Days 12 to 15

No pictures today since the place I am having breakfast right now (Elkhorn Lodge) has very slow internet that can't handle picture uploads. I will update this with pictures later if I get a chance.

The night after spending a hotel in Lincoln, where I finally got my laundry done I decided to push to get to Helena in one day.  The mileage was somewhere in the high 60 mile range and it was quite the challenge. The hardest was Stemper Pass, which was another rough 4x4 track that reduced me to  a walk for a couple of miles. I spent the night at a campground at the county fairgrounds in Helena.

Helena was a nice town and I stayed a couple of extra hours in the morning chasing down some replacement items (gloves and helmet that the deer at Tuchuck campground destroyed, a broken backpacking spork/knife, and a paracord that got stuck when hanging my food in a tree).

The next day took me to Basin, Mt, a maybe 30 person town with a fantastic bar and Cafe. About a mile before hitting town I ran into Trond (Norweigan - pronounced Tron), who I have been riding with for the last several days.  Basin let's great divide cyclists sleep in their town hall for $5. Not bad for a spot to sleep, a bathroom, and a kitchen.

For those of you watching my Garmin inreach track, please be aware that the mileage it displays is not accurate. The settings I am using only post my location every 10 minutes and it assumes straight lines between each location, so it ignores a lot of curves.  

The next day took us to a middle of nowhere informal campground at Highland Trailhead. The were some climbs but definitely mellower than the last few days. 

The most notable things between there and Elkhorn Lodge were tackling Fleecer Ridge, which is an about 45 degree, rocky, downhill trail and a relatively long road section that allowed us to lay down some good miles (71). 

Updated with pictures...

Climbing the easy part of Stemper Pass:

The Llama Farm (a hostel for great divide cyclists where riders can stay in one of the small sheds for a night:

A friend I made:


Maybe 5 miles from Helena:


Gradual climb out of Helena:

Lake between Helena and Basin:

Busy bee:


Riding somewhere between Helena and Basin:

Basin community center:

About a week after starting this kind of ride your appetite goes nuts but there is a mismatch with what you think you can eat.  This was breakfast in Basin. I thought there was no way I would eat more than half but it was gone in 10 minutes.


Riding with Trond outside of Basin:


Lakes visible on the climb to Highland Trailhead:

Highland Trailhead, where we spent the night in a fenced in area somewhat protected from bears:


Fleecer Ridge is a notorious piece of the Great Divide route. It is an extremely steep 4x4 trail. Thankfully north to south riders go down rather than up it.


These folks had lost a Yeti cooler on the way down earlier in the day and they were on the way back to retrieve it. Trond and I had each already claimed a orange juice from it. Thankfully the owners were more than fine with that and offered us the two beers they thought were still in it as well (they had actually already been claimed by two other cyclists we ran into later in Wiser, Mt). 


River near Wiser:


The Wiser, Mt convenience store was bustling with divide cyclists:

Poster at the Elkhorn Hotsprings Lodge (they didn't card me - ouch):







Comments

  1. TanyaAugust 8, 2022 at 7:49 PM

    Looking forward to more pictures. Have fun, be careful.

    ReplyDelete

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