Monday and Tuesday, September 20th -21st -- Final Entry
The last 125 miles of the trip from Silver City to Antelope Wells started with good friends showing up the day before, Mark Truscott and Tom Lafleur arrived Sunday after driving from San Diego. Tom dropped us off in Canada and surprised us by showing up to get the round trip. We all went to downtown Silver City for beers. Ok ok ok, I did it, I violated the rule, I rode in a car which I had been avoiding for over 7 weeks. John and I decided that if that if these guys were going to take several days out and see us to the finish, the whole "no vehicle thing" was a goner. We also decided to ride the last 125 miles without our trailers, what a release of energy that brought on.
The ride out of Silver City Monday morning was great, blue sky and no dogs! After leaving town we hit some vertical climbing but given there were no trailers we blew through it. In the pictures you will see a driveway entrance lined with toilet bowls, not sure the message they are trying to send or the architectural theme but struck me as well . . . out of the norm. There must have been 30 toilet bowls of all colors. This underscores the trip, you just get to see more of America when you ride a bike versus drive in a car.
By noon we had covered over 40 miles and that included stopping to fix a flat, I guess I didn't do a very good job of getting one last spur out of my front tire. We had a supported lunch, Tom and Mark showed up with sandwiches, would have gained weight on this trip if they had been with us all along. For the next 40 miles we had either Mark or Tom joining us, a nice addition for the final miles. There was a lot of concern by a lot of people that the final 100 miles would be the riskiest, with illegals coming across the border and the drug cartels killing each other. Have to say the ride from Interstate 10 to Hachita was wonderful, very light traffic, on a paved road and lots and lots of Border Patrol vehicles. In fact, of the 12 vehicles that passed us on the 20 miles to Hachita 8 of them were brand new Border Patrol cars. Have to say they made us feel very comfortable and secure. We made Hachita by 3pm, about 80 miles from Silver City, not having those trailers really helped speed up the trip. Several days earlier we decided not to spend the night in Hachita, with no motels, no restaurants, and only a yard to sleep in and given our security concerns early on, we nixed it. We marked our spot to return tomorrow for the final 25 miles to the border.
Colleen and my sister Laura Myers flew into Tuscon and met us just as we were getting on I-10. Boy was it great to see my wife, hadn't seen her since Lima, MT five weeks ago. My sister came in from Houston to join in the finish, great having her along too! As I said there was a lot of concern about safety in the final miles of the trip. When we pulled into our new hotel in Lordsburg we found it was right next to the brand new police station. Also there was a humvee sitting at the entrance to the hotel. Two Air Force privates were walking out carrying weapons! The entire third floor of the hotel was full of military personnel helping to patrol the border, all of them packing heat. No need to worry about our safety, anyone that would threaten somebody in this hotel would be asking for it big time! Please see the most recent pictures to get the idea. God clearly had a strong answer to our prayers on the safety issue.
On Tuesday after breakfast we returned to our stopping point in Hachita for the final 45 miles to Antelope Wells. This road is also called the Lonely Road and for good reason, no one goes down it and it is patrolled constantly. Again Mark and Tom joined us on bike for segments of the final miles. Laura and Colleen walked some of it. They even had a Border Patrol helicopter get on the loudspeaker and whistle at them. A nice touch and helps the female ego too. We finally made the border by 1:30pm, 53 days after we started, 2,493 trail miles (probably closer to 2,600 actual miles) from Roosville, MT. We did it, we actually rode our bikes from Canada to Mexico!
As a final note I have a few comments and insights. First the strain a trip like this puts on your family is substantial. This trip is only a small taste of what our military families go through while their loved ones are deployed. Second the only way a trip like this works is through the grace of God, so many things can happen along the way to cause it to derail. Third the American people are really wonderful to experience, all you have to do is get on a bike, pull a trailer, and wear strange looking clothes to strike up interesting conversations everywhere. Fourth and finally, the generosity of so many people have made it worth every mile. So many folks gave that we hit our revised goal of raising over $40,000 for the wounded. A heartfelt thanks to all of you and all of it goes to supporting them that have served us so heroically.
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Sunday, September 19, 2010
Thursday - Saturday, September 16th - 18th
It was hard to leave Pie Town and the nice accommodations we had right on the route but didn't leave town until we had breakfast at the Daily Pie Cafe and of course one last slice of pie a la mode. With the new map John did his usual daily objective planning and filled us in on what the terrain was going to be like. We wanted to get a start on the 180 miles to Silver City which we planned on enough food for four days, three overnights. We also loaded up on water knowing that the first 2 days would not offer ready water sources. Mike filled his 5 gallon container with about 2-3 gallons adding a lot of weight to his trailer, I didn't realize how much he had brought until much later in the day. About 6 miles outside of Pie Town we ran across a guy walking on the road in full camo. Turns out he was a guide walking back to his truck with blood all over his arms, well above his elbows. Guess the bow hunters really are getting their elk, have run across so many in the last 3 weeks with many indicating they have been successful. The three of us kept plugging away and finally hit the 30 mile mark by lunch time and Continental Divide crossing #23 at about 8,100 feet. Heading off that summit we had a bumpy and rocky ride down, Mike especially was adjusting to these runs, John and I thought it was all in a normal day riding. At the bottom of this run we had about another 20 miles of rolling dirt roads through a basin.
After a refueling stop to get us the final 10 miles with about 5 miles of climbing John and I kept pedaling ahead, getting slightly in front of Mike. We stopped at an intersection of roads and waited for Mike, after about 10 minutes of waiting I was about to unhitch my trailer and go back to look for him when we saw him pedaling up. Seems Mike's back wheel came off on a small down hill run and the axel was bent where the tailed attaches. Couldn't really understand how that happened unless during one of the many flat tire changes 2 days ago the wheel was not tight enough on the back. Either way Mike took a nasty fall while going down hill when the wheel came off. He ended up wrenching his back further (already having hurt it several weeks prior to the trip lifting cement bags). Mike was in a lot of pain, but we could not camp where we were so I took his heavy water bag on my trailer, which helped but still there was a lot of pain. About 5 miles later we got to our campsite for the night. Mike took a pain killer from John and then later before bed a muscle relaxer. We all hit the sack by 9 pm.
Friday morning we checked on Mike's progress, which really hadn't changed much. We wet a target to get Mike out with the only likely place 40 miles down the road with several climbs and a lot of bumpy riding. Immediately upon setting out Mike was looking to get off the bike and get the pain minimized. After 5 miles he was busted and couldn't go any further. At that point a truck was coming up the hill and we waived him down. He was heading home early from bow hunting as his 4 year old son was sick and had chronic kidney problems. It was clear that Alan was a blessing for Mike as we loaded up his bike and trailer into the back of Alan's truck. Also amazing are the shirts that Rosie left with John and I with "Alan's Angels" on it. God sure does work in interesting and unexpected ways. Alan took care of Mike and helped get him on his way back to Albuquerque and then to Austin. We were sorry to see Mike go but with the climbing we still had to do to get to Silver City it was a blessing that he was able to get a ride from the middle of Gila National Forest out so readily. John and I put another 60 miles on before calling it quits. A lot of climbing and a lot rocky descents, both of which would have taken Mike to the brink.
Saturday started with a steep rocky climb that reminded us the days in Montana. After getting to the top we made a Continental Divide crossing, now up #27. By noon we had put around 30 miles behind us and stopped for bar-be-que a couple of miles outside of Mimbres. It was great all home cooked, very filling and with desert would fuel us to Silver City. Also got to have more conversations with ranchers eating next to us. Always asking questions, got the answer of his biggest problem, people that use the roads that go over his ranch causing issues from shooting cattle to just tearing up the landscape. We got back on our bikes to find my trailer tire flat again. Tried pumping it up but only lasted a mile so put a patch on top of a patch which worked for several miles. Ends up I was constantly stopping every 2 miles to pump up the trailer tire. Tried a third patch and that didn't work either so just stopped to pump it up every 2 miles. Finally got to Silver City and immediately went to the first store we saw, Ace Hardware and bought all the small tubes they had, which was three. Given we reached Silver City a day earlier than planned and everyone is flying or driving in on Monday to greet us at the border of Mexico we took a rest day.
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It was hard to leave Pie Town and the nice accommodations we had right on the route but didn't leave town until we had breakfast at the Daily Pie Cafe and of course one last slice of pie a la mode. With the new map John did his usual daily objective planning and filled us in on what the terrain was going to be like. We wanted to get a start on the 180 miles to Silver City which we planned on enough food for four days, three overnights. We also loaded up on water knowing that the first 2 days would not offer ready water sources. Mike filled his 5 gallon container with about 2-3 gallons adding a lot of weight to his trailer, I didn't realize how much he had brought until much later in the day. About 6 miles outside of Pie Town we ran across a guy walking on the road in full camo. Turns out he was a guide walking back to his truck with blood all over his arms, well above his elbows. Guess the bow hunters really are getting their elk, have run across so many in the last 3 weeks with many indicating they have been successful. The three of us kept plugging away and finally hit the 30 mile mark by lunch time and Continental Divide crossing #23 at about 8,100 feet. Heading off that summit we had a bumpy and rocky ride down, Mike especially was adjusting to these runs, John and I thought it was all in a normal day riding. At the bottom of this run we had about another 20 miles of rolling dirt roads through a basin.
After a refueling stop to get us the final 10 miles with about 5 miles of climbing John and I kept pedaling ahead, getting slightly in front of Mike. We stopped at an intersection of roads and waited for Mike, after about 10 minutes of waiting I was about to unhitch my trailer and go back to look for him when we saw him pedaling up. Seems Mike's back wheel came off on a small down hill run and the axel was bent where the tailed attaches. Couldn't really understand how that happened unless during one of the many flat tire changes 2 days ago the wheel was not tight enough on the back. Either way Mike took a nasty fall while going down hill when the wheel came off. He ended up wrenching his back further (already having hurt it several weeks prior to the trip lifting cement bags). Mike was in a lot of pain, but we could not camp where we were so I took his heavy water bag on my trailer, which helped but still there was a lot of pain. About 5 miles later we got to our campsite for the night. Mike took a pain killer from John and then later before bed a muscle relaxer. We all hit the sack by 9 pm.
Friday morning we checked on Mike's progress, which really hadn't changed much. We wet a target to get Mike out with the only likely place 40 miles down the road with several climbs and a lot of bumpy riding. Immediately upon setting out Mike was looking to get off the bike and get the pain minimized. After 5 miles he was busted and couldn't go any further. At that point a truck was coming up the hill and we waived him down. He was heading home early from bow hunting as his 4 year old son was sick and had chronic kidney problems. It was clear that Alan was a blessing for Mike as we loaded up his bike and trailer into the back of Alan's truck. Also amazing are the shirts that Rosie left with John and I with "Alan's Angels" on it. God sure does work in interesting and unexpected ways. Alan took care of Mike and helped get him on his way back to Albuquerque and then to Austin. We were sorry to see Mike go but with the climbing we still had to do to get to Silver City it was a blessing that he was able to get a ride from the middle of Gila National Forest out so readily. John and I put another 60 miles on before calling it quits. A lot of climbing and a lot rocky descents, both of which would have taken Mike to the brink.
Saturday started with a steep rocky climb that reminded us the days in Montana. After getting to the top we made a Continental Divide crossing, now up #27. By noon we had put around 30 miles behind us and stopped for bar-be-que a couple of miles outside of Mimbres. It was great all home cooked, very filling and with desert would fuel us to Silver City. Also got to have more conversations with ranchers eating next to us. Always asking questions, got the answer of his biggest problem, people that use the roads that go over his ranch causing issues from shooting cattle to just tearing up the landscape. We got back on our bikes to find my trailer tire flat again. Tried pumping it up but only lasted a mile so put a patch on top of a patch which worked for several miles. Ends up I was constantly stopping every 2 miles to pump up the trailer tire. Tried a third patch and that didn't work either so just stopped to pump it up every 2 miles. Finally got to Silver City and immediately went to the first store we saw, Ace Hardware and bought all the small tubes they had, which was three. Given we reached Silver City a day earlier than planned and everyone is flying or driving in on Monday to greet us at the border of Mexico we took a rest day.
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
Monday - Wednesday, September 13th-15th
John and I needed a rest day in Grants and the new Holiday Inn Express was just the place. It also worked great for Mike Jackson to meet us there instead of somewhere on the route and then camp out. I got all my catch up things done in the morning and waited for Mike and his wounded warrior in the lobby. They walked in about 1:30pm, but it wasn't any veteran with him, Rosie Babin, the founder of Healing Americas Heroes and mom to Alan Babin a purple heart, severely wounded veteran of the Iraq War was with Mike. I could not have been more surprised, for Rosie to get take time off from her incredibly busy schedule to come out to Grants, New Mexico was a treat and an honor. Thanks Rosie, both John and I were really touched as we have been praying and talking to others about HAH for the last 6 weeks and to have you come out to see us was tremendous.
Tuesday the three of us got a late start from the hotel but not too late as to still do 60 miles or so for the day. Clearing town without any dog attacks or chasings, we headed through Zuni Canyon on an old railroad track converted many years ago to a road. We like those type of roads because they have a very slight grade uphill and are easy to climb. Not too far into the ride I got my first flat of the trip, 2100 miles and no flat tires. Had to eventually use a tube on it as my goo was not sufficient to plug it. After lunch the three of us headed on, the road was relatively flat but rocky with volcanic rocks and some sand. We had to go off road to get around a small lake that formed over the road. That is where our trouble began, within minutes Mike had a flat back tire. Fixed that one then his front tire went flat, fixed that one twice as the tube was defective. Got back on the bikes and in about 20 minutes Mike had another flat tire! There were goat heads (spurs) everywhere on the road. Using the pliers the I just bought the day before and just happened to keep with me, we were pulling them out of the tires left and right. Mike had a total of 4 flat tires, I had another flat front tire and the my trailer tire went. John's trailer tire went flat a little later, all told for the day we had 8 flat tires! We still managed to put in 60 miles but at dusk it forced us to camp in a briar-filled (and the usual cow manure) field next to the road. Of course John and I blamed all the bad luck on Mike joining us, as they say in Vegas he was the "cooler". Oh yea, almost forgot, Mike crashed twice towards the end of the day, soft sand in the road took him down as if an NFL lineman clotheslined him trying to run up the middle.
Wednesday we had to fix the flats that were still with us, thankfully the road we were on with all the spurs was only another half mile. To reach our target for the day, Pie Town, was only 35 miles of rolling hills, good terrain for the rookie to get accustom to pulling a trailer and negotiating the varying road surfaces. We made it to Pie Town in time to get lunch at the Daily Pie Cafe and have several servings of different pies, there really is a lot of pie eaten in Pie Town and they take their pie making seriously. John had three pieces, Mike one and I had two. An another amazing thing about Pie Town for those hiking, biking, or motorcycling the Great Divide Trail is the generosity of Nita Toaster who leaves her house completely open for those on that route, just leave a donation and the house is yours for the evening! The three of us were joined by three Canadians from Calgary doing the same route we are but on motorcycles. Great guys to meet up with, we slept inside on the beds and they slept on the porch. We keep saying it but you really do experience the nicest people on a trip like this. Pie Town also is the point on the route where we open our last map, Section 6, for the final 303 miles to Antelope Wells an the Mexico border. Hard to believe we have done 2200 miles of the route!
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John and I needed a rest day in Grants and the new Holiday Inn Express was just the place. It also worked great for Mike Jackson to meet us there instead of somewhere on the route and then camp out. I got all my catch up things done in the morning and waited for Mike and his wounded warrior in the lobby. They walked in about 1:30pm, but it wasn't any veteran with him, Rosie Babin, the founder of Healing Americas Heroes and mom to Alan Babin a purple heart, severely wounded veteran of the Iraq War was with Mike. I could not have been more surprised, for Rosie to get take time off from her incredibly busy schedule to come out to Grants, New Mexico was a treat and an honor. Thanks Rosie, both John and I were really touched as we have been praying and talking to others about HAH for the last 6 weeks and to have you come out to see us was tremendous.
Tuesday the three of us got a late start from the hotel but not too late as to still do 60 miles or so for the day. Clearing town without any dog attacks or chasings, we headed through Zuni Canyon on an old railroad track converted many years ago to a road. We like those type of roads because they have a very slight grade uphill and are easy to climb. Not too far into the ride I got my first flat of the trip, 2100 miles and no flat tires. Had to eventually use a tube on it as my goo was not sufficient to plug it. After lunch the three of us headed on, the road was relatively flat but rocky with volcanic rocks and some sand. We had to go off road to get around a small lake that formed over the road. That is where our trouble began, within minutes Mike had a flat back tire. Fixed that one then his front tire went flat, fixed that one twice as the tube was defective. Got back on the bikes and in about 20 minutes Mike had another flat tire! There were goat heads (spurs) everywhere on the road. Using the pliers the I just bought the day before and just happened to keep with me, we were pulling them out of the tires left and right. Mike had a total of 4 flat tires, I had another flat front tire and the my trailer tire went. John's trailer tire went flat a little later, all told for the day we had 8 flat tires! We still managed to put in 60 miles but at dusk it forced us to camp in a briar-filled (and the usual cow manure) field next to the road. Of course John and I blamed all the bad luck on Mike joining us, as they say in Vegas he was the "cooler". Oh yea, almost forgot, Mike crashed twice towards the end of the day, soft sand in the road took him down as if an NFL lineman clotheslined him trying to run up the middle.
