Day 24

Got up early to say bye to my Dutch friends as I had no intention of keeping their supported pace another day. As I recall I did 60/60/80 over three days, today needed to be a little less intense, so did a book day at 57 miles. Not much less really, but they were doing 77 again, with a 7100′ pass at the end. 

I had contemplated staying a day in Lima, but really little there, so had a huge breakfast at Jan’s Cafe, grabbed a couple snacks, and hit the road late at 10am. 

Met cyclist Rick about 25 miles in, he was riding north, just doing the Colorado to Canada border. A nice guy, he gave me lots of good info about water issues crossing the Big Basin. I have the capacity to carry up to 8 liters, so I will be fine. Another retiree; seems like at least half the folks I’ve met along the way are…

Most cars that passed me either direction today were very courteous, slowing as they approached so as not to dust me too bad. I barely recall a truck and trailer passing me at some point… Well, more on that later…

I rode over reasonable grades of gravel road all day. To say the views in Montana are spectacular just doesn’t measure up. A gorgeous sunny sunscreen day all the way!

Eventually the dry valley opened into a huge beautiful lake, part of the Red Rocks Lake National Wildlife Refuge. An interesting history of its creation in the mid 1930’s to protect the nearly extinct trumpeter swan. The refuge took most of this area out of the hands of cattlemen, the dominant power in Montana for sure. Now the swans number in the hundreds, so basically a success story. 

Finally arriving at the small campground on the shores of Red Rocks Lake after a long and dusty 57 miles, I see a truck and trailer with a couple about my age sitting out enjoying the amazing view. I stay hello, and they remembered passing me; said they couldn’t avoid dusting me because I was cycling too fast for them to pass me slowly. Funny!! (Must’ve been on a downhill…) 

Scott and Lolita Pine from McCall Idaho proceed to offer me a cold beer, but I have camp to set up and rinsing off some salt and dust off me first. Eventually I get over there, because a cold beer is nirvana after a days ride. We have a great conversation, eventually the Makers Mark comes out, and finally they cook me an incredible steak, green bean, and tossed salad dinner!! Certainly the best dinner of the trip so far! They were happy to hear my story, and I theirs. What wonderfully nice folks!!!! They invited me for latte in the morning too!!

After a lovely evening with my gracious hosts, I said goodnight and collected all my foodstuffs, put it into the bear box, and now I’m lying in the tent, can clearly see a million stars above as the lake winds lightly buffet my tent… Despite very sore feet from the inadequately padded cleats, what a wonderful day this has been…

Day 25

Awoke to the sounds of waterfowl and birds gliding past my tent down to the lake. Another clear sky morning. Sure glad I got a new sleeping bag, though! Probably around 30′, not as cold as Bannack, thankfully. 

Walking down to the gorgeous lake, hundreds of ducks and a few trumpeter swans were easily visible. 

Scott and Lolita invited me for coffee, peaches and raspberries, and banana bread. Are you kidding me????? Wow, soooo very very nice!!!!

Marian from the next camp joined us, a retired USFW biologist from Bozeman. 

A seemingly short ride 32 miles to Highway 20 over Red Rock Pass at 7100′. There was a nice sign marking the Divide there! 

Somewhere I came across a very sleepy bunny in the middle of the road… And somewhere below there’s a picture of my McGyver version of getting my biking laundry near the heater at the rustic motel…

All was good until about 25 miles in and I lost pressure in my poor overloaded rear tire. Took me like two hours to finally figure out I had a puncture vs a lost bead seal from the rough road. Grrr… Anyway, put my only tube in and continued to Mack’s Inn motel to figure out what’ll be the solution ahead. I ended up calling Corey at 7 Corners (the shop that built my bike) to discuss the issue and determined that I will try to limp along with this tire and tube, and he’ll send a new tire to Pinedale where I’ll take a day off. Hopefully the tire arrives as planned and I can install it tubeless style without issue…

Now at Cafe Sabor having fajitas!! Yahoo!! Mild, but satisfying!

It should be noted I’m through Canada, Montana, and into Idaho; about 1000 miles, I think!

Another note: the photos look better on a real screen vs an iPhone. Just sayin…

Hoping for an early sleep and another good day of smooth vs bumpy miles getting closer to Mexico…

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Day 21

Starting out from Butte, riding past the huge mine, we crossed the divide again, at 7300′ and very cold windy!

Came down the other side and I met up with the support van for Cycle Dreams that is supporting 20 riders from UK, US, NZ, and AUS. Very nice folks and they gave me a snack and a banana!

They were continuing to Wise River, I realized I was pretty far ahead of Dave and Chris for the day and at some point decided I could probably make that target, knowing that Wise River had a restaurant, and a bar, and a motel!

Arrived at the scheduled Beaver Dam campground at 230pm, decided to continue to Wise River, 16m past. 

To do so, I had to conquer the infamous fleecer ridge! It’s 7700 feet, it was the second pass for the day so no small chore, however the hype was fair; it was a half mile pushwalk up, and a VERY steep half mile walk down. But after that, it was mostly downhill into Wise River. 

I left a note and hid a pint of whiskey at the Beaver Dam campground for Chris and Dave on their arrival. They got it! I’m now 16m ahead of them, and may continue the faster pace for a while, hopefully we’ll reconnect on a rest day…

Very nice turkey/chicken/bacon sandwich with a baked potato at the Wise River Club. Very yum!! After, a quiet warm sleep, always happy to have a tent alternative!

Day 22

Woke around 7am, who knew that hot tap water will produce acceptable instant coffee, but falls short of making instant oatmeal attractive. I ate it though… Than the cafe downstairs opened! More breakfast is ok!

