Bike About 2025 – GDMBR Week 1
December 7, 2025 § 1 Comment
We are now in phase 2 of my great bike about in the summer of 2025. My last post dealt with my time on my own before riding with Denise and Rebecca (Full disclosure I will refer to them as both “The Ladies” and “The Girls” through my writing. I hope no one is offended by using each reference interchangably). Now we are all together and setting off, a day later than first planned, for a two week adventure south on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR), covering the rest of Section 1, and all of Section 2. We were delayed a day in starting because the girls got in so late Friday night, it was early Saturday morning and a late winter storm hit the area bringing cold rain in the valley and almost 8 inches of snow in the passes.
June 22, Day 6 – We agreed to meet in the morning at 9am at Lulah’s Cafe in downtown Whitefish where we would load up on a big breakfast before departing for Swan Lake, 65 miles into our route. Lulahs was pretty busy that Sunday morning, and it became apparent early on that we should have agreed to meet at 8 instead. By the time we were seated and ordered, it was almost 45 minutes before we were seated. Partially I can accept some fault here because I was there early and I could have gone down and put our name in the queue for a table, but I wasn’t sure what had been done already, and I just awaited their arrival. With our bikes locked up we descended the stairs and 90 minutes later, after a very nice breakfast meal we unlocked the bikes and began the first mile of many. The storm that had blanketed the area for the last 36 hours was still in the area though we were now on the trailing edge of it. There were pockets of moisture, enough to warrant putting on rain jackets, and since I was the only one with rain pants, I opted in for those as well. You know the drill. When you prepare, it doesn’t rain, and when you say “It’s not going to rain” it rains.
Our route took us East out of town, in the direction of Columbia Falls. Remember Columbia Falls? I rode there on my way to and from Glacier, and now I was going there again. We weren’t going to touch Kalispell at all, and in hind sight (The best kind of sight), I could have avoided Kalispell altogether and simply headed straight to Glacier from the airport as there was a hardware store in Columbia Falls that the girls hit where they each purchased a 1/4 can of propane for their water heating needs. When we arrived I was still in my rain gear, but I was getting pretty warm and so I removed the pants and kept the jacket while the girls were shopping. As soon as we were back on the bikes we quickly turned onto roads I hadn’t yet seen and we were truly on our way following the Flathead River for some ways before we veered a little more to the Southeast. Our destination for the day was Swan Lake Trading Post, a campground on Swan Lake, a smaller lake East of Flathead lake on the other side of what would be our first real test of this ride, a moderate to substantial mountain formation that runs the full length of Flathead Lake. We had ridden mostly paved quiet roads for most of the day, attempting to get some food when we crossed 83 near Ferndale. The sit down place was closed that day, so we got some some food at a convenience store there and then continued South, where we finally got off the pavement and onto some proper gravel for our first big climb. I think it was 4-5 miles with a mild grade. I had started to notice that my shifting wasn’t quite right, where going for my largest cog often put my chain over that cog and up against the spokes. For the time being, I simply ran the gearing in my next to largest cog, thus robbing myself of the easiets gear. I knew at this time that there were bigger steeper climbs ahead and I was going to need that biggest cog, but on this day I managed. The afternoon got more overcast, and rain fell in bits and spurts, and with the wind blowing it was still pretty chill going uphill with all that heat generation. We each found our own rhythm and since I was pushing a larger gear than the ladies were, it just pushed me to the top ahead of them. I awaited their arrival, quickly losing any warmth I built on the climb until I finally saw Denise round the bend for the final push. Rebecca followed soon after and I apologized when they arrived but I was so cold aready all I wanted to do was to get down the other side and find our campground. No dilly dallying and they were both on board for that. The descent wasn’t much different than the climb however we weren’t generating any heat whatsoever and all three of us were quite cold when we reached the left turn to head out to 83 where we would find the trading post. We were South of the lake at this point so we had a few miles to ride on 83 which had no shoulder to speak of, an 80 mph speed limit, and just enough vehicles (including trucks) to get the heart racing enough that at least we all warmed up. Finally we pulled into the Swan Lake Trading Post Campground where we all chose the option of taking a cabin, me in one, the ladies in another (or they each got their own). The threat of rain hadn’t passed yet, and we just didn’t want to be in our tents. After a shower and to our relief the trading post hosted a small cafe that was still open and served up small pizza’s that we each bought into. We were told there would be breakfast sandwiches in the morning and with that we turned in for some rest. Day 6 Strava, Day 6 Instagram, Day 6 Relive.cc