Wednesday we had to fix the flats that were still with us, thankfully the road we were on with all the spurs was only another half mile. To reach our target for the day, Pie Town, was only 35 miles of rolling hills, good terrain for the rookie to get accustom to pulling a trailer and negotiating the varying road surfaces. We made it to Pie Town in time to get lunch at the Daily Pie Cafe and have several servings of different pies, there really is a lot of pie eaten in Pie Town and they take their pie making seriously. John had three pieces, Mike one and I had two. An another amazing thing about Pie Town for those hiking, biking, or motorcycling the Great Divide Trail is the generosity of Nita Toaster who leaves her house completely open for those on that route, just leave a donation and the house is yours for the evening! The three of us were joined by three Canadians from Calgary doing the same route we are but on motorcycles. Great guys to meet up with, we slept inside on the beds and they slept on the porch. We keep saying it but you really do experience the nicest people on a trip like this. Pie Town also is the point on the route where we open our last map, Section 6, for the final 303 miles to Antelope Wells an the Mexico border. Hard to believe we have done 2200 miles of the route!
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Monday, September 13, 2010
Saturday and Sunday, September 11th and 12th
Cuba, NM is another one-road town in a fairly arid section of northern New Mexico about 50 miles from Santa Fe as a crow flies. We had our pancake breakfast for long lasting energy and got off around 9am, after it had warmed up some. The first 15 miles went fast with a downhill bent and a good gravel road later on. Things got a little more challenging when we turned further south and started to encounter the dreaded soft sand. This stuff requires a lot of balance and focus to get through without crashing. Seems I had that for the first part of the day, but not for the second part. After lunch towards the end of our ride hit the soft sand again but this time couldn't control the front wheel and crashed on my side. No real damage done just my confidence singed a little. All long the route we had immense vistas of the high desert - mesas, volcanic plugs, arroyos, cactus - a coalescency of what makes a desert. After 72 miles of riding we stopped above a washed out creek by the side of the dirt road. Camping in the desert is a unique experience, pitching a tent happens quickly and the heat turns to cool right when the sun starts down and the moisture that usual requires drying out is not there in the morning. The extra water I had packed for the trip leaked all through my bag getting my sleeping bag, mat, and towel wet. All but the towel dried before bedtime. The issue then became that we didn't have enough of a cushion on water to reach Grants, NM the next day.
Sunday woke to a beautiful sunrise and a dry tent and a worry of water. Didn't have the usual oatmeal breakfast but had bars instead to conserve water. Hit the road around 8 am with ups and downs through arroyos. Our target for lunch was the San Mateo spring, a good climb from the desert. Along the way checked out some cattle troughs to see if we should pump some water, all of them were so incredibly filthy that decided to wait. Came across some cattle by the road, they were eating grass and then saw us and started stampeding (still don't get what we do or look like that makes them spook out by bicycle riders). They ran along side of us for a while then started crossing the road just ahead of us, jumping the guard rail, getting caught on it, falling in the road. I was scared one of them would bust a leg, but all got over and ran off.
John and I were starting our climb to the springs when we stopped a pick-up asking for water, they gave us what they had, one full bottle, and then showed us the spike elk they killed with a bow a couple of hours earlier, it was as big as a horse. Initially it wasn't apparent where to find water at San Mateo Springs. John walked up the hill about a quarter of a mile and found some cool, clean water that easily got us to Grants. Given the long day before in the sand John and I were whipped going up the mountain. I think we needed a rest day for the last eight days or so of riding until the end. Our bodies were telling us no more for now. Less than 400 miles to go and Mike Jackson from Austin, TX will be joining us for the last leg to the Mexico border.
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Cuba, NM is another one-road town in a fairly arid section of northern New Mexico about 50 miles from Santa Fe as a crow flies. We had our pancake breakfast for long lasting energy and got off around 9am, after it had warmed up some. The first 15 miles went fast with a downhill bent and a good gravel road later on. Things got a little more challenging when we turned further south and started to encounter the dreaded soft sand. This stuff requires a lot of balance and focus to get through without crashing. Seems I had that for the first part of the day, but not for the second part. After lunch towards the end of our ride hit the soft sand again but this time couldn't control the front wheel and crashed on my side. No real damage done just my confidence singed a little. All long the route we had immense vistas of the high desert - mesas, volcanic plugs, arroyos, cactus - a coalescency of what makes a desert. After 72 miles of riding we stopped above a washed out creek by the side of the dirt road. Camping in the desert is a unique experience, pitching a tent happens quickly and the heat turns to cool right when the sun starts down and the moisture that usual requires drying out is not there in the morning. The extra water I had packed for the trip leaked all through my bag getting my sleeping bag, mat, and towel wet. All but the towel dried before bedtime. The issue then became that we didn't have enough of a cushion on water to reach Grants, NM the next day.
Sunday woke to a beautiful sunrise and a dry tent and a worry of water. Didn't have the usual oatmeal breakfast but had bars instead to conserve water. Hit the road around 8 am with ups and downs through arroyos. Our target for lunch was the San Mateo spring, a good climb from the desert. Along the way checked out some cattle troughs to see if we should pump some water, all of them were so incredibly filthy that decided to wait. Came across some cattle by the road, they were eating grass and then saw us and started stampeding (still don't get what we do or look like that makes them spook out by bicycle riders). They ran along side of us for a while then started crossing the road just ahead of us, jumping the guard rail, getting caught on it, falling in the road. I was scared one of them would bust a leg, but all got over and ran off.
John and I were starting our climb to the springs when we stopped a pick-up asking for water, they gave us what they had, one full bottle, and then showed us the spike elk they killed with a bow a couple of hours earlier, it was as big as a horse. Initially it wasn't apparent where to find water at San Mateo Springs. John walked up the hill about a quarter of a mile and found some cool, clean water that easily got us to Grants. Given the long day before in the sand John and I were whipped going up the mountain. I think we needed a rest day for the last eight days or so of riding until the end. Our bodies were telling us no more for now. Less than 400 miles to go and Mike Jackson from Austin, TX will be joining us for the last leg to the Mexico border.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday and Friday, September 9th and 10th
Had a great breakfast of 3 big pancakes, this is tremendous stick-with-you fuel for a long ascending mountain bike ride. Got a little late start as we mailed back the excess stuff John and I had been carrying for 2,000 miles, guess it takes a while for us to catch on to what you absolutely need. John had a huge amount of water he was carrying because we knew we couldn't make Cuba in one day, particularly given the tough climb. The countryside is short shrubby trees, rocks and sparse grass, a fairly arid typical New Mexico looking scene. We made our first mesa in good order, but after that it turned steep and rocky for a short segment, a prelude to our climb later in the day. As we turned up a long sand and limestone climb had a B1 Bomber jet fly 1,000 feet right over us. Just came out of the blue, in fact we were so startled by it, couldn't figure out what the noise was until it was right over us. Strange to be struggling up a hill and have a huge jet just buzz above you out of nowhere.
John reads a lot about other riders and especially about the Great Divide Racers that go from Banff to Antelope Wells every year starting around June 10th. There is a segment of the route that is called the "GDMBR (Great Divide Mountain Bike Route) Rights of Passage", the reason being is it is fairly steep, ridable, but technically challenging with loose baseball-sized rocks, loose gravel, etc. You get the GDMBR Rights of Passage seal of approval if you can make it up this climb riding. Well of course I wouldn't have written all this description if we didn't make it, so we got it! We have achieved the exclusive list. John did it pulling an extra 10 pounds of water up the mountain too.
Riding this segment I had several observations. One the market share winner in New Mexico is clearly Bud Light, saw so many of those cans by the side of the road it was hard not to notice. Another once we left Abiquiu we did not get passed either way by a vehicle of any type for 8 hours, not one. Finally I am still trying to figure out why a road would be rough at the top and graded and improved in the middle and then completely washed out and never improved at the bottom. On this road we were coming down towards twilight hitting huge ruts, big rocks and more baseball-sized loose rocks when it happened . . . another crash. This time John hit a big rut he couldn't see well and went right over the top of his handlebars. I was further down the road and missed it but was waiting for him to catch up and knew something was up, it was taking too long. He finally came down and explained what happened, fell right on his helmet, got a small bloody knee but everything else was ok. Shortly after that segment we found a place to camp, for an entire day of a riding with no goofing off we still only rode 42 miles, which underscores how rough the terrain was and how much climbing we had to do.
Friday we hoped would be an easier day, which turned out to be the case but it is never as easy as we envision. There was still the up and down areas, but the roads were better. We polished off the final 38 miles into Cuba without incident, checked into the motel and started the routine of bath, food, catching up and laundry. A cold front had moved in the night before and it was unseasonably cold for this time of year. When camping in the mountains we woke up to a lot of frost on our tents and needed to put them in the sun to dry them out. At this point it looks like we only have about 10 days left to get this journey complete. We had expected New Mexico to be a breeze but as with segment of this trek they all have their unique challenges. Oh yea, bought some wasp spray, going to be prepared for the dogs in the future that come charging after us!
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Had a great breakfast of 3 big pancakes, this is tremendous stick-with-you fuel for a long ascending mountain bike ride. Got a little late start as we mailed back the excess stuff John and I had been carrying for 2,000 miles, guess it takes a while for us to catch on to what you absolutely need. John had a huge amount of water he was carrying because we knew we couldn't make Cuba in one day, particularly given the tough climb. The countryside is short shrubby trees, rocks and sparse grass, a fairly arid typical New Mexico looking scene. We made our first mesa in good order, but after that it turned steep and rocky for a short segment, a prelude to our climb later in the day. As we turned up a long sand and limestone climb had a B1 Bomber jet fly 1,000 feet right over us. Just came out of the blue, in fact we were so startled by it, couldn't figure out what the noise was until it was right over us. Strange to be struggling up a hill and have a huge jet just buzz above you out of nowhere.
John reads a lot about other riders and especially about the Great Divide Racers that go from Banff to Antelope Wells every year starting around June 10th. There is a segment of the route that is called the "GDMBR (Great Divide Mountain Bike Route) Rights of Passage", the reason being is it is fairly steep, ridable, but technically challenging with loose baseball-sized rocks, loose gravel, etc. You get the GDMBR Rights of Passage seal of approval if you can make it up this climb riding. Well of course I wouldn't have written all this description if we didn't make it, so we got it! We have achieved the exclusive list. John did it pulling an extra 10 pounds of water up the mountain too.
Riding this segment I had several observations. One the market share winner in New Mexico is clearly Bud Light, saw so many of those cans by the side of the road it was hard not to notice. Another once we left Abiquiu we did not get passed either way by a vehicle of any type for 8 hours, not one. Finally I am still trying to figure out why a road would be rough at the top and graded and improved in the middle and then completely washed out and never improved at the bottom. On this road we were coming down towards twilight hitting huge ruts, big rocks and more baseball-sized loose rocks when it happened . . . another crash. This time John hit a big rut he couldn't see well and went right over the top of his handlebars. I was further down the road and missed it but was waiting for him to catch up and knew something was up, it was taking too long. He finally came down and explained what happened, fell right on his helmet, got a small bloody knee but everything else was ok. Shortly after that segment we found a place to camp, for an entire day of a riding with no goofing off we still only rode 42 miles, which underscores how rough the terrain was and how much climbing we had to do.
Friday we hoped would be an easier day, which turned out to be the case but it is never as easy as we envision. There was still the up and down areas, but the roads were better. We polished off the final 38 miles into Cuba without incident, checked into the motel and started the routine of bath, food, catching up and laundry. A cold front had moved in the night before and it was unseasonably cold for this time of year. When camping in the mountains we woke up to a lot of frost on our tents and needed to put them in the sun to dry them out. At this point it looks like we only have about 10 days left to get this journey complete. We had expected New Mexico to be a breeze but as with segment of this trek they all have their unique challenges. Oh yea, bought some wasp spray, going to be prepared for the dogs in the future that come charging after us!
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Monday - Wednesday, September 6-8
THe half of a Platoro trailer home we slept in Sunday night was comfortable, a lot more so than braving the wind and cold in the high San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Started a little late at 9am but got to enjoy the conversation of a local old timer at breakfast. He fixes flats for those coming off Stunner Pass and has as much business as he can handle. Also guides for fishing and when the town shuts down for the winter drives a truck further down the valley. Sure do meet all kinds of people on a trip like this. He did warn us about the cattle in the road, which on our long pleasant descent down to Horca we ran into a calf nursing from it's momma in the middle of the road, oblivious to the traffic having to maneuver around them. Cattle do not know what to make of bicycle riders, they are very accustom to motorized vehicles, but us bikers just scare the hell out of them. We made Horca in record time, about 2 hours for 23 miles to find the one store/restaurant still closed, we were 15 minutes early, so utilized their WiFi to get some business done, still no cell coverage. Our target for the day was to enter New Mexico and get to the Lagunitas campground, about 55 miles from Platoro. John and I did that but it was a bigger effort than expected as the roads turn much rougher in New Mexico than Colorado, seems they just don't have the money or desire to keep their dirt roads in good shape. We made our target by dusk and ran into the guy from San Diego, Alex we had last seen in Del Norte. Pitching our tents quickly, we re able to get some water from bow hunters next to us who had a 50 gallon container of water, never seen anyone bring that much to go camping but sure did come in handy. Again we see the hand of God helping us through our day, really is amazing when you look for it.
Tuesday the three of us left camp for a long ride to El Rito excited about a hotel and shower and a few beers. Forty-five minutes into the ride we hit some very gravely road, Alex being male and 23 years was descending these inclines rapidly, he hit some loose gravel at the bottom of a run, lost control and went careening off the road barely missing a deep ditch. He also didn't have his helmet on, good thing he was in on the morning prayer, only came out with a nice strawberry scrap on his arm. The accident bent the plate that holds his back derailleur, luckily he had another plate having done it before and replaced the bent one, seems these crashes are not unusual for him. John administered to his wound while I got him another part for his trailer so it could attach to the bike. All fixed up we were off with more climbing and descending until lunch. Alex stuck with us until about 2pm then took off to make El Rito earlier, we were holding him back.
Ok a mea culpa, the El Rito day, 75 miles a lot of up and down, was my "wall day" just couldn't put it together, John was kicking my butt on climbs and having to wait up for me. I didn't have the juice, the vigor, the verve, the zip. We made it to El Rito but it was a lot of effort. Of course on the last summit we got rained on, a little cold but fortunately there was not enough precipitation to get the road really muddy. New Mexico is notorious for mud among the Great Divide Riders.
We entered a small community called Vallecitos, more like a third world country (as John put it), just before our last climb to get to El Rito. Heading into a close set of houses I noticed a lot of "beware of dog signs" as if there was something to protect, but have never seen so many in such a small area, everyone had one. Well the inevitable happened, two of them lit out of a driveway after John who was ahead of me. The muscular small brown one bit John on the leg, scraping the skin and drawing a little blood. The owner was already out of his house trying to get the dogs back in, luckily John didn't go down this time. His strategy of not making eye contact with the dog and riding at a moderate speed didn't work this time. It also is apparent we have more to worry about in neighborhoods than in the wild, at least wild animals don't chase after you. Also New Mexico for some reason is the dog chasing capital of the country, we have been harassed more by dogs in this state than anywhere else and we aren't even a quarter through it yet! At least the owner was nice enough to track John down with some hydrogen peroxide and indicated the dog was up to date on his shots. I suspect this is not the first time this dog has bitten someone. Too bad for John on this trip all of his blood drawing accidents have come from dog encounters.
We made our El Rito objective by 7:30pm, only to find it is a mostly abandon town with a forest ranger office and one open restaurant. Alex's bike was in front so we stopped in to see what was going on. Where were the bar and the hotel? Turns out there isn't any of that in El Rito. So we ate our Mexican food with no beer and started looking for a place to camp. The closest campsite was 4 miles back up the road, which both John and I nixed instantly. Our waiter took pity on us and let us camp in his backyard next to the restaurant, which also doubled as an aluminum can repository. John and I took him up on the offer, although I could tell that I was going to get minimal sleep time. Ends up that was the case with a lot of shouting going on until 1am and the the dogs would start barking and the howling. Finally got to sleep after 3am, John slept fine.