I’m ahead of Chris and Dave, just riding my pace it kinda happened. I will probably continue ahead today, may push through to Bannack…

Swallowed a bug along the way, tried to cough it up, tried to swallow it. Neither worked for a while! While trying to steer straight, eventually swallowing won out. 

It was sooooo cold much of the day, intermittent sun, but the first several hours near 7500′, that’s why the cold. This whole day is on pavement, a really nice scenic highway with a decent surface. 

Today’s book day end was at Little Joe, but as I had pushed 16m ahead yesterday, I reached little joe at noon, so decided to continue to Bannack. Basically between yesterday and today, I did three book days in two days. Pretty proud of that! 

I met up with the large supported group at Bannick. All very nice folks, had some nice conversations about cycling around the world, and make good friends with a guy named Justin, about 15 years younger than me who just quit is IT job to do the great divide ride. I think this ride will become exceedingly popular in the years to come.

You can read up on Bannack, it was a state capital for Montana many many years ago, is essentially ghost town now as a state park. Pretty interesting…

Day 23

It was 22° on awaking at Bannack. Yikes! I had a put some serious layers on, but as I was still hanging out with the international supported group, I got a nice bowl of porridge and some hot coffee from them. So lucky to have paralleled with them for couple of days, really nice to talk with people and hear their perceptions of America. And to get free good food!

The book suggests splitting into two days from Bannick to Lima, but the supported group (meaning they are carrying no gear, vs my 55+ pounds) was doing it in one day, total of 80 miles. I thought if I could keep up with them at least to the big hill, I’d get a free sandwich at lunch, and maybe I would be able to make it to Lima. So 80 miles carrying all my gear was a long long day, but I made it! I was never the last one…

Well that group took up all the motel rooms in the one decent motel, I’m fortunate to have a cabin across the street which actually isn’t bad, I’m happy to have a non-camping night as I’m certain I will have camping for the next two or three or four nights.

During the mornings ride, I spoke extensively with Rob the Dutch guide for this group, I told him about my prior experience with trips and he said I should talk to Sean who is the US representative for this trip, which I did and Sean would be ecstatic to have me join them for this trip next year as a helper. So I now have that on my plate as a retiree opportunity…!! 

The popularity of the great divide is increasing all the time, they’re predicting a trip next year from the 20 this year to perhaps 40 or 50 next year. Can’t imagine how they will manage that, you can’t just walk into a campground or store or restaurant with that many people!

I am ahead of Chris and Dave, I have a lot of regrets about that, but I just couldn’t keep up their pace. I really hope they’re not mad at me. I suspect they are probably about 80 miles behind me now…

Today, huge giant massive amounts of big sky country throughout the day, not a cloud in the sky, and hard to explain it in words, the massive remote views; even harder to capture the depth and breadth of this country on an iPhone photo. 

Lima is pronounced like the bean. The school team nearby is called the lima bears, apparently other schools occasionally will make the prank of changing their logos from bears to beans. Reminded me of people stealing the Y off of Colony high. 

I was going to eat at Jan’s café where I rented the cabin, but one of the guys from the group came over and said they’re going to Pete’s where you cook your own steak. I didn’t have a steak, just a hamburger, but glad I went there since they have big sky IPA, Montana brewing companies IPA which is a fantastic beer! The best I could’ve done at Jan’s was coors. Yuk!

I had considered staying another day in Lima, but there is so little here, I think I will probably push through tomorrow and will be doing two or three consecutive days of camping. The weather is good, no rain predicted.

The book day is 57 miles, but the supported group is doing 76, who knows, I may parallel them again, if the sore body cooperates…

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
    
    
    
 

Day 20

Woke up to heartbreaking heavy rain on the day we were expecting to continue our ride. It was very apparent early on we are going to stay another day in Butte! So we added rooms for another day, the guys had to move upstairs, I was able to stay in my room.

Dave mentioned the idea of getting a car and doing some exploring, what a great idea! 

I happened to look at attractions nearby, saw the Fairmont Hot Springs resort, as chilly as we have been, it seem like a great option! So after the shenanigans to get the car, we drove to Fairmont resort and had a blast in the outdoor pools, one very warm, one very hot! What a great treat to warm up the bones!

After that, we drove into the town of Anaconda, named after the mine that was there, the largest or among the largest smelter smokestacks in United States ever! It is 30 feet higher than the Washington Monument, not much shorter than the Eiffel Tower. It is a monument to the mine in that took place in the United States some years ago, hard to imagine how much actually occurred here, primarily copper, silver, and gold. I Magent most of that occurs in China and Chile now out of sight of most of the world.

I got a better understanding of the history of Butte, it’s rich and deep culture, now mostly behind, and just out of sync with current economic reality. 

Back in town, we toured Butte town a bit, went to the Berkeley mine viewpoint. Butte was once a hugely rich town back in its mining heyday. It’s amazing how much Montana has been mined!!

I walked through serious hail to Muddy Creek Brewing. A guy playing old classics like Roger Miller’s King of the Road. A great sing along song. At the same time, there’s several small boys playing with 2×4 blocks yelling and having a blast. A very unpretentious brewery!!!! 

Back to the hotel, A classic old town JFK actually visited at least once, Dave and Chris decided to try Asian food tonight, and I will join. 

I hope we get back on the trail tomorrow…

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Day 17

A late start after a good coffee at Fire Tower Coffee House in Helena. 