June 23, Day 7 – The storm clouds cleared that night and the morning arose with a frosty dry feel in the air. I packed my things and headed for the cafe where I found Denise and Rebecca as well as the cook. The cook had brought a bunch of Croissants and was making breakfast sandwiches. After we ate ours, we immediately went back and asked for another that we could pack and eat later in the day for lunch. It was that good. Yes, my Vegan diet was already taking a backseat to my need for calories. Another group at the campground was a father/sons trio that were doing as much of the GDMBR as they could. They had started in Banff a couple of weeks prior and were making some decent time. I think they might have actually been doing the Tour Divide at an easier pace, but they might also have just been GDMBR riders. The sons were outpacing their dad and so had to wait often for him to catch up. We weren’t expecting to see them again. Packed and ready to go we met at the front for our second day. Our goal for this day was going to be a Forestry Service campground just to the South of Holland Lake. To get there we had to retrace our steps back off 83 and back onto the mountain road and to keep moving south along the edge of the valley, avoiding 83 at all costs. There was nothing in the form of services between our start and finish, and there was nothing the next day either until we made camp so we all hit the camp store at the trading post top load up on some extras that would get us through the next two days. They didn’t have anything freeze dried so we bought anything that seemed worth the weight.
While it was clear skies, there was a cool dew in the air, and moisture was everywhere until the sun got a lot higher in the sky. What that meant early on was the gravel road through the marshes had a lot of black slugs in the road. Not so many that you couldn’t avoid them, but there were a lot of slugs. When we got back to our main route there were still some in the road so I grabbed a picture. They are kind of like black squirrels. When you see one you think to yourself “Really? They come in black? I am so used to the more neutral color”. We started climbing immediately and that warmed us up early. I did some adjustments to the fine tuning on my rear derailleur and found that I could manage the largest cog with a little more care, and though that still meant a larger gear than Denise and Rebecca at least I took comfort that by the time the bigger climbs came, I might be okay. Might is the key word there. I awaited at the top for them again, and they being faster descenders got ahead of me going down. At least on this day, the sun was out, and so our descent wasn’t so frozen.
We continued South all day along the edge of the valley up against the mountain, paralleling 83 the rest of the day until we reached a hard left that took us across 83 and we began a slight rise to get to our camp site. There were two possibilities, however one of those seemed ambiguous and higher in elevation though it might have been on Holland Lake. I am not sure it was clear whether it would be available or not and so we opted for the Owl Creek Packer Camp on the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Just after the entry into the campground the route began to climb and so we knew the next day that we would be starting off again with a climb however this was going to be a much much longer climb as this climb would take us to the Continental Divide. Until then we were in camp early, there was almost no one else there and we had our pick of sites. We picked one that had afternoon sun, and then set up our tents. With that task out of the way we walked around and hit the empty campsites and grabbed whatever leftover wood lay near the firerings and hauled it back to our ring so we could have a fire on this day. The nights were cool, and a fire would allow us to stay away longer. This was our second night together and the fire did give us an opportunity to spend some chat time together going over the day and discussing our plan for the morrow. Lincoln seemed like a stretch, so the plan was to see how the climb went, and gauge the rest of the day off that. Rebecca turned in early, and Denise and I stayed up a little later with Denise eventually turning in leaving me to the remains of the fire. Being it was a USFS campground and water was available within a short walk, when the time came I would douse the fire with as much water as it would take. While I was sitting there a Ranger truck pulled in and unloaded a couple of people and lingered while they set their tents up. It was very late but they did stay up and boil up water for food with the Ranger truck leaving once their camp was set up. It was two women, and that was all I could make out at the time. With our fire doused, I retreated to my tent and retired. Day 7 Strava, Day 7 Instagram, Day 7 Relive.cc
June 24, Day 8 – Last one to bed, first to arise. It was coooold in the campground. Dew had settled in for the night and the tent flies were soaked. I boiled up some water for coffee after I stuffed my sleeping bag and packed up my pad. The tent would have to wait, the ladies weren’t up yet, and if the sun popped up over the horizon then at least I could position that stuff to get as much sunlight as possible to dry out. The two ladies who came in late were up already and boiling water as well. Their tents were down and they were packing up. I wondered over with my coffee to chat and found that they were raftpacking or backrafting. They each had an inflatable kayak and they would backpack into the Bob Marshall Wilderness to a an upper point on a creek that offered up various classes of rapids as it descended off the Continental Divide. They got in late the night before and were being picked up that