Wednesday was a very short ride day, only 16 miles down to Abiquiu and to the only inn in the town, the Abiquiu Inn which is the launching place for all of the studio tours and especially Georgia O'Keeffe, which as it turns out Tom Lafleur our friend from San Diego met many years ago. We took a mostly rest day which I needed and John went to have his dog bite checked. The inn is nice with a veranda that had WiFi, so I spent most of my time out there. We are resting up for the big, rocky climb tomorrow and the last steep one of the trip (at least I am hoping so).
THe half of a Platoro trailer home we slept in Sunday night was comfortable, a lot more so than braving the wind and cold in the high San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Started a little late at 9am but got to enjoy the conversation of a local old timer at breakfast. He fixes flats for those coming off Stunner Pass and has as much business as he can handle. Also guides for fishing and when the town shuts down for the winter drives a truck further down the valley. Sure do meet all kinds of people on a trip like this. He did warn us about the cattle in the road, which on our long pleasant descent down to Horca we ran into a calf nursing from it's momma in the middle of the road, oblivious to the traffic having to maneuver around them. Cattle do not know what to make of bicycle riders, they are very accustom to motorized vehicles, but us bikers just scare the hell out of them. We made Horca in record time, about 2 hours for 23 miles to find the one store/restaurant still closed, we were 15 minutes early, so utilized their WiFi to get some business done, still no cell coverage. Our target for the day was to enter New Mexico and get to the Lagunitas campground, about 55 miles from Platoro. John and I did that but it was a bigger effort than expected as the roads turn much rougher in New Mexico than Colorado, seems they just don't have the money or desire to keep their dirt roads in good shape. We made our target by dusk and ran into the guy from San Diego, Alex we had last seen in Del Norte. Pitching our tents quickly, we re able to get some water from bow hunters next to us who had a 50 gallon container of water, never seen anyone bring that much to go camping but sure did come in handy. Again we see the hand of God helping us through our day, really is amazing when you look for it.
Tuesday the three of us left camp for a long ride to El Rito excited about a hotel and shower and a few beers. Forty-five minutes into the ride we hit some very gravely road, Alex being male and 23 years was descending these inclines rapidly, he hit some loose gravel at the bottom of a run, lost control and went careening off the road barely missing a deep ditch. He also didn't have his helmet on, good thing he was in on the morning prayer, only came out with a nice strawberry scrap on his arm. The accident bent the plate that holds his back derailleur, luckily he had another plate having done it before and replaced the bent one, seems these crashes are not unusual for him. John administered to his wound while I got him another part for his trailer so it could attach to the bike. All fixed up we were off with more climbing and descending until lunch. Alex stuck with us until about 2pm then took off to make El Rito earlier, we were holding him back.
Ok a mea culpa, the El Rito day, 75 miles a lot of up and down, was my "wall day" just couldn't put it together, John was kicking my butt on climbs and having to wait up for me. I didn't have the juice, the vigor, the verve, the zip. We made it to El Rito but it was a lot of effort. Of course on the last summit we got rained on, a little cold but fortunately there was not enough precipitation to get the road really muddy. New Mexico is notorious for mud among the Great Divide Riders.
We entered a small community called Vallecitos, more like a third world country (as John put it), just before our last climb to get to El Rito. Heading into a close set of houses I noticed a lot of "beware of dog signs" as if there was something to protect, but have never seen so many in such a small area, everyone had one. Well the inevitable happened, two of them lit out of a driveway after John who was ahead of me. The muscular small brown one bit John on the leg, scraping the skin and drawing a little blood. The owner was already out of his house trying to get the dogs back in, luckily John didn't go down this time. His strategy of not making eye contact with the dog and riding at a moderate speed didn't work this time. It also is apparent we have more to worry about in neighborhoods than in the wild, at least wild animals don't chase after you. Also New Mexico for some reason is the dog chasing capital of the country, we have been harassed more by dogs in this state than anywhere else and we aren't even a quarter through it yet! At least the owner was nice enough to track John down with some hydrogen peroxide and indicated the dog was up to date on his shots. I suspect this is not the first time this dog has bitten someone. Too bad for John on this trip all of his blood drawing accidents have come from dog encounters.
We made our El Rito objective by 7:30pm, only to find it is a mostly abandon town with a forest ranger office and one open restaurant. Alex's bike was in front so we stopped in to see what was going on. Where were the bar and the hotel? Turns out there isn't any of that in El Rito. So we ate our Mexican food with no beer and started looking for a place to camp. The closest campsite was 4 miles back up the road, which both John and I nixed instantly. Our waiter took pity on us and let us camp in his backyard next to the restaurant, which also doubled as an aluminum can repository. John and I took him up on the offer, although I could tell that I was going to get minimal sleep time. Ends up that was the case with a lot of shouting going on until 1am and the the dogs would start barking and the howling. Finally got to sleep after 3am, John slept fine.
Wednesday was a very short ride day, only 16 miles down to Abiquiu and to the only inn in the town, the Abiquiu Inn which is the launching place for all of the studio tours and especially Georgia O'Keeffe, which as it turns out Tom Lafleur our friend from San Diego met many years ago. We took a mostly rest day which I needed and John went to have his dog bite checked. The inn is nice with a veranda that had WiFi, so I spent most of my time out there. We are resting up for the big, rocky climb tomorrow and the last steep one of the trip (at least I am hoping so).
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, September 5th
Del Norte is a small one road town in a valley with a few banks, gas stations, sundry shops, one liquor store and a couple of cafes - the typical farm town of Colorado. It is also the start of a very long climb for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, about 24 miles of straight climbing to the the top of Indiana Pass (11,984 feet) and a total of almost 4,000 vertical feet of climbing. There is a picture via the link below that shows a house in the country flying the American flag high. I took this picture because we have passed hundreds of homes just like this out in the country flying flags high and proud. Sure wish other less devout Americans could see the love the people have for this country.
Starting at 8:30am it took us until 2pm to reach the pass, it was slow going with a lot of dust, wind and sweat. Right before reaching the top we saw the largest flock of sheep (and a few goats) that I have ever seen, must have been 400 or 500 of them on a steep slope over 12,000 feet in elevation. Heading down the other side of Indiana Pass did not give us the rewards for our long climb up, a short ride then climbing again but by now the wind was really whipping around us. Made it to Summitville a mostly ghost town of old mining buildings but with a huge stripping mining operation in full swing. The water was polluted from the mining and we didn't spend much time looking at the massive gouge taken from the mountain top.
The traffic the entire day was easily five times what we experienced the last several weeks, guess the Labor Day weekend had everyone out. Sure wish they would slow down when passing, I must have eaten a pound of dust yesterday. While I am complaining might as well through in the ATVs, they were everywhere and some must have thought there was a Indy 500 style race going on! The ATVs have an advantage of being able to zoom across rough terrain better than the bigger trucks or Jeeps and the drivers usually make use of it.
The objective was to stay in Platoro out of the wind and cold. Getting there took all day even though we only did 47 miles of the route, we climbed right at 6,000 feet of vertical. On the last climb coming into town we ran across a guy changing a flat, it was his second one on that road that day and told us of another driver that had three on the same road earlier in the day. The closest place to get a tire is about 30 miles away at a Walmart. Luckily we made it up and then down without any flats. Platoro is a unconnected community (no cell service or Internet) of almost all log cabins wedged into a very narrow valley. We checked into our half-of-a trailer cabin, showered, walked to dinner, and then hit the sack. Oh yea, tried to get a beer with dinner, closest place is 23 miles away. Finally this is the conclusion of the 4th map section, we are starting the 5th map tomorrow and will be leaving Colorado tomorrow and entering our 5th and final state, New Mexico. There is only 734 miles of the 2,493 mile trip left (71% of the trip is behind us).
Del Norte is a small one road town in a valley with a few banks, gas stations, sundry shops, one liquor store and a couple of cafes - the typical farm town of Colorado. It is also the start of a very long climb for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, about 24 miles of straight climbing to the the top of Indiana Pass (11,984 feet) and a total of almost 4,000 vertical feet of climbing. There is a picture via the link below that shows a house in the country flying the American flag high. I took this picture because we have passed hundreds of homes just like this out in the country flying flags high and proud. Sure wish other less devout Americans could see the love the people have for this country.
Starting at 8:30am it took us until 2pm to reach the pass, it was slow going with a lot of dust, wind and sweat. Right before reaching the top we saw the largest flock of sheep (and a few goats) that I have ever seen, must have been 400 or 500 of them on a steep slope over 12,000 feet in elevation. Heading down the other side of Indiana Pass did not give us the rewards for our long climb up, a short ride then climbing again but by now the wind was really whipping around us. Made it to Summitville a mostly ghost town of old mining buildings but with a huge stripping mining operation in full swing. The water was polluted from the mining and we didn't spend much time looking at the massive gouge taken from the mountain top.
The traffic the entire day was easily five times what we experienced the last several weeks, guess the Labor Day weekend had everyone out. Sure wish they would slow down when passing, I must have eaten a pound of dust yesterday. While I am complaining might as well through in the ATVs, they were everywhere and some must have thought there was a Indy 500 style race going on! The ATVs have an advantage of being able to zoom across rough terrain better than the bigger trucks or Jeeps and the drivers usually make use of it.
The objective was to stay in Platoro out of the wind and cold. Getting there took all day even though we only did 47 miles of the route, we climbed right at 6,000 feet of vertical. On the last climb coming into town we ran across a guy changing a flat, it was his second one on that road that day and told us of another driver that had three on the same road earlier in the day. The closest place to get a tire is about 30 miles away at a Walmart. Luckily we made it up and then down without any flats. Platoro is a unconnected community (no cell service or Internet) of almost all log cabins wedged into a very narrow valley. We checked into our half-of-a trailer cabin, showered, walked to dinner, and then hit the sack. Oh yea, tried to get a beer with dinner, closest place is 23 miles away. Finally this is the conclusion of the 4th map section, we are starting the 5th map tomorrow and will be leaving Colorado tomorrow and entering our 5th and final state, New Mexico. There is only 734 miles of the 2,493 mile trip left (71% of the trip is behind us).
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thursday -Saturday, September 2nd - 4th
It's been a while since I made a plug for our charity so will do it one more time. If you haven't made a pledge yet please do so at the link at the bottom of this entry, 100% of the money goes to helping support the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. Healing Americas Heroes is working tirelessly to help those returning with a range of services, please do what you can.
Thursday was a little shorter ride than we expected but the vertical was substantial as we climbed for roughly 20 miles straight outside of Salida, no downhill until about 4pm after cresting Marshall Pass (10,842 feet). Marshall Pass was named after a guy in the 1800's who crossed trying to get to a dentist in Denver. A combination of a late start and a lot of uphill climbing made the day only 44 miles. We ended up spending the night in Sargent, CO in cabins next to a cafe/gas station. Interestingly the last couple of days have been void of the pine beetle infestation that has put a huge hole in the forest of northern Colorado but not in the southern part. Got the answer from a guy deer hunting with a bow the other day . . . gets too cold for them to make it down here.
On Friday we were out a little late as it was still too cold to ride until about 9am. Leaving Sargent we made great time getting to Doylesville, but then had to climb for a very long time after that. The land is wide-open and with little ground cover and the wind started to come up. John and I put in 67 miles on Friday with only 3,500 vertical feet of climbing. We ended up spending the night in a small space next to the road in Rio Grande National Forest. We pitched our tents quickly amid the extensive cow poop and ate our delicious freeze-dried dinners. Hit the sack just before 9pm. It really is true what they say - "eat, sleep, ride the Great Divide.". There really isn't a lot of time for anything else.
Saturday was my 28th wedding anniversary! It was hard not being with Colleen, especially as she holds down the fort in Minneapolis, shouldering the entire load while I am away. Honey, thanks for being my wife and putting up with so much! Love you.
From the campsite there was a 9 mile climb up a mostly modest grade, John and I did it without stopping. With nothing to see at the Carnero Pass (10,166 feet) we went right down. La Garita was our target for lunch as there was a food symbol on the map. Sure encountered a lot of dust from mostly oncoming vehicles, virtually no one slowed down to minimize it either. Made the cafe in La Garita by noon. Towards the end of lunch a group of mountain bikers walked in, one of them even had their names on the map for Del Norte as a cyclists only lodging. Had a great conversation with them, unfortunately we had already lined up our lodging for Del Norte a few minutes before they walked in. On the way down to Del Norte, on a very rough road we encountered the same sand as in Idaho on the converted train track, thick, deep and requiring a lot of caution to get down. We both made it without falling although there were several close calls. At least this stretch of the route was only a mile not like the other one that was over 30 miles of sand, hard to believe we made through all that several weeks ago.
In Del Norte we ran into the only cyclist riding the Great Divide we have seen since the second day of the trip! Alex a 23 year old from San Diego is doing it alone, the other guy decided not to come so he set off alone. This is not a trek that I would like to do alone.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
It's been a while since I made a plug for our charity so will do it one more time. If you haven't made a pledge yet please do so at the link at the bottom of this entry, 100% of the money goes to helping support the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. Healing Americas Heroes is working tirelessly to help those returning with a range of services, please do what you can.
Thursday was a little shorter ride than we expected but the vertical was substantial as we climbed for roughly 20 miles straight outside of Salida, no downhill until about 4pm after cresting Marshall Pass (10,842 feet). Marshall Pass was named after a guy in the 1800's who crossed trying to get to a dentist in Denver. A combination of a late start and a lot of uphill climbing made the day only 44 miles. We ended up spending the night in Sargent, CO in cabins next to a cafe/gas station. Interestingly the last couple of days have been void of the pine beetle infestation that has put a huge hole in the forest of northern Colorado but not in the southern part. Got the answer from a guy deer hunting with a bow the other day . . . gets too cold for them to make it down here.
On Friday we were out a little late as it was still too cold to ride until about 9am. Leaving Sargent we made great time getting to Doylesville, but then had to climb for a very long time after that. The land is wide-open and with little ground cover and the wind started to come up. John and I put in 67 miles on Friday with only 3,500 vertical feet of climbing. We ended up spending the night in a small space next to the road in Rio Grande National Forest. We pitched our tents quickly amid the extensive cow poop and ate our delicious freeze-dried dinners. Hit the sack just before 9pm. It really is true what they say - "eat, sleep, ride the Great Divide.". There really isn't a lot of time for anything else.
Saturday was my 28th wedding anniversary! It was hard not being with Colleen, especially as she holds down the fort in Minneapolis, shouldering the entire load while I am away. Honey, thanks for being my wife and putting up with so much! Love you.
From the campsite there was a 9 mile climb up a mostly modest grade, John and I did it without stopping. With nothing to see at the Carnero Pass (10,166 feet) we went right down. La Garita was our target for lunch as there was a food symbol on the map. Sure encountered a lot of dust from mostly oncoming vehicles, virtually no one slowed down to minimize it either. Made the cafe in La Garita by noon. Towards the end of lunch a group of mountain bikers walked in, one of them even had their names on the map for Del Norte as a cyclists only lodging. Had a great conversation with them, unfortunately we had already lined up our lodging for Del Norte a few minutes before they walked in. On the way down to Del Norte, on a very rough road we encountered the same sand as in Idaho on the converted train track, thick, deep and requiring a lot of caution to get down. We both made it without falling although there were several close calls. At least this stretch of the route was only a mile not like the other one that was over 30 miles of sand, hard to believe we made through all that several weeks ago.
In Del Norte we ran into the only cyclist riding the Great Divide we have seen since the second day of the trip! Alex a 23 year old from San Diego is doing it alone, the other guy decided not to come so he set off alone. This is not a trek that I would like to do alone.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Sunday - Wednesday, August 29th - September 1st
Sunday was a short ride of about 17 miles from Silverthorn to Breckenridge, all on the bike path but worth doing as we went around Dillion Reservoir. Robert and Joe joined us for the entire ride, sure was a pleasure to have them along. I was still elated from Robert's surprise visit on a dirt road coming out of Radium, that memory will be with me for the rest of my life.
John and I needed a second rest day and took it in Breckenridge to let the bodies rest and to catch up on a lot of emails and other things. Spent all of Monday walking the town looking for various list items to get done. Got most of them checked off.
Tuesday we had a big climb up Boreas Pass, about 2,000 feet of vertical to 11,500 feet. Ended up this was one of our easiest climbs of the trip. The dirt road was originally a narrow gauge railroad bed built from 1880 to 1884 for mining and transportation from Como to Breckenridge and Leadville and beyond. The grade was gradual and we were not huffing and puffing to get up, wish all our climbs were like that. The views are something else, Mount Silverheels over 13,000 feet with multiple colors of green, red, and silver was spectacular. The descent was also long and gradual dropping us in Como, a town waiting to be reclaimed from abandonment 80 plus years ago. With nothing open we moved on. The rest of the ride was through rolling hills in a long wide open valley. The wind picked up and blew us sideways for a couple of hours. We stopped behind a hill for the usual lunch of gorp and jerky. Reached Hartsel, our planned stopping point by 4pm, a little early for terminating the day. Had buffalo burgers and a little ice cream and decided to keep going, there was no place to stay there anyway. While in the cafe a minister from San Antonio came in with his daughter and niece, struck up a conversation about what we were up to. Before he left we held hands in the middle of the cafe (we were the only customers) and he said a prayer for us. Really is amazing the people you meet on a trip like this.
