This is the third of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to
Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells,
New Mexico. Further information about the expedition can be found at www.bikingthegreatdivide.com
Day 5: Eureka – Upper Whitefish Lake (68 miles)
Day five was a significant turning point for me. I felt healthy, fit and my
stomach was felling a lot better.
The first part of today’s route was on pavement and we made fairly quick
progress over the first 20 miles before the real climbing began. As we
progressed upwards towards the Whitefish Divide I took it slowly but chose to
keep going rather than stop for short breaks. As a result I was the first to
arrive at the top of the divide and sat watching a bear high up on the hill as
I waited for the others.
The decent from the Whitefish Divide was fantastic and we made swift
progress down towards the Ford Work Center before starting the next big climb up towards Red Meadow Lake. By the time we arrived at Red
Meadow we were all pretty tired and Simon was keen to camp there for the night.
In the end we dropped the five miles back through the snowline to Upper Whitefish Lake and found a
fantastic campspot.
Day 6: Upper Whitefish Lake - Swan Lake (96 miles)
I was a cold start to the morning with frost on the ground as we ate our porridge
before heading down the trail to the town of Whitefish (a very
cool little town!).
We arrived at Whitefish at 10am and found the only open Café in town where
we enjoyed some fresh coffee and breakfast Burrito’s. I left the guys in the café
and headed to the Whitefish Glacier
Cyclery – I had been having problems with my gears for the last few days
and Ron (the shop owner) did a great job of getting my bike working properly
again. I also picked up some extra supplies at the shop including a full set of
Great Divide
Mountain Bike Route Maps (I had been concerned that we had only one set
between the three of us), a new pump and some spare inner tubes.
We finally got away from Whitefish at midday and then stopped briefly in Columbia Falls to pick up some supplies before heading on to the Swan River.
The locals at Columbia Falls seemed were very friendly
and interested in what we were doing – we even got a 10% discount at the
supermarket!
After Swan River we were faced with another steep
uphill climb and we reached the summit at about 8pm. The mosquitoes were out
and we made swift progress down the hill to the Swan River National Wildlife
Refuge. From here we biked four miles off route to the campsite (and pub) at Swan Lake where we spent the rest of the evening eating burgers and entertaining the
locals!
Day 7: Swan Lake – Seeley Lake (88 miles)
We were slow to get moving the next morning but after a couple of free cups
of coffee at the post office we got moving towards our next destination, Seeley
Lake - almost 90 miles away.
Considering the terrain was mainly up-hill we made pretty good progress
during the day although I couldn’t understand why the boys seemed insistent on
eating all the lunch when we had at least another eight hours of cycling to go?
We had some differing philosophies here and I much preferred to ‘graze’ on any food that I had during
the day rather than stop and eat it all at once.
Anyway, at Clearwater Lake it was quite clear that we were all pretty tired
and we still had to get up and over Richmond Pass if we were going to make our
target of Seeley Lake for that evening. I was the last to
leave Clearwater Lake, having finished my lunch and
filtered some water. Then I started to make slow but steady progress up Richmond Pass.
Simon and Marco were waiting for
me at the top of the pass and we had some amazing views over the Mission
Mountains Tribal Wilderness to the West.
The decent from Richmond was not easy. It was getting dark and on single track. We had to constantly get
on and off our bikes to negotiate patches of snow and fallen trees. It seemed
to take for ever for us to get to the forestry road which was full of sand and
didn’t really help our progress.
We eventually got to Seeley Lake at 22.00h and
everything was shut. We made some pasta before falling quickly asleep.
Day 8: Seeley Lake – Lincoln (64 miles)
My alarm went off at 7am and I got up. Simon didn’t seem keen to move, so I
left him in the tent and started to pack my stuff. I eventually lured Marco out
of his tent with the promise of breakfast and fresh orange juice and we headed
off to the café (in fact we got a lift!). Simon joined us in the café and he
was looking a little bit jaded but at least he had stopped talking about giving
up!
After breakfast we packed our stuff and although it was not getting late we
biked the 28 miles to the town of Ovando
where we had some of the best sandwiches in the world for lunch at the Stray Bullet
Cafe. Over lunch Simon decided to take the road to Lincoln in order to save a bit of time and
get some rest. For a while I considered joining him – I was getting frustrated by
the late starts in the morning and was conscious that I would never make the
route in 30 days unless we started to pick up the pace a bit.
In the end Marco talked some sense into me and we both set off up and over Huckleberry Pass before descending to join Simon in Lincoln.
