Day 19 - Section 1B - Montana
08/13/06
Butte, MT 192 to Beaver Dam Campground via
detour 228m = 36 miles
The Detour
I picked up a week to two weeks worth of
supplies in Butte, a bit more than usual, and my trailer
felt really heavy. It will be a while before I will see
another full service grocery store. Most of the small
towns I have passed through have no grocery stores or a
very limited selection of healthy food and no selection
of fruit. The majority of my food weight was fruit.
I left Helen going east on a frontage road
paralleling I-90. I then traveled under the I-90 bridge,
crossed over some railroad tracks, and walked up to
I-15. I rode on I-15 until I reached a frontage road
which took me to another frontage and then to Divide
Creek Rd. It was an excellent detour. It was slow going
because of a strong head wind. Riding on the freeway was
very safe and I felt very comfortable. I was passed by
about twelve cars over 5 miles. The shoulder was wide
enough to be its own lane.
Once I hit dirt, the trail was fairly
nice and easy going.
I reached the Beaver Dam Campground by
late afternoon. I almost missed it because there was no
sign telling me to turn right at the entrance. Why the
name “Beaver Dam Campground”, not sure, there is no dam.
It is a nice, safe feeling campsite. Tonight I am the
only camper out of 20 spots.
I had a lasagna dinner with tea and went
to bed.
Day 20 - Section 1B - Montana
08/14/06
Beaver Dam Campground 228m to Price Camp
272m = 44 miles
The Insane Fleecer Pass
The word for today’s ride, GRUELING! I
woke up feeling rested and hit the trail going up to
Fleecer Pass.
 The trail was very beautiful and the
riding was good, but it was very steep in some parts.
Near the top of Fleecer Pass it was very easy to get
lost. It was an exposed grassy knoll, but the route
leaves the official looking trail and goes right were
there is no trail. This off trail diversion lasted for
only 200 yards, but it was confusing. The confusion lies
in thinking you are going to the top of a mountain, but
you are only summiting a lower pass.
Once you reach the top edge of the pass
you realize why you couldn’t see the trail continuing.
The trail went down a 45-degree embankment. It was too
steep and rocky to ride with a trailer! It took me an
hour to walk down, even though it was less than ½ a mile
long. I had a lot of difficulty maintaining both my foot
traction and bike traction. My trailer always wanted to
jack knife every time I stopped. Walking a bike with BOB
trailer is a bad idea, but it was the safest. I can’t
imagine having to do this in the rain and I can’t
imagine having to go up this if you’re bicycling the
trail from South to North. NOTE: If you are going from
South to North, find an alternate around Fleecer Pass.
It would be very dangerous to try and climb it with a
loaded bike and if you do, plan on taking several hours
to climb it.
I was very relieved, once I reached the
bottom of the pass. But that is also were I crashed. The
bottom of the pass is semi-flat and very muddy. The
trail becomes a small creek bed which is not much of
creek. It is more like a marshy stream feed by a low
flowing spring. There are a lot of cattle in the area so
it smells rank from cow dung. The stream has a lot of
dung in it and thousands of leaches. My map fell into
the stream and within seconds it had leaches all over
it. As I was getting started again, my front tire dug in
and I fell off my bike. I landed on my two feet, but my
bike handle bar grip and shifter landed in to the
biggest cow patty I had ever seen. Worst yet, the cow
patty was fresh. YUK!
Today's ride was challenging enough
without Fleecer Pass and yet I felt great. My knee problems
had complete subsided and I felt as if I never had any
knee pain. My body felt stronger
and my riding style is becoming more efficient. My
endurance is also radically improving.
The rest of the day was on pavement. I
reached Price Camp at sunset. It was a nice designated
campground with a water pump and pit toilets.
Reflecting on what I have experienced
thus far, I have learned that maintaining proper
hydration is really important and using Cytomax, a sports drink
supplement, has helped tremendously for my
endurance. Also eating more carbohydrates and less fat
has also helped. The biggest improvement has been my new
bicycle. I am so much more efficient of a rider and can
cover much more ground in the same amount of time with
fewer needs for breaks.
Day 21 - Section 1B/2A - Montana
08/15/06
Price Camp 272 to EOS 283m to Grant, MT 30m
= 41 miles
Gotch Ya!