Ended up pedaling another 14 miles to a place next to the road, with stubby grass, a lot of rocky soil and private land, we found some area to camp. John pitched his tent about 20 feet from the road. I put mine in the ditch on a small patch of grass hoping it wouldn't rain and that traffic would be minimal, had luck on both counts. Another reason for moving along that evening was I had a conference call at 3:30pm the next day, with only 35 miles to ride that was not going to be an issue, 50 miles would have been a little tight.
Wednesday we were out of our campsite by 8am with Salida as our destination. Made great time until we hit a watershed divide summit, which we have grown to view skeptically. The last couple of watershed divides have been bigger obstacles than the maps indicate and this one was no exception - a long climb with a sharp steep finale and at 9,800 feet. The descent to Salida provided us with a breathtaking view of the Sawatch Range with many peaks over 14,000 feet it is gorgeous. You have to look at the pictures to get the beauty of these mountains. Made it to Salida by 12:30pm, got a room and put the bikes in for final maintenance since there are no bike shops between Salida, CO and Mexico. My brakes and back tire had worn down to a point that the next 900 miles would exceed their usefulness. Also had to get a final resolution on my water filter pump which hadn't worked since A&M Reservoir way back in southern Wyoming. Had to buy a new one and ship the broken one back. We are going to need a pump for New Mexico as the water will be a bigger issue to filter. At Salida we have 62% of ride behind us and only a few hard climbs left. By the way, Salilda is an eclectic little town with a lot of art galleries, cafes and shops, worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Sunday was a short ride of about 17 miles from Silverthorn to Breckenridge, all on the bike path but worth doing as we went around Dillion Reservoir. Robert and Joe joined us for the entire ride, sure was a pleasure to have them along. I was still elated from Robert's surprise visit on a dirt road coming out of Radium, that memory will be with me for the rest of my life.
John and I needed a second rest day and took it in Breckenridge to let the bodies rest and to catch up on a lot of emails and other things. Spent all of Monday walking the town looking for various list items to get done. Got most of them checked off.
Tuesday we had a big climb up Boreas Pass, about 2,000 feet of vertical to 11,500 feet. Ended up this was one of our easiest climbs of the trip. The dirt road was originally a narrow gauge railroad bed built from 1880 to 1884 for mining and transportation from Como to Breckenridge and Leadville and beyond. The grade was gradual and we were not huffing and puffing to get up, wish all our climbs were like that. The views are something else, Mount Silverheels over 13,000 feet with multiple colors of green, red, and silver was spectacular. The descent was also long and gradual dropping us in Como, a town waiting to be reclaimed from abandonment 80 plus years ago. With nothing open we moved on. The rest of the ride was through rolling hills in a long wide open valley. The wind picked up and blew us sideways for a couple of hours. We stopped behind a hill for the usual lunch of gorp and jerky. Reached Hartsel, our planned stopping point by 4pm, a little early for terminating the day. Had buffalo burgers and a little ice cream and decided to keep going, there was no place to stay there anyway. While in the cafe a minister from San Antonio came in with his daughter and niece, struck up a conversation about what we were up to. Before he left we held hands in the middle of the cafe (we were the only customers) and he said a prayer for us. Really is amazing the people you meet on a trip like this.
Ended up pedaling another 14 miles to a place next to the road, with stubby grass, a lot of rocky soil and private land, we found some area to camp. John pitched his tent about 20 feet from the road. I put mine in the ditch on a small patch of grass hoping it wouldn't rain and that traffic would be minimal, had luck on both counts. Another reason for moving along that evening was I had a conference call at 3:30pm the next day, with only 35 miles to ride that was not going to be an issue, 50 miles would have been a little tight.
Wednesday we were out of our campsite by 8am with Salida as our destination. Made great time until we hit a watershed divide summit, which we have grown to view skeptically. The last couple of watershed divides have been bigger obstacles than the maps indicate and this one was no exception - a long climb with a sharp steep finale and at 9,800 feet. The descent to Salida provided us with a breathtaking view of the Sawatch Range with many peaks over 14,000 feet it is gorgeous. You have to look at the pictures to get the beauty of these mountains. Made it to Salida by 12:30pm, got a room and put the bikes in for final maintenance since there are no bike shops between Salida, CO and Mexico. My brakes and back tire had worn down to a point that the next 900 miles would exceed their usefulness. Also had to get a final resolution on my water filter pump which hadn't worked since A&M Reservoir way back in southern Wyoming. Had to buy a new one and ship the broken one back. We are going to need a pump for New Mexico as the water will be a bigger issue to filter. At Salida we have 62% of ride behind us and only a few hard climbs left. By the way, Salilda is an eclectic little town with a lot of art galleries, cafes and shops, worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday August 26-28
Thursday was a light day, left the Dutch Creek Guest Ranch late, around 10:30am for a mostly downhill run to Steamboat Springs. A little less than 30 miles and almost all on paved roads. We stopped at a section of County Road 62, John had done some research to determine roughly where David Blumenthal had his accident. This young man from Vermont, a racer in the Great Divide race this year, a husband and father of a young daughter died from running into a slow moving truck. We said a prayer for him, for his family that they will recover from this tragedy and that God will help them adjust to their new world on earth.
We made it into Steamboat Springs in time to get our bikes serviced at the Orange Peel, one of the bike shops that many of the Divide racers use. Picked up a few supplies and got ready for the next day of riding.
Friday left the hotel around 9am, stopped to get some freeze-dried dinners and me a stocking cap and some wool socks to combat my low weight, low cost sleeping bag situation. Our initial objective was to camp somewhere near French Creek, about 45 miles down the trail. Encountered our first obstacle as there was construction on the Stagecoach Reservoir dam and we had to go around the lake, adding about 5 miles to our journey. There was at least 5 miles of steady climbing to reach Lynx Pass, which after summiting provided a good ride down to meadows and a restored stagecoach inn. Had to ford Rock Creek which up to our thighs and cold. There were a lot of bow hunters getting ready for the opening of elk season the next day. These hunters sure do go to great lengths to get an elk, with a bow you have to get really close in order to have a reason chance of bagging one. Still haven't seen an elk in the wild the entire trip! It was starting to get late and we took a shot at reaching Radium, CO, which is nothing but a railroad crossing with several tracks next to the Colorado River but with a good campsite. We just barely made it down the steep descent before dark, got into the public campsite just after 8pm registering 62 miles on our "light day" and around 4600 vertical feet of climbing. Some nice folks from Winter Park gave us enough water to cook with for the evening, as the park did not provide fresh water (but did a toilet and even electricity!). That evening I felt like a hobo of yesteryear, camping next to the tracks, many trains coming through all night, waiting for my next ride. I actually slept great with my wool hat and socks!
Saturday was the normal routine of packing up, mooched a little more water from the young folks camping next to us (enough to get us to Kremmling). We said the morning prayer and hit the road. I passed by a huge boulder and thought of my oldest son Robert, he would really like to have "bouldered" that rock. As we started a gentle climb before a bigger one, I looked up at the cars passing me and saw a Jeep that looked like ours in Colorado, red, roof open, etc. I looked again and it was my son Robert driving it! He very casually say hi as he passed. I jumped off my bike disregarding the traffic and ran across the dirt road to hug him, couldn't stop hugging, tearing up, the usual emotions. Robert went to great lengths to keep his surprise uncompromised, didn't tell anyone in the family, he only let his fellow workers know the plan. Couldn't ask for a more loving, wonderful son, I just get teary-eyed thinking of all the effort he put in to meeting up with me. Oh yea, Robert brought still hot breakfast bagels with bacon, cheese and eggs that we devoured them standing on the road, never had one that tasted that good. Joe Wall, a friend from college, was with Robert so that there would be a shuttle and both of them could join us riding segments of the route the next couple of days. We met up again in Kremmling for lunch and to organize a meeting point and a campsite for the night. There was a 30 mile ride to summit Ute Pass (9,524 feet) and get down before dark so we had to get moving from Kremmling. Robert also got Alex Brandt to come up from Denver to join in, another friend from high school. Got to see him but he had to get back to Denver and couldn't join us for the ride despite bringing his bike along. Joe and Robert jumped on just before the steep climb up Ute Pass. The four of us went by the biggest mining operation I have ever seen, the Henderson mine with a massive refuse lake that has an stench to it. The lake looks like something from another planet, stagnant, surface glimmering with multicolored sludge. Sure hope the EPA has their act together on this one!
Made it to the top of Ute Pass just as a storm was coming and evening was setting in. Had to get off the pass quickly as thunder was starting to rumble. We got to the bottom of a steep, but paved run completely drenched. The campsite we had hoped to stay at was closed and would have been hard to pitch a dry tent anyway. So we took off for Silverthorn with our headlamps on riding on the wide shoulder of Highway 9, with rain and night engulfing us. After a long 10 miles we made it to the city limits, found a hotel and got a much needed hot shower. Robert and Joe showed up after going back to get the truck while John and I rode into Silverthorn. There are 6 maps of the 2,493 mile Great Mountain Bike Route, 50% of the maps done and 58% of the route ridden, we all headed out for beer, pasta and pizza right next to the hotel. I couldn't have dreamt of a better day, being so touched by my son and his thoughtfulness.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Thursday was a light day, left the Dutch Creek Guest Ranch late, around 10:30am for a mostly downhill run to Steamboat Springs. A little less than 30 miles and almost all on paved roads. We stopped at a section of County Road 62, John had done some research to determine roughly where David Blumenthal had his accident. This young man from Vermont, a racer in the Great Divide race this year, a husband and father of a young daughter died from running into a slow moving truck. We said a prayer for him, for his family that they will recover from this tragedy and that God will help them adjust to their new world on earth.
We made it into Steamboat Springs in time to get our bikes serviced at the Orange Peel, one of the bike shops that many of the Divide racers use. Picked up a few supplies and got ready for the next day of riding.
Friday left the hotel around 9am, stopped to get some freeze-dried dinners and me a stocking cap and some wool socks to combat my low weight, low cost sleeping bag situation. Our initial objective was to camp somewhere near French Creek, about 45 miles down the trail. Encountered our first obstacle as there was construction on the Stagecoach Reservoir dam and we had to go around the lake, adding about 5 miles to our journey. There was at least 5 miles of steady climbing to reach Lynx Pass, which after summiting provided a good ride down to meadows and a restored stagecoach inn. Had to ford Rock Creek which up to our thighs and cold. There were a lot of bow hunters getting ready for the opening of elk season the next day. These hunters sure do go to great lengths to get an elk, with a bow you have to get really close in order to have a reason chance of bagging one. Still haven't seen an elk in the wild the entire trip! It was starting to get late and we took a shot at reaching Radium, CO, which is nothing but a railroad crossing with several tracks next to the Colorado River but with a good campsite. We just barely made it down the steep descent before dark, got into the public campsite just after 8pm registering 62 miles on our "light day" and around 4600 vertical feet of climbing. Some nice folks from Winter Park gave us enough water to cook with for the evening, as the park did not provide fresh water (but did a toilet and even electricity!). That evening I felt like a hobo of yesteryear, camping next to the tracks, many trains coming through all night, waiting for my next ride. I actually slept great with my wool hat and socks!
Saturday was the normal routine of packing up, mooched a little more water from the young folks camping next to us (enough to get us to Kremmling). We said the morning prayer and hit the road. I passed by a huge boulder and thought of my oldest son Robert, he would really like to have "bouldered" that rock. As we started a gentle climb before a bigger one, I looked up at the cars passing me and saw a Jeep that looked like ours in Colorado, red, roof open, etc. I looked again and it was my son Robert driving it! He very casually say hi as he passed. I jumped off my bike disregarding the traffic and ran across the dirt road to hug him, couldn't stop hugging, tearing up, the usual emotions. Robert went to great lengths to keep his surprise uncompromised, didn't tell anyone in the family, he only let his fellow workers know the plan. Couldn't ask for a more loving, wonderful son, I just get teary-eyed thinking of all the effort he put in to meeting up with me. Oh yea, Robert brought still hot breakfast bagels with bacon, cheese and eggs that we devoured them standing on the road, never had one that tasted that good. Joe Wall, a friend from college, was with Robert so that there would be a shuttle and both of them could join us riding segments of the route the next couple of days. We met up again in Kremmling for lunch and to organize a meeting point and a campsite for the night. There was a 30 mile ride to summit Ute Pass (9,524 feet) and get down before dark so we had to get moving from Kremmling. Robert also got Alex Brandt to come up from Denver to join in, another friend from high school. Got to see him but he had to get back to Denver and couldn't join us for the ride despite bringing his bike along. Joe and Robert jumped on just before the steep climb up Ute Pass. The four of us went by the biggest mining operation I have ever seen, the Henderson mine with a massive refuse lake that has an stench to it. The lake looks like something from another planet, stagnant, surface glimmering with multicolored sludge. Sure hope the EPA has their act together on this one!
Made it to the top of Ute Pass just as a storm was coming and evening was setting in. Had to get off the pass quickly as thunder was starting to rumble. We got to the bottom of a steep, but paved run completely drenched. The campsite we had hoped to stay at was closed and would have been hard to pitch a dry tent anyway. So we took off for Silverthorn with our headlamps on riding on the wide shoulder of Highway 9, with rain and night engulfing us. After a long 10 miles we made it to the city limits, found a hotel and got a much needed hot shower. Robert and Joe showed up after going back to get the truck while John and I rode into Silverthorn. There are 6 maps of the 2,493 mile Great Mountain Bike Route, 50% of the maps done and 58% of the route ridden, we all headed out for beer, pasta and pizza right next to the hotel. I couldn't have dreamt of a better day, being so touched by my son and his thoughtfulness.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday August 23rd and 24th
The links for pictures, pledging to Healing American Heroes and tracking our daily progress are at the end of this entry.
Left Rawlins at 9:15am for an easy ride in the morning, all pavement, no wind, and fresh legs. We made great time until we hit the gravel and the climbs, ended up only did about 4,000 feet of vertical and 54 miles for the day, but felt like a lot more. We finally got back into the trees after being out of them for roughly 170 miles. John's chain broke after a big truck passed and threw some gravel into the links. Surprisingly it took less time to fix than a flat. Camped in a wooded site with some aspens and a lot of dead pines. The pine beetle has taken all the large pines and these big trees will coming down in huge quantities in the next several years. Again I was cold as my 45 degree bag doesn't cut it when it gets blew 35 degrees.
Thursday was a little more memorable. After leaving camp went into the Aspen Alley stretch, a short snippet of road surrounded by very large aspen trees. Hitting some pavement right after we flew downhill and hit a another milestone, leaving Wyoming and entering Colorado . . . three states down and two to go. The metropolis of Slater, CO is an unmanned post office trailer and that is it, not even any water, which we were running out of with a big climb ahead. Both the UV and pump water filtration devices weren't working. A couple of miles into the climb I decided to stop at a quant white farmhouse beside the road. A elderly woman answers and let's us fill up, man was that a relief. Just before reaching her house I went right by a rattle snake sunning itself in the middle of the dirt road. Didn't realize it until John mentioned it right after I went by. I hopped off the bike ran back for a picture, don't like rattle snakes the same as badgers!
About 8 miles of constant uphill climbing we hit our lunch destination, Whispering Pines Lodge, a place all the Divide racers stop to fuel up and get water. They were closed for lunch but made us what they had, hot dogs, carrot dip and chips. The Hansen's take care of the place but really went out of their way to be hospitable. Mike Hansen was a 6 year Marine, serving during Desert Strom, and got a little choked up when I told him why we were riding. He gave us some Marine stickers for our bags which will be going on today in Steamboat Springs. One thing about this trek, you really meet the most interesting Americans, sure makes you proud about the fiber of this country, or what it could be if unleashed again.
Leaving Whispering Pines Lodge we had another 15 miles of climbing to get to the base of a very steep climb up Watershed divide. We made it there late to start a difficult climb at 6pm. This is a "pusher" climb, off the bike and pushing will all your might, the bike and the trailer up the steep incline. This went on for almost 1.5 miles. After reaching the summit at about 7pm, we got our reward - a very gnarly, rocky ride down. We had to get through the next 8 miles of steep, big rocks and endless jarring before dark. Even passed a truck with two guys from Tecoma, WA scouting for the opening of elk bow season in 2 days. Our trailers were airborne as we flew down FR 42 (hard to call it road, much less even have a number for it). At the end took a chance on a symbol on the map that there would lodging near Steamboat Lake, and hit the jackpot, a 4 star dinner and a cabin! Reflecting on the day it is clear that our morning prayers are being heard.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
The links for pictures, pledging to Healing American Heroes and tracking our daily progress are at the end of this entry.