morning to head off to another trailhead to take in another of the many water-based opportunities. Those kayaks looked heavy, so I think each adventure was maybe 2-3 days hike in, and 1 or 2 days floating out. I didn’t ask the details of their support structure. A Ranger brought them in the night before, but someone private was picking them up in the morning. That seemed to imply this was something they were rolling themselves and had a friend to help them with logistics, but that friend couldn’t be there all the time and hence the occasional ranger. Their ride arrived, and I moved back to my camp where I found Denise and Rebecca standing outside their respective tents squinting at the bright and sunny day. We all found sunny places to dry out our tents, and while we waited on that, we broke our nightly fast and introduced ourselves to an Aussie couple who set up camp next to us and were also up and about. People come from far and wide to ride the GDMBR and in spite of the state of our union, these two Aussies came to our shores anyway and were taking their sweet time. They were normal human beings who knew empthy and they couldn’t understand how so many people in the United States voted for a convict instead of a highly qualified woman. Again. I told them it was all Austratlia’s fault as their number one export to the US was Rupert Murdoch. Thank you Australia. Now there is a deportation that we could really use. These two were heading south and were ahead of us in the “ready to go” queue that morning and off they went.
With our things finally dry and packed up we hit the road as well, and no sooner did I get onto the first 20 feet of the climb then I geared too quickly into my largest cog and over the cog it went, stranding my chain and even my derailleur cage was hitting the spokes. I told the girls to continue on while I dealt with the problem and then spent 20 minutes getting myself unfucked. For the time being I made some adjustments to the fine tuning available via the Sram app (yes there is an app that interfaces with the derailleur) so that I could operate the bike in the lowest ratio gear. If I shifted early enough I could do it without going over the top, and I finally threw my leg over the frame and got started again. This was a very long climb, and the first people I caught up to were in fact the Aussies. It wasn’t too long after that before I caught up to Rebecca. When you have a rhythm you have to keep it up. It seems counter-intuitive (because maybe it is) but it feels better to push a higher cadence on the climbs than a lower one, and that higher cadence in that gear ratio had me climbing faster than both Denise and Rebecca. So it wasn’t too long after I passed Rebecca that Denise appeared ahead of me, and after I passed her, then the road got a little steeper and a lot more chunky. A chunkier road is harder to climb, and I think there were at least 2 small sections where it felt safer to put a foot down and walk the bike. That is what has to be done. I got up to what I thought was the top, found a sunny spot and awaited my companions. When they arrived I found out that we were still a lot of feet below the top and still many miles from the top. We were on a ridge to some extent that the road followed, but we never dropped away, but always seemed to be gaining. There was even a section of single track where I followed Rebecca a little too closely and when she stopped, I had a hand off the bars, and couldn’t do everything I needed to do to stop so I fell over. Better to do that than to run into her. Glad I fell where I did, because just a little later the single track was very dodgy indeed and a fall there could have been a lot more serious. Eventually, we started climbing again and this took us to the top of the climb where the Continental Divide was. With our late start and this long long climb I think we all knew that getting to Lincoln was out of the question, so we set our sights on Seely Lake, a decent sized town that had camping available as well as plenty of food establishments to choose from. We rested at the top for a while before starting our descent, it was very pleasant there as I recall. When we returned to our bikes, mine leaning up against a pine, I found mine surrounded by bees. They were on my handlebars and all over the top bag. Anyplace my salty hands, or salty sweat fell during the climb. Their wings were fluttering as they walked all over the tape. They didn’t seem to be threatened by my presence, and when I grabbed my bike, they didn’t pay me any attention at all. I walked my bike back over to the road, a few flew off. I cleared a couple from the seat and swung my leg over and got ready to go. I told the girls to start without me after I noticed I could see where the descent was going to go, so I put my camera in video mode and waited for them both to reach that section of road and I got some footage of them descending off that mountain. Then I began the long 20+ mile descent, with a few bees still clinging to my handlebars. As I began my descent, those left over bees eventually took flight, and It was many many miles before I reached a section of road that rose again, but generally I was descending all the way to Seely Lake. We stopped for some ice cream on the edge of town, got some food suggestions and then rode to the USFS camp on the Western Shore of the lake near a Boy Scout camp. The camp host helped us select a site and brought over a bear box for us to use. We were early enough to take a dip in the lake, though I think I simply waded up to my thighs. It was Denise and Rebecca who were all in for a full dip in the cold waters of Lake Seely.
