This morning I kept debating whether to ride into the city and take some photos of various buildings or head into Jeffco and look for more of the early changing leaves to photograph. Because of early morning traffic concerns I chose to make the jaunt into Jeffco.

I was in no hurry and was prepared to ride simply for the enjoyment. So, when I reached the Bottoms I chose to take the Lower Meramec trail and maybe see a few deer and enjoy the scenery. There were a lot of leaves on the pavement and some camouflaged mud. I never saw the mud but the tires got covered. Caution was word for the day.

After reaching the end of the trail, the tires shed the mud well. A mile down the road was another short section of road with a thin layer of mud. Halfway through I hit a stone or twig or something that blew my tire. At that point I started considering a change of routes so that if I flatted again I would not be stuck way out near Haute Arrete. I swapped out the tube and used my CO2 cartridge. As it neared the end of the cartridge life, the tube began leaking rather heavily. I can't figure out what happened. The valve was far frostier than normal and when I pressed on the tire it sounded like the tube was crackling, almost like it froze and didn't want to expand normally. Very weird.

So there I was, stranded without another tube and several miles from home. I decided what would be the shortest route home and slowly began pedaling. After about a half mile, I caved in and made THE CALL for the rescue vehicle to pick me up.

A couple photos from my aborted ride.