Left Rawlins at 9:15am for an easy ride in the morning, all pavement, no wind, and fresh legs. We made great time until we hit the gravel and the climbs, ended up only did about 4,000 feet of vertical and 54 miles for the day, but felt like a lot more. We finally got back into the trees after being out of them for roughly 170 miles. John's chain broke after a big truck passed and threw some gravel into the links. Surprisingly it took less time to fix than a flat. Camped in a wooded site with some aspens and a lot of dead pines. The pine beetle has taken all the large pines and these big trees will coming down in huge quantities in the next several years. Again I was cold as my 45 degree bag doesn't cut it when it gets blew 35 degrees.
Thursday was a little more memorable. After leaving camp went into the Aspen Alley stretch, a short snippet of road surrounded by very large aspen trees. Hitting some pavement right after we flew downhill and hit a another milestone, leaving Wyoming and entering Colorado . . . three states down and two to go. The metropolis of Slater, CO is an unmanned post office trailer and that is it, not even any water, which we were running out of with a big climb ahead. Both the UV and pump water filtration devices weren't working. A couple of miles into the climb I decided to stop at a quant white farmhouse beside the road. A elderly woman answers and let's us fill up, man was that a relief. Just before reaching her house I went right by a rattle snake sunning itself in the middle of the dirt road. Didn't realize it until John mentioned it right after I went by. I hopped off the bike ran back for a picture, don't like rattle snakes the same as badgers!
About 8 miles of constant uphill climbing we hit our lunch destination, Whispering Pines Lodge, a place all the Divide racers stop to fuel up and get water. They were closed for lunch but made us what they had, hot dogs, carrot dip and chips. The Hansen's take care of the place but really went out of their way to be hospitable. Mike Hansen was a 6 year Marine, serving during Desert Strom, and got a little choked up when I told him why we were riding. He gave us some Marine stickers for our bags which will be going on today in Steamboat Springs. One thing about this trek, you really meet the most interesting Americans, sure makes you proud about the fiber of this country, or what it could be if unleashed again.
Leaving Whispering Pines Lodge we had another 15 miles of climbing to get to the base of a very steep climb up Watershed divide. We made it there late to start a difficult climb at 6pm. This is a "pusher" climb, off the bike and pushing will all your might, the bike and the trailer up the steep incline. This went on for almost 1.5 miles. After reaching the summit at about 7pm, we got our reward - a very gnarly, rocky ride down. We had to get through the next 8 miles of steep, big rocks and endless jarring before dark. Even passed a truck with two guys from Tecoma, WA scouting for the opening of elk bow season in 2 days. Our trailers were airborne as we flew down FR 42 (hard to call it road, much less even have a number for it). At the end took a chance on a symbol on the map that there would lodging near Steamboat Lake, and hit the jackpot, a 4 star dinner and a cabin! Reflecting on the day it is clear that our morning prayers are being heard.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
http://trackleaders.com/divide
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sunday and Monday August 22nd and 23rd
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
First I want to thank again those that have pledged to donate to Healing American Heroes, every penny goes to the help those that were wounded from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. For those that have not yet pledged, if you can please do so, we need all we can get to help the large number of returning soldiers. Please go to the following link to make a pledge:
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
We awoke from the small grove of aspen trees we camped to go back into Atlantic City for breakfast before our long ride to A&M Reservoir 80 miles away. We got delayed by about an hour plus waiting for breakfast to start and didn't leave town until 10am. Immediately had a very steep climb out and hit the strong winds coming off the plains. Look at the pictures on the link above to see how wide open the terrain really is, not a tree in site. In fact, we didn't see a tree until we entered Rawlins a 130 miles later. We rode 80 miles and climbed 5,815 vertical feet on a ride that is suppose to be fairly flat! Given our late start we were only 26 miles into the ride at lunch time, which wasn't very encouraging and we knew we had to get moving to make our water source for ride day. The ride had gusts up to 40 mph, blowing us sideways all day long, except for when we rode directly into the wind, which felt going uphill. About 20 miles into the ride a truck was coming right at me as the driver was looking at the open vista, I waved at him to see me and he corrected to the other side of road and stopped. He asked us if we needed any water thinking I was waving him down, sure we could use some, still had 60 miles to go. He jumped out of his truck and pulled out two large ice cold gatorades! I had to take his picture because we have had so few drivers stop to talk and no one offers us anything. John and I drank those gatorades like a college kid drinks his first beer on a Friday night. We kept battling the wind and the soft sand in the road until lunch, which we had quickly in the shade and buffer from the wind, of an idle road grading vehicle.
Several hours later I finally got the picture I have been trying to get for days, a prong horn that was close enough to get a good image. The big male came right across the road in a full sprint, probably chasing some females as mid August is the start of he rut and males are getting their harem in place. Just after the prong horn picture we ran across a wild horse, wild because we are still in BLM land and other than a few cattle there are no other animals being crazed out there. We finally pulled into A&M Reservoir at 9:30pm, using my helmet light to get us the final miles. There is nothing there but water and a little area to camp. We quickly pitched our tents, ate freeze-dried dinners and hit the sack. That night our tents got the wind test as a storm pulled through blowing and raining like a small hurricane.
Monday morning we got moving a little late, but only had 55 miles to ride to Rawlins. Still a lot prong horns all over the place, my guess is we were blocking their morning drink. The wind picked up again and blew us sideways until we hit the pavement, turning directly east we got the full benefit of the westerly wind and started flying down the road. Saw another badger, man do those animals spook the hell out of me! Right before breaking for lunch we ran upon a guy walking alone on the very desolate road. He is hiking the Continental Divide by himself, I startled him when I rode up next to him. His name is Evan (also calls himself The Fugitive which we didn't delve into). He looked like he just woke up one day and said "Leaving to hike the Divide?". After a few words about water we got on with it, making Rawlins about 3pm. Checked into a hotel and started the routine of clothes washing and bathing, sure is nice to be clean.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/113862939710452121802/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXlxP_J1Ib2Dw#
First I want to thank again those that have pledged to donate to Healing American Heroes, every penny goes to the help those that were wounded from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. For those that have not yet pledged, if you can please do so, we need all we can get to help the large number of returning soldiers. Please go to the following link to make a pledge:
http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/
We awoke from the small grove of aspen trees we camped to go back into Atlantic City for breakfast before our long ride to A&M Reservoir 80 miles away. We got delayed by about an hour plus waiting for breakfast to start and didn't leave town until 10am. Immediately had a very steep climb out and hit the strong winds coming off the plains. Look at the pictures on the link above to see how wide open the terrain really is, not a tree in site. In fact, we didn't see a tree until we entered Rawlins a 130 miles later. We rode 80 miles and climbed 5,815 vertical feet on a ride that is suppose to be fairly flat! Given our late start we were only 26 miles into the ride at lunch time, which wasn't very encouraging and we knew we had to get moving to make our water source for ride day. The ride had gusts up to 40 mph, blowing us sideways all day long, except for when we rode directly into the wind, which felt going uphill. About 20 miles into the ride a truck was coming right at me as the driver was looking at the open vista, I waved at him to see me and he corrected to the other side of road and stopped. He asked us if we needed any water thinking I was waving him down, sure we could use some, still had 60 miles to go. He jumped out of his truck and pulled out two large ice cold gatorades! I had to take his picture because we have had so few drivers stop to talk and no one offers us anything. John and I drank those gatorades like a college kid drinks his first beer on a Friday night. We kept battling the wind and the soft sand in the road until lunch, which we had quickly in the shade and buffer from the wind, of an idle road grading vehicle.
Several hours later I finally got the picture I have been trying to get for days, a prong horn that was close enough to get a good image. The big male came right across the road in a full sprint, probably chasing some females as mid August is the start of he rut and males are getting their harem in place. Just after the prong horn picture we ran across a wild horse, wild because we are still in BLM land and other than a few cattle there are no other animals being crazed out there. We finally pulled into A&M Reservoir at 9:30pm, using my helmet light to get us the final miles. There is nothing there but water and a little area to camp. We quickly pitched our tents, ate freeze-dried dinners and hit the sack. That night our tents got the wind test as a storm pulled through blowing and raining like a small hurricane.
Monday morning we got moving a little late, but only had 55 miles to ride to Rawlins. Still a lot prong horns all over the place, my guess is we were blocking their morning drink. The wind picked up again and blew us sideways until we hit the pavement, turning directly east we got the full benefit of the westerly wind and started flying down the road. Saw another badger, man do those animals spook the hell out of me! Right before breaking for lunch we ran upon a guy walking alone on the very desolate road. He is hiking the Continental Divide by himself, I startled him when I rode up next to him. His name is Evan (also calls himself The Fugitive which we didn't delve into). He looked like he just woke up one day and said "Leaving to hike the Divide?". After a few words about water we got on with it, making Rawlins about 3pm. Checked into a hotel and started the routine of clothes washing and bathing, sure is nice to be clean.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday August 21st
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Had the longest ride of the trip so far, 88 miles from Pinedale to Atlantic City and for what the map says is a relatively flat day we had the most vertical climbing 4,640 feet for the day. I have gotten to really dislike rolling hills at 8,000 feet, sounds great in a magazine article or advertisement but really gets old when riding a bike. We saw a lot of prong horns or antelope, a fairly stupid animal that goes under a fence instead of over it despite having the legs to do so. For about a mile in sage brush country they ran in parallel with me as I was riding on the gravel road, stopping every hundred yards to see where I was. The area we biked was part of the Oregon Trail and many historical signs detailing the trail along the way. Remember on car trips how it was so easy to pass those roadside signs or painful when your mom or dad wanted stop and read them? We stop at every one of them. They are interesting but an impromptu butt break too.
The ride took us over 3 Continental Divide crossings and even rode in parallel with the Divide for several miles on the crest. The wind was incredible and damn near blew me off when the gusts came in around 40 mph. Coupling that with a sandy road and a lot washboard and things got dicey a few times. The vistas from the top of road into the Great Basin were really beautiful. We gutted it out to Atlantic City ate a steak dinner and found a litle cove of trees to camp. Now we are off to cross the very arid southern section of Wyoming where there is no water for about 135 miles.
We finally met up with folks that we heard about way back in Lincoln, MT and they are crazier than we are! David and Becky are hiking the entire 2,800 miles of the Continental Divide. We had heard of them being about a month ahead of us from the owner of the Three Bears Motel in Lincoln, MT. We met them in South Pass City, WY, at least 700 miles further south. They are expecting to finish the Divide down in New Mexico before the snow gets too bad to get through. Good luck David and Becky and see their picture on the picasa.google.com website.
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Had the longest ride of the trip so far, 88 miles from Pinedale to Atlantic City and for what the map says is a relatively flat day we had the most vertical climbing 4,640 feet for the day. I have gotten to really dislike rolling hills at 8,000 feet, sounds great in a magazine article or advertisement but really gets old when riding a bike. We saw a lot of prong horns or antelope, a fairly stupid animal that goes under a fence instead of over it despite having the legs to do so. For about a mile in sage brush country they ran in parallel with me as I was riding on the gravel road, stopping every hundred yards to see where I was. The area we biked was part of the Oregon Trail and many historical signs detailing the trail along the way. Remember on car trips how it was so easy to pass those roadside signs or painful when your mom or dad wanted stop and read them? We stop at every one of them. They are interesting but an impromptu butt break too.
The ride took us over 3 Continental Divide crossings and even rode in parallel with the Divide for several miles on the crest. The wind was incredible and damn near blew me off when the gusts came in around 40 mph. Coupling that with a sandy road and a lot washboard and things got dicey a few times. The vistas from the top of road into the Great Basin were really beautiful. We gutted it out to Atlantic City ate a steak dinner and found a litle cove of trees to camp. Now we are off to cross the very arid southern section of Wyoming where there is no water for about 135 miles.
We finally met up with folks that we heard about way back in Lincoln, MT and they are crazier than we are! David and Becky are hiking the entire 2,800 miles of the Continental Divide. We had heard of them being about a month ahead of us from the owner of the Three Bears Motel in Lincoln, MT. We met them in South Pass City, WY, at least 700 miles further south. They are expecting to finish the Divide down in New Mexico before the snow gets too bad to get through. Good luck David and Becky and see their picture on the picasa.google.com website.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Thursday and Friday August 19th and 20th
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Stayed overnight at the Lava Mountain Inn, got off at the usual 8am start time with a good ride downhill for 10 miles. Saw a set of cell towers so pulled off the highway to call Robert to wish him a happy 26th birthday and to send the previous blog, an hour later there was no connection. Had a big climb ahead of us to get over Union Pass, a 9,265 footer with a roughly 9 mile climb, which was complicated by graders and dump trucks working on the road. The last 3 miles were steep. The view from the top was magnificent, big meadows with blue, purple and white flowers along with snow-capped peaks in the distance. Also there were more signs warning to beware of bears. In talking with the locals there are a lot more bear attacks than makes the news, a day later we were told there was one malling several weeks ago right where we were. The grizzly population is growing about 7% per year and now numbers somewhere close to 60,000+ in North America. Hey isn't it about time to give it a rest on the hunting ban?
Our ride down was long and pretty flat, only dropped 200 feet over ten miles after the summit. Never seem to get the downhill rewards from the uphill climb. After a pretty rocky descent we ended up camping when the sun was out and with no mosquitos, not the usual. The campsite did have a water pump so we didn't have to go the Green River and do the laborious job of using my hand pump to get good water. Ate the Mountain House dinners early and hit the sack to read and get some rest.
On Friday woke up very early, was freezing, guess my weight saving move of buying a sleeping bag down to only 45 degrees and a cheap, small tent wasn't really working for me. Checked the temp gauge on my bike computer around 6am and it was 30 degrees! After wrestling with the stove to get it started had a tea, the usual oatmeal and some hot chocolate - still didn't warm me up. What the hell, might as well get on the bike and start riding. That worked after about 10 minutes. Headed to Pinedale to resupply, catch up with folks and get a hotel room. It was only 35 miles away and we were there before lunch. Saw our first coyote, which ran the right direction after seeing us. We are now down in the sage brush country with the Wind River Range in the distance, they sure are sharply jutting mountains, Wind River Peak is over 13,000 feet. The ranchers are busy bailing hay for the winter, never seen so many large, round bales. Pinedale is a bustling one road town with a lot hotels, hardware stores, and some industry going on. There were several hotels full of oil tool trucks. There is a lot drilling going on in his area of WY and we were warned that hotel space is tight in the smaller towns because of the oil activity. We are striking out early to reach Atlantic City, our longest ride to date of roughly 90 miles, want to be positioned to go across southern Wyoming for one overnight where water is scarce.
Paste the following link into your browser to see photos:
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Stayed overnight at the Lava Mountain Inn, got off at the usual 8am start time with a good ride downhill for 10 miles. Saw a set of cell towers so pulled off the highway to call Robert to wish him a happy 26th birthday and to send the previous blog, an hour later there was no connection. Had a big climb ahead of us to get over Union Pass, a 9,265 footer with a roughly 9 mile climb, which was complicated by graders and dump trucks working on the road. The last 3 miles were steep. The view from the top was magnificent, big meadows with blue, purple and white flowers along with snow-capped peaks in the distance. Also there were more signs warning to beware of bears. In talking with the locals there are a lot more bear attacks than makes the news, a day later we were told there was one malling several weeks ago right where we were. The grizzly population is growing about 7% per year and now numbers somewhere close to 60,000+ in North America. Hey isn't it about time to give it a rest on the hunting ban?
Our ride down was long and pretty flat, only dropped 200 feet over ten miles after the summit. Never seem to get the downhill rewards from the uphill climb. After a pretty rocky descent we ended up camping when the sun was out and with no mosquitos, not the usual. The campsite did have a water pump so we didn't have to go the Green River and do the laborious job of using my hand pump to get good water. Ate the Mountain House dinners early and hit the sack to read and get some rest.
