Day 7 - 120km - Basin to Beaverdam Campground, MT
Day seven of the tour was by far the hardest day I think I’ve ever had on a bike.
After spending the night in the town of Basin I got going around 6 AM, with the goal of getting over Fleecer Ridge and into the town of Wise River by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, my body had other ideas.
Right from the start, my legs were completely empty. Even on the nice gentle trail alongside a river to an unnamed mountain pass, I was struggling from the outset.
I managed to rally a little bit later in the morning as I approached the town of Butte, which gave me a bit of a kick as I wrote through it. The oil wells there, I believe, featured in the game Red Dead Redemption 2 and I felt like I was riding through a scene from that game as I entered the town.
The path into the town itself featured a steep kicker of a final climb, followed by a series of extremely sharp switchbacks and single track down into the town itself.
Once in town, I stopped with another rider at the local Safeway grocery store. I picked up some lunch and resupply. Unfortunately, as I left I forgot that my riding gloves were on the back of my bike and they fell off along the way. So, I no longer had any gloves to ride with, and my hands rapidly developed blisters.
As middling as that sounds, the day went downhill significantly from there. I had absolutely no energy left at all in my legs, my saddle sores hurt, my joints hurt, and mentally I was in a very bad place. Even the slightest hill caused issues, and I walked up some hills that I would’ve normally ridden up in a moderate gear.
Recognizing that my original goal for the day was going to be unachievable and that I needed some serious rest, I reset my sights on Beaverdam Campground, which was my original target for the previous day.
The ride itself wouldn’t normally have been difficult at about 120 km, however, in my state, it was a real struggle. Continuing to climb up through the mountains, I started to hear, thunder and see dark clouds all around while a little rain did fall while I was riding happily it didn’t come down hard.
Managing to call home during a rare patch of cell phone signal alongside the highway after summiting a mountain pass, my morale was slightly improved and I managed to push to the campsite. That boost was fortunate as the campsite itself was partway up the long climb to Fleecer Ridge, and it would have been a real struggle without that boost.
I rolled into the campsite there at around 7PM, set up the tent, ate as much food as I could stomach and was in bed well before 8 o’clock. Two big thunderstorms rolled in overnight, meaning somewhat disturbed sleep but by the morning I’d had about 9 1/2 hours of rest which would prove to be critical.
Thinking about what got me into this state, the overarching theme was one of not sweating the little details enough. Specifically, in three areas:
Physical: Firstly, paying attention to my body. I allowed my schedule to be dictated by other people and then they would start a stop, or where they were target to reach on a given day. I need to ride my own race, and haven’t been doing that so far.
Food: Secondly, I’ve been consistently failing on the food front. I haven’t been stopping to have significant snacks or meals throughout the days, and when I have been snacking along the route, I’ve eaten far too much candy which gives a short-term energy boost, but doesn’t do anything for the long term. I need to do a better job being smart, eating things that are high in carbs, but not as high in sugar, and saving candy for times when I do need the extra boost.
Hydration: Lastly, I’ve been screwing up to my hydration. I’ve been drinking consistently, but I’m making two big mistakes. First, I’ve been riding with the mindset that I need to carry enough water to make it to the next milestone. That has meant I’ve been carrying significantly more liquid than I need to, which is weighing down the bike and making the climbs harder. Secondly, and more importantly, I’ve been neglecting electrolytes and salts.
I haven’t been doing this consciously, but in hindsight, I’ve been keeping those in reserve, which is just about the stupidest thing I could do. As of now, one of my water bottles has permanently moved up to my feed bag on my handlebars, and has electrolytes in it so that I can alternate water and the electrolytes as needed throughout the day.
Hopefully with some relatively small adjustments to my mentality, eating, and hydration, I can get back in the game.
Total distance for the day: 120km (Strava)
Day 8 - 175km - Beaverdam Campground to Old Bannock Road, MT
Day 8 started well. After the hot mess of the previous day, I woke up after a long night of sleep and immediately hit the last few kilometres of the climb up to Fleecer Ridge.
Most of the time was absolutely fine, and it was just last kilometre or so when the gradient got very steep and rough.
Once at the top though, wow what a view. 270° of just stunning landscapes. It was disappointing that the path along the top didn’t last longer, for after short traverse along the ridge, the notorious descent began.
The descent starts out relatively reasonable - rough but fast enough, but before long turns into a -35° scramble that only the most adventurous would try to ride. Me, with a fully loaded bike and my limited mountain, biking skills, was not going to do that so, like most people, I hopped off and walked the bike down, which was still a challenge as it constantly wanted to run away from me.
Once down the steep descent, I enjoyed a nice scenic, ride the rest of the way down the pass, and then a short hop along the road to Wise River.
Wise River is a small town that is very familiar with Tour Divide riders. The one shop in town seemed almost custom made for riders, and everywhere I looked there was something that I wanted to add to my resupply. They also had free water outside for cyclists, and outlets in the store to recharge electronics. After a hefty resupply and a couple of ice creams, I hit the road again for what turned out to be the most isolated section of the ride so far.
I don’t actually remember a lot of this subsequent section, but what I do know is that I didn’t see another cyclist for 150 km until about 9:30 at night.
Back at Wise River, I had received confirmation as bad weather was due to blow in later. Unfortunately, my route for the day included the start of the Old Bannock Road, a section of the trail which is notorious for turning into peanut butter mud that is impassable for bikes and even makes pushing a bike impossible when it gets wet.
