August 22nd, 2008 Great Divide Mountain Bike Route -First Post-

Below you will find the entire Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) daily journal entries. These were entered en route, starting the day we left and with the last post on the last day of the journal. The first two posts are picture posts of what I thought might set the stage, so to speak, for such an epic journey. Epic is a word that is more commonly used today that it likely should be. For people that are into mountain biking, it takes on a special meaning. The ‘epic’ rides are the ones you talk about, and re-live, in little bits and pieces of your everyday experience for years after the original event. That this trip in fact changed our lives forever is certain. We have the memories of a lifetime, and they are just now starting to fade with time, as all things fade.

The blog was originally written for our family and friends, who could follow along with us on our journey. Having them with us, via the internet, and occasionally cell phone was good for our health, and probably better for theirs (mom’s in particular)! Now that our trip is completed, and the blog has no new entries, I have reworked it so that other people who have not read it can follow along in chronological order. For this purpose I changed the time stamp on the entries and put them chronologically on September 1st. To put the reader in perspective, we left late in the season for a trip such as this (August 22nd). Sometime in late July or early August are probably the best dates since you avoid most of the snow and bad weather up north, but its cool down south when you get there 2 months later.

Terms: there are references to the Havens Scale, and McCoy Day. Please see the first posts of the journal for details and links to explainations of those terms. For other interests, such as bike talk, gear selection, please scroll back to August, as those topics were discussed prior to leaving on the trip. You can also click on the panel on the right for “equipment selection”. There is also (as yet unwritten) a post-ride discussion that we are working on. This discussion with focus on things that didn’t work, things that did, and things that we would do differently. In making this blog, I have pointed fun at our total lack of preparation. That may be true in a relative sense. Certainly, in college I was in better shape than I am now. Most importantly neither Deborah or I had time to condition our ’saddles’ since our work schedule just did not permit the hours of training. However, we certainly spent many hours thinking and planning our trip. We made good emergency precautions. As doctors, we even had some life-saving medical supplies with us since we would be remiss if something were to happen, and we new exactly what to do, but didn’t have the equipment to do it. The take home message: learn from our mistakes, but don’t disparage that you will not be able to complete the journey. After all, you can break things up into shorter segments, take breaks and rest days. Doing so increases the pleasure of the whole experience. That is something we learned in spades.

I hope you enjoy reading along with us.

Ralph and Deborah

We’ve got MAILBOXES!

Mailboxes R 4 fun!

Jimmy Hoffa was a skier?

My favorite!

Hey Deborah, paws for just a moment, that’s a great shot!

Dedicated to the paw prints we saw along the way.

These rules dont run! ...so 'pay TENTION'

 

First grizzly track

 

Cool! Looks like he is headed the same place we are...gulp!

Ack!!! This grizzly is following us!

OMG! He is big, just look at the diameter of his.. erm, bear scat!

 

 

Look at the claws on him!

 

And the best one, a very rare shot of Mountain lion prints, note the retracted claws and fine quality of print in the soft earth (it had rained the day before):

Mountain Lion on the loose!

Day 1: Roosville, Montana (MT)

Day 1  :  McCoy Day 1  :  Havens Scale 7

Today we finally left Roosville, Montana. I have some pics and will upload when able. There is also some video that Mary Jane took. If we can have her send that to my email address I will update that in a few days.

Where did that part go to....

The masterpiece packing job - all weight in the rear for extra traction!

Biking in the rain is FUN!!

First and Last Chance Bar

 

When we woke up for the beginning of the great trip, mother nature greeted us with a little downpour. The first couple hours we rode in the rain. It was on and off throughout the day. Surprisingly difficult to stay warm, or to stay cool during this time. Temperatures around 50 degrees, but hard to wear warm clothing because you sweat too much. I found that my Columbia outer layer was not waterproof, and that kept me cool! Deborah had her Patagonia which was perfect.

The downpour finally cleared and gave us some good traveling weather. Pavement, as we would find out is like black gold.

Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory...