On Friday woke up very early, was freezing, guess my weight saving move of buying a sleeping bag down to only 45 degrees and a cheap, small tent wasn't really working for me. Checked the temp gauge on my bike computer around 6am and it was 30 degrees! After wrestling with the stove to get it started had a tea, the usual oatmeal and some hot chocolate - still didn't warm me up. What the hell, might as well get on the bike and start riding. That worked after about 10 minutes. Headed to Pinedale to resupply, catch up with folks and get a hotel room. It was only 35 miles away and we were there before lunch. Saw our first coyote, which ran the right direction after seeing us. We are now down in the sage brush country with the Wind River Range in the distance, they sure are sharply jutting mountains, Wind River Peak is over 13,000 feet. The ranchers are busy bailing hay for the winter, never seen so many large, round bales. Pinedale is a bustling one road town with a lot hotels, hardware stores, and some industry going on. There were several hotels full of oil tool trucks. There is a lot drilling going on in his area of WY and we were warned that hotel space is tight in the smaller towns because of the oil activity. We are striking out early to reach Atlantic City, our longest ride to date of roughly 90 miles, want to be positioned to go across southern Wyoming for one overnight where water is scarce.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday August 17th and 18th
After 16 days of straight riding we took a rest day on Monday in Ashton, ID, a one road small town with two bars and a few restaurants. It was a much needed rest for our bodies and a time to catch up on a lot of things. There was 3G cellular service too. Oh, almost forgot, was walking down the sidewalk of Ashton talking on the phone and saw a kid looking back on a bike, no helmet. He ran right into a tree, over the handlebars, a very scary crash. I hung up and ran over to him, he was already back up and getting on the bike. I was making sure he was alright and told him to wear a helmet and that I did and was riding from Canada to Mexico. He just looked at me like I was completely crazy and rode off. He is he one that ran into the tree!!!
Tuesday was a long ride, 80 miles, which we thought would be relatively easy but turned out to have some climbing. The Ashton-Flagg Ranch Road was a stretch of dirt road in varying degrees of surface from nice gravel to steep rutty spots. It took us until almost 3pm to get through the roughly 45 miles of the route. Had an over priced, tourist lunch in Flagg Ranch then went after the rest of the miles. We were skirting Yellowstone Park and the traffic in and around the park was significant - a lot of RVs, tourist from out of the country and a ton of Harley-Davidson's! I would guess roughly one-third of the traffic was motorcycles and they never travel alone, usually in 3-to-5's and loud as a firecracker going off right next to you. And people think we are going through a mid-life crisis! We made it to our very simple accommodations by about 7pm despite stopping along the way to see the Teton's and a few bald eagles. Our goal today was to be close enough to the start of a really big climb up Togwotee Pass (9,658 feet). There were group shower facilities that allowed us to do the usual shower and stomp on our riding clothes. Have to thank Col. Dick Hansen for giving me the idea, sure has come in useful the last 3 weeks.
Wednesday was our big day, a single climb of over 2,500 vertical feet to Togwotee Pass (which means top of the mountain). The climb was not one single road but a set of roads, gravel and then paved. On the last 9 miles of the climb there was a lot of highway construction underway. About half way up we were pulling over to rest and a flagman yelled at us to not do that. We went over to talk to him as to why. Seems there was a bear released from that rest area earlier that morning and they were all on edge that the grizzly would be coming back. The bears remember the smell of humans and are not happy about being caged up and moved to a new location. We jumped back on our bikes and kept riding, noticing on the way that his truck was only 10-15 feet away from where he was standing. We decided we really didn't need a rest and to keep going to the summit, which we reached about an hour later.
All the signs of the summit and even the lines on the road were still missing as the construction was still in progress. We ended up falling into a line of cars waiting to go through a construction zone, which was the largest, roughest zone I had ever been through. The crew said we couldn't ride our bikes through it and the only way down was by putting bikes and trailers into a pilot truck that was guiding the other cars through the site. Despite wanting to make the entire trip from Canada to Mexico without ever riding in a car we caved seeing no other option. The Bobs, bikes and John were piled in the back of the pick-up. After getting into the zone I could see why we had to be taken, it was very sandy in spots and others had baseball-sized gravel, and huge earth moving equipment racing around. It was about 5 miles until they deposited us on the other side and we lost a big chunk of our downhill reward. We reattached the trailers and were on our way. We reconnected with our route turning off the highway and immediately started climbing. After 5 miles of uphill pull, when we thought it was going to be mostly downhill we realized - we had missed our turn at the top and were going back up the road we suppose to have come down to just above the construction zone! It happened again, we missed one line of instructions on the map and blew it big time, we could have ridden away from the construction zone and stayed out of a truck to achieve our goal of no motorized vehicles! At Brooks Lake we turned around and started heading down, mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the map and paying dearly for it with increased miles and a late afternoon climb that we didn't need to do. You can't let your guard down for one moment with these maps you have to constantly be going over them. Relearned another painful lesson on map reading. We got to see Brooks Lake though and atoned for the mileage lost in the pilot truck.
After 16 days of straight riding we took a rest day on Monday in Ashton, ID, a one road small town with two bars and a few restaurants. It was a much needed rest for our bodies and a time to catch up on a lot of things. There was 3G cellular service too. Oh, almost forgot, was walking down the sidewalk of Ashton talking on the phone and saw a kid looking back on a bike, no helmet. He ran right into a tree, over the handlebars, a very scary crash. I hung up and ran over to him, he was already back up and getting on the bike. I was making sure he was alright and told him to wear a helmet and that I did and was riding from Canada to Mexico. He just looked at me like I was completely crazy and rode off. He is he one that ran into the tree!!!
Tuesday was a long ride, 80 miles, which we thought would be relatively easy but turned out to have some climbing. The Ashton-Flagg Ranch Road was a stretch of dirt road in varying degrees of surface from nice gravel to steep rutty spots. It took us until almost 3pm to get through the roughly 45 miles of the route. Had an over priced, tourist lunch in Flagg Ranch then went after the rest of the miles. We were skirting Yellowstone Park and the traffic in and around the park was significant - a lot of RVs, tourist from out of the country and a ton of Harley-Davidson's! I would guess roughly one-third of the traffic was motorcycles and they never travel alone, usually in 3-to-5's and loud as a firecracker going off right next to you. And people think we are going through a mid-life crisis! We made it to our very simple accommodations by about 7pm despite stopping along the way to see the Teton's and a few bald eagles. Our goal today was to be close enough to the start of a really big climb up Togwotee Pass (9,658 feet). There were group shower facilities that allowed us to do the usual shower and stomp on our riding clothes. Have to thank Col. Dick Hansen for giving me the idea, sure has come in useful the last 3 weeks.
Wednesday was our big day, a single climb of over 2,500 vertical feet to Togwotee Pass (which means top of the mountain). The climb was not one single road but a set of roads, gravel and then paved. On the last 9 miles of the climb there was a lot of highway construction underway. About half way up we were pulling over to rest and a flagman yelled at us to not do that. We went over to talk to him as to why. Seems there was a bear released from that rest area earlier that morning and they were all on edge that the grizzly would be coming back. The bears remember the smell of humans and are not happy about being caged up and moved to a new location. We jumped back on our bikes and kept riding, noticing on the way that his truck was only 10-15 feet away from where he was standing. We decided we really didn't need a rest and to keep going to the summit, which we reached about an hour later.
All the signs of the summit and even the lines on the road were still missing as the construction was still in progress. We ended up falling into a line of cars waiting to go through a construction zone, which was the largest, roughest zone I had ever been through. The crew said we couldn't ride our bikes through it and the only way down was by putting bikes and trailers into a pilot truck that was guiding the other cars through the site. Despite wanting to make the entire trip from Canada to Mexico without ever riding in a car we caved seeing no other option. The Bobs, bikes and John were piled in the back of the pick-up. After getting into the zone I could see why we had to be taken, it was very sandy in spots and others had baseball-sized gravel, and huge earth moving equipment racing around. It was about 5 miles until they deposited us on the other side and we lost a big chunk of our downhill reward. We reattached the trailers and were on our way. We reconnected with our route turning off the highway and immediately started climbing. After 5 miles of uphill pull, when we thought it was going to be mostly downhill we realized - we had missed our turn at the top and were going back up the road we suppose to have come down to just above the construction zone! It happened again, we missed one line of instructions on the map and blew it big time, we could have ridden away from the construction zone and stayed out of a truck to achieve our goal of no motorized vehicles! At Brooks Lake we turned around and started heading down, mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the map and paying dearly for it with increased miles and a late afternoon climb that we didn't need to do. You can't let your guard down for one moment with these maps you have to constantly be going over them. Relearned another painful lesson on map reading. We got to see Brooks Lake though and atoned for the mileage lost in the pilot truck.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday August 15th
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Sad day, great day, ever had them? Sunday was that type of day. Colleen, Mike and Nancy all had to leave early in the morning to get stuff packed up and to make flights out of Boseman, almost 3 hours away. Mike will be missed, he took a lot of ribbing during the trip and provided some real camaraderie for John and I. Of course I will miss my wife of almost 28 years, boy was it great being with her again.
John and I left about 9am and made great time getting to the Montana-Idaho border, Red Rocks Pass. Initially we were going to make it a light day and only go as far as Big Springs, ID, 33 miles away, but our legs felt strong so we modified the plan and decided to head to Ashton, ID 82 miles from Lakeview, MT. We pull into Big Springs about 1:30pm, fueled up with a hamburger and fries and started to do the long trail south to Warm River park and then to Ashton. I decided to get a little kicker of ice cream treats at the convenience store across the street because there was nothing for 40 miles of converted railroad track-to-trail. Standing in the parking lot eating my ice cream and it happened, a pick-up truck pulled up with none other than a good friend of my son Robert's - Jeff McPherson and his girl cute girl friend Laura! I could not have been more surprised and deeply honored. Jeff and Laura had spent all morning leaving early from Boseman tracking us down. They drove almost 2 hours just to get close to where we were and then because our route took us through gates closed to vehicles they had to drive all over the countryside trying to catch us, asking people if they had seen guys traveling on bikes with trailers. Ok, ok I admit it, man-down, I cried and hugged Jeff over come with emotion, so deeply touched by him and Laura going so far out to see us. They also brought great deli sandwiches, beer, bananas, salad and more. We could only take the sandwiches and bananas. The sandwiches it turned out were dinner, as by the time we finally pulled into Ashton, the restaurants were closing, so a bag of chips and some beer and those wonderful sandwiches were devoured.
The trail down from Big Springs is notorious for soft lava sand and I now know why. Turning onto the trail we immediately hit 3-6 inches of sand that our tires sank into making it hard to steer and keep your balance. There were ATV's all over the place, built to enjoy such terrain. After turning a few hundred yards onto the trail we would be on for roughly 40 miles, it happened, I crashed for the first time on the trip. This wasn't a "Mike Weinberger no-speed fall", this was a helmet first, slam into the lava sand fall. Had to take my helmet off to get all the peebles out. Luckily no harm done, minor scraps and back on the bike. The ride was hard because we had to pedal and steer so as not to get thrown sideways by the sand. Four hours later around 7pm we pulled off that trail happy to back on firm ground.
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Sad day, great day, ever had them? Sunday was that type of day. Colleen, Mike and Nancy all had to leave early in the morning to get stuff packed up and to make flights out of Boseman, almost 3 hours away. Mike will be missed, he took a lot of ribbing during the trip and provided some real camaraderie for John and I. Of course I will miss my wife of almost 28 years, boy was it great being with her again.
John and I left about 9am and made great time getting to the Montana-Idaho border, Red Rocks Pass. Initially we were going to make it a light day and only go as far as Big Springs, ID, 33 miles away, but our legs felt strong so we modified the plan and decided to head to Ashton, ID 82 miles from Lakeview, MT. We pull into Big Springs about 1:30pm, fueled up with a hamburger and fries and started to do the long trail south to Warm River park and then to Ashton. I decided to get a little kicker of ice cream treats at the convenience store across the street because there was nothing for 40 miles of converted railroad track-to-trail. Standing in the parking lot eating my ice cream and it happened, a pick-up truck pulled up with none other than a good friend of my son Robert's - Jeff McPherson and his girl cute girl friend Laura! I could not have been more surprised and deeply honored. Jeff and Laura had spent all morning leaving early from Boseman tracking us down. They drove almost 2 hours just to get close to where we were and then because our route took us through gates closed to vehicles they had to drive all over the countryside trying to catch us, asking people if they had seen guys traveling on bikes with trailers. Ok, ok I admit it, man-down, I cried and hugged Jeff over come with emotion, so deeply touched by him and Laura going so far out to see us. They also brought great deli sandwiches, beer, bananas, salad and more. We could only take the sandwiches and bananas. The sandwiches it turned out were dinner, as by the time we finally pulled into Ashton, the restaurants were closing, so a bag of chips and some beer and those wonderful sandwiches were devoured.
The trail down from Big Springs is notorious for soft lava sand and I now know why. Turning onto the trail we immediately hit 3-6 inches of sand that our tires sank into making it hard to steer and keep your balance. There were ATV's all over the place, built to enjoy such terrain. After turning a few hundred yards onto the trail we would be on for roughly 40 miles, it happened, I crashed for the first time on the trip. This wasn't a "Mike Weinberger no-speed fall", this was a helmet first, slam into the lava sand fall. Had to take my helmet off to get all the peebles out. Luckily no harm done, minor scraps and back on the bike. The ride was hard because we had to pedal and steer so as not to get thrown sideways by the sand. Four hours later around 7pm we pulled off that trail happy to back on firm ground.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday August 12-14
Had a continental breakfast with a rancher named Robert, the guy is a fourth generation rancher in Montana and readily states his number one problem - the government and it's confusing and nonsensical regulations. His wife Mary runs the Post Office in Polaris, so after our informative breakfast we headed down the road to see Mary at a very small single building post office. She had our package of additional supplies, sent by Tom Lafleur from San Francisco. We left her with some of the excess things we didn't need and rode for an eventual end of the day at a guest ranch. We stopped at Bannack State Park to see a town essentially frozen in time, almost 150 years. Very interesting to see how folks lived and the complete lack of any convenience. Worth seeing if you are in the area.
A lot of uphill climbing in the last 4 hours of the day, which is not exactly our desired program, would rather climb in the morning while our legs are still fresh and cooler. Got to the guest ranch and even though we had called ahead, albeit with no answer, there was no one home. Guess that was why there wasn't an answer. At 7 pm at night the last thing we needed was a mile and half detour uphill with no one home. We got back on the main road (a dirt road of course) and went about another 2 miles and found a small meadow by the road with a spring flowing fresh water. Had the usual freeze dried dinner and into the tent. Didn't have to do any bear bags as there weren't likely to be any in the meadow area around that campsite. During the night/early morning a coyote kept getting a little closer and howling like crazy. At least there was only one of them.
Friday we had a very steep climb only 2 miles after starting out. I was last to go up and because of the vegetation and the curve I couldn't see John or Mike. I thought they had ridden the entire way up, so I went for it, damn near threw up and it took 5 minutes of heavy breathing to get back to normal. So much for being machismo! After ascending Medicine Lodge-Sheep Creek Divide we had a mostly downhill run to Lima, about 32 miles away. Lima was a great stop with only 2 motels and a couple of restaurants and a laundromat. Mike and I got to meet up with our wives, an especially huge treat for me as I still have over a month left on this trek. We had a great steak dinner and slept in a rustic cabin.
Saturday we took off for Lakeview with the wives following in a car for part of the way. Colleen joined me for the second half of the day, renting a bike in Bozeman before heading 3 hours south to Lima. It was great to have her experience the type of riding we have been up to, albeit with no big climbs and no trailer but with 30 miles of rolling hills Colleen got a snippet of the experience. Nancy Weinberger joined Mike for the last 6 miles of his trip to finish the entire state of Montana 699 miles on the Adventure Cycling maps and more like 750 actual riding miles, that-a-way Mike! Spent the night at the Centennial Lodge and Outfitters just before Lakeview, a ranch house that is Montana's version of a B&B. The home cooked roast dinner was off the charts good!
Oh yea we have had some concerned comments about our blog entry a few days ago with Mike falling off his bike. It was really no big deal, the falls all occurred while almost standstill owing to the fact he couldn't get his clip-in pedals to disengage and his trailer with all his gear is way too heavy. Hasn't happened in 2 days and the ride is over for him, at least this segment.
Had a continental breakfast with a rancher named Robert, the guy is a fourth generation rancher in Montana and readily states his number one problem - the government and it's confusing and nonsensical regulations. His wife Mary runs the Post Office in Polaris, so after our informative breakfast we headed down the road to see Mary at a very small single building post office. She had our package of additional supplies, sent by Tom Lafleur from San Francisco. We left her with some of the excess things we didn't need and rode for an eventual end of the day at a guest ranch. We stopped at Bannack State Park to see a town essentially frozen in time, almost 150 years. Very interesting to see how folks lived and the complete lack of any convenience. Worth seeing if you are in the area.
A lot of uphill climbing in the last 4 hours of the day, which is not exactly our desired program, would rather climb in the morning while our legs are still fresh and cooler. Got to the guest ranch and even though we had called ahead, albeit with no answer, there was no one home. Guess that was why there wasn't an answer. At 7 pm at night the last thing we needed was a mile and half detour uphill with no one home. We got back on the main road (a dirt road of course) and went about another 2 miles and found a small meadow by the road with a spring flowing fresh water. Had the usual freeze dried dinner and into the tent. Didn't have to do any bear bags as there weren't likely to be any in the meadow area around that campsite. During the night/early morning a coyote kept getting a little closer and howling like crazy. At least there was only one of them.