This day was in thirds… The first and last third reasonably nice! The middle third, pretty much 2.5 hours of pushing up rocky trail that never seemed to end. For the first time on this trip, I was verbally cursing the author of this particular part of the trail! It was really ridiculously difficult for an extended amount of time! But I guess the advantage of me yelling out loud and cursing was to notify any bears that might be in the area of my presents! 

Speaking of bears, I had one scare today. After the hardest part of the trail, I was on a gravel road making a sharp right turn and saw a large black mass approaching the road ahead of me through the trees. My heart rate went up to about 800, but as it turned out it was just a black cow! Reminded me of the Steely Dan song… 

Not so many views today as we were in the trees mostly. 

I got into the small town of Basin two hours ahead of Chris and Dave, they took two naps on the ride today. We will communicate the day’s end plan better going forward. 

I had a great jalapeño burger at the only bar in town. And nice home made potato chips. Later when the guys arrived, they ordered food and I had a bowl of tasty homemade potato and bacon soup. Perfect! And a scoop of huckleberry ice cream, which is available throughout these parts… And over yonder…

We are camped at the Merry Widow private campground, right next to the Mine Health Spa. Like as in an old mine… Apparently there are healing powers for arthritis in the old mine here. The story was told that even old dogs have been known to barely crawl in there with bad arthritis, and come out frolicking like a puppy. Really, that’s what the guy said up at the restaurant. I think his sister in law manages the place…

The campground clubhouse had very nice showers decorated in a sort of beach Hawaiian motif! Very luxurious for us tent campers!

Day 18

After a great campground sleep next to a babbling river in my over-toasty new bag, I packed up and rode back the mile into Basin and had a fantastic breakfast. The other guys stayed in camp and had granola. 

I think today will be easier than yesterday, which was one tough damn day! We will make it into Butte by late afternoon, possibly stay an extra night there as rain is predicted, but the percentage keeps dropping a little bit so maybe rain will never happen. It is definitely a grey and much cooler day today so far…

About two thirds of the way through the day, saw a huge Golden Eagle on top of a power pole, the first one I’ve seen in Montana! He was looking at me and made some noises my direction…

Actually very moderate cycling today compared to yesterday got to the hotel about 2 PM. We will discuss it later, but we may stay another day here as rain is predicted tomorrow.

Had a fantastic Reuben sandwich with a baked potato(e) and a tasty IPA at Sparky’s Garage! 

Day 19 (Hangin’ in rainy Butte)

Butte Berkeley Mine, what a disaster! One of the largest open pit copper mines in the world, and rated the most toxic. The open pit is full of leached minerals, like arsenic. They hire people to shoot shotguns to keep the birds from landing; this after a few years ago when a large flock of migrating Canada geese landed there, more than 342 dead in a few hours. (http://www.hcn.org/issues/49/1520)

Much worse than that, the pit continues to collect groundwater and rainwater. It is predicted that in 20 years, the level of the resulting lake will rise into the water table and all of those toxics will essentially overflow into the surrounding area (and Butte’s) water source will be horribly contaminated. Wikipedia does a better job explaining it at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit I believe we will ride next to it tomorrow. 

Hopped the free bus into lower Butte to pick up some supplies right on the bus line. While Butte has a coherent downtown called “uptown” cuz it’s up the hill, Butte kinda looks like a town without heaps of community pride. I don’t mean to be excessively judgmental after only being here for two days, I recognize I really know nothing of Butte… But with that toxic mine a huge visible feature from anywhere in town, it seems somewhat of a grim future looms…

There is a huge 90′ statue on the mountain above the mine called Our Lady of the Rockies, a BVM statue. Beautiful, but don’t think we will take the two hour round trip tour on a school bus to see it…

A 15 minute walk from the motel is the Berkeley Mine Viewing Stand. Was going to walk up there, but raining pretty hard! If it lets up soon, I will walk up there otherwise I think we will just see it on our bike route tomorrow. All digits crossed the rain stops! (Never made it to the view, too much rain. )

It’s a very lazy afternoon, actually took a rare nap. It has been an uneventful day, didn’t feel like exploring out in the rain, going to find a slice of pizza and a salad soon… If all goes as planned, we will leave Butte tomorrow, riding past the Berkeley mine back out into the hinterlands, day after tomorrow we will attempt to conquer the ominous Fleecer Ridge, One of several spectacularly challenging portions of the route. Snow is predicted down to 7000 feet, so we may hit some very cold days ahead…

The last evening in Butte, we had a fantastic pizza at Broadway Cafe. The kind where the crust is thin and crisp and well done, and all of the toppings are still fresh and hot and not overcooked! A real treat with a glass of Pinot Noir…

Seems like the longer I ride the fewer photos I take… Thanks for taking the time to follow along this adventure…

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

   
    
 

Day 13 afternoon

Got well ahead of Dave and Chris out of Orvando, riding on dusty flat washboardy straight line roads through cattle fields of total dry brown. Eventually will get back into the trees as we head toward Huckleberry Pass, about 1600′ higher than our current elevation. 

Scratch that for today, we went off track to Big Nelson campground on Coopers Lake. A nice quiet place to ourselves. 

But in the couple hours since we’ve arrived, the smoke has at least doubled in thickness, to the point you can feel it burning the eyes. That is not good, if this becomes the norm, we will have to discuss things, we need to try to get past the smoke, if possible…

A nice din; ramen as appetizer and then dry potatoes mixed in with dried burrito skillet. You put enough spices in anything and it’ll taste great!!

A very uneven camping spot tonight, I’m definitely listing left… In bed at 845pm. 

