Doug's Flickr front page has some pics from his ride to Halfway, Or.
While we were fighting wind on the Palouse last Sunday, Doug thought he had a better idea. He planned to ride from Joseph to Halfway, Or, stay over night and ride back the next day. Here's his story.
Doug's says . . .
Read your write-ups of the weekend rides......sounds like a good time. Were the winds worse than what we had?
My Joseph to halfway ride was "interesting" The ride out wore me down
big time......I put in 93 miles but I felt it so much more than the century
we did....I was completely shot. When I finally made it to the motel I
just laid on the floor for 30 mins or so trying to recover. I did have a
GREAT meal later at a lil gourmet restaurant. Very surprising to find such
a place in this tiny Oregon town. The next morning my front tire was
flat. This was my 2nd or 3rd puncture on this tube so I decided to put in a new tube instead of patching the old one. So, I thought no problem and proceeded to change the tubes......then I put the pump on and started to
inflate the tube.....funny I noticed that the tube was not inflating!!! I
put my ear down close to the pump and could hear a leak coming from the pump where it mated with the tube. I adjusted the connection a few times
and still no go. I tried several more times to get the pump to seal
without success. At this point I figured my rubber part in the pump that
forms the seal must be abraded to the point that it would not seal. So I
hit the two gas stations and hardware store in town to see if anyone had a pump or fitting that would connect to the tube
fittings.........Nothing......uhoh! Then I thought hey maybe if I wrap
the tube stem with teflon tape that might help it make a seal.....so I mess
with that for 30 mins or so and still nothing. Finally I am forced to
admit defeat and called my wife to have her come get me.........she showed up 4 hrs later and we drove home......I was pretty bummed and she was not
thrilled having to drive all that way. I thought I was prepared tool wise
but I never thought my pump would fail.
Oh well live and learn....hehe.
I took the mtn bike out last night and headed up George creek ( the dirt road that takes off to the left at the base of cloverdale grade)......that is one steep SOB let me tell you.....I did the math from my GPS numbers and the avg grade is 10.5 % with several sections around 13%+....... I managed to make it to the top without stopping though.....whew!
