdoors. Some people slow down to reduce the dust but others scream by with giddy smiles. At least they are loud so you can hear them coming. Not a fan, if you couldn’t tell. Not sure what effect these have on animal life: I know cows can’t tell them from a bicycle.

Anyway, I took some route advice from folks in these wheelchairs and got a little lost before refinding my way, but lost probably two hours to figuring out my route (remember, no street names).

Descending from Union Pass was lovely but I had used a lot of energy getting back on the trail and a headwind had picked up. I stopped by a stream to filter some water and my rear tire just completed deflated in 10 seconds…see equipment notes. I patched the tire.

I eventually found my way to an emergency cabin that some outdoors folks had built and decided this was good enough for me!  Used more in the winter for stranded snowmobiles, I figured it was close enough to winter being Labor Day weekend and all.

At the cabin—eeeeeeeee pffffft ssshhhshhh—the rear tire deflated in 10 seconds for a second time…ugh!  I took the tire off and realized that a lot of the rim tape had bunched up and was probably causing friction on the tube.  I scraped it off and put a new layer of electrician's tape to cover the holes in the rim where the spokes protrude, hoping that would get me to the next town.

At that point four wheelchairs pulled up and eleven kids and their parents piled out to see the new shelter. Thought it was going to be a crowded night in the shelter, but they left after about 45 minutes. It got real quiet; I had the place to myself, straightened up and went to sleep to the mooing of the open range cows.

Equipment notes:  lost all hydraulics in rear brake and would have to rely on the front brake for the 60 miles into Pinedale. Just a little extra caution required on steep downhills: too much front brake would put me over the handlebars. Also I am becoming super skilled at fixing flats, but getting really tired of it at the same time. It’s usually done sitting in the dirt with no shade (I think I said this already so you can imagine how tedious it is).  Will talk to the bike shop guys in Pinedale about switching to tubeless tires.

Strawberry Creek emergency shelter…a godsend

(Few pics today since I was squeezing life out of the phone battery.)