Despite all the obstacles I encountered
today, the day still ended great. My troubles begun with
my speed odometer battery dying, and then I lost my
downhill run, had to compete with day long head winds,
were almost bit by a rattle snake, and battled ferocious
rains. Yet with all this I still made decent mileage and
had fun riding.
My speed odometer’s wireless sender unit
battery froze last night and died.
I was looking forward to steep 8 mile
downhill immediately after leaving Price Camp. A ¼ mile
down the road was a road construction crew. A sign was
posted “Road Construction - No Bikes No Pedestrians”. I
had to get a ride in one of the construction workers
truck's and they drove me all the way down to the bottom
of the hill. Apparently, they are paving the dirt road
in this section.
Most of today's ride was paved and on a
slight up hill grade. By mid morning I was riding in a
windy desert valley. Threatening thunderheads were
chasing me until noon. They eventually overtook me and
let loose their fury. The clap of thunder vibrated
violently in my sternum and the lightning was blinding.
I was out in the wide open with no where to go but
straight down the dirt trial for 15 more miles.
Fortunately, the trail was very sandy and the water
seeped into the soil quickly making for easy riding.
This was the first time I had to use my rain gear and it
was not too bad. To my surprise it was fun riding in the
rain. But the lightning scared me as it was almost
directly overhead.
Around 2pm I stopped at the 1800’s
Bannack cemetery to have lunch. It is a ghostly looking
place with its ornate wrought iron fenced in tombs and
over grown sage. I strolled through the cemetery and was
amazed to read that almost all the people buried there
were younger than 37, on average 22 years old, and they
dated back to the early 1800’s. Back in the corner was
one particularly creepy looking grave site. It had a
rusty gothic wrought iron fence and had a and leaning
towering marble tombstone. As I walked towards it I
heard a hissing sound. I stopped dead in my tracks with
one foot still in the air. A few inches in front of me
slithered the biggest and fattest rattle snake I have
ever seen. It was close to 5 feet in length and it had a
lot of rattles on its rattler. After it slithered down
into a hole next to a grave I was standing
 next to, I
high tailed it out of there so fast I would have won the
Olympics!
It was about 5pm when I rode into
Grant. Grant is nothing more than a seasonal lodge
with a café. A rancher converted some old worker huts
into a bed and breakfast. It was better than staying out
in this weather and the café had great food.
Day 22 - Section 2A - Montana
08/16/06
Grant, MT 30m to Lima 98m = 68 miles
Slow and Fast
Last night I had a mouse infiltrate my
bag of bagels and ate this week’s lunch. I had left them
on the kitchen counter in my room.
After breakfast I hit the trail going
towards Lima, MT, which was a very lofty goal. It rained
all night so the trail was a bit soft this morning.
Everything was wet and beautiful. The air was fresh and
crisp. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a great
time to be riding.
By mid morning those nasty head winds
kicked up and within two hours the thunder heads moved
and it started to rain. The rain and wind really slowed
me down. By late afternoon I reached Medicine Lodge
Sheep Creek Divide just as it started to thunder. I was
feeling really tired and nutritionally depleted. Then my
rear tire went flat.
In the pouring rain I took off the rear
tire, patched it, and pumped it up with my hand pump. I
was really disappointed that I had gotten a flat. The
last time I had a flat was in 1986, some 40,000+ miles
ago. Since then I had always used Mr. Toughy thorn proof
Teflon strip’s. On my new bike I am running much fatter
tires then what the Toughy’s were made for and they cut
the inner tube.
As I started to descend from Sheep Creek
Divide the winds changed direction and gave me a strong
tail wind. For the next 38 miles the landscape was a
flat basin desert with tall canyon walls. In the basin,
the trail was sandy with hard pack an inch below the
surface and I averaged 30mph. The canyon area looked
like the perfect movie set for an old train robbing
western movie. At one time the canyon section used to be
an old railroad grade.
I made it into Lima before dusk and I
went to the first hotel I saw. I entered the sales
office which was also the café and the first person I
saw was Peter! We laughed; Peter and Yoke had arrived
earlier in the afternoon and met some other riders that
were doing a small section of the route. They decided to
camp in an old cow stable last night near Sheep Creek
Divide when it started to rain. We had dinner and talked
for several hours before retiring for the night.
Day 23 - Section 2A - Montana
08/17/06
Lima 98m to Backside of Lima Reservoir
Improvised Camp Site 122m = 24 miles
ZAP!