It was a much harder 42 miles than we thought. We had a late start at noon or so, and arrived about 8 1/2 hrs later, and it was getting dark. We had to push the almost 100 lb bikes for several miles. We arrived at Tuchuck campground, bear spray in hand and scoped it out. Totally empty. There was a latrine, so that was good. We hastily made dinner (Ramen, M&M’s and bagels) pitched the tent. Trying to stay dry and keep the panniers dry while we got food out was a task.

We had a few mechanical issues. A wierd rubbing sound on my bike, sounded like a tire rubbing. It took me 3 hours of thinking about it while it rubbed to figure it out. It was the rubber boot on the left side of the hub. A bit of PTFE oil diagnosed and treated the problem. Meanwhile, Deborahs bike seemed to be doing well. Both panniers and various equipment doing great. Lots of ziplocks= great. Spare tools, too many books, too much water= bad. I went through about 100 oz water and deborah 70 oz for the day, including cooking.

We are tired today, but hope to make it to Whitefish, MO and do a double day tomorrow.

…on to whitefish.

Addendum: We are going to add a couple of notes to each day under the title. The first descriptor will be the actual day that we did that section. The second will be the “McCoy day” which is in reference to Michael McCoy, who wrote the book. His route calls for 62 days to complete the Great Divide Route. Some days we will do 2 McCoy days, sometimes partial days, such as “1.5 McCoy’s”. The last descriptor will be the overall discomfort rating. Please see the post “Havens discomfort scale” for details. It’s a 1-10 scale, 10 being highest. http://havenz.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/havens-discomfort-scale/

Day 1 (cont): Red Meadow, MT

GDR Day 2  :  McCoy Day 3  :  Havens Scale 6

We made it to Red Meadow by about 3:30pm. The climb was crazy. It seemed to be about a vertical mile. IT is certainly different climbing with all that gear, than with just a bike and camelback. Elevation here is about 6500 ft. It was cool in the am, then warm, then cold…then cold and rainy, then some hail. I liked the hail, since it made you less wet. There was a scattering of snow on the surrounding mountains. Wierd, since it had been 90 degress a few days earlier. Thats what elevation can do though.

We were freezing, and debated whether to push on. This was where McCoy day 2 ends (McCoy wrote the book, and is the planned route/guide we are following). From the guide it looked like an easy 30 miler on ‘day 2′ and another 30 miles on ‘day 3′. We thought we could do both. But now we are worried we can’t make it by dark. Certainly, it took us 7 hrs of so just to get to Red Meadow, and we are spent. I am eating honey, pouring it straight into my mouth. Deborah is making some coffee. We are nibbling on bagels, but don’t have an appetite, but we know we need fuel. I can’t feel my right hand, as its the one outside the glove. The Red Meadow water, actually feels warm, wierd for a lake at 6500 ft elevation. No energy for taking pictures. But then we decide to head along, if just to get out of the hail and rain. And just before we get going again, the sun peaks through for just a moment, and I was able to snap this photo. Deborah sure does look miserable, lol!

 We had a bit of shelter from the SIGN POST, lol. Hey, its better than nothing when you are freezing.

…lots of water around, why are we carrying so much? We have a good filter and it looks crystal clear…

We decide to press on, its supposed to be downhill…

 on to Whitefish….or bust!

Banned from IKEA/No room at the inn–day 1

So I’m going to try and add a few comments.  These are retrospective but as I’ve already forgotten how to do the maths, I thought I may need to confirm my grasp of the english language.  We started late.  It was a bummer.   I’ve been banned from Ikea.  I didn’t think it was possible, but apparently if you return too many things, they don’t like it.    Personally I think it shows strong determination and pereseverance to continue shopping there.   So much for “staging” the house.  But who cares, it sold and I’m happy and I’ll never buy a “fixer upper” again.  I spent an excess of time working on the house and a paucity of time actually living in it or enjoying it.  Truth be told, I can continue to purchase at Ikea, I simply cannot do any additional returns.  You would be hardpressed to find a corporation that refuses to take your money, right?

And…on a different note, Libby Montana was full up!  Get out!?!  I didn’t make a reservation because I couldn’t in my wildest imaginations think we wouldn’t be able to get a room.  According to the helpful desk person at one of the motels, Libby was full–every room, every night for 3 months last summer.  When queried as to why, however, she had absolutely no idea why anyone would want to come there.  So we had to drive up to Eureka at 2 am to find a place to sleep for a few hours before leaving.  See–we excel at good planning.

