Great Divide Superlatives

Favorite Campsite (remote/backcountry):

1)      next to Flathead River, BC

2)      near Indiana Pass summit, CO

3)      Desert between Cuba and Grants

Next to Flathead River, BC

Favorite Camground (developed):

1)      Merry Widow Mine and Campground, Basin, MT

2)      Lava Lodge, Wyoming- stayed in their cabin

3)      Bannack State Park, MT

Bannack State Park, MT

Favorite Lodging, non-camping:

1)      Llama Lodge

2)      Whitefish Bike Hostel

3)      Tie: Toaster House in Pie Town & Jeff Sharp’s house in Hachita

Llama Lodge, MT

Best free Lodging: Greg King’s in Breckenridge

View of Mt Quandry from Greg's porch

Favorite Towns:

1)      Whitefish, MT

2)      Salida, CO

3)   Steamboat Springs, CO

4)      Breckenridge, CO and Banff, AB

Bike Run at Whitefish Bike Hostel, MT

Best Breakfast:

1)      Atlantic City Mercantile, Atlantic City, WY

2)      Stray Bullet Café, Ovando, MT

3)      Columbine Café, Breckenridge, CO

Best Lunch:

1)      Anong’s Thai, Rawlins, WY

2)      Three Barrels Brewery, Del Norte, CO

3)      Elkford Motor Inn, Elkford, BC

Best Dinner:

1)      Ribeye at Wise River Club, MT

2)      Little Cambodia, Salida, MT

3)      tie: Red Bowl World Curry Haus, Steamboat Springs, CO & El Farolito, El Rito, NM

Cheryl and Dylan (top) and the great hospitality at Wise River Club

Favorite Brewery:

1)      Great Northern Brewery, Whitefish, MT

2)      Three Barrels Brewery, Del Norte, CO

3)      Wind River Brewery, Pinedale, WY

Favorite Climb:

1)      Richmond Peak, MT

2)      Marshall Pass, CO

3)      Pioneer Mountains Scenic Hwy, MT

4)      Tie: Elk Pass, BC/AB & Huckleberry Pass, MT'

Trail that wraps around Richmond Peak

Hardest Climb:

1)      Climb out of Abiquiu

2)      Two climbs out of Radium/Colorado River

3)      Section between Helena and Basin

4)      Climb to Brazos Ridge Overlook, NM

Colorado River Valley near Radium

Favorite Descent:

1)      Richmond Peak

2)      Conejos River from Platoro
     3)   Descent to Salida on County Rd 175

4)      Drop to Radium/Colorado River

5)      Tie: Galton Pass (until I flatted) & descent into Basin, MT

Descent along Conejos River

Prettiest Section:

1)      First 30 miles out of Banff

2)      Indiana Pass to Horca, CO

3)      Gila National Forest, NM

4)      Marshall Pass to Cochetopa to Carnero Pass

Spray Lake, Alberta

Hardest Section, non-climbing:

1)      Mud near Black Canyon Campground, Gila National Forest, NM

2)      Warm River Rail-Trail, ID

3)    Mud near Collins Park, NM

4)      Descent from Flathead Pass, BC

Backside of Flathead Pass

Scariest Moment:

1)      Running into bear on road in Montana

2)      Lightning storm in both Wyoming and New Mexico

3)      Random dude that parked and camped near me in Montana

Running from storms in Wyoming

Weirdest, Interesting or Most Random moment:

1)      Contact flew out of my eye before arriving Rawlins

2)      Being stared at by cows while eating beef jerkey

3)   Buying tamales from Roger in Del Norte, CO

4)   Attending the dance in Hachita, NM

Roger made good tamales

Section I’d was like to do over:

1)      Gila National Forest- without the rain/mud

2)      Eureka to Whitefish- getting rear tire fixed

3)      Entire Canadian section- so remote, rugged and beautiful and I flatted Galton

Best thing to wake up to:

1)    Rainbow near Middlewood Hill, WY

2)    Rain falling while in my bunk at Lava Mt Lodge, WY

3)    Anytime there were no mosquitoes in the morning

Up and Down

I titled this post "Up and Down" because that's what the last four days have been, both literally and figuratively. I've had lots of ascending and descending in elevation and moments of euphoria mixed with frustration and disappointment.