Refreshed, we rode into town and down the road till we found Casa Caro, a Mexican food establishment that had come highly reccomended. Though it had been a somewhat short day distance wise, it was a long day climbing and we all worked up a big enough appetite that included some appetizers. The bill paid, we rode back and turned in. The plan for the morning was to find a breakfast joint and then to head to Lincoln, a town with 2 climbs between us. Day 8 Strava, Day 8 Instagram, Day 8 Relive.cc
June 25, Day 9 – Sunrise seemed earlier this morning as we weren’t right up against the western flank of a mountain but it was still a very cool morning. Lincoln wasn’t terribly far away, maybe 50 miles tops, with 2 climbs. Though not an official alternative, there was an option to skip the second climb, but nothing had been decided that morning. Again we took the time to dry out our tents before packing them, so an early start was out of the question. By the time we were ready to roll out, all the kids in the campground that had bikes had found us and gave us a little escort to the exit as we rolled out taking the long way around so as to maximize their rollout with us. Pop’s was right there on 83 when we got back to the main road and we crossed the highway to load up on some much needed calories for the day. By the time we were done there it was nearly 11 am and we still had 60 miles to ride once we got back on the route. Seely lake was off route by 3-4 miles. As we approached a right turn off the bike path, Rebecca shouted “OMG it’s Mira La Perra” and rode over to an information kiosk where a cyclist sat on a bench with his border collie Mira. Rebecca had been following their adventures for at least a couple of years and had no idea that she was riding in such close proximity to these two instagram legends. While they were conversing I got a look at the bike they were using. I didn’t recognize the brand, but I was fascinated with the fact that it was a belt drive gearing system manufactured by Pinion. This was the 18 speed version and John, Mira’s pal, said that he typically gets around 30,000 kilometers per belt, and lubricates the gear box about every 10,000 kilometers. The bike was fairly heavy duty in its construction, but John was not carrying a lot of gear. Mira had an open crate attached to the rear rack that she rode in when she wasn’t running along side. I don’t think they push big miles each day. John and Mira are simply out on a long adventure that has spanned a few years, and many off-the-beatan-track miles in South, Central and North America. When it’s Winter here, he goes to South America and spends Spring and Fall in Central America when he can. We didn’t linger too long, but long enough to satisfy Rebecca and then we were finally making some miles. The first climb was actually a double hump that included a 300′ dip before rising again. It wasn’t a very hard climb at all, I seem to recall that I might have had issues with my shifting again, and the ladies got ahead of me again because I recall thinking how the type of terrain fit my strengths pretty well. It wasn’t just a single long climb but was made up of a series of steps before it finally settled in for the final climb. Those steps allowed me to stand for longer and longer periods on the pedals, maintaining a higher speed while climbing. I might have been burning some early matches, but I made up the distance back to Denise and Rebecca fairly quickly. Coming down off the climb I was noting the greenish pateena on the rocks embedded in the road. That same green you see when copper oxidizes, led me to think there was copper ore in these rocks. Whether that was true or not, I don’t know. It was just speculation. After crossing SR 200 we stopped in Ovando which hosted a country story. Ovondo was off the main route, but you could get gas here if you needed it, but I would say the main customer through here was the GDMBR community since the country store seemed to be loaded with supplies that cyclists would want, so it seemed strange to me that the owner would post a sign on the door warning customers that he was packing heat. Gun toters want the rest of us to believe in the same inane fears that they succumb to. I didn’t meet a single cyclist toting a gun, so I don’t know what this old man’s fear was. We rested and ate, and then hit the road again, but before we did, Denise and I both decided that we didn’t want to roll into Lincoln as light was fading on the day and so we discussed with Rebecca the option to ride SR 200 straight to Lincoln instead of doing the higher/steeper climb that was the main route. The drawback to SR 200 is the increased traffic, including trucks, and their speed. Rebecca was not in favor of this option for herself, but we were free to follow that option if we chose. We didn’t have to decide then and there so we rolled out. We wouldn’t hit SR 200 again for a few miles anyway.