Re: Libby–this town was the subject of a really interesting POV/PBS documentary I saw last year. Hundreds of people diagnosed and deceased from pulmonary issues related to asbestos/vermiculite exposure.  Again, I fail to see why the hotels are so crowded.

Day 2–starting at Tuchuck Campground

It was tough yesterday: minimal sleep, lots of rain, too much gear, the inability to sleep at night due to concerns about grizzly bears, the usual.  Statistics would imply that the chances of something bad happening are very low.  But tell that to my imagination at 2 am.  Fortunately it started to rain again and I could no longer hear the twigs breaking, leaves falling, etc.  It rained at night, it rained in the morning, it was cold.  It was a very auspicious beginning.  The picture Ralph posted makes it appear to be sunny, but that would not be correct.  There was hail.  But shortly after leaving that point there were miles of downhill and on this trip I just live for the downhills: moments where you just FLY–like the bike itself has wings, like you’re floating above the earth.  It’s just awesome.  I have to explain that I got my first bike about 1-1 1/2 yrs ago after decades of not riding.  It’s fun.  It’s like being a kid again.  If only I had bike skillz…  Age 36 and i’m trying to relearn how to do wheelies.  Pffft!

Oh, sweet garden of earthly delights that was Whitefish.  Warm rooms, hot showers, good food.   Remember the inital tagline on the blog: little to no training.  Yeah, that was a bad idea.  But it’s making me appreciate things like soft chairs, shampoo, coffee that doesn’t bite you back (Ralph makes it pretty strong) and NOT ringing the bear bell.   It’s thus far purely an esoteric question: does ringing the bear bell have any impact?  Probably not.  But deep down, I don’t want to surprise a bear.  You know, startle one, or in any way cause one to feel uneasy or perhaps ‘testy’.  So I ring my bell like a big dufous and pretend it makes a difference.

Another note: cotton.  Cotton. Cotton. Cotton.  Cotton for the bike padding.  Gel seems good but cotton breathes.

Day 2: Whitefish, MT. We made it!!

Here is a pic. More later! Was a FUN downhill to get here with only a couple hours of up and down climbing. And as a bonus, we get to park the bikes next to a couple Harley’s!!

day 3: Whitefish to Bigfork

This was a pretty easy day: flat farmland mostly.  It was sunny and warm.  The roads were filled with grasshoppers committing hari kari in front of the bike wheels.  There were swarms of them.

So…these kids spit on us in Bigfork.  Spit as they were driving by.  Apparently they were NOT part of the local tourist welcoming board.  I was deeply offended.  On the other hand, if that’s the worst ‘violence’ I’m exposed to, I can consider myself extremely lucky.  But still, spitting–it’s just unsanitary.

Otherwise, it seems like a nice town.  Lots of arts shops and a few decent restaurants.   We stayed at the Timbers, a decent hotel.  Hotels in that region of Montana seem WAY overpriced.

Day 3: Whitefish to Bigfork, Montana

GDR Day 3  :  McCoy Day 4  :  Havens Scale 4
Today was a great day. It started out with us leaving
Whitefish, but taking advantage of the small town Dairy Queen before leaving the city limits. The ride was a good 42 miles. It was mostly rolling hills and pavement with just a few miles of gravel and bike path, so it was a great beak and we needed it. Tomorrow we head to Seeley Lake, a really really tough two days away. Weather should be interesting, high nineties at the base of the mountain but who knows what it will be like at the top, as the hail yesterday shows. Hopefully, we will get to see some giant Western Larch which can grow to 200 feet tall.

Here are some pics and video:

Columbia falls, just after Whitefish:

Columbia Falls mural

Already with cravings, DQ satisfies:

Then we were treated to a beautiful day. Occasionally punctuated by the frantic raspy voice of a horde of angry bees (see video):

 
Tomorrow we head into deep wilderness. We will be surrounded by three massive wilderness areas, the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and of course the Great Bear Wilderness areas. We will try to enjoy the remoteness, and hope for good weather, no mecanicals, and bears only at a great distance.