I wanted to do a "big day" today. But it just didn't feel right late last night. So we changed plans, aiming for a nice morning on Red instead.
At North Bend, I had forgotten the Lovely's skis. So sorry! Punishment was unhesitant.
I drove to Snoqualmie Pass. Parking at Summit West, Red looked beautiful. I exited the car to hear the sound of pressurized air escaping from a small hole. Radiator? No. There was a fat, fresh puncture hole in my front passenger tire.
Quickly, before the tire was completely flat, we drove up the road to the Chevron. Their air station was broken. I had a spare, but it was flat too. So we walked toward Summit Central carrying a flat tire with one plug in it. Luckily, a resident
en route to Central had a compressor. But one plug wasn't enough, the tire was still leaking, and we had left the rest of the plugs at the car.
At the Summit Central maintenance garage, a gruff mechanic was kind enough to put another plug in the tire. The air stopped leaking. Tired of trying to guide the tire down the road while rolling it, I carried it to the car.
Without much debate, we decided to make a quick lap at Alpental, dubious tire be damned. The sun and snow were lovely. Extra motivated by fear of a slow leak, we busted to the top in 65 minutes. We had a good ski.
A ginger drive home fell the morning well. Clouds ruled the peninsula and no regrets remained.
