After driving down to Vancouver, Washington on Friday afternoon, I had planned a ride up Larch Mountain in the Gorge on Saturday morning before the temperature really started rising (forecast was low to mid-90s). This was all part of my plan of making new memories in old PNW favorites to help my post-breakup healing process. While I did not sleep terribly well, I got my spandex-clad bottom to the Women's Forum early that morning and had a reasonably fast ride up. I had done a hard gym workout Friday morning, so my legs were not exactly fresh but I really enjoyed the effort and the forest was delightful. As hoped, the views from the summit of Larch did not disappoint. Mt. Hood, Mt Adams, St. Helens, and even Rainier were all out and looking lovely. Had an enjoyable 15-minute chat with two other cyclists as well as a couple while my sweaty self cooled down. All in all, the day was going great.

But then, oh boy! Just as I really started putting the power down for the descent, I got a sidewall cut on my rear tire about 100m from the parking lot at the top. Sprayed out a huge amount of sealant pretty quickly and two smaller Dynaplugs inserted immediately did not plug it. In my attempt to keep enough air in the tire to put in a large plug, I broke off the valve core head completely (it was on its last legs anyhow). Got a new valve core from the dynamic duo of Aaron and Dan, whom I had met on the summit, but alas a large Dynaplug did not seal the cut either.

Naturally, I did not bring a tube or tire levers on such a short ride (Bad Paul!), so I had to beg a tube from a passing cyclist. I installed it, although the heat did not help; while standing on hot pavement in direct sun, my sweaty hand slipped as I put the wheel back on and I lost a nice chunk of skin when it scraped across the cassette. The broken valve core also seemed to damage my pump’s O-ring, which made getting the tire to full pressure nearly impossible. After forty minutes of fiddling with the bike, I finally started down the mountain, riding as calmly as possible because there was still a sizable slash in the tire wall and the tire pressure remained lower than ideal. Four miles from the car, the new tube punctured —not in the area of the cut, which I had reinforced with stiff paper—and I had to beg yet another tube, plus a pump, from a different passing cyclist. I reached the car more than an hour later than planned. No PR on that descent.

Who knew one needed a second pump, spare valve core, and two tubes for a 28-mile road bike on clean and smooth pavement?