When we did, Denise and I looked at each other, and at the roadway, and while there was more traffic, it seemed like it was fairly sparse. We could see fairly far in both directions, and it wasn’t just a steady stream of vehicles, and the shoulder seemed to be substantial enough for us to ride safely there. Rebecca crossed the highway, and we turned right and began our alternate route. I will say that it was awhile before I started to regret this decision but we were too far into it to turn around. The shoulder shrunk in places to an uncomfortable width, and though many vehicles did swerve out to give us a larger buffer, not everyone did, and some of those that did not were fairly good sized 18 wheelers. On the bright side there were some grades where a truck lane opened up and those trucks don’t really climb all that fast, so at least they weren’t going all that fast past us, but you could hear them coming. By the time the route reached the Blackfoot River we caught a break when SR 141 turned South, and with that so also went all the trucks. Almost all of them that is, because the though the shoulder was gone, much of the traffic was gone as well, so Denise and I had very long segments where we had the road to ourselves. That allowed us to relax a lot, and eventually the shoulder returned and we rode into Lincoln where we found the RV park where we were staying the night. There was a bar/restaurant right across the street which is where we ended up after setting up camp, and getting cleaned up. We did all of that and were getting ready to walk back to camp when Rebecca finally rode in. It was getting late, and we told her to go get some food before the kitchen closed, so we stayed and sat with her as she told us about the rest of her day. The main blunder in her story was that she had stopped to take a photo during the ascent and somehow put her phone down, or it fell out so that miles later when she stopped again and couldn’t find it she knew she had to ride back down to the last place she knew she had it and there she found it lying in the road. Once she was back on top of the climb she rested long enough to put in a call to her Mom before finishing up the miles into town. Fortunately for her our next day was a short day to the Llama Ranch with only one climb to get over. We walked back to the RV park, she set up her tent and got herself cleaned up and then we all retired for the night. Day 9 Strava, Day 9 Instagram, Day 9 Relive.cc
June 26, Day 10 – We were up early today. Maybe the thought of having the whole afternoon off at the llama ranch motivated us to get an early start. The valley we were in was an East/West valley, so the sun shone down on us a lot earlier than we had been used to and we were packed up and ready for breakfast at The Lincoln Pitstop. Something I wanted to look for were some 2032 batteries for the shifter assemblies on my bike. The whole mechanism was wireless, so the battery on the derailleur didn’t power the shifters. Those had 2032 button batteries, and the app said that my downshift battery was running low. I went to two places and both places had a lot of button batteries however none of them were 2032’s. When you stop to think about it, the 2032 is the battery for wireless setups. It’s also the main button battery in heart rate straps, cadence and speed sensors. We are on a cycling route that people from all over the world come to ride, and the Tour DIvide race just went through town so of course all the 2032’s were gone. I had 20% so I decided to nurse the shifting until I got to Helena where I was sure to find a decent supply. In the meantime we had an easy day today with one climb but we should make it to the llama ranch by 1, 2 latest. We only had to ride 25 miles but that included a long very high climb over the Continental Divide. The profile for the day was a simple one; 19 miles gaining elevation followed by 6 miles of descent into the Atlantic drainage. That is a little misleading, as it begins as the Missouri, combines with the Mississippi, and then empties into the Gulf of Mexico. An observation I have had frequently on this ride so