Left Banff on Wednesday morning, somewhere close to 11:00AM. Stopped at store to buy bear spray and the girl there was surprised I was doing the ride on a rigid (non-suspension) bike. Little did she know the power of the Hulk. Leaving the Fairmont Springs, you follow the Spray River Trail for a mostly easy ride. I ran into some other cyclists out for a ride, but no other Divide riders. Rode on the very dusty Smith-Dorrien Spray road for a few miles and, at Spray Lake, the trail goes off the road, across the dam and into the woods. It's gorgeous scenery and relatively remote. I didn't see another person for the 20 or so miles I was in the woods riding gated roads and singletrack trails.

The bike carried itself like a champ. The wide tires rolled over things easily and I felt extremely capable and confident. There was a section, about a third of a mile long, that the map warned many riders had to push up and I proudly stubbornly rode up it even with the weight of all my gear. My issue was with my seatpost and saddle. I switched saddles to the one I rode cross country on right before I left. For some reason, the railings on the seatpost wouldn't hold the saddle in place, it kept sliding backwards. I knew because I could feel my thighs rubbing against the rear panniers and I was starting to get some pain in the knees and groin. Stopped and tried to fix it 3 times and it kept moving. It was definitely broke my mental psyche and caused an unwanted distraction.

The trail rejoins the Smith-Dorrien Spray Rd and I got to experience more dust. But I did see my first grizzly. I was just riding along and looked to the right and there it was, about 70 meters away. And I kept riding.

At the Boulton Creek Campground, I missed the turn for the mercantile while I was on the bike path and turned around. And there ahead of me, just hanging out, was another bear. I took a quick photo and went to the store. When I told the lady there I just saw a bear, there was a lot of excitement. They called conservation officers and tried to locate it to either track or tag (plus, they want to keep campers safe).

A very good night of sleep at Boulton Creek got me ready for my first crossing of the Continental Divide at Elk Pass. It was actually only about 8 miles from the campground to the top of the pass. It was a workout but not as bad as I was anticipating. At the pass, you cross from Alberta to British Columbia and descend (super fast and fun) to Elk River Rd. Total trip from trailhead to trailhead is about 6 miles. If you drove to the two trailheads, it is about 200 miles!

It's almost 30 miles on the Elk River road, a dusty, dirt road that seemingly leads to nothing from the town of Elkford. About halfway down the road, I spotted Eric, a guy I met at the campground the night before. I hustled to catch up with him and we rode the rest of the way together. He's from Colorado and is riding to Wyoming where his wife is going to pick him up. He's done other sections of the Great Divide over different summers and had some good insight for me for the Divide Basin in Wyoming. We shared lunch together at a great little dive place in Elkford (since the pizza place didn't open until 3:00) and rode together to Sparwood. Eric was pulling up front on the road to Sparwood when I said, "Look up". He said "What?" I said "Look!". There was a grizzly crossing the road in front of us.

In Sparwood, I decided to stay the night as I was going to following the main route, which involved 114 miles (two days) through the backcountry with three pretty significant passes to climb. Eric continued to Fernie because he was going to do the alternate, shorter route with more towns and less climbing since he has a shorter window than me. Today, I don't regret choosing the main route, but yesterday I was kicking myself for not taking the alternate.

The first day was great! Twenty miles to Corbin, which is a large mountain top coal mine. The road ends and you can take a gravel ascent to Flathead Pass. A guy pulling a large camper caught me on one of my breaks and asked if he could get to Flathead on this road. I had no idea, so he was going to find a pulloff and just drive up with his truck and scout. At the pass, there were guys on dirtbikes and four wheelers (the Canadians call them quads) riding up and down a bank. On the backside, I quickly found out that the guy with the trailer was going nowhere. The road disappears into a stream. The stream had washed out the road or become part of the road. Some places had 3 foot drops into the water from the gravel. Many places wasn't even gravel but fist and head sized stones that made riding tricky. It was a tough having to push the bike through the water so many times. I could ride a lot of it because of the big tires, but there was a lot more that I could not ride. Or I dared not ride and risk injury on a fall. It wore me out.