Day 14

(Note from Seeley Lake a couple days ago, Chris saw a student of his…

The day started early. Woke up at 345am to sprinkles, had to get up to put the fly on the tent, pound in the guy stakes, etc. Was raining hard with thunder and lightning in the distance by the time I got done and back in the tent. For me, this sort of thing… Not so fun…

We busted ass up Huckleberry 5500′ pass first thing, but a reasonable grade, then a long descent back to the valley floor into Lincoln. For lunch I had two beers and a chicken sandwich!! The smoke was back…

The afternoon brought us Stemple pass, up to 6380′ from a start of about 4000′ at Lincoln. Well, that was one tough f’n climb up a rocky trail, lots of pushing the bike… And the weather got crappy, much colder, strong winds, and intermittent very biting cold rain. A tough slog! But I’m very proud of my peeps Dave and Chris for hangin in there late in the day. 

We are now on the other side of the divide.

Coming down from Stemple, we stopped at a place on the map listed as cyclist only camping and cabin. OMG!!! What a cool little place that is offered for free by local Barbara Nye. There is a small rustic cabin just below their beautiful home with no running water, but a wood stove with wood supplied, some canned goods, and a propane stove!! Amazing!!! I cannot overstate how wonderful it is to be in a cabin instead of a tent in this cold unrelenting strong wind! What a gift! Inspires me to do something in Alaska and/or Portland for through cyclists… I don’t know if we will meet the owner before we go, but I hope to thank her! 

(So I don’t forget, her address is Barbara Nye, PO Box 455, Canyon Creek, MT 59633 406-368-2226)

The evening in the cabin was remarkable! Surprisingly, some liquor, and a musical cavalcade and historical review by an enthusiastic Dave whom presided over the evening’s playlist. If you catch my drift… Eventually we all presented some of our favorite songs. 

I was the night’s cook, giving Dave a break, cooked chili from a bag with fresh garlic over boiled pasta. Wow, and not just saying cuz I cooked it, but perhaps the best meal we’ve enjoyed while in this magical cabin hearing the brutal wind just outside… A trip remembrance moment after a long cold hard day…

We had a nice communal dinner and evening in the wonderful cabin…eventually sleeping in the lofts, Dave downstairs since he’s always the first up. A special day… But the wind absolutely pounded the cabin all night and through the morning! Felt like 60mph gusts at times!!

Day 15

Woke to powerful winds, but no smoke!!!!! First no smoke day since Eureka! 

We slept in a bit at the cabin, cleaned up and hit the road about 11am, way too late for a hard 34 mile day into Helena. 

Sorry to say I lost a precious biking sock in the wind somehow. That sock has been in at least ten countries! Sad…

Beautiful day riding in big sky country! We climb two passes today, both about 6000 feet, but each starting at about 4000 feet. The first one is very steep been involved a lot of bike portion, the second one much more gradual over a well maintained road. We also technically crossed the continental divide for the third and fourth time of the trip, I think we do so at least a dozen times during the trip. 

I was surprised on the descent to see train tracks. Further surprised when I actually got stuck behind about 150 car train, crossing miss you too expensive land while I was waiting on my bike just 10 feet from the tracks, not sure what was in it, could’ve been wheat or grain or perhaps some raw material.

Once we got down from elevation to the highway leading into Helena, it was full speed high gear all the way in for me, probably got near 40 miles an hour on my loaded bike which is incredible! 

Helena is to me a classic old Western town, lots of those old brick buildings that represent the imagined west of yesteryear.  

Found a really really really cheap motel, $59 a night, right across the street from the homeless shelter! I rolled in there about an hour before the other guys did. And thus we have elected to take our only second rest day so far right here in Helena.

For din, we ate at a terribly overpriced restaurant called the Mediterranean Grill. I guess we should’ve known better, I think the dinner cost as much is my hotel room for one night! Next night it will be more basic, there are several good food options including a Thai place that really sounds fantastic!

Day 16 Rest Day

OK important stuff first, the day started with my first real espresso in weeks! Delicious! At the Firetower coffee shop! 

Realizing already my sleeping bag was not going to tolerate the colder temperatures in Colorado with the higher elevations, I elected to rent a car from rent a wreck and drive to Bozeman to REI. Got a great fancy shmancy Marmot hybrid (synthetic bottom, down top) sleeping bag on sale, 25% off! And I used the remaining balance on the gift card from all of the wonderful kind AFD folks! (Thank you again Brian, Brian, and Bene for such a nice sendoff! Please pass on my thanks to Young and Steve as well, and anybody else who still remembers I worked there! Ha ha!) 

Picked up a couple other things, stopped at a brewery and had a sandwich and a beer, then drove back to Helena. 

In Bozeman, 406 brewery recommended by the folks at REI, was a nice little place, very rustic but the sandwich was good and the beer was great! Spoke to the bartender there, she is originally from Anchorage and move to Montana some years ago, likes the longer season of activity here versus the darkness in Alaska, but not enough snow, at least in Bozeman.

This is my first time to Montana, and while compared to Oregon, things are generally brownish except where the landscaping is, it is really a place of spectacular vistas, you can see such great distances everywhere. Beautiful!

Back in Helena, returned the car and rode my bike back to the motel. Did some laundry, repacked all my gear, sent my old sleeping bag back home, eventually Dave and I went to dinner at a Thai restaurant a block and a half away. Compared to the overpriced cheesy oily crap we had last night, this was an absolute delight! A little low on the spice for my taste, but they had plenty of means to spice it up! Dave and I shared pad Thai and Penang curry chicken.