Friday we had a very steep climb only 2 miles after starting out. I was last to go up and because of the vegetation and the curve I couldn't see John or Mike. I thought they had ridden the entire way up, so I went for it, damn near threw up and it took 5 minutes of heavy breathing to get back to normal. So much for being machismo! After ascending Medicine Lodge-Sheep Creek Divide we had a mostly downhill run to Lima, about 32 miles away. Lima was a great stop with only 2 motels and a couple of restaurants and a laundromat. Mike and I got to meet up with our wives, an especially huge treat for me as I still have over a month left on this trek. We had a great steak dinner and slept in a rustic cabin.
Saturday we took off for Lakeview with the wives following in a car for part of the way. Colleen joined me for the second half of the day, renting a bike in Bozeman before heading 3 hours south to Lima. It was great to have her experience the type of riding we have been up to, albeit with no big climbs and no trailer but with 30 miles of rolling hills Colleen got a snippet of the experience. Nancy Weinberger joined Mike for the last 6 miles of his trip to finish the entire state of Montana 699 miles on the Adventure Cycling maps and more like 750 actual riding miles, that-a-way Mike! Spent the night at the Centennial Lodge and Outfitters just before Lakeview, a ranch house that is Montana's version of a B&B. The home cooked roast dinner was off the charts good!
Oh yea we have had some concerned comments about our blog entry a few days ago with Mike falling off his bike. It was really no big deal, the falls all occurred while almost standstill owing to the fact he couldn't get his clip-in pedals to disengage and his trailer with all his gear is way too heavy. Hasn't happened in 2 days and the ride is over for him, at least this segment.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday August 10th and 11th
Left Butte around 10am, Rob Leipheimer was at the Outdoorsman store an hour early to send us off. Our aim was to reach Wise River by 8pm about 55 miles away, but over some rough terrain. We headed over to cross the Continental Divide for the 5th time. Logging in MT has picked up as now the Forest Service has realized after huge sections have been completely destroyed by the Pine Beetle, that maybe the forest should be harvested instead of just letting it go dead and become a massive fire hazard. After lunch we headed down through open meadows and sage towards Interstate 15. On the ridge before getting to I-15, we saw a breathtaking view of the Deer Lodge Valley. Right after crossing under I-15 Mike realized he had dropped his jacket on the ride down. He unhitched his BOB and headed back to get it. In the meantime, a cowboy was down the road on a horse in the road with a lasso so I went down to see what was up. A lame cow was sitting in the deep grass by a frontage road that went stray when they were driving them to a pasture. He lassoed it and got it to the trailer, where it sat down again stubbornly and wouldn't go in. I tired to help them with one rope while they pulled it's tail and ears and pushed it around to get it to stand up. I even joined in too. Had to leave before the lame cow got in, they got it in eventually passing us a little later on the road.
Time was fleeting and we needed to push forward to crest Fleecer and make it down before dark. We had a long steady climb of about 6-7 miles just to get there. About 2 miles from where the steep climb begins a motorcycle group stopped to tell us they couldn't do it the lightening, rain and degree of decline on the other side was too much and that we should wait or turn around. We kept going a little ways further when huge lightening bolts started coming down and rain was starting so we quickly set up camp and jumped in our tents letting the storm pass. If Mike hadn't dropped his coat we would have been on that ridge during the lightening storm . . . being watched over again. That night we heard on several different times coyotes howling like they were at a football game.
Wednesday we had our usual 2 hour ritual to eat, break camp and load up. Still can't figure out why it takes us so long. Just as we started out to get to the steep climb of Fleecer we heard a long loud bugle from an elk and heard it again later. Mike hit a rut and had fall number 4 off his bike. We got to the steep Fleecer climb and made it a little over half way up on the bikes. We pushed them through mud the rest of the way up. Just starting the descent and Mike gets a flat. We fix that, ride a little further then have to dismount for the very steep descent about half a mile of wrestling the slope, the bike and the trailer down. Made it ok, then with Mike in the lead had to stop at a creek crossing, fall number 5 for Mike, just barely missed a huge cow pie. Crossing the creek and about 200 yards had to stop and check the maps, fall number 6. The guy is going down all the time now, so have him clean out his shoes so he can more readily unclip when we stop, seems to help.
Nice descent to Wise River to lunch in a cafe, where we found out there was a huge hail storm the evening before, right when we would have been coming down the mountain. Being watched over again. Ran into some military guys in uniform, seems a helicopter had crashed a few days earlier landing on a dirt runway, no one was injured. The chopper was responding to a help call from a hiker that got stranded in a big storm. We passed the wreckage heading to Polaris. Passed a house with some big dogs racing after us barking like all hell had broken loose. I turned on the jets and so did John, but he hit Mike's back wheel to the trailer and hit the pavement hard. Got scraped up but funny thing the dogs stopped dead in their tracks, guess they have never been successful in taking down a biker before. On with the 20 mile climb but on a nice two lane paved road. On the way down we stopped a couple of times to read points of interest, on the second one it happened again, fall number 7 for Mike. Maybe he needs to get checked for vertigo? We are now done with the first map of our ride, 531 miles through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Almost done with the state of Montana only about 150 miles or 3 days and we will be on to Wyoming.
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Left Butte around 10am, Rob Leipheimer was at the Outdoorsman store an hour early to send us off. Our aim was to reach Wise River by 8pm about 55 miles away, but over some rough terrain. We headed over to cross the Continental Divide for the 5th time. Logging in MT has picked up as now the Forest Service has realized after huge sections have been completely destroyed by the Pine Beetle, that maybe the forest should be harvested instead of just letting it go dead and become a massive fire hazard. After lunch we headed down through open meadows and sage towards Interstate 15. On the ridge before getting to I-15, we saw a breathtaking view of the Deer Lodge Valley. Right after crossing under I-15 Mike realized he had dropped his jacket on the ride down. He unhitched his BOB and headed back to get it. In the meantime, a cowboy was down the road on a horse in the road with a lasso so I went down to see what was up. A lame cow was sitting in the deep grass by a frontage road that went stray when they were driving them to a pasture. He lassoed it and got it to the trailer, where it sat down again stubbornly and wouldn't go in. I tired to help them with one rope while they pulled it's tail and ears and pushed it around to get it to stand up. I even joined in too. Had to leave before the lame cow got in, they got it in eventually passing us a little later on the road.
Time was fleeting and we needed to push forward to crest Fleecer and make it down before dark. We had a long steady climb of about 6-7 miles just to get there. About 2 miles from where the steep climb begins a motorcycle group stopped to tell us they couldn't do it the lightening, rain and degree of decline on the other side was too much and that we should wait or turn around. We kept going a little ways further when huge lightening bolts started coming down and rain was starting so we quickly set up camp and jumped in our tents letting the storm pass. If Mike hadn't dropped his coat we would have been on that ridge during the lightening storm . . . being watched over again. That night we heard on several different times coyotes howling like they were at a football game.
Wednesday we had our usual 2 hour ritual to eat, break camp and load up. Still can't figure out why it takes us so long. Just as we started out to get to the steep climb of Fleecer we heard a long loud bugle from an elk and heard it again later. Mike hit a rut and had fall number 4 off his bike. We got to the steep Fleecer climb and made it a little over half way up on the bikes. We pushed them through mud the rest of the way up. Just starting the descent and Mike gets a flat. We fix that, ride a little further then have to dismount for the very steep descent about half a mile of wrestling the slope, the bike and the trailer down. Made it ok, then with Mike in the lead had to stop at a creek crossing, fall number 5 for Mike, just barely missed a huge cow pie. Crossing the creek and about 200 yards had to stop and check the maps, fall number 6. The guy is going down all the time now, so have him clean out his shoes so he can more readily unclip when we stop, seems to help.
Nice descent to Wise River to lunch in a cafe, where we found out there was a huge hail storm the evening before, right when we would have been coming down the mountain. Being watched over again. Ran into some military guys in uniform, seems a helicopter had crashed a few days earlier landing on a dirt runway, no one was injured. The chopper was responding to a help call from a hiker that got stranded in a big storm. We passed the wreckage heading to Polaris. Passed a house with some big dogs racing after us barking like all hell had broken loose. I turned on the jets and so did John, but he hit Mike's back wheel to the trailer and hit the pavement hard. Got scraped up but funny thing the dogs stopped dead in their tracks, guess they have never been successful in taking down a biker before. On with the 20 mile climb but on a nice two lane paved road. On the way down we stopped a couple of times to read points of interest, on the second one it happened again, fall number 7 for Mike. Maybe he needs to get checked for vertigo? We are now done with the first map of our ride, 531 miles through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Almost done with the state of Montana only about 150 miles or 3 days and we will be on to Wyoming.
You can follow us via GPS tracking at: http://trackleaders.com/divide
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday and Monday August 8-9
We got a very late start on Sunday, leaving from Helena around 2pm, There was a lot to do, had to restock our food supply, camping fuel and such drove a lot of the delay. We were looking forward to a moderate ride, but it turned out to be 10 miles of a steady climb, 2500 vertical feet, 98 degree heat going to 67 degrees later on and a lot of mosquitos at night. We camped right at the beginning of a steep climb for Monday. Setting up our tents in a light rain. After some freeze dried dinners which actually are surprisingly good, we hit the sack. One added note, when you embark on something like this you ask a lot of your family, just as our country does to the families of those deployed overseas. You get a small taste of the sacrifice families make when you personally go off and do a ride like this. Thank you to all those that support their loved ones and shoulder the burden of keeping their families going while they are away. For me that is my wonderful wife Colleen and Mike's wife Nancy, truly tremendous women.
Monday was a day we all remember for years into the future. As a refresh, we say a prayer together at the start of our daily ride, well there is no question that God had his hands on us throughout this day. Lava Mountain started out with a bang, John fell on a steep climb with soft sand, landed fine but it set the tone. We were grunting and groaning as we pushed our bikes and trailers up most of the 2.2 miles as the slope was very steep, rocky, sandy, and covered with roots. It started raining while we were going up and that made the roots particularly slippery. We pushed our bikes and trailers through, sometimes pushing with all our might just to overcome small boulders and gravity. Once we got to the other side we didn't get the complete benefit of the downhill ride,like we ususally experience when we summit a hard climb. We had to walk our bikes down the first quarter mile as it was too steep to ride, trying to keep our bikes and BoB trailers in control. After finally hitting the end of the rough trail we got onto a dirt road that was very muddy. I have never ridden a bike when it goes sideways like a car out of control in the snow (have experienced that many times in Minnesota) while you are pedaling! We quickly got covered in mud, but we also experienced some traffic on the road that surprised us. Here again God provided for us every time, we had a place to stand aside when it came upon us, sometims rather quickly.
Basin is a small town that used to be a bigger town a 100 years ago when mining was in its hayday. We parked our bikes outside the only cafe open and with dried mud on our legs and clothing, got a quick sandwich and soup. We looked forward to getting down to Butte with a ride that looked fairly easy. Here again we were wrong, there was a steep climb that looks like a small pimple on the map. Immedately after starting Mike had his third fall of ride going down in sand and had to push his bike and trailer to the top. John and I were out of breath but made it without falling. We rode along side Interstate 15 through mostly an old railroad line converted into a road, even through a tunnel. We finally got to the frontage road and meet two other riders of the Great Divide, Jackie and Rob, looking like in their mid 60's going from Banff to Mexico. They drafted us for a few miles then took off on the shoulder of I-15 for the final push into Butte.
We crossed the Continental Divide for the 4th time when on I-15. Don't really like riding on freeways but that is the route and really no other good way to get to Butte. Exiting off we literally turned the corner and hit The Outdoorsman bike and ski shop. When the owner saw us he ran out, opened the door and told us to bring all our stuff right in. Rob Leipheimer was God sent, he had his employee John start right away on our getting us fixed up, even though the store was closing in 15 minutes. An hour and half later after a lot of tweeks and me buying another bike computer we were done. It is rare in life to happen upon a really geuine person like Rob, he made our day. Oh yea, the store is filled with racing jerseys from his brother Levi Leipheimer, one of the truly great professional cyclists with many years riding in the Tour de France, the family has been in the cycling/sports business for 41 years. I can see why after experiencing a level of service that is very rare nowadays. The Days Inn was an open door on the otherside of store, we checked in got our clothes washed and headed for dinner. Now you can see why this day we were being watched over.
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Monday was a day we all remember for years into the future. As a refresh, we say a prayer together at the start of our daily ride, well there is no question that God had his hands on us throughout this day. Lava Mountain started out with a bang, John fell on a steep climb with soft sand, landed fine but it set the tone. We were grunting and groaning as we pushed our bikes and trailers up most of the 2.2 miles as the slope was very steep, rocky, sandy, and covered with roots. It started raining while we were going up and that made the roots particularly slippery. We pushed our bikes and trailers through, sometimes pushing with all our might just to overcome small boulders and gravity. Once we got to the other side we didn't get the complete benefit of the downhill ride,like we ususally experience when we summit a hard climb. We had to walk our bikes down the first quarter mile as it was too steep to ride, trying to keep our bikes and BoB trailers in control. After finally hitting the end of the rough trail we got onto a dirt road that was very muddy. I have never ridden a bike when it goes sideways like a car out of control in the snow (have experienced that many times in Minnesota) while you are pedaling! We quickly got covered in mud, but we also experienced some traffic on the road that surprised us. Here again God provided for us every time, we had a place to stand aside when it came upon us, sometims rather quickly.
Basin is a small town that used to be a bigger town a 100 years ago when mining was in its hayday. We parked our bikes outside the only cafe open and with dried mud on our legs and clothing, got a quick sandwich and soup. We looked forward to getting down to Butte with a ride that looked fairly easy. Here again we were wrong, there was a steep climb that looks like a small pimple on the map. Immedately after starting Mike had his third fall of ride going down in sand and had to push his bike and trailer to the top. John and I were out of breath but made it without falling. We rode along side Interstate 15 through mostly an old railroad line converted into a road, even through a tunnel. We finally got to the frontage road and meet two other riders of the Great Divide, Jackie and Rob, looking like in their mid 60's going from Banff to Mexico. They drafted us for a few miles then took off on the shoulder of I-15 for the final push into Butte.
We crossed the Continental Divide for the 4th time when on I-15. Don't really like riding on freeways but that is the route and really no other good way to get to Butte. Exiting off we literally turned the corner and hit The Outdoorsman bike and ski shop. When the owner saw us he ran out, opened the door and told us to bring all our stuff right in. Rob Leipheimer was God sent, he had his employee John start right away on our getting us fixed up, even though the store was closing in 15 minutes. An hour and half later after a lot of tweeks and me buying another bike computer we were done. It is rare in life to happen upon a really geuine person like Rob, he made our day. Oh yea, the store is filled with racing jerseys from his brother Levi Leipheimer, one of the truly great professional cyclists with many years riding in the Tour de France, the family has been in the cycling/sports business for 41 years. I can see why after experiencing a level of service that is very rare nowadays. The Days Inn was an open door on the otherside of store, we checked in got our clothes washed and headed for dinner. Now you can see why this day we were being watched over.
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Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday was a much needed three quarter day ride. We still were able to get in 40+ miles, but only had one steep climb to get over Huckleberry Pass. We had lunch at the summit, our usual gorp, energy cliff bars and some dry granola. We met a young man on his motorcyle that had also pulled off the dirt road and was eating his sandwich. He was from Helena and showed us the huckleberry bushes near the side of the road, little red berries that are very popular this time of year. He also told us an interesting grizzly with it's cubs encounter his friend had just experienced, he had his pistol pulled but luckily the griz had stopped its charge. We finished around 3pm in Lincoln, getting ready for our next day, which included our first day of visiting a laundrymat even though our rinsing and wringing our riding gear out in water has worked pretty well so far.
Saturday was a long day, 63 miles, we summited our first Continental Divide crossing one of three we would do today. The ride was the hardest of any we have had to date. We left early in the morning and began riding in 48 degrees at 6am. The first Continental Divide crossing was difficult, definitely the steepest climb so far. We ran into a rancher before the climb that pulled over in his pickup truck and told us "I wouldn't do it if I were you", we had to follow the maps, just couldn't miss what was in store for us. We biked up almost all the 4.4 miles of the steep part but for the first time we had to dismount our bikes and push our bikes and trailers up the steep rutted lose gravel trail that was just too steep to ride. Biking through streams crossing the trail and through water pools one to two feet deep, we got wet, sweated profusely, and used muscles we had not used before. John got a flat at the top, he has tubeless tires that have this goo like material added to the inside of his tires that plugs up any holes caused by the sharp rocks that we are riding over. It pretty interesting to watch the goo girgle through the tire and plug up the hole, without us having to do anything other than add a little more air.