After a lunch break, it is basically gravel along the Flathead River for a long time. Then you join up with logging roads and I ran into a few trucks late in the day. My plan was to stay at the Butts Patrol cabin, which is open for campers on a first come basis, but when I arrived it looked as if people had moved in and I wasn't comfortable staying there. I found a spot next to the river where I could hang food and ended up with a fantastic campsite. I washed in the river. Talk about exhilarating; dunking oneself underneath ice cold water. It was a jolt of refreshing and energy, a baptism of sorts.

Yesterday morning I was up at 5:30 and riding by 7:15. It was a 14 mile climb to Cabin Pass and I was at the top a little before 10:00. Great 5 mile descent to the Wigwam River and then turned and headed up a trail. By now the sun was getting high and the temperature readings on my bike were in the 90s. Before the trail crossed the river, some rock cairns mark a singletrack that leads into the woods and along the river. It was tight and there were no sight lines. I was yelling constantly to give the animals a heads up that I was coming. The trail leaves the river by going straight uphill. I had to unhook my bags and push my bike up 1/4 mile and then come back and get the bags, it was too steep to do both at the same time. The picture beneath doesn't do a great job showing how steep it is, but it was steep enough that I would not ride it on my regular mountain bike downhill! At this point, I was cursing the fact that I did not take the alternate. It was maddening and not what I pictured "riding" to be. Combined with the heat and exhaustion, I was pretty flustered.

After coming out from a clearing, there is some more gravel climbing and then a short descent to a gate. From there is 5 miles to the top of Galton Pass (6,319ft). It's hot and I'm slowly trudging between 4-5 mph to get to the pass, but I make it! The descent, the maps warned, is screaming. The map did not lie. I was going way faster than I should have. The bike gives me so much confidence on lose surfaces. I hit a hole too fast and heard "HISS". I had punctured the tire. Tubeless tires have a sealant that keeps the air in and if there are small punctures, the sealant will close most of them. Well, I had sealant spraying out all over me as I stopped the bike with the hole in the tire pointed at me.

No problem, just a setback. I had a tube I could pop in there and we are good to go. Wrong. I had never removed a tubeless wheel set up before and could not get the bead to separate from the rim because of the sealant. I tried and tried. Another moment of me regretting not taking the Fernie Alternate route. I felt very helpless. This was the payback I had imagined for having such a great day of travel on Tuesday.

I had relegated myself to walking down the road (6 miles) to the main highway. I just got the rear tire on to roll the bike when a guy pulls up and offers me a ride to the road. His name is Dale and he lives in the valley and works at a sawmill. I asked if he would give me a ride to customs, which is only 2.5 miles from where this road intersects with the highway. He offered to take me to his house and get my bike rolling. So I took him up on the offer. He got me some water, we found some tools, got the seal popped and then putting in the tube was easy. I offered to pay him and he told me to just pay it forward to someone else.

So today, I have arranged a shuttle to Whitefish, MT. I have little confidence in the tube I put in, I broke my pump yesterday pumping up my repaired tire, the seat is still not where it needs to be. Matter if fact, my rear tire is flat again already. I have some pain in my back, a little in my left knee (not bad though) and my left shoulder was having spasms yesterday for some reason. And I've been stung or bitten by at least three flying insects and that's not including the dozens (maybe hundreds!) of mosquito bites. There's a lot to be down on right now.

But the remarkable thing is that my legs and lungs feel fantastic. Sure, they're tired but they don't hurt and I feel like I can do more. And I've done a good job with sun protection and prevented chafing. I've been adventurous and felt accomplished. I really feel good about the ride and the progress that I've made.

Stephen Willis has shipped a seatpost to Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish. I'm going there tomorrow to get this tire fixed and the seat issue resolved. I think not having to worry about those two things will go a long way in helping me just ride. For now, it's a down day at the Whitefish Bike Retreat. It's a really cool place with nice people. They have hostel lodging and camping, trails around the facility and a berm track outside the lodge. We'll call it a rest day. I do miss 112 miles of National Forest riding that the Great Divide route follows from Eureka to Whitefish, but it's important to get this bike dialed in. Plus, I get to do laundry. And I'm avoiding riding in 99 degree temperatures.

