July 12, Friday

I woke up at 6:00 because the sun was streaming through the window and I worked on uploading my photos to my blog separately, since I had wifi. Typing was faster at the library yesterday, but they ask you to keep your time on their computers to one hour, so my photos are going up in groups by day.

When everyone was up we went downstairs for coffee and Jamie and I had fresh squeezed juice. Life is harsh. After saying goodbye to Kirtlye at the hostel (she took our photo with a tiny Polaroid), we headed to the Buffalo Cafe for breakfast. I got a Mediterranean omelet. Ahh.

It was mostly downhill today. At one junction a guy in a truck stopped us and suggested a slightly different route, which we tried out.

Near Big Flats, we decided to go the more risky 35 S, with no shoulder, where the speed limit dropped to 35 MPH shortly down the road, rather than try a dubious side road with multiple unmarked dead ends off it, not on our maps.  Drivers were annoyed they had trouble passing us for 1/2 mile and some of them may never get over it. Oh, well.

Just past Big Flats, we came to Wayfarers State Park.  More like a private CG than I am used to in a state park, it offered hot showers and meadow sites for hiker/bikers.  Apparently there didn't used to be sites for hikers/bikers; Roger was turned away last year because the CG was full.  The park warden, who came to "yell" at people swimming off the boat launch (just after our crew had gotten out) told us the policy had changed because the new parks commissioner was a huge cycling fan. Hurrah!
We showered and had dinner, then 4 more Divide cycling guys showed up, coming down from Banff much faster than we are.  They were all outfitted like Roger and John, with Revelate/ Cascade bags and such.  They took the other hiker/biker site.  If more had shown up, we would have welcomed them to share the site.  It started to rain, so everyone dove for their tents.

Stats:
Start ODO- 591
end- 634
max 31.2
avg- 12.5
total- 42.51

July 11, Thursday

It was looking stormy, so we decided to book down without breakfast. This meant we would not have to pack wet tents, though. If course the rain started and stopped before we left the CG and the skies even cleared as we began our mostly downhill scream towards Whitefish. As soon as we reached the pavement at the north end of Whitefish Lake the resort development began.

There was someone water skiing and huge homes set way back on huge lots. Whitefish itself has not yet been consumed by tourism, but still has a functional downtown, although it does have some sprall with big box stores along 93 to the south.

First stop was Glacier Cyclery. An excellent shop with excellent staff, both sales and mechanical worked with us. Jamie had ordered new panniers through them and they put a new tubeless tire on John's bike. They also told us about a new hostel in town called the Whitefish Hostel. So excellent.
The two sisters who started it are interesting to talk to and are hardworking entrepreneurs. They also have a juice bar there and were really helpful. I hope we helped them solidify some of their policies,  since we were some of their first customers and are a pretty laid-back bunch. Kirtlye served us fresh squeezed OJ, lemon and grapefruit juice the next morning.

After dropping our stuff there, we went off in different directions on errands.  I went to Radio Shack to get a phone on a service provider that actually works in the west. Then it was on to the Sportsmen's Outdoor (not useful, mostly clothing and low end camping/outdoor stuff), then the health food store and finally the library to blog.  The library didn't even ask for a card or ID. Sweet!

We reconvened at the hostel and then went to dinner at the Bulldog, where we were introduced to Moose Drool, a stout beer. We also tried Tamarack, which was not quite as dark.

At the hardware store they helped me find vinyl tubing and hose clamps for my racks and panniers to make them fit even more snugly. I spent my evening putting all that together on my bike. The panniers are more difficult to attach, but they won't be bouncing around.

Stats
Start odometer 555
End 591
Total 36
Avg 11.2
Max 31.3

July 10

I woke up at 6:30, but nobody was stirring, so I took a walk around the CG and up the road a bit, then sat by the creek and read on the Kobo. We got a slow start, but it was a beautiful day.

We headed back towards "real" mountains with rocky peaks and snowy vistas.
They were working on the road to the pass, so we had to drag our bikes through so piles of dirt and around the excavating equipment.

We passed some pioneer cabins, which you can rent. One was the Wirtz cabin at which we found no water. We also passed the Ford Work Center, which none of us had any idea what it was.

There was a lovely little burn area encompassing the Flathead river, but no bears or moose. We turned off at FS Road 115, which was less travelled. The last section was a long 2 mile climb, moderately steep. I had to stop once, even in my lowest gear.

The Red Meadow Lake CG was a wonderful reward. Though few cars passed us coming up, there were several which passed when we were at the CG. Another frigid dip in a mountain lake.

Stats:
Start odo- 525
End - 555
Total- 30.17
Avg- 9.1
Max- 24.3

July 9

Jamie and I stayed back in the park to eat a grocery store breakfast, while Roger and John went to a restaurant. I volunteered to carry the second bottle of wine over Whitefish pass. Hopefully this bottle will taste a little better.

A little warm-up hill led us to rolling pine and aspen terrain.

We met 2 rangers coming down in trucks. They had been spraying herbicide on a roadside invasive species. When they came across us, we had laid all our bikes down on the road to eat something before the steep climb and we looked rather like we had all crashed. Roger left his water bottle at the snack spot, so he descended about a mile to retrieve it and found his towel had fallen off there as well.
We all met at the top of the pass after a long, rocky climb. That pass was closed to motor vehicles, due to construction (road is way too narrow to accommodate a car and the excavator), but we did see 2 cyclists and they noticed my Niagara Frontier Bicycling Club Jersey. They were from Rochester, NY, about 75 miles from my home. One was coming from Mexico and riding a Surly Pugsley. He reported that at a point in NM, he was carrying about 14 liters of water. The other had joined at the Montana border.

