Business Report...The Challenging Twenties

Beginning with 2020 we were presented with some high hurdles. Covid started cranking in March and April, which is usually the Spring Rush period for the bike shop, even May was eerily quiet. Good thing I only ordered 24 new bicycles and 20 new kayaks that February. On June 3, 2020 our local doctor called us into her office to inform us that Lisa's recent Xray and CatScan revealed that she had lung cancer. Several visits to the UC Davis Medical Center later she had her tumor and half of her left lung removed. This began a three and a half year dance with various forms of chemotherapy. At the bicycle shop, supply chain problems began in 2021...we couldn't get product, we scambled to find new bikes. Kayaks, even though made in the USA, were not easily available because the raw polyethylene pellets that Hobie used were sourced out of Asia. Supplied from China and Korea this raw material was subject to new tariffs laid down by the Trump administration which turned off the Asian faucets of material goods. The Summer of '21 saw a blowtorch of forest fires rip through our county, mainly the Dixie Fire... resulting in a seven week mandatory evacuation cutting our season of outdoor recreation sales in exactly half. Nearly a million acres of scorched wasteland replaced our beautiful forest therefore eliminating our incredible playground of bicycling/hiking turf, turning most of the green to ashes. My free-to-the-public maps and trail ideas were made obsolete during this seven week disaster. Visitation numbers have remained at only a fraction of what they were during our first twenty five years of business. We are climbing out of this charcoal-colored hole with a whole new appreciation for the vast new views of the Cascade high country and much quieter cycling roads. 2022 featured a discovery that I had a large tumor in my colon that had to be surgically removed along with a foot of large intestine at the end of that Summer. As of March 13, 2024 we are done with chemotherapies and are feeling like returning to our adventure-filled lives afoot and in the saddle. Locals and "second-homers" seem to be making a special effort to support local small merchants instead of buying everything from Amazon and regional big citys. There is hope and we are learning to survive on less income and insisting on working less hours. Each day is a gift so, go out and play more and worry less.