far is that I am glad to be riding this in a southbound direction. The GDMBR was laid out as a southbound route, and for a while if you wanted to ride it northbound, you had to download the southbound route and manually reverse it to navigate it. You can’t simply take a route that is meant to be ridden in one direction and ride it in reverse. Not if you want turn-by-turn directions to show up on your navigation device. So, the Adventure Cycling Association decided to start making those gpx files available for NOBO riders. The main reason the route is laid out southbound is that the southbound descents are steeper, in many cases, than their associated ascent from the North. Like today, our approach is spread out over nineteen miles, and though we don’t descend as far on the other side today, we still lose a lot of elevation very quickly and some of that descent is remembered by me as something I was glad to be going down, and not up. Something that will not be shown in any of the video embeds is the condition of the road during the descent. These are forest service roads that were carved out by the forest service to make the timber in these public lands accessible to timber companies. If you didn’t know it before, that is how it works. The American taxpayer subsidises the timber industry by building the roads that these companies used to harvest timber. Once created they are maintained to some extent, but over the course of time erosion leads to conditions where you cannot simply descend these roads with reckless abandon. There are ruts that work their way across the road from one side to the other, and care must be taken to choose the right path through these to minimize jaring effects on both bike and body, while maximising the speed of your descent. There is a lot of braking on these descents, which heats up the rotors and causes them to squeak. I am concious of the heat, and try to feather the braking as much as possible and am glad when the road opens up and tolerates faster speeds that don’t require as much hard braking, but until you get off the tippy top part of the mountain, it is a treacherous descent that leaves the hands sore along with the thighs. You cannot just sit on the seat and absorb the shock of the road, but you have to sit off the saddle at times and let the bike go through the ruts beneath you. There was a lot of that on this descent before the road opened up again into a safer and better conditioned roadway that we could ride with less stress. Eventually we rounded a corner that opened up into a high valley where we got our first view of the llama ranch. How did we know it was the llama ranch? There was a house below us that had a giant picture of a bicycle painted on its roof, so we just figured that was our destination. It wasn’t long before we standing at a gated entrance with a sign inviting us in with caution to be sure and close the gate so the llamas don’t get out. We didn’t call ahead to “reserve”, but there was some signage to let us know that walk-ins, like us, are always welcome, and should there not be any cabins available, that we can pitch tents anywhere. Surveying the enclosure we could see 7 or 8 cabins, many of which looked like simple garden sheds, though one was an actual log cabin that could accomodate 3 guests. Each of the sheds had a 2 bed bunk, as well as solar panel charged batteries for electricity, a propane stove, and a pantry stocked with food items either left by previous guests as well as items stocked by our host. Each cabin had a bottle of wine, and an instax camera that guests are encouraged to use along with thumbtacks to pin pictures to the inside of the cabin. Outside each cabin were a couple of chairs to relax in as well as a central covered common area fireplace. On each door were the names of any expected call ahead reservations that we found empty on the sheds we checked out, so we added our names to some. We shared our enclosure with the hosts alpacas. Maybe they were llamas, but to my eye they looked more like alpacas, and I failed to get clarification from Barbara, our host, when she came down to talk with us.
