Cyclists Rule: Jul 28, 2009

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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Time to replace that tire

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Eagle's nest

With mom and chicks. Near Sumpter, OR
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John Day to Sumpter, OR

Via Hwy 26 to Austin Junction, Hwy 7 to Sumpter Junction and Hwy 220 into Sumpter. 58.2 miles.

It was a pretty remarkable day. In crossing the Blue Mountain range we rode over 3 steep mountain passes, representing a total elevation gain of 3,600 feet. The grades were so steep that most of the way up we were crawling along in our next-to-lowest gear* at 4 mph, and we had the brakes on full almost all the way down the descents. We got a fairly late start out of John Day** and thus hit the first pass (Dixie) as the sun well up in the sky, causing us to get very toasty. Fortunately the temperature cooled off in the afternoon so the heat was not a major factor on the last two passes.

We stopped for lunch at the cafe/store in Austin Junction*** after the Dixie Pass descent. There were at least a half-dozen cyclists in the parking lot, sleeping or resting in the shade. They looked really tired and grungy, and reminded me of Mel Gibson and the other characters riding motorcycles across the Australian outback in the aftermath of world nuclear war in The Road Warrior (one of all-time my favorite trash movies). Later, Carlos confirmed (see below) that those guys had not enjoyed a shower for a couple of weeks, but said he loved traveling with them as they "were hilarious traveling companions."

The Austin Junction cafe had guitar instrumental music playing while we were at lunch, which I originally thought was really nice. But we quickly realized it was the same song over and over and over again - "Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here". The woman who ran the place and who served us appeared to be oblivious to the constant repetition of the same song. In contrast, we were both filled more with nausea than nutrition by the time we were finished.

We met up again with the cyclist from LA (Paul) and learned that he plans to ride through Colorado Springs on his way home (in early September). We invited him to stay at our home that evening, an offer he really seemed to appreciate.

We also met Carlos, another east-to-west cyclist. He and his friend Joe are traveling from New Jersey to Portland, OR. They are also writing a blog and had a set of "business cards" made up in conjunction with their trip. Carlos asked if we'd seen 6 grungy guys and one grungy gal traveling together and we filled him in on our stop at the store. Carlos had a bad crash about a week ago and was still pretty skinned up, but like almost all the riders we've met on this trip, was upbeat and not deterred from moving on to his destination.

*For years some of my riding buddies have teased me because for a long time I have been using triple cranksets with very small gear ratios on all my bikes.
(You can probably imagine the nature of most of this abuse, relating to me having tiny things. Using such 'weenie gears' has greatly helped save wear and tear on my knees. For self-supported touring and anytime on the tandem small gears are simply essential. So I have just learned to ignore the ridicule and have smugly enjoyed watching those same guys more and more start using a compact crankset, if not a triple). I just consider myself a visionary for being a low gear weenie before it became socially acceptable.

**I failed to mention in yesterday's post that John Day, for whom the town and the river are named, was - in the terminology of the winning (white settler) side of the settling of the area 'an Indian fighter who helped subdue the hostile tribes in the area'.

***I use the word "the" to describe the store/cafe because it is the only thing in Austin Junction. It is the only place on the TransAmerica route to stop for food or water in the 45 mile, 3 mountain pass stretch between Prairie City and Sumpter. It is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, another illustration why you need to plan your ride carefully. If you show up at the store out of water and/or food on the wrong day you are SOL.
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