Battling headwinds for much of the afternoon in order to get to Bannock, once I was there, I was taking that threat very seriously as, as the afternoon had worn on, signs of storms were becoming apparent. By the time I got to the ghost town of Bannock, I could see rain clouds dumping on three side sides of me and felt the occasional spot of rain myself.
Determined not to get stuck there for the next couple of days, I decided to drop the hammer and push as hard as I could make as much progress as I could that night. Pushing myself like I was on one of my morning workouts, I had a tempo level heart rate and managed to hammer out the first 20 km section of Bannock Bench road pretty rapidly despite the headwind.
At that point, i made what I think in hindsight was a good decision, although I regretted it at the time, and declined to stop in the town of Grant for the night and instead push on toward Old Bannock Road itself.
I had set my sights on some “rustic cabins” which were about 40km away, which proved to be really tough. The wind was picking up and blowing straight into my face most of the time. The times that it wasn’t, it blew me sideways across the road.
By that time I was also out of water. I could see streams on the map and off to the side of me, but each time they were on private land and fenced off with barbed wire.
Eventually, I did manage to find a stream I could use to fill my bottles. I was pretty nervous about the water as there were lots of farms around and lots of cattle, but I needed water so I dropped several purification tablets into each bottle before having any of the water.
At about 9:30 PM, half a kilometre before the cabins, I came across my first rider since Wise River. Alan Parkinson from London, had already set up his tent for the night, and although I let him know that the cabin was literally around the corner from him, he decided to stay where he was. That was a good decision, as when I went around the corner, there was no trespassing sign hanging on the gate. Not the most welcoming entrance, and I took it to mean that they were not open to guests.
Exhausted from a hard day of my head, I was forced to set up my tent in the middle of wide open field, as the rain finally began falling in earnest, and I knew the roads would be impassable shortly thereafter.
Still, a good day after the disaster of the previous day and I managed to get about 170km under my belt.
The night got off to a rocky start. After setting up my tent, I found that not only would my air mattress not hold air thanks to two holes in it, but I couldn’t find my puncture repair kit nor was the Gorilla Tape I had attached to my pump still sticky enough to plug the holes.
With the temperature dropping down to -2° overnight, I was forced to sleep on the bare ground, with my deflated Thermorest and a few items of clothing between me in the ground. Of course, that meant going into a ball and shivering for most of the night, and very little actual rest.
Total distance for the day: 175km (Strava)
Day 9 - 152km - Old Bannock Road to Red Hawk Lodge, MT
After such a rough night, it’s hardly surprising that the next day also sucked. After slowly packing up the tent in the morning and getting on the way, I first had a couple of hours of climbing up to the top of Old Bannock Road, which isn’t billed as a pass but certainly has enough climbing. Thankfully the trail had dried out after the storms the previous evening.
From there, it was an absolutely glorious descent for about 30 km, during which the rain turned from wide open farmland to narrow canyons that gave off a decidedly western vibe.
This is the kind of scenery that makes the ride worthwhile - stunning views around every corner, and the real sense that you were in a landscape you wouldn’t get at home
Winding down the descent for the remainder of the morning, I eventually turned onto a road parallel to and interstate highway for the last 11 km into Lima, Montana.
Lima is a small town with a single convenience store and gas station, and a café that is right on route, with several riders grabbing lunch while I was there. After refuelling and restocking I hit the road along with Alan, who had been leapfrogging back and forth with me after the previous night.
At the outset I expected it to be a relatively easy afternoon. Unfortunately, the previous night’s back of recovery caught up with me, very much like it did a couple of days back, and I had no energy whatsoever.
Alan dropped me early in the afternoon, despite being an absolute trooper, slowing down and doing his utmost to keep me going by telling me a slew of random stories. Eventually, I was just unable to stay with him and he pulled away. Still, I managed to keep spinning the pedals across rolling hills.
Checking my route notes, I decided to head for the Lower Lake Campgrounds, a reasonable distance for a difficult day, at about 150 km from the start. Upon reaching my map marker for the campsite, however, I discovered the site itself was another 6 km off route.
Not wanting to add 12 km to my trip, I decided to just find a place to camp along the side of the road. However, I had a pleasant surprise when I looked again at my maps and realized that Red Hawk Lodge was just a couple of kilometres down the road. Pulling up to the front door, I discovered Alan had also decided to stop there for the night and we shared a room to split the cost.
The owners of the lodge, Jeannette and her father Mel, were delightful folks. This is really rustic accommodation as essentially it’s a room in the basement of their house. However, for what I needed it was perfect. Our hosts were very welcoming, very helpful, and fed us for free.
After eating my fill, showering, and washing my clothes, I gratefully hit the hay at around 8pm.
I was glad of a roof over my head that night, as I knew the weather was supposed to continue to get worse overnight, with temperatures dropping down to -2 and snow in the forecast so I wasn’t keen to sleep on the floor again. While I had bought new patch tape and glue in Lima, I hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet so the room was welcome in more way than one.
This was my last day in Montana - the next morning, I would climb Red Rock Pass and cross into Idaho.
Total distance for the day: 152km (Strava)
Cheering you on from NYC! Sounds like Tier 6 fun to me - a total lick that you will look back on and be so proud of your achievement. Bravo - such an impressive undertaking. Keep it up!
Wow, Dave. So so difficult, but you are still moving forward! An epic journey. You are doing hard things!