Over the course of the afternoon, other cyclists arrived, some being NOBOs and two thru-hikers from the Continental Divide. Enough people arrived that Denise and Rebecca joined up in one cabin to make the other cabin available for someone else. Joel, the only person who had called ahead to reserve was given the larger log cabin, and he invited us all down for pancakes the next morning. In the meantime we all gathered at the central fireplace, each of us retreiving our bottles of wines in turn as we sat around and spent time getting to know each other. Barbara, our host also maintained a fridge on her porce in which she stocked sodas, and beer as well as sandwiches. Now I know what you are thinking. “How much did a night at the llama ranch cost?” Barbara wouldn’t accept any money. This was all a “pay it forward” establishment where Barbara and her partner were simply happy have the resource available for cyclists and thru-hikers and took pleasure in simply meeting people from all over the world that traveled through. An amazing place. She had no idea that the ranch/farm she bought so many years ago was on both the Continental Divide Scenic trail nor the GDMBR, but at some point she noticed the cyclists riding by and one day, late in the day someone stopped and asked politely if they could set up their tent on her property as they weren’t going to make it all the way to Helena that day. “Yes” was the answer and that began the process which led to where we are today. Today I think we call this “Trail Magic” however this is a permanent magical place that is remembered by all who pass through. Day 10 Strava, Day 10 Instagram, Day 10 Relive.cc
June 27, Day 11 – We awoke that morning to find that some of the guests had already departed. That included the 2 thru-hikers which is pretty consistent for thru-hikers. Bike packing and back packing might share the “packing” in their names, but backpacking is a lot harder, and thru hikers generally get into a groove of early starts to a long day. Bike packers, at least in our case, generally rise later and don’t generally spend the entire day riding, and one thing to keep in mind is that when a bike packer stops pedalling, the bike still moves forward. Descents don’t involve a lot of pedaling for bike packers, but backpackers expend a lot of energy descending. If you have miles to go, its better to get an early start. We only had 40 ish miles to go on this day, ending in Helena with a double hump that lay between us and Helena. The humps could have been avoided traveling via the main roads, but our route was not a main road route. Some of the other bike packers had also arisen early and were on their way out already or gone when we wandered down to Joel’s cabin to see if in fact he had arisen to make pancakes. He had, and he was. We brought our coffee drinks and engaged in more light conversation as we each downed as many pancakes as Joel was willing to pan fry. He had mastered the cast iron skillet and they were cooked to perfection.
Upon getting ready to leave ourselves we found that Barbara had restocked the fridge that morning with sandwiches to take for the days ride. Amazing generosity. We eached grabbed a sandwhich and bade our farewells and hit the road. From the ranch we could see a road off in the distance that would take us into more foothills. I don’t think we saw pavement until we were joined up with the main highway that would take us into Helena. I don’t remember too much about the foothills however I do remember when Joel caught up to me on one of those tricky steep descents. He might have had a little more suspension in his bike than we had, and so he was descending a fair amount fast than us. Certainly faster than I was fool enough to descend and so I just watched him fade in the distance ahead of me. However he doesn’t go uphill as well as he goes down, and I caught up to him on the second hump, but I waited at the top for Denise and Rebecca, but caught him again when the terrain flattened out again and we had a false flat rise to get to the main road. Again, I stopped to let my companions catch up, and then we rode the pavement into Helena together.
Now, I knew by this point that not only did my brakes feel like they needed service, but my drivetrain was making noises as well, squeaky chain, and in addition my rear tire had worn considerably so I convinced the girls that we should head straight into town to a bike shop and seek maintenance advice before we sought the RV camp we would spend the night at. They agreed and we rode into town, settling on The Garage, one of a few shops in the city. I don’t recall why I picked that place, but it has the right name. Our bikes out front, one of the mechanics came out with a couple of tools to check things out. The girls’ bikes checked out fine as I recall, maybe they needed new brake pads, however my bike needed at least a new chain, a new rear tire, and new brake pads. I was told it would be later in the day unless I wanted to pay an extra $25 to move to the front of the queue. There was no one else vivibly there displace, so “sure! That sounds perfect!”