Sumpter to Baker City, OR

Via Hwys 220 and 7. 30 miles.

We wanted a "recovery day" after two hard days in a row, so today's relatively short ride along the Powder River valley, involving mostly downhill or flat terrain, fit the bill perfectly. We slept in this morning* and took our time getting going, which was a great way to ease back into spending time on the bike.

As it turned out, we were glad that we had a short day to deal with some unexpected mechanical problems. Shortly after leaving Sumpter, the drive chain became jammed in the front derailleur. The chain somehow became doubled up inside the derailleur, which I have never had happen before on any bike or even seen happen before. We managed to dislodge it, but in the process pushed the derailleur out of ideal alignment. We re-aligned the derailleur as best we could and were still able to shift. But we were limited to using the middle and granny rings (i.e., not the big ring). Then after a few more miles we heard a loud flapping coming from the rear wheel. We discovered that the tire tread was completely separating from the casing - the tire was "all done runnin'" as they say.** So we pulled over, found a shady spot and began the ritual*** of changing the rear tire (we were carrying one spare tire), a process that takes a good hour. While we were working 2 different couples, one traveling by motorcycle and one by car, stopped to ask if we needed any help. We were really touched by their kindness. It also reminded us of many similar experiences we had on the eastern leg of our trip and on our Colorado-to-Minnesota trip several years ago.

So we needed to find a bike shop when we arrived in Baker City to have the front derailleur properly aligned and pick up a new spare tire. There are 2 bike shops in town, which is a good thing because we had to visit both to get what we needed. By the time we finished that, ate lunch and found a store that carried the energy bars we prefer (Clif Bars) it was very hot out. So we were glad to be done with further riding for the day.

A good thing that happened today is that we caught up with Devon again. She took a rest day here today (we took ours in Mitchell, several days earlier) so we are back on the same schedule. We had dinner with her and may together tomorrow and perhaps for days thereafter.

*We spent the night in a really nice cabin behind the Scoop 'N' Steamer cafe/ice cream parlor in Sumpter. It had a king-sized bed and it was air conditioned!

**We later realized that the rear tire had remained unchanged since we were in Pontiac, Illinois on the first part of our trip. Thus we had over 1,700 miles on it, almost double the mileage we had gotten out of any other rear tire. The trailer and our weight place a tremendous load on the rear tire, which wears many times faster than the front tire.

***Detach the trailer, remove the panniers, GPS and computer and turn the bike upside down. Then disengage the drum brake and rear caliper brake and loosen the quick release skewer. Remove the rear wheel, deflate the tire, (using tire levers) remove the old tire, replace the tube, mount and inflate the new tire. Then put everything back together again.
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