We had some initial comm difficulties this morning but at lunch Tina reported that she'd been late getting started this morning since she was deep in Cooper Canyon where it stayed dark well into the morning. Nevertheless she hiked 24 miles before shutting things down for the night. Sounded like it was a long day with tons of ups and downs. Tomorrow evening we're hoping she can meet me at a road crossing about 25 miles on but, that failing, I'll meet her there Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, the root cause of my bike problem was discovered by the bike shop here in Lancaster. It turned out that the bearing tension ring on the front hub had loosened up and that had allowed the wheel to move the tiny amount necessary to generate rotor-to-fork contact (see pics). I should've thought about this since Brendan Collier of the Hub Cyclery (and Siren Bicycles) found the same ring loose while tightening up some spokes and truing the wheel when we were in Idyllwild. In any case, many thanks to Bryan Laine of Bicycle John's who came into work an hour and half early to repair the bike on his own time. When we'd spoken on the phone earlier I didn't understand why that'd be necessary but once there I understood -- that shop is *crazy* busy! In any case, a big gold star to Bryan for helping a traveler in need. The offending set screw has now been dosed with blue Loctite. While at the shop later I found that they had some aerobars I could replace my (steel) ones with. I did that to save what must've been a full pound. I continue to find things to ship back or ship ahead to save weight -- just before the bars it was the iPad and before that I started cutting back on the amount of water I'm carrying. You wouldn't think that a couple pounds would make all that much difference on a 125+ pound rig but I swear I can feel each one coming off. Returning to the hike, we hope to reach the Saufley's mid-afternoon on Saturday. Thanks to everyone for all the support, Davidp.s. oh, about the "road fixed". I just read in the "Antelope Valley Press" that Highway 2 is mostly opening back up tomorrow! This is road I had to detour around.
