14

Wednesday, 6-18-08, Keim’s house, Grizzly Flats, CA
We were pretty tired when we got up at 5:15. After eating a quick breakfast and saying goodbye to the Aimos, we left around 6 am. Our plan was to make it to Somerset and rendezvous with my mom and Mike. We made pretty good time along the American River Bike Trail to Folsom. I got a little off course once or twice, but we made it back to the main trail. At about 11:30, Willie got the first flat of the trip. Bummer. Luckily we found a shaded place to fix it. As we were removing the rear flat, we heard a hissing; the front was flat too – a double whammy. After examining the tire, we found several thorns that had penetrated the Schwalbe Supreme tires – a shock; they were supposed to be tougher. Fortunately only Willie and Paul have the Supremes; the rest of us have Marathon Plus. As I was fixing them, we discovered the pump wasn’t working. So, we called Mom in the support vehicle and she bought another pump and brought two extra inner tubes that Cathy gave us. By the time all of this was done, it was getting too late to make it to our rendezvous point, so they came out with there truck and transported us. They treated us to a delicious feast at Pizza Factory, then went to their house, where they explained the best route through the Sierras. We had a delicious meal before going to bed. 36 miles.