Left home at 730am in Riverside and took the Inland Santa Ana River Trail over to Colton. Surface streets from there up to the Pacific Electric Train Bike Trail which goes all the way to Claremont. Benito St for a good while then up to Foothill Blvd on out to Glendora. Got a thorn flat about 3-4 miles from Glendora on the rear tire. First one on this bike! Weird how I can ride 100+ miles in any direction from my house except Glendora and zero flats. Every ride I’ve done out towards Glendora beyond Claremont has resulted in a flat! All my prior bikes and recumbent racing trikes have had thin butyl tubes which are easy too patch - locate the hole, scratch with the little square of sand paper in the patch kit, stick and press the patch to get all over adhesion, reinstall in the tire, tire installed to rim, use mini pump to re-inflate and on you’re way. This was my different… this bike came with semi translucent polypropylene based super light tubes that have worked well up to today. As I went to sand the area of the thorn puncture I quickly realized the tube was not roughing up as I’d always experienced before. Matter of fact after harder and harder pressure on the sandpaper, it remained as smooth and slippery as if it had grease on it almost like a catfish if you’ve ever tried to hold one around its body. I eventually gave up the idea that the tube had to have a rough surface for the patch to adhere to and just stuck the patch on and pressed it with my thumbs for a couple of minutes. Reinstalled it in the tire, tire to rim, then another layer of fun began… Ah, yes! I’d never used a CO2 cartridge to refill a tire before! First cartridge only inflated the tire to about 40-50 lbs even though it’s rated for 120. Glad I brought 2! Second one did the job and off we go. The focus now was that I’d used my last cartridge so do I abandon climbing Glendora Ridge Road to Mt Baldy Ski Lift Parking Lot or turn for home at 50 miles out or find a local bike shop that stocks CO2 cartridges and restock? True to form, I chose to restock and bought 3 more as once I start up Glendora Ridge Road not only will I lose cell service but there is absolutely nothing but mountains 🏔️ canyons and brush the roughly 25 miles to Baldy Village. I’d been told that a part of road was blocked still for on going clean up from last years huge fire 🔥 that burned all the way to the back of homes in Baldy Village. Yet many riders I’ve ridden with in coastal rides have told me that one can still ride on through. My weather app indicated that air quality and temperatures in the mountains 🏔️ would be better and cooler than below in the Inland Empire region. The air quality was excellent. The temperatures we much higher than indicated in the app! Fortunately I brought my 2 largest water bottles with one containing an electrolyte solution that works really well for me. I brought both “Walking Tamales” and dried sugar cane crystals for fueling after the 1 hour into the ride to its end. Got a second rear thorn flat just before the first road closed gates. Fixed that one a lot faster without taking the wheel off the bike. Mental Note: get rid of the tubes once back and got liquid sealant - tubeless and ditch the CO2 cartridges for a pump in case of multiple leaks or punctures. Climbing the canyon about a couple miles past the first gate across the road, I came upon a fellow cyclist who had fallen off his bike while climbing in the heat and wasn’t moving! Upon approach, I could make out that he was breathing and as I touched his arm to see if he was conscious he opened his eyes and began to mumble as if he was delirious. I got him some water then some of my electrolyte solution and had him drink it. I used my body as shade to slow his body’s heat absorption as it was obvious heat was in heat exhaustion and about to heat stroke. Knowing there’s no phone signal at all, and no car, truck or even motorcycle traffic back here, I was his only possib to survive this day. So after determining that he had no broken bones, I got him to his feet and poured some of my water in his helmet vents to rapidly bring down his core temperature. He became more coherent but seemed to have resolved that he was going to die on that mountain. I convinced him to use his bike as prop as he was unstable and wobbly, and to simply walk besides me up the road to get some air moving across his skin and his blood moving to further stabilize his core temperature. Eventually as he I noticed his wobbling fading, I convinced him to mount his bike with my assist and we’d ride slowly as the grade want quite so steep as I found him on. After about a half mile I saw him wobbling and had him stop, get off the bike, lean over, hand on the bars and the seat and simply breath slowly - had him take tiny sips of the electrolytes I gave him in his bottle. I knew we had a monster load of climbing to do to