{"id":4028,"date":"2026-07-24T05:17:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2026-07-24T05:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:21:31","slug":"okie-smokey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/category\/2026\/okie-smokey\/","title":{"rendered":"Okie Smokey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Yesterday morning, the wildfire smoke had gotten worse, and neither highway had reopened. I decided that waiting for things to improve was a fool&#8217;s errand &#8211; instead, my best bet was to hitch a ride on the freeway to Merritt, where I could resume my route on back highways<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It only took 20-30 minutes with my thumb out before a kind soul felt pity on me &#8211; thanks Rick!\u00a0 The drive over the mountains went quickly, with Rick telling me the history of the highway, tidbits about his work as a geologist, and how Albertans are terrible drivers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After getting dropped off on the outskirts of Merritt, I rode into town to get a snack &#8211; ate at a cool cafe that served Bannock, a type of Native American fry bread. However, when I left the cafe, the smoke was so bad that there was ash all over my bike. I decided to play it safe and get yet another cheap motel, as the forecast said the air would be better in the morning. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The air was not better in the morning. At this point, there was nothing left to do but strap on the N-95 mask I had bought for this scenario and head out of town. Riding with the mask wasn&#8217;t too bad, since the road was fairly flat &#8211; it only got tough when I hit a 500 for climb. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The stretch from Merritt up to Kamloops didn&#8217;t really have any services for about 40 miles. Without the smoke I think it would have been a great ride &#8211; mostly high desert valleys with the occasional lake. I saw 4 bald eagles &#8211; one very close (but I didn&#8217;t have my phone out, so no pic). <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I had a bit of a tailwind and was making pretty good time until my first flat. I patched that, but upon reinflating the tire I heard another hiss &#8211; a new hole right next to the patch. New patch, reinflate, hiss again! New hole next to the new patch! I knew it wasn&#8217;t the tire, and after I inspected closer, I realized my rim tape &#8211; the tape in a wheel that protects the tube from the spoke holes &#8211; had shifted, leaving just enough hole exposed to allow the tube to rub and leak. Another new patch, and I took down the road &#8211; only 7 miles to the campsite. 2.5 miles away, and another flat! Same problem, different spot. That patch failed just as I rolled into the campsite (I rushed and used those dumb sticker patches that never work). At the site, I patched yet again, only to have THAT patch fail! I gave up, and put in a new tube. So far that is holding. Tomorrow I&#8217;ll try to get my wheel re-taped in Kamloops. But 6 flats in one day ties the bikebums record that Megan Books set way back in 2005! The good news is I didn&#8217;t lose my mind, and am now fed and showered, lying in my tent as the wind rustles the trees. Phew<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not many pics from the last few days &#8211; the smoke really hindered the views <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"771\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"4027\" src=\"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-771x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4027\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-771x1024.jpg 771w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-768x1020.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-1157x1536.jpg 1157w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803-1200x1594.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260722_1828444071383955266773156803.jpg 1506w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rambo was filmed in Hope<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" data-id=\"4026\" src=\"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-1024x771.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4026\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-1024x771.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-768x578.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-1536x1157.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542-1200x904.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/bikebums.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pxl_20260723_1958198101649902119011420542.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A bald eagle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not many pics from the last few days &#8211; the smoke really hindered the views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-89"],"geo":{"latitude":50.6182938,"longitude":-120.3213272,"description":"Central Okanagan and High Country (Revelstoke), British Columbia, V0E, CA"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4029,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions\/4029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikebums.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}