After that we walked a little further up to an ice cream shop that sold homemade ice cream, Dave had a scoop of huckleberry on a waffle cone, I chose a coconut ice cream with hot fudge and nuts over the top! Yummy yummy yummy! We talked an older couple on the bench outside who were always also enjoying their ice cream, nice folks, they were in Helena visiting from Missoula their regular home. They gave us a few tips of places to look for when we get to Butte…

Tomorrow we will leave this beautiful old town, heading back on the trail to hill and mountain! Two nights from now we should be in Butte, we may consider staying there two nights as some very wet weather is predicted to roll in about then…

It is been nice to give the legs a day off, as they are yet by any measure still sore, but a good healthy sore! 

   
   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Day 1061 miles!!!! Rode til 645pm!!! Out in the wilderness, for sure!!!

The day started riding through huge homes on large lots with gorgeous views! Makes ya think Montana is a warmer Alaska alternative!

We are off the book recommendation because of our uhaul day, but we almost got a day ahead! We are just five miles short of a day ahead! Kinda… We will try to realign with the book tomorrow. 

Lots of elevation in the afternoon after the easy rural morning. But most importantly we passed the Coloradan group today! You know, the ones who aren’t carrying anything cuz they have a sag wagon? Somehow that felt so bitchin!! But we did stop at the pass up and talked a while, they’re really nice. 

Our day continued farther than originally planned, but we are guerrilla camping on a side road that is soooooooo quiet! Very tired after a long day, 8:30-6:45 is a huge day!

There is a duck pond just below us that Chris and Dave bathed in at the end of the day. It is still very warm here, very easy sleeping! 

No campfire, but good laughs around the cook stove and a good quiet sleep. 

Day 11

An early start and 45m planned. 

At some point in the day, I caught up with Richard from Netherlands, we ride together for a while. He got time off from his employer easily, selling cooling systems to large companies to cool their huge data centers. A nice guy, a bike setup similar to mine, with panniers. He is riding faster and solo, so we probably won’t see him again. He was most impressed, as were we, with the Canada portion, but commented on how little scenery we’ve seen since the smoke started in Eureka. 

Swimming/bathing in Holland Lake at the end of the day was great, but kinda cold!

Heartbroken that Lodge wouldn’t serve us due to a dozen women there at yoga camp! When we walked in to check, they had all manner of poster boards filled with stuff about using your inner chakras to strengthen your relationships and all that kinda thing. Various sessions scheduled throughout the day and evening. You know, so you can get closer to your feeeeeeeelings…. We just wanted dinner and a beer! Grunt grunt…

We did have a cold beer out on their lawn overlooking a very peaceful Holland Lake… We ran into two of the Colorado group there as well. 

At our quiet campsite and this huge gang with three vehicles, a trailer, and a boat rolled in next to us… Dave made friends with them and asked them to be quiet after 10pm which they pretty much did. Eventually…

Earlier, Richard came over, talked about his biking in Turkey which sounded fantastic! I have heard the same many times, and that the people are especially nice! Maybe for my next trek…

Talked with a just retired Montana Trooper staying at the lodge with his wife who has lots of the same post-job transition issues and thoughts as me… Largely those summarized as no longer being responsible for important stuff larger than you? People used to me/him to make decisions about important stuff, we had to make snap decisions with the available information, or on solely our instincts and experience; suddenly now pretty much nobody asks you about anything important… Maybe that’s part of it at least. Anyway, a real nice guy and just like me, he’s trying to adjust to his life’s new pace as gracefully as possible. 

Walked over to the lodge after our boiled camp dinner, had a cookie and a beer!

Our route is closed tomorrow due to fire, so will take highway 25m to Seeley Lake. 😄😟

Day 12

Woke up to smoke and warm, can barely see across the lake. 

Ate breakfast at the lodge, a great view on Holland Lake. I think they are trying to serve an upscale clientele and see us as ragamuffins, they’re not very nice to us at all… Even though it’s very rustic, the rate for a cabin is $245/n but includes three fabulous meals!

The GDMBR trail to Seeley Lake is closed for fire, we will take a short 22m ride down the highway, see if there are any further closures, then reconfigure our day accordingly. 

Everyone sore but doing ok. 

Saw a large black bear cross the road just behind me, first bear sighting of the trip!

Stopped in Seeley Lake town for a nice sandwich and a beer and ice cream and bought some more provisions, then back out onto the trail for the rest of the afternoon! Smoke is much heavier, it is very discouraging to not only miss seeing everything around us but to know that the smoke might be getting worse the farther south we go. Lots of FF’s from all over the country in town… 

Headed back to the GD trail from Seeley, also known as the blue line as it shows up on Gaia which is our gps mapping took along the way. Pretty cool, as long as you download the maps in advance, GPS will work on the iPhone even without cell service, which has been very sparse so far…

Speaking of cell service, for all the trips I’ve taken in the Backroads of Asia, cell service has been better there than in the U.S., at least so far. 

Finally out of Seeley about 330pm, rode about 10m mostly uphill to cottonwood lake and found a guerrilla campsite. Had a great meal of package navy bean soup with rice added, and huckleberry kettle corn we got yesterday at Holland Lake lodge. So yummy!

During our camp din prep, and getting water from the lake, it started to rain!! We’re hoping it takes down the smoke a bit overnight, and stops in the morning before we start on the bikes again!

Ps: I have learned about guy/staking my tent fly better so I don’t get soaked in the rain! Thank you, Dave and Chris!!!

