Phillis Lake through the trees.
Sadly, I made it 1.5 miles before the rear tire flatted. I made a quick decision to hitch into town. Within 2 minutes, I flagged down a pickup, and a gentleman named Doug brought me into Baker City to the bike shop.
Of course, it was early, so I loaded the bags on Tilmann, locked him up to the bike rack out front, then went in search of a bakery (after all, I am in Baker City).
Notice the “Oly” sign in the window?
Found one just a couple of blocks down the sidewalk. There I had a maple twist, and a hot cocoa.
While I was waiting for the bike shop to open, Doug rolled up. Indeed, it had been a nice ride into town. The shop opened up a few minutes later. They didn’t have any 26” tires in stock, so it’s good that I have one of my Schwalbe Almotion tires coming. I told Bob, the shop guy, what I wanted to do. I asked if they knew how to get a Rohloff wheel with a belt drive off and on. He said no, so I took the wheel off myself, and once the Almotion is mounted, I’ll put the wheel back on. The tire should be here tomorrow around noonish. If they can get it mounted, then we’ll leave here tomorrow. It’s 40ish miles, mostly downhill, to the next town and camping. I also got more sealant, and another tube. I’m going to patch my Tubolito tube (what happened is the tube looks like it got pinched right by the valve stem).
We are staying at a motel not far from the bike shop. Since I didn’t have Tilmann to transport my bags, Doug brought his stuff to the motel, then, because we have the same racks, went back to the shop and ferried my bags over. Initially, we weren’t going to be able to get into the room until 3:00, but the gal at the desk (Angie) said the room had just been finished.
Once in the room, and showered (no showers last night), we went to get some lunch. There was a nice Mexican restaurant near the bike shop.
Grace and Matt are also here in town, and Matt is also continuing to have wheel/tire problems. Now he has two broken spokes. They are also hoping to get out of town tomorrow, and are staying with a Warmshowers host. Matty is here as well. He’ll roll out tomorrow for sure. We are going to meet him for dinner tonight. Funny thing, I let him borrow my spare Voile straps so he could put some weight up front on his bike. This morning, at the campground, I told him he would probably not find the straps in town, and that I’d sell mine to him for $10. He was thrilled. Then, wouldn’t ya know, the bike shop had them! But, I didn’t really need mine back.
After lunch we walked to the laundromat (laundry is being remodeled here). While doing laundry, we planned our next days for resupplying food.
Here in Baker, there are numerous animal sculptures.
This is outside the bike shop. What are they implying? We don’t move that slow!
Unique place for an alligator.
Big kitty…
…has to tow this trash can everywhere!
Roof rhino.
The giraffe family.
Now we’ll head to Safeway. Fingers crossed the tire arrives tomorrow in time to get back on the road, and put my tire woes behind me!
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