Flying down the other side,  John suffered a massive tear in his tire tread. I can't even call it a puncture. He was running tubeless tires, but even the sealant inside didn't save that tire. He swapped it for his folding spare and stuck in a tube later. Roger suggested it was because we were running at our top psi, so we all heeded the warning and let some air out.

Tuchuck CG was totally empty and had bear boxes for our food, though as I predicted, some lazy people had left their garbage in them, in a pack-it-in, pack-it-out CG. Tuchuck Creek was, of course, phenominally cold, but we all fully submerged ourselves, though some longer than others.

We dried our clothes on the warm stones if the river bank. I uncorked the wine by pushing it in with an Allen wrench, spraying myself liberally. Hope bears aren't attracted to the smell of red wine. I was asleep by 9:00.

July 8 pictures

 

I woke up to the call of a loon.  It seems like loons are pretty resilient, for this spot is not exactly remote, just rural.

The GDMBR was partly on paved and partly on gravel.  I noticed about 5 miles out that my tire was low.  I pumped it up to about 60psi and continued on to see how fast a leak it was.  I got another 20 miles, running in front of a thunderstorm.  We stopped for snacks and drinks and I pumped it up again with a little help from my friends.  About 5 miles from the border, I had to pump it up again and I knew a repair would not wait until Eureka.  We passed through the border crossing without incident and I pulled my wheel off.  A very small wire from a steel belted tire had penetrated the tire.  Roger had nice tweezers to pull it out. We moved on to Eureka, MT right down 93, since we had missed the turn-off to a quieter road. Dwight had sent me my BF saddle via USPS and I picked it up and shipped some things home.  The postal workers were kind to help us literally and figuratively get our stuff together and mail unwanted stuff home. Mailed home: cargo net, messenger bag and tri-flow. I could immediately feel the difference in the saddle. Thank you again Dwight. Roger sent a bunch if stuff home after laying all his stuff out, inventory-style behind the post office.

The motel was $36 pp, so we preferred to camp in the city park. A group of Adventure Cycling (AC) riders was already there; they are riding up to Fernie, then to Waterton Lakes and back to Whitefish through Glacier. They gave us 2 bottles of wine they didn't want to carry. Several other riders were camped out too, including Mike, it turns out, but we didn't see him until morning.

Another storm was approaching, so we went to a "casino" for dinner and John treated us all to ice cream. The restaurant opened our wine and it was pretty dreadful, even for a red.

Since there are 3 days until the next services in Whitefish, we stocked up on food to replace all the weight we got rid of by shipping stuff home. Jamie and I tried to sneak a cucumber face peel into John's cart, but he discovered and rejected it, though we tried to convince him it would make him look radiant.
Back at the park, the AC folks had gone to bed, someone doing the Parks Loop route had arrived and in the midst of us all, someone had an RV with a generator running next to it until 11:00. Earplugs!

Stats:
Start odometer 449
End- 493
Total 44
Avg 12.3
Max 46.9
TBC

 

July 7 pictures

 

We packed up and left this morning; Roberta must have left with the other group.  Stopping at a small market, we found the clerk would take all our plastic tea bottles to recycle.  Sweet.

I felt much better saddle-wise, but still not nearly healed.

We rode down 93 on a beautiful day, all green and blue.  At a rest area, we poked fun at a gopher, but as I looked down its hole, I fully expected it to pop out of another hole and bite me in the butt, cartoon-style.  We also saw another coyote and osprey nest with babies.

At the intersection of 93 and 3, what I thought was an uphill turn/curve was actually a cloverleaf, but traffic was light and respectful.  93 has several causeways/bridges which are exactly wide enough for 2 cars, with no shoulder.  On one of these a truck slowed to 15 mph to stay behind us, carefully passing us after we had crossed, even though he could have passed in the other lane.

There was much more debris on this stretch, maybe because the shoulder was narrower.

We stopped for ice cream in Jaffray and ate a bunch of junk and crud, some of which looked obscene.
At the Kikomun CG near Baynes Lake, we entered at the gate and the young lady was patient and helpful, even when we collected all our change to buy freezy pops.

Stats
start ODO 386
total- 62
avg- 13.3
max- 34.8

 

July 6 pictures

 

The climb out of Radium was not nearly as bad as I anticipated and we came across Dry Gulch CG soon after.  This means we probably could have made it there last night. Right out of Radium were several lookouts over the plains/valley and there was a sign telling about the bighorn sheep.  Someone had stuck a googly eye on the sheep.  I know, I know: defacing public property.  But it was pretty clever and funny.  Roger also pointed out a cloud, which looked like a forest fire, but turned out not to be.  Canal Flats (town) was a tiny town, but it had an equally tiny park, whre we met with Bill and Linda.  Roberta had communicated with them before the trip.  From Anapolis, Linda was originally from Buffalo and she is a retired art teacher and Bill was an electrical engineer.  They were doing the divide together.  Later still, we ran into Mike again, just before the Wasa Lake CG.  Roberta shifted to camp with them, and we never saw her the next morning.

Roger, John and Jamie went to swim in the lake, but I thought it might be better for me to keep my nether regions dry. Yeah.

Jamie and I had a really great dinner of scalloped potatoes with dried tomatoes, sliced carrots, parmesan cheese and hearts of hemp.

Dwight is overnighting my old Terry perforated leather saddle to Eureka, MT. If I can just make it 80 more miles.  Thanks Dwight.  Very much.

Stats:
start ODO 316
max- 39
total- 70

 

July 5 pictures

 

The CG host (Judy?) came by late to give me more