Day 13

Woke up to a light drizzle, ready for camp coffee (my premix of instant coffee, sugar, and dried milk) and super duper pasty oatmeal as usual! I add a generous handful of trail mix to mine to add some sweet crunchiness and varied texture…

Had a very pleasant ride into Ovando, a very small cyclist friendly town. Stopped in at the stray bullet Café, just ordered a Ruger sandwich which is their version of a Reuben! It’s going to be so damn good!

Have Wi-Fi so going to quickly post the last few days, please excuse any errors or incomplete sentences, you’ll get the idea…

Overall, a fantastic trip so far, except for the continuous smoke! Rumor has it will lessen once we get through Montana…. There is so much to see and we can’t see it! Such is the unpredictability and beauty of this glorious life…

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

   
   

Day 6

The overnight storm dissipated by morning thankfully, but revealed snow we weren’t expecting. We dallied at the hotel til the sun got a bit higher before we set off. 

The first hour was reasonably flat on the two lane highway. After so many days on wilderness roads and trails, the highway was so loud!

We passed a major coal operation, looked like they’re pretty much taking a whole mountain down, one giant truckload at a time and loading it onto rail cars as far as you can see. After pavement end (and after lunch/nap) we rode a decent but steep gravel road up Flathead Pass to almost 6,000 feet. A beautiful blue sky prevailed the rest of the day!

Coming down, a river had pretty much overtaken the road and large rocks ran for several miles making the going rough and often push time. 

Finally arriving at Pollock Rec Site, a primitive but perfect campground beside the Flathead River. We had it all to ourselves! 

Dave is the best cook ever! Tonight it was dehydrated beans and rice with a bunch of dehydrated potatoes added. Add some Tajin, cayenne, and salt/pepper and it’s pretty damn good! 

A successful campfire start by yours truly using my patented teepee method chased the chill away after the sun dropped behind a mountain.

A hard but rewarding day, tonight will drop to 39f, so I have almost every piece of clothing on, two pairs of sox, and my rain pants around the end of my bag so my toes don’t freeze again. 

A very good day…

Day 7

Froze in the tent again! Harder biking day than yesterday! Our seventh consecutive day is starting to feel like 27! 

Meals are so good! Spaghetti and sauce with Couscous mixed in, Beef Stroganoff with dried potatoes mixed in. Yum!!!

Met other bikers w sag wagon, doesn’t seem real to claim to be riding with a truckload of support stuff along at the end of every day!

Ok, this part not pretty… Totallt tweaked my back putting bike butt balm on! What a goofy way to tweak a back! Painful all day, but only when I get off the bike and try to stand straight or sit down… But today again proved, to me at least, the best fix for back pain is activity!

Saw some deer, grouse, chipmunks, squirrels, and bear scat but no bears. 

Day 8

Day 6 was hard. Day 7 harder. Today? Fucking steep! Only made 12 miles by 2pm!!! That’s like 2mph! You have no idea… At one point had to hike all our gear up the side of a hill for half a mile, go back down and do it again with our bikes. Crazy steep difficult, climbing up through rocks and muck up to our ankles! Then after that, we still had another five miles of constant uphill to go, using 80% pedaling and 20% pushing. Thankfully made it to Galton Pass at 4:45p, 6100′ elevation, with still 22 miles to go to Eureka… Now I know why they say if you make it through the first eight days, you can do it all!

Coming down the other side of the pass, it was a rough road and very steep down so we all really wore the heck out of our brake pads. 

Finally made it to the U.S. Border crossing, Chris wanted to celebrate with a beer so we stopped at the souvenir bar and had a cold one with eight miles to go. I told him that’s not such a good idea with miles still to go, but we all survived and Chris eventually made it too 🙂 Made it into Eureka, only two hotels and we were lucky to get rooms in one of them. Many of the rooms were being used by forest service people fighting the fire nearby. Very smoky in every direction!

Had a great dinner of smoked chicken and penne pasta and a couple big sky ipa’s, tasty! Went to bed assuming we were going to stay in the same motel again and have a day off, boy did that change… 

After brekky we walked to the state forestry office and they told us much of our route for today and next day was closed due to fire. We pondered that issue and while we could have ridden the no shoulder two lane main road, we thought otherwise. 

Eureka is a very small town, with few options for transportation, so our only real option was to rent a f’n huge 26′ uhaul truck to Whitefish, actually went past to Columbia falls. On the way, stopped at Loula’s in Whitefish and had the best Reuben ever! Also got spare brake pads at Glacier Cyclery, and I got new rack bolts as one bolt fell out yesterday… It actually was a difficult convoluted day…

Dropped the truck in Columbia Falls. We ended up camping in an RV park and will resume the route tomorrow. Spent most of the afternoon repacking, setting up, cleaning the eight days of mud off the bikes, and taking a nice cool shower at the RV clubhouse. Will probably walk up the street for Mexican tonight…

We hope the heat will lessen, the smoke clear, and our loins will remain strong!! (What???)
   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

End of day 4

Had happy hour pizza special at Sneakys Pub! $10cn for a 12″ three item pizza including a pint! About $7.50us, was tasty!!

Plan is to be up 6am, on the road by 7am, try to get to Sparwood before the predicted heavy rain…

Day 5

Started with 2.5m hill, then onto logging road, then single track so steep it took two of us to push each bike up!! F!!!

Hills finally leveled out a little bit, we went through several miles of clear-cut logging area that is now being grazed by cows. A decent road, good riding, but eventually we got into lower Elk Valley on our way to Sparwood, and it was blistering headwind for the last 13 miles! Made it through, though…

Pulled into the town of Sparwood, heading toward the only hotel in town, saw some food trucks beside the main drive, pulled in there and I had Korean beef barbecue with homemade kimchi, rice, and salad greens, with what’s Sabi soy sauce over-the-top. OMG, what a good meal!!!

