Soldier meadows ride

This video is from my soldier meadows ride. It is an escape in a way, my spiritual if not quite exactly physical leave taking from the ranch to make this move to Miami from where we are now plotting another venture.

The route through Piute canyon is private, so the ride started the day before helping our neighbors with ranch chores (see the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevadadan/sets/72157602364947282/). Of course they would have let me go through anyway, especially if I had the sense to bring a bottle of whiskey as a gift.

The first part of the ride is along the main county road to Piute Meadows Ranch. I had my only flat tire about a mile from the ranch. I stopped to say hello and then started up the canyon--a green oasis under hanging red basalt formations and burnt brown mountains. The creek bottom eventually dried into a rock slide through which I pushed the Surly and Bob for a long while. Then I hit cows and dust, finally, a windmill with fresh water, and side detour as I explored options, not wanted to make the last climb I tried a side road, but no way, so more pushing, this time up a sheer ridge of white stone with a hanging spring, and then the top and bald round peaks of the Black Rock Range and a herd of mustangs running across the road in front of my strange apparatus.

Then a huge rutted downslope toward Soldier Meadows, riding now, but bouncing and bouncing and bouncing, stopping to refill the slow leak in my front tire I ended up strapping my tire pump to the outside of my pack. It came undone during the bouncing and I lost everything except the outer tube. I didn't even notice until after I'd climbed up the bluff above the road down the other side (where the video ends) and walked back down to my bike looking for a place to camp, and then no more air. That would have been a problem but I was close enough the ranch and guest house to get down on the about the minimum pressure by the bottom. Then of course no presta valves and I stopped and waited for rescue.

Morals of the story. Never attach pump to outside of pack. Always have a presta valve/schrader conversion piece (they could have given me plenty of air at the ranch). But I'm sure it was a first on a bike. Long and the short, it was a fantastic trip, but not for 700cc.