Had a flat

It was cloudy, but it seemed fairly dry so I decided to go out on the bike for a couple of hours. As soon as I started out, there was a bit of a shower, but it quickly passed and I made it all the way to Blind River Rapids. It was there that the rain began to fall. I quickly downed a cereal bar and then turned around back for town. My goal was to outrun the rain, if possible. I was actually doing a pretty good job of it when suddenly I heard the awful, familiar sound of air psssss-ing out from the front tire. It was about milepost 11 or 12.

I pulled over and checked if I had cell phone reception – yes, but just barely. I called Elise and asked her to come pick me up. Then I got to work replacing the tube. I checked the inside of the tire but couldn’t feel anything, so I replaced the tube, and pumped it up. (It is not easy pumping up a high pressure tire with a hand pump!) That took perhaps 20 minutes. Then I got back on and started riding towards town again. I went another two miles when I saw Elise approach and pass me. I slowed down and waited for her to turn around and stop.

I thought about continuing on to town on the bike but decided that since I didn’t know what caused the flat, it would be better to pack up the bike and motor back. It’s probably a good thing I did because after getting home I checked the tire and discovered that something had torn through the sidewall and had rendered the tire unsafe to ride.

Later in the day I saw that the rain had let up so I went out with my fishing pole to fish for an hour or so. I saw five fish chase the lure but only one of them, a tiny one, bit. It was another trout. The hook didn’t have a good hold of it so once I got it landed it slipped off the hook and I had to chase after it to get it back into the water. The noseeums were starting to come out about the time I started to think about heading back home. Elise wondered when I was and came down to the beach. In those next few minutes the noseeums got even worse and I decided to pack it in.