We crossed the first Divide about 11:00a.m. and headed down the eastern side past beautiful meadow lands and ranges. Cattle range freely in that area, so you need to watch closely for large cattle crossing the gravel road. At the bottom we had our usual gorp lunch above an isolated ranch and then rode another steep assent, no pushing our bikes this time (pushing the bikes and trailer is actually harder than riding). We crossed the Divide again, descended through logging country, took a final break and then climbed once more for our third Divide crossing. After a long descent along sometimes heavily wash boarded road we biked the last 12 miles on paved road into Helena. We were very tired, but felt a sense of accomplishment on climbing 5,485 in elevation and ascending three summits for the day!!
Today, is Sunday morning and Pete's 53rd birthday!! Happy B-day to Pete! He was off to Walmart this morning looking for an Ipad charger,so we can keep these blogs going (he inadvertantly left his at the cafe two days back). We are restocking on food and fuel for the next two days for our ride into Butte and getting our bikes looked over. We will camp out tonight somewhere short of the Lava Mountain.
Total miles so far about 430. Total route miles approximately 375, (difference being getting lost, only one big one so far and off route trips to towns for some lodging and meals. Elevation gain approximately 23,000. Sore butts and muscles. Mike likes his Specialized Stump Jumper hard tail 29er, but is wishing he had full suspension, like Pete and John for the wash board rutted roads. All three of us our holding up good and are getting along remarkably well.
Saturday was a long day, 63 miles, we summited our first Continental Divide crossing one of three we would do today. The ride was the hardest of any we have had to date. We left early in the morning and began riding in 48 degrees at 6am. The first Continental Divide crossing was difficult, definitely the steepest climb so far. We ran into a rancher before the climb that pulled over in his pickup truck and told us "I wouldn't do it if I were you", we had to follow the maps, just couldn't miss what was in store for us. We biked up almost all the 4.4 miles of the steep part but for the first time we had to dismount our bikes and push our bikes and trailers up the steep rutted lose gravel trail that was just too steep to ride. Biking through streams crossing the trail and through water pools one to two feet deep, we got wet, sweated profusely, and used muscles we had not used before. John got a flat at the top, he has tubeless tires that have this goo like material added to the inside of his tires that plugs up any holes caused by the sharp rocks that we are riding over. It pretty interesting to watch the goo girgle through the tire and plug up the hole, without us having to do anything other than add a little more air.
We crossed the first Divide about 11:00a.m. and headed down the eastern side past beautiful meadow lands and ranges. Cattle range freely in that area, so you need to watch closely for large cattle crossing the gravel road. At the bottom we had our usual gorp lunch above an isolated ranch and then rode another steep assent, no pushing our bikes this time (pushing the bikes and trailer is actually harder than riding). We crossed the Divide again, descended through logging country, took a final break and then climbed once more for our third Divide crossing. After a long descent along sometimes heavily wash boarded road we biked the last 12 miles on paved road into Helena. We were very tired, but felt a sense of accomplishment on climbing 5,485 in elevation and ascending three summits for the day!!
Today, is Sunday morning and Pete's 53rd birthday!! Happy B-day to Pete! He was off to Walmart this morning looking for an Ipad charger,so we can keep these blogs going (he inadvertantly left his at the cafe two days back). We are restocking on food and fuel for the next two days for our ride into Butte and getting our bikes looked over. We will camp out tonight somewhere short of the Lava Mountain.
Total miles so far about 430. Total route miles approximately 375, (difference being getting lost, only one big one so far and off route trips to towns for some lodging and meals. Elevation gain approximately 23,000. Sore butts and muscles. Mike likes his Specialized Stump Jumper hard tail 29er, but is wishing he had full suspension, like Pete and John for the wash board rutted roads. All three of us our holding up good and are getting along remarkably well.
Thursday, August 5th
Today is John Witzel's 56th birthday! He woke up to a clear sunrise on a gorgeous lake - happy B-day. After a quick breakfast we started up the big climb, which as it turned out was not as hard we thought but the descent on fairly rough single track trails was a lot harder. On the way up we saw very dramatic mountains and peaks in the distance still almost fully covered in snow. On the way down the single track was rough, some wash-out and logs fallen across the trail requiring dismount and portage around those areas. When we hit the dense foliage areas I started whistling as loud as I could since I was in the lead. Mike was talking loudly to himself to create noise too. We didn't want to run up on a bear without them hearing us.
We ate hamburgers in Seeley Lake, 2 miles off the trail but well worth it. After 244 miles and 6 days of riding (with 1/2 day of being lost), we finally get to the next page of the map. A long, constant medium climb takes us to Ovanda, a throw back to the Old West, a cute town with a B&B, cafe-coffee shop, museum, gas station and a fishing shop. Since we don't have a lot fuel left until we hit Helena in 2 days we are trying to eat out as much as possible.
We ate hamburgers in Seeley Lake, 2 miles off the trail but well worth it. After 244 miles and 6 days of riding (with 1/2 day of being lost), we finally get to the next page of the map. A long, constant medium climb takes us to Ovanda, a throw back to the Old West, a cute town with a B&B, cafe-coffee shop, museum, gas station and a fishing shop. Since we don't have a lot fuel left until we hit Helena in 2 days we are trying to eat out as much as possible.
Wednesday, August 4th
Outside of Condon, MT we left our motel to get back on the trail for an easy day of riding. The objective was to eat lunch at the Holland Lake Lodge, which we did. We also wanted to be fresh for a hard climb up Mount Richmond. I wanted to catch up on the blog, so I wrote the last one at Holland Lodge and then rode 4 miles back to the highway to get enough cell coverage to send the file. Seems like the parts of Montana we are traveling really aren't focused on entering the digital age with widely available Internet access or cell phone coverage. Mike and John waited (a little impatiently I might add) for me to get back. While waiting in a camping area they saw their first grizzly dart across a road, as a kid was swimming in the stream not far away. I got back and we started our climb up to Clearwater Lake, an absolutely beautiful high mountain lake that looked untouched by man (except for our campsite). After setting up our tents, and Mike and John going for a swim, two old-timers showed up having no luck fishing the lake, we had heard their dog barking when got there. They proceeded to scare the hell out of us talking about grizzlies turning over logs, etc. Needless to say we all went to bed with our pepper spray ready for a visit. It occurred to me during the night that is not likely to happen. Mike snores so loud, for so long that either the bears like it or don't and given no visits they are like me, they don't really care for the snoring. Seems like it is a good deterrent to unwanted bear interaction. One other thing kept me awake, at first it sounded like a wolf or coyote howling, but after a while I figured it was the haunting calls of a loon on Clearwater Lake.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, August 3rd
Today started late, around 10am, with a good almost 6 mile climb. It was all dirt road and not excessively steep but still a good pull around 1800 feet of vertical ascent. As we crested the summit we saw another woman picking huckleberries in the middle of a forest. We are seeing people out in the middle of nowhere going to their secret spots to pick huckleberries. Shortly after the huckleberry pickers we saw our first bear crossing the road about a 100 yards in front of us. It saw us and scrambled into the woods, alas it was only a black bear not a grizzly. The descent was long and unfettered. Several hours later we made a very short wrong turn and as we were going back to get the right road (unmarked of course) a logging truck comes barreling around the corner, had to scamper off the dirt road quickly to miss him. Next was another shorter climb only 1,000 feet to get closer to our final destination, a lodge next to a highway. We got in at just before 8pm and the only food for the night was a small grocery store a mile away. Mike and I dropped our trailers and rode like crazy to get there before they closed (we called ahead asking them to stay open a few minutes longer). As we were racing there Mike had a deer run right in front of his bike and he had to slam on the brakes or he would have hit it. We got the groceries for dinner and beer and headed back and it almost happened again! Only this time a deer ran within inches of the car 50 feet in front of us. The deer in this area of Montana are crazy! Another nice night of regular food, beer and a bed - man are we getting spoiled.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
First and foremost I want to thank all of the folks that have been so generous and pledged a contribution to Healing American Heroes. It really is inspiring to get off the trail after 3 days of riding and see more are sponsoring, thanks. Rosie Babin and the volunteers are getting to help more and more of the wounded by your thoughtfulness and caring.
A special thanks to our friend Tom Lafleur who came up from San Diego to drop us off and take John Witzel's car back to San Diego. Hope we don't run into any of the mountain lions like the one Tom saw while fishing a river after dropping us off eating a deer a hundred feet away!
Prior to crossing the border we said a prayer for God to watch over us and to keep our families safe and to thank those that have sacrificed for us. We start all our rides with a prayer, sure seems to be working to know that He is there with us.
Our Saturday launch began pouring rain and lightening within 10 minutes of crossing the Canadian border back into the U.S. We rode for 62 miles going through some really beautiful Montana farmland, lots of horses and cattle in very green meadows. We started our first climb over Whitefish Pass at noon and crested it about 3pm right when it reached 96 degrees! The downhill ride was beautiful through pine forests and a vista of huge mountains surrounding our descent. You really have to watch your speed going down gravel roads with a 40+lbs one-wheeled trailer behind you, hitting 20 mph and the thing starts to sway back and forth. We ended the day around 6pm after finding a beautiful campsite along the North Fork Flathead River with an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains in Glacier National Park. By the way if you stand on a dirt road looking at a map in Montana you get someone to stop and offer you assistance, the people here really are very friendly and want to help, which is how we found our campsite.
Sunday we were out of camp by 8am, seems it takes us about 2 hours to eat, refresh our water, breakdown our tents and repack our trailers. We were off and ran into three folks on bikes, a husband wife from Australia and a godson from the U.K. They had started in Arizona and were biking well past Banff. We are just going to the NM-Mexico border, these second timers on the Great Divide Ride sure have us beat! Great conversation with them comparing stories, but it also caused us to lose focus and we missed our turn up to the second big climb to cross the Divide at Red Meadows Lake. That cost us 30+ extra miles and an extra climb too boot. We have learned a hard lesson, pay attention at every intersection to where you are going! We ended up going 50 miles but only doing 17 trail miles and spending the night camping at Upper Whitefish campgrounds instead of a hotel in the town of Whitefish. But even with all that frustration we still enjoyed the spectacular views of Red Meadow Lake and the surrounding mountains.
Monday, August 1st we a got out of camp at 8am and headed downhill to Whitefish, a great, but initially cold ride to a beautiful town on Whitefish Lake. We got some repairs done at Glacier Cyclery (nice folks and very helpful) and then headed off to BigFork on a mostly flat ride, well at least no big climbs. Here again, we went through beautiful farmland, very green pastures. We called ahead from the road to be sure had a place to stay and were in luck, a bed, a beer and a burger. Had a great nights sleep and now we are ready to make steep climb on Day 4 of the ride. It will probably be a couple of days before we can catch up again. Still working on getting pictures into the posts from my iPad.
A special thanks to our friend Tom Lafleur who came up from San Diego to drop us off and take John Witzel's car back to San Diego. Hope we don't run into any of the mountain lions like the one Tom saw while fishing a river after dropping us off eating a deer a hundred feet away!
Prior to crossing the border we said a prayer for God to watch over us and to keep our families safe and to thank those that have sacrificed for us. We start all our rides with a prayer, sure seems to be working to know that He is there with us.
Our Saturday launch began pouring rain and lightening within 10 minutes of crossing the Canadian border back into the U.S. We rode for 62 miles going through some really beautiful Montana farmland, lots of horses and cattle in very green meadows. We started our first climb over Whitefish Pass at noon and crested it about 3pm right when it reached 96 degrees! The downhill ride was beautiful through pine forests and a vista of huge mountains surrounding our descent. You really have to watch your speed going down gravel roads with a 40+lbs one-wheeled trailer behind you, hitting 20 mph and the thing starts to sway back and forth. We ended the day around 6pm after finding a beautiful campsite along the North Fork Flathead River with an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains in Glacier National Park. By the way if you stand on a dirt road looking at a map in Montana you get someone to stop and offer you assistance, the people here really are very friendly and want to help, which is how we found our campsite.
Sunday we were out of camp by 8am, seems it takes us about 2 hours to eat, refresh our water, breakdown our tents and repack our trailers. We were off and ran into three folks on bikes, a husband wife from Australia and a godson from the U.K. They had started in Arizona and were biking well past Banff. We are just going to the NM-Mexico border, these second timers on the Great Divide Ride sure have us beat! Great conversation with them comparing stories, but it also caused us to lose focus and we missed our turn up to the second big climb to cross the Divide at Red Meadows Lake. That cost us 30+ extra miles and an extra climb too boot. We have learned a hard lesson, pay attention at every intersection to where you are going! We ended up going 50 miles but only doing 17 trail miles and spending the night camping at Upper Whitefish campgrounds instead of a hotel in the town of Whitefish. But even with all that frustration we still enjoyed the spectacular views of Red Meadow Lake and the surrounding mountains.
Monday, August 1st we a got out of camp at 8am and headed downhill to Whitefish, a great, but initially cold ride to a beautiful town on Whitefish Lake. We got some repairs done at Glacier Cyclery (nice folks and very helpful) and then headed off to BigFork on a mostly flat ride, well at least no big climbs. Here again, we went through beautiful farmland, very green pastures. We called ahead from the road to be sure had a place to stay and were in luck, a bed, a beer and a burger. Had a great nights sleep and now we are ready to make steep climb on Day 4 of the ride. It will probably be a couple of days before we can catch up again. Still working on getting pictures into the posts from my iPad.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Hit the goal, thanks everyone
I just want to say thanks to all that have pledged and helped us achieve/exceed our goal in fundraising. I am excited about getting started on the ride but more so about helping our wounded. Rosie Babin and all the volunteers at Healing American Heroes appreciate the generosity that you have have shown. Today is the scramble day to everything packed and go to Colorado to begin the move west and then to Roosville for our start in a week. I also want to thank my wife, Colleen, for her tremendous support and enthusiasm for our ride and the fundraising. Colleen lined up an article in the Eden Prairie News this week http://edenprairienews.com/taxonomy/term/55/9
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
This blog site is created in honor of our soldiers that have been wounded serving our country and the ride to support them. We are blessed to live in this country and to have the patriots that support and defend our way of life.
We want to help those that have sacrificed so much for our freedom. We hope that fellow Americans will help us in raising money via this ride to provide for those injured. Please go to http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/ The form is to indicate your support for the charity Healing American Heroes. We are hoping you will donate either on a per mile basis $0.01 to $1.00 per mile or just an amount. Every penny we raise goes directly to supporting those injured, 100% of every dollar. We will update you along the way as to how we are doing via an email blast. The actual collection of your donation won't happen until after the ride in October.
The event is a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico, about 2500 miles of off-road riding, unsupported. Starting on August 1, 2010 we will leave Roosville, MT on a bike route called "The Great Divide Ride" that sports some paved road but mostly dirt roads and single track routes. Eventually we will arrive at Antelope Wells, NM and Mexico. The map above gives an overview of the route along the Continental Divide.
John Witzel (San Diego, CA) and myself, Pete Schleider (Eden Prairie, MN), will be the guys going the entire way. Mike Weinberger (Eden Prairie, MN) is starting the ride, going for 2 weeks, then passing his equipment on to another guy take his place for another 2 weeks.
You can follow us via GPS tracking at: http://trackleaders.com/divide
Most importantly we hope to help our fellow Americans and their efforts to get on with their lives after sacrificing so much for us. Please donate what you can to help them. To learn more about the charity please go to: http://healingamericanheroes.org/.
We want to help those that have sacrificed so much for our freedom. We hope that fellow Americans will help us in raising money via this ride to provide for those injured. Please go to http://americasheroes.wufoo.com/forms/ride-the-divide-for-wounded-warriors/ The form is to indicate your support for the charity Healing American Heroes. We are hoping you will donate either on a per mile basis $0.01 to $1.00 per mile or just an amount. Every penny we raise goes directly to supporting those injured, 100% of every dollar. We will update you along the way as to how we are doing via an email blast. The actual collection of your donation won't happen until after the ride in October.
The event is a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico, about 2500 miles of off-road riding, unsupported. Starting on August 1, 2010 we will leave Roosville, MT on a bike route called "The Great Divide Ride" that sports some paved road but mostly dirt roads and single track routes. Eventually we will arrive at Antelope Wells, NM and Mexico. The map above gives an overview of the route along the Continental Divide.
John Witzel (San Diego, CA) and myself, Pete Schleider (Eden Prairie, MN), will be the guys going the entire way. Mike Weinberger (Eden Prairie, MN) is starting the ride, going for 2 weeks, then passing his equipment on to another guy take his place for another 2 weeks.
You can follow us via GPS tracking at: http://trackleaders.com/divide
Most importantly we hope to help our fellow Americans and their efforts to get on with their lives after sacrificing so much for us. Please donate what you can to help them. To learn more about the charity please go to: http://healingamericanheroes.org/.
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