Again, ups and downs. Things go awesome and things don't go as planned. When there's a descent that gives me respite or joy, I know that it will follow with an ascent that will make me work and grind. You take them all. If you don't, then you can't enjoy the ride. 

The Hole in Homeland Security

Over the course of nearly three days, I made my way from Jasper, Alberta to Whitehorse, Yukon. I took the long road-- the Cassiar Highway. Off HWY 37 is a spur, 37a, that takes you the small town of Stewart, British Columbia. Keep driving through Stewart and less than a mile later, right past the wharf, you cross into the Unites States and the smaller Alaskan town of Hyder.

This is where I take issue? Where are the Minutemen, Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs? I mean, I just drove into the United States from Canada with no hassle. Of course, I had to go through Canadian Immigration on the way back into Canada where once again I was subject to silly questions and procedure (I was in Hyder all of 20 minutes). I asked Canadian Customs where US Customs was and her reply was, "They always say they're coming, but we'll see."





I mean, anyone can easily drive into our country from Canada and threaten us. Never mind that Hyder only has a population of 97 (2000 Census) and the road ends less than a mile into town. There is no airstrip in Hyder. US Mail comes twice a week from Ketchikan, Alaska (though I haven't figured out if it lands in Stewart or if it is a float plane). You would have to boat down the Portland Inlet and around the southern tip of Akaska to get to the nearest American town, never mind Seattle. Where's the uproar? This town is a threat to our National Security!!

- Stewart and Hyder are small and not much going on there. At the height of the silver boom in the early 20th century, 10,000 people lived at the end of the Portland Canal. Toady, the two towns combine for about 600. The road in is spectacular however. It drops to sea level from over 2200 feet. In this narrow valley is Bear Glacier and over two dozen sublimely beautiful waterfalls cascading from the ridges high above.


- The Cassiar Highway I describe as lonely. 70-90 miles between gas stations. The towns (Iskut and Dease Lake) are tiny and remote. Logging is huge. Signs along the road indicate when an area was logged and when it was replanted. The road is pretty well maintained, but you can tell that winter (and logging trucks) takes its toll on the asphalt. The views are nice. Not Icefields Parkway spectacular, but serene and humbling in the knowledge that you are so far from society.



- Alaska Highway also remote. Also lonely. But more (and larger) towns and more cars. Whitehorse is unremarkable. Nice clean town with good history, but nothing stands out that's good or bad. The guy in the bike shop in Skagway did tell me that Whitehorse has the best mountain biking in the region.

- Envy: Lot's of motorcycles. I've seen more BMWs in Yukon/Alaska/British Columbia than I have in the last two years. For good reason. They are good all purpose bikes that can take a beating. I met one guy who lives in Asheville and was riding the Haul Road (even more remote than the Cassiar) all the way to Prudhoe Bay. I want to go!

- Skagway. Four cruise ships were docked on Monday. The town was overrun with people. It's small to begin with and then each ship has twice the number of people of the entire town, so I was frustrated and annoyed by the tourists. There was no quiet place to eat, read or relax, which is what I wanted to do while I waited for my afternoon ferry for Sitka.

- I tried to get an oil change in Skagway. There was no mechanic, just a guy named Chet "on call". I called him and he said he could do it in two or three days because he has to order the oil filter from Juneau. The idea that it would not be in stock never occurred to me since I have three auto parts stores within a three mile radius of my house (plus two quick lubes and who knows how many mechanics).

- In case you are wondering: since leaving Hendersonville, about 4,800 miles put on my chariot, whom I've since named Pomp or Pompey, after William Clark's nickname for Sacajawea's baby, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who in the first two years of his life journeyed across the continent and back on his mother's back with the Corps of Discovery.

Non-Road trip Shout Outs:
My good friend who lives, works and trains in Colorado Springs, Ryan Kirkpatrick, home for his Grandpa Kirk's 90th birthday ran, won and set a new course record in the Bele Chere 5K on Saturday.

Bele Chere has record 5K

Another good friend, Jason Joyce, has been promoted to Athletic Director at North Henderson. Which means his golf game will continue to suffer and I will continue to dominate.

North hires Joyce as new AD