Today was hellishly brutal. It was one
of those days I repeatedly asked myself “Why am I doing
this?”
This morning was nice and clear and the
Weather Channel forecasted clear sky’s for the next few
days.
After breakfast I updated my GPS unit
with the next 1000 way points using the hotel’s
computer.
Before leaving town around 9am, I
stopped at the gas station to fill up my tires when the
rear tire popped. Again, my tube was cut by my Mr.
Toughy. After patching my inner tube I pulled out the
Mr. Toughy left it out.
 Within an hour of riding, the sky’s clouded over with thunder heads. Once I
reached the Lima Dam it had started to rain and the head
winds blew strong and steady. With an exception of an
hour, it rained all day. The thunder and lightening was
off in the distance but not too far off.
The trail was very sandy and soft but
not muddy. The soft trail combined with the constant
wind just zapped the energy from me. I was averaging
about 2 mph. By 3pm I was hungry, tired, and miserable.
I struggled just to ride straight.
 Two
to three hours had passed where there
was no thunder or lightning and it hadn’t rained for an
hour. I was hoping the sky’s were going to clear up
when, POW! Fifty feet in front of me a lightning bolt
hit. My whole body felt sharp pins and needles. The
lightning struck twenty feet lower than were I was
riding. I could smell the o-zone and I saw the small
dust cloud the lightning made when it hit the muddy
ground. It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to
be scared. A 3-foot radius around the spot were the
lightning had his was completely dry.
It was early evening and I was feeling
totally beat after only 24 miles. On the southern side
of Lima Reservoir, I saw an old abandoned
cabin, next to the trail, and
decided to camp there. As I neared the cabin I realized
that the group of section riders I met the
 night before
were also there. They arrived a half hour earlier and
they left Lima about two hours before me.
We talked until after dinner and then we
went to bed as the sun set. I am so tired I can hard
stay awake to write in my journal. At least I am cozy
and dry in my tent.
Day 24 - Section 2A - Idaho
08/18/06
Improvised Camp Site 122m to Sawtell Resort,
ID 184m = 62 miles
Montana to Idaho
I was up at 7am and ice was everywhere,
even my water bottles froze, but at least it was sunny.
After breakfast I packed up and hit the trail. I pulled
some high mileage today and the conditions were great.
This morning was nice and peaceful and
the ride was really enjoyable. The rain made everything
smell fresh and earthy. The air was crisp and the
temperature was very refreshing at 30F degrees. It was a
great time to be on a bike!
I had half a bottle of water left. I
knew there were several ranches along the route this
morning. I stopped at the second ranch on the route and
tanked up. I met a nice lady there whom invited me in
her home and we talked for a few minutes.
 By 12pm I crossed the Continental
Divide, “Red Rock Pass”, going into Idaho. Entering
Idaho meant I could check off Montana as one more
milestone achievement. Idaho welcomed me with lots of
big, beautiful, pine trees. For too long I had traveled
in a desert landscape and it felt great to be among
trees again.
In the late afternoon I rode into
Sawtell and got a room at the Sawtell Resort. It was
expensive, but the alternative was a packed RV campsite, at
only half the price, but loaded with noisy RV campers and
rambunctious teenagers on ATV’s.
Day 25 - Section 2A - Idaho
08/19/06
Sawtell Resort, ID 184m to Warm River
Campground, ID 219m = 35 miles
Volcanic Sand from Hell
This morning was bight and sunny and it
looked like it was going to be a nice day. About 3 miles
into my route I was getting bombarded by hundreds of
ATV’s. They were kicking up so much dust I could hardly
breathe and had several near miss collisions. There are
a lot of very young kids, 10-16 years old, riding these
big machines and they were whizzing by very fast and too
close. I have never seen so many of these things in one
place.
Unfortunately, the heavy traffic from
these ATV’s pulverized the trail’s volcanic soil into
sand and it is near impossible to ride on. So I turned
around and took the designated alternate. I DO NOT
recommend taking the alternate unless you want a work
out from hell. After the first few miles the trail turns
soft, just as it was before I turned around, and it
climbs up some very long and steep hills. The ride
wouldn’t be so difficult if the trail wasn’t so sandy.
I made it to the Warm River Campground
at dusk. It was packed full with campers. I got the last
spot do to a cancellation. It was very formal and almost
felt like a city park.
Back | Next |