As I mentioned before, we are following the published book schedule, even though today was a short day because we started so early on the bikes at about 7 AM, because predicted rain tonight we will stay at the hotel here rather than pushing further, though this is the recommended stop. After today, we will head back out into the wilderness and have three nights with no services, so happy to have one more night of relative luxury!

It’s interesting on this trail, Lael Wilcox from Anchorage, the woman who raced this last year and apparently is racing it again this year now, it’s amazing to think that we’re going over the same trail she is. Her very first day, she rode 220 miles her first day! We’re not even at 150 miles yet, working our asses off, and we’re already on day five! It’s hard to imagine her incredible will and fortitude! But when you’re not carrying anything at all on your bike, you can certainly do double or triple the mileage we are every day, which put you into towns a little more frequently. A very different strategy for riding the divide…

Up where the food trucks were, the food was so good we asked them if they would be there dinner time, they said that they move just down the block to the place where this ridiculously huge cool truck sets, that’s like the town plaza. They will be up there tonight, apparently the leave and be live music up there! Right across the street from the grocery store since we have to provision for the next three days…

OK I guess that’s about it for this one, not many pictures since it was kind of a short day and we’re already at a hotel again! Lucky us! Everything hurts, but everybody’s doing well!

Thank you all for your kind comments!!

Weather update: We are hunkered down in Sparwood at the hotel. The predicted rain moved in with a vengeance! High winds, sideways rain, and SNOW visible at about 200′, so we are not excited about the morning…

   
    
    
    
    
 

Day 1

Our first cycling day started right behind the magnificent Banff Springs Hotel, the one that you always see in the photos when you see a photo of Banff. A ridiculously expensive in town in a beautiful setting, I’m glad I was there but would need to go back, everything is outrageously expensive!

We followed pretty much well built trails shared with some pedestrians but we didn’t see many people on it once we got more than a mile away from the hotel. The first day of a ride, when nothing hurts, it seems like 60 days of this won’t be so bad! Little did I know what is ahead…

I did have a moment today when I was walking from tent area to cooking area that the “pacing” I’ve been living at during my 36 year AFD experience is not really normal, and that there are other time pacing paradigms one can live in. It was a small but important insight for me…

Grrr! Rain and wind all night starting about midnight, slept shitty!! Barely slept once the wind and rain started. Feet froze… Very cold morning along the beautiful wilderness single track trail beside Spray Lake.

Day 2

Woke to mostly clear sky! Took forever to deal with my nearly completely soaked tent. Dave and Chris are less experienced cycling, but certainly far more experienced at wilderness camping than I am. Learned a few things about how to properly attach a rain flyover attend so that extends beyond the pad clots., Makes all the difference in the world when it rains! 

Today was more single track, lots of uphill, spectacular scenery in the Canadian Rockies. 

We ended at Boulton Creek campground with the Aussie couple we met along the way. We hoped the little camp store there would have beer, but no such luck. Had to drown my sorrows in a scoop of double chocolate chunk espresso ice cream! Very yum!!!! 

The Aussies plan is to travel from there start in Whistler, all the way to Patagonia eventually. We shared campsite, $26cn/5= about $3.90us each. They are nice folks! In their 30’s and quit their jobs to do the great divide ride and more… 

What a treat after an exhausting 35m day, through a mixture of single track, ski trails, gravel road, a couple miles of pavement, and world class scenery!

The trip quotient so far:

Spectacular beauty: 9

Difficulty: 9

Weather: 7

Food: 6

Regrets for doing it: range of 1-9 (1 most of the time, 9 only when I’m pushing my loaded 90ish pound bike up a trail too steep to ride!!

The bear precautions at the formal campground include storing your food in steel boxes provided nearby, especially for bikers or campers without cars. Etiquette includes brushing your teeth and storing toothpaste in the box too since toothpaste smells like food. Apparent we are riding through “bear alley” or some similar moniker.

Day 3

MONSTER pusher hill to start elk pass, but we all made it! Riding today with the Aussies Richelle and Shane (pronounced Shine, of course…) Stopped at Weary Creek campground for lunch after a glorious day on a power line right of way. Not a cloud in the sky! Lunch usually consists of pita bread, peanut butter, jelly, jalapeño jack cheese. An awesome satisfying combination! Still eating food we carried from Banff. 

Today was the day, pushing my 90lb loaded surly 3/4m up the trail that I realized I have now found something harder to do than retiring was!!!

Dave and Chris are fond of taking naps just after lunch. In fact, Chris say polls indicate that 98% of all retirees believe naps are the thing that most define “the lifestyle.” Wait, I think that refers to something else altogether! I should call it “the retired life” or some such thing. Whatever!

We are generally following a book that was written by a guy some years ago, he suggests certain days that take advantage of towns and campgrounds when available. We rode two thirds of the day four route on day three, so it was a pretty long day.

We stopped at blue Lake Campground, a small lake beside a recreational road, we met several people in there, including Juan and Alithia, both hospital lab techs from Calgary. They were very friendly, gave us a cold beer which was to die for! Amazing how good a cold beer can be!!!

A note about dinners: Chris and Dave I think he more healthy than I tend to. Dave is lead cook. And everything we eat is from freeze-dried bags, we get water in the river and filter it rather than try to carry freshwater from each town, that would be impossible. Boiled water, pour into the freeze-dried mountain house or some other brand bag, had some couscous for more bulk, and I haven’t had a bad dinner yet! It’s amazing how good food taste when you work hard all day!

Later in the evening, two brothers on a fishing trip stayed at the campground. One lives in Calgary, one lives in Minneapolis. Both retired. One of them said they could tell that I either wasn’t retired or newly retired because they said I had a look of worry on my face all the time. Ouch!

The Aussies were at the campground is well, they’re nice folks and we may match up with them a few more days, not sure if they’re going to take the alternate route from here, which is much much easier! Apparently we will not do that easier one!!

Day 4

Got down to 40° overnight, I’m barely prepared for that temperature, I have to wear three layers of clothing, put my puffy vest over my feet at the end of the sleeping bag, and pull the sleeping bag cover over the top my head to keep warm enough. When I mentioned to Dave and Chris, they just say things like, oh I was too hot! Clearly my bag is not functioning to its rating 35°.

Up in the morning and had coffee with the two guys and I were daily oatmeal which I’ve certainly grown to appreciate! Got on the bikes and it was just a 15 mile day into Elkford, BC. Very small but beautiful town primarily here to service the coal mine workers. 

Riding through this valley, with the huge coal mine off on the left distance, we started to see smoke apparently from all of the Montana wildfires. It appears we are heading directly into them, so hopefully the air quality won’t become an issue for us. Where I’m sitting now, I can see mountains off in the distance barely through smoke, it is thick enough that you can certainly smell it and somewhat taste it. 

We have been around 5500′ so far and you can sure feel the altitude!! Especially on the steep hills when you have to push the bike up the hill because it’s just too damn steep to ride, can’t remember breathing as hard and deep for as long as we have in a long time! (Maybe in Nepal at 12,000′, but that was only one day!!!)

The next three days we will be traveling through an area called “grizzly bear Highway” and we talked to some biologist guy that stopped at the campground last night that says there’s known to be at least 117 grizzly bears in the Corridor we will be passing through in the next three days. That sounds like a lot! I broke down and bought bear spray today! Actually he was retired from the giant Teck coal mine here, we could see it off in the distance riding this morning. Huge operation, most of the coal taken out on rail.

I believe I packed pretty efficiently for this trip, but there’s no getting around the fact that carry less weight is better, so I just shipped a box of stuff that I really absolutely don’t need back to Oregon, lightning my food by about five huge pounds!

Closing notes for this post, we only have cell service in the towns, so I will post periodically. The photos. Below are somewhat in order sequence I think, but not really sure once I upload them what order they go in. I’m not going to try and describe each one, you can make up your own descriptions!

Finally, I didn’t think this trip would be as hard as it is, but considering we’re only on day four, our bodies really haven’t adjusted to this level of work. We are on a 60 day route plan to Mexico, based on the book’s suggested route, though we may not hold to that consistently. I’m sure we will find some days to stay in town and take a break, but generally expect sixtyish will be what we stick to. 
I’m learning a lot about wilderness travel and camping and mapping and water sources and the many uses of couscous that I didn’t know previously, also learning more about tolerance, life pacing, really learning more about lots of things. One of the brothers I mentioned earlier, he told us his wife of many years died last year of Alzheimer’s. He is retired and spends some months of the year here with his Calgary brother. He was probably about my age in appearance, he talked about how after that happened, he knew it was just time for him to take a different look at how to live the rest of his life. In some way, I suppose that’s why I’m out here too…

Ps: apologize for all the selfies…
   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 

In Calgary last night, heading to Banff today, for the start tomorrow of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route adventure with Chris and Dave. My first blog sentence is now written. 
The last couple months have been stressful and surreal… Dominated by the decision to leave my job life of 36 years, to enter the life of being “retired” has already revealed powerful and unanticipated internal challenges. I could write volumes on that… Yet, I find myself just now laying in a hotel bed in Calgary, then in Banff tonight, then starting a two month bike ride with two other retired guys tomorrow. That all sounds real normal, right?

The week since leaving Alaska was spent in Portland and Seattle, seeing all of my dear family, and experiencing the blessing of the helmet rituals arranged by Bridgette as wonderful pre-trip positive juju. 

The last few days in Portland were spent organizing and packing, re packing, reorganizing, negotiating with myself about what I really “need” to bring as everything translates to weight I will have to pedal with over the 2740 miles to Antelope Wells, NM on the border with Mexico. I’m sure I’m going to love and regret every single pound. 

Today we will drive to Banff and assemble the bikes, that is the main purpose of life today.

The motivation for writing a blog post has to be there, and this is all I’ve got for starters. There’s a couple simple photos from preparations for the last couple of days…

OK, it is the next day and we are in Banff now… It is been raining most of the day we got the bikes together and split up all the shared food and OMG my bike will be so freaking heavy! 

Wi-Fi where we are staying is nonexistent so at dinner right in this and will get it posted while I’m here! Don’t have too many pictures to show so far, we have been pretty busy and especially today assembling the bikes and repacking everything!

It is been raining all day, but it is expected to be sunny tomorrow according to the forecast so all my fingers and digits and other managers crossed!

Banff is a beautiful town, but extremely touristy. That one picture that everybody sees from the grand Hotel is where we start tomorrow, we haven’t even been there yet. Will see it tomorrow for sure! And hopefully not in the rain! And tonight is the last real bed we will have for quite some time…

Wishing my best to anybody who reads this! 

(And thanks to the Henry and Dargis families for the helmet juju!!)

(And for my AFD friends, yes the compulsion to grow a beard after retirement is unforgivable but also overpowering…)