get over to Baldy Village but I knew it was his best ticket to surviving this day. We repeated this pattern probably 10 to 15 times to get to Baldy Village. He really wanted go give up several times as Glendora Ridge Road contains many curves that the mind wants to tell new comers there is descent or downhill just ahead only to realize the road continues up and up and up. There’s a few short and fast descent bits along the the way which is a nice respite from climbing and the heat but it’s back to business pronto as speed also means a mile can go by in a flash… We were both without anything to sip for the last 8 miles or so and I could feel that I was threading the edge of what safe and manageable myself. I had to grab his seat post and push him up the last climbs before the final descent into the Village. Helping him climb through the last gate across the road at Baldy Road was a delicate operation as he was going delirious and cramping pretty bad. He insisted that I not go fetch paramedic’s or medical help though. So I pushed him on up to the Baldy Lodge bar and restaurant as they have a working water station in the front wall of the building near the front door and today had 2 foot long cooler of ice with ice water in it and a big metal scoop! We filled up our bottles I gave him more of my electrolyte powder packets and we laid on the benches out front of the building sipping silently and allowing our bodies to catch up and stabilize. It was 5 o’clock by that time and upon reaching the Village I thought… Once I get him some way to get home or help I’ve still got 50 miles to get myself home! It’s pretty much all downhill so that would be a plus. So I began to load up with the sugar cane crystals, a couple of bottles of the ice cold electrolyte solution and the a couple of the “Walking Tamales”. I managed to to tap into the bars Wi-Fi as he didn’t have a signal & called his wife to come get him. He seemed much better off after giving him the rest of my electrolyte packets and a couple of tamale packets. I waited for his wife to arrive - she thanked Me profusely and he offered to shake my and and I pulled him in and gave him a hug and a couple of tips for solid and fast recovery. All I got was his first name was Paul and his wife’s name was Tina & they lived in Rialto. Having done some Search and Rescue long ago when I lived above Baldy Village in the switchbacks I was familiar with how hyper cocoons had to be to monitor and help lost and injured hikers and motorists and how just as fast I’d have to let go of that focused attention to turn them over to other crew once I’d secured them and gotten them to safety and resources. So once he was under way, I felt recovered enough to descend the mountain knowing that I only had about 2 1/2 hours of daylight left. I figured it’s mostly downhill all the next 46 miles and descending Baldy’s 12 miles to Claremont will take about 15 - 18 minutes and once I’m on the Pacific Electric Bike Trail I can tap out 23-25+ mph over most of it back to Rialto before getting off on surface streets and once back on the Santa Ana River Trail I can activate my headlight if needed to get on home. Fate didn’t quite play out that way… All was going as visioned until I got to Rancho Cucamonga on the Pacific Electric Bike Trail when the front tire decided to go flat! I found what I thought was the cause of the flat - a tiny thorn that upon getting the tire off didn’t penetrate the casing of the tire and there was no signs of a puncture in thr tube even when I put enough air in it to seek to detect a leak! After retracing the tire and putting more air in the tube and being unable to to detect any degree of leakage I reluctantly put the tube back in and reinflated it. Got about a mile or so and it was flat again! No place coordinate a pick up on the trail so reinflated it a couple more times to get to Foothill Blvd to an Arco. Attempted to call my wife only to get a message stating “This user is not in service at that time!” Never got that before! Tried Uber but kept getting “System Error” messages. So I called a long time police officer friend of mine: Ron White - who last I heard did patrol in Rialto not that far away to see if he was off duty and available? He was on duty but informed me that his brother lives real close to my location and he’d call him to see if he’s available. He was and relayed me Johnathan’s number to coordinate. Turns out Johnathon is a police officer also, Looks almost like a clone of his Ron and sounds like him too! Showed up in a Honda Pilot so i didn’t even have to remove the wheels. Offered him $50 for the ride and he persistently declined! We ended up having a deeply profound conversations along the way back home. He and his brother are 2 rare and inspiring spirits to have as friends and company along this ultimate ultra distance ride called Life. 🦶🏽🦵🏽🫀🫁🚴🏽☀️🐉🙏🏾