. I unloaded anything that would get in the way, and we put my bike up on the stand. When Denise and Rebecca were finished with their transactions they could see that my transaction was going to be a significant one and elected to go find the RV park and check in leaving me there with the mechanics. The first thing extra that was found was that my rotors were fairly abused and replacing them was recommended. I approved that decision. The next suggestion was the front chainring. Keenan, the mechanic working my bike, pulled out a new ring, and showed me the difference between the teeth on that vs the ones on my chainring and it was very apparent that mine was worn out, so I approved that change as well. When Keenan had removed the crankset, I could finally see what the assembly looked like and before Keenan installed the new chainring I asked him if maybe they had a 38 tooth ring in stock. The one I had was 40, and we know from my pages that my uphill gearing was right at the edge of tolerable, so dropping 2 teeth on the front would aid my relief while climbing and not hurt me too much on the flats where I would still have a fairly decent high gear combination when needed, however I was disappointed to find that they didn’t have a 38. They didn’t have a 36 either, so it was a replacement 40. With the new chainring, and the new chain, Keenan was trying to get the shifting checked out when he noticed that my derailleur hanger was bent. Fairly significantly too. He showed it to me and want to know if he should bend it back into place. It was not a standard item, but a custom machined items from Lynsky and was pretty hefty. I approved and Keenan made adjustments a little at a time. The hangar was machined out of aluminum, and if you are unaware, it does not handle the same way as steel. Aluminum is brittle, and can’t take the same level of bending that steel can, and so when the hangar required just one teensy bit more to be aligned, a small crack developed. It was small indeed but it was now aligned. Keenan got on the phone with Lynsky, and we could order one, but it would take days to get there. I mentioned I was bound for West Yellowstone, and Keenan called a bike shop there and yes we could have the item shipped there. So we called Lynsky back and ordered it up, I paid for it and the shipping and we gave them the address of the shop in West Yellowstone. The last thing to attend to was tuning the shifting, which we know from this writing wasn’t really great and now we know why, however Keenan was having issues until I realized that I had fine tuned the alignment using the Sram app, so we brought up the app, connected and I reset the alignment and that did the trick. Keenan got it all working again and soon the bike was ready to ride again. Keenan totaled up a replacement tire, new brake pads, two new rotors, a chain, a chainring and the labor. $423 and that didn’t include the money I authorized directly to Lynsky for the part and the shipping. I must say though, that after I loaded all my shit back onto the bike it rode like a dream.
I text the girls I was on my way, and they asked me to stop somewhere and pick up some beer on my way in. Something we could imbibe before we headed out for dinner that evening, so I found a local brewery, Blackfoot River Brewing Company and headed over there to see what I could find. They were hosting some kind of event there that weekend, and I think the participants where all there to pick up their packets, so the place was not idle by any means. I was able to get a couple of crowlers that I packed in my bags and then hit the trail to find the RV park. Helena had many places to choose from, we chose MTB City which was on the NW edge of town and took me about 10 minutes to ride over to. It was quiet, had enough tent sites for us, and the most important feature, a shower. Before I showered, we sat down and divided up one of the crowlers I had brought. After showering we sat in the common area and consumed the other. The common area was a semi enclosed space with some tables, a microwave, and some tools to do maintenance if you needed it. Potable water was available there as well. One thing they had there was they had some two seaters that guests were free to borrow, and that is exactly what Denise and Rebecca decided to do when it came time to ride into town for dinner. There was a bike path adjoining the campground, so they had plenty of time to get “used” to the bike before we would have to navigate on roadways, and they certainly needed that time. It didn’t take them long, but I recall at least two attempts to get started before they finally got their coordination together. On most two seaters, the two crank assemblies do not pedal independently so getting off to a start takes cooperation as does coming to a halt. Denise and Rebecca worked it all out and we made it to our restaurant. I don’t recall where we ate. I think we put in our orders downstairs and then we went to an upper outdoor patio area and got some beer along the way. Our food was brought to us, or an announcement was made that our tray was ready. Anyway, we enjoyed our meals and then we rode back to the campsite but not without a somewhat serious issue along the way. The two seater had gearing and during one of the gear changes the chain jumped off the cog and got fairly twisted up. It took some time before we finally got it all worked out, and before that was done I think we all had chain grease on our hands. We cleaned our hands on the grass as much as we could and managed to get back to the campsite without further delay. The evening ended with a nice sunset and we retired for the night. Day 11 Strava, Day 11 Instagram, Day 11 Relive.cc <– it says day 12 in the video but it’s 11
Helena marked the end of Section 1 on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route and feels like a good place to finish this post for the time being. This feels rather long, but maybe that is because there is so much going on right now.
A number of images taken on this journey have been stitched together into larger panoramas that can be viewed on my image portfolio site.
Big Bird's Adventures 
[…] work out. I would call the shop on the 3rd to see that my part had arrived on time (See the Helena section for details). Day 14 Strava, Instagram, […]