I enjoyed Huckleberry Pass and although I was a
lot slower than Marco (AKA: The Mountain Goat) I felt fit really pleased to be
taking part in such a fantastic adventure through the states.
That evening in Lincoln we managed to find a laundry to wash out cycling gear for the first time in
over a week, a local bought us a pitcher of beer and we decided that we would
start getting up at 05.30h. A good result all round!
Day 9: Lincoln –Helena (67 miles)
It was lucky we had the early start on day nine as the route the Helena included three Continental
Divide crossings. The first up Stemple Pass was definitely the
hardest and I found myself pushing my bike for the majority of the way. There
were also a number of stream crossing that had to be done – which involved
several near soakings!
After Stemple Pass we lost several thousand feet in height and then started climbing again up
towards the second divide crossing in the Helena National Forest before loosing another
thousand feet of height and heading up towards the third divide crossing at Priest Pass.
From Priest Pass it was all downhill to Helena
but it was important that we also got to the Bike shop in Helena before it shut. Simon and Marco needed
to break pads for their back breaks and I had lost one of my SPD clips which
was making the cycling harder.
We raced to Helena and arrived at the Great Divide Cyclery
30 minutes after it had shut! Looking at the map we found that there was
another bike shop (Big Sky Cyclery)
and we raced across the city to try and get there. They were also shut – but the
owner was still in the shop and opened it up for us to buy what we needed. Unfortunately,
they didn’t have any break pads but I was able to buy my SPD clips and new pair
of cycling shoes.
That evening we treated ourselves to motel room and enjoyed some pasta and
Fat Tire beer at a local restaurant.
Day 10: Helena – Butte (67
miles)
Again we got a good start away from Helena of what was going to be a mainly hot and uphill day.
The first part of the day went well and we made steady progress up the steep
gravel tracks and passed some interesting old kilns from Helena's industrial past.
The middle part of the day was not do good! The description in
the guidebook said ‘very steep’ it was more like vertical! Simon and I began the
long and difficult push to the top. At the top we began the long and difficult
push to the bottom – it was far to steep to ride (apart from for Marco!).
Eventually we made it to Basin and started a flatter section parallel to the
road and then along an old railway track (complete with a tunnel) before the
Elk Park Pass Continental Divide crossing and a flying decent into Butte.
Butte is a mining
town famous for three things mining, Evel Knievel (it was where
he was born) and pasties!
Day 11: Butte – Elkhorn Hot Springs Campground
Today we split the team up. Simon and I headed off early while Marco waited
behind in Butte for the bike shop to open to see if he could pick up the break pads that we
needed. He would then catch us up later.
Simon and I made good progress and we were rewarded with beautiful views of
the Pioneer Mountains 25 miles into our morning ride.
The decent on the other hand
was another matter. The first ten miles were fine but then due to maintenance
on the gravel the last five miles were just loose unpacked soil and sand. It
was difficult to control the bike and the trailer. Simon took a fall but
luckily he wasn’t going that fast and he just ended up with a few scrapes.
At Divide Creek Road we made the decision to take a recommended route alternative rather than go up
the northern shoulder of Mt. Fleecer and across the
Fleecer Ridge. If we had done this it would have just meant a push up, over and
down the other side. Instead the recommended alternative took us on a beautiful
route along the side of the Divide Creek and then the Wise River to the town of Wise
River. Here we stopped to get something to
eat and re-stock out supplies for the next couple of days.
Again, we found ourselves checking Marco’s progress on the SPOT and when we
were confident that he had made it over the Fleecer Ridge we left a note in the
café and started the forty miles towards Elkhorn Hot Springs.
Despite being along the road the road to Elkhorn Hot Springs was hard – particularly
the last 10 miles up through Crystal Park. To make matters worse if your speed
dropped any less than seven miles per hour you were devoured by a swarm of
blood sucking mosquitoes! Simon, frustrated by the swarm, ripped open his BOB
bag in anger to cover himself in DEET mosquito repellent. He shared some with
me at out next stop – it was strong stuff as it melted my bike gloves, the
grips of my handlebars and a hole in my cycle shorts!
Finally, after about 150 mosquito bites each we reached the turn off to
Elkhorn Hot Springs and as if by magic Marco caught up and we headed to the restaurant
for something to eat.
After a good meal and a number of laughs as we swapped stories from the day
we headed in the dark the two miles down the road to the campsite where we
quickly got the tents up and got some rest.
In my next post in this series I will
describe the route between Elkhorn Springs Campground, Montana to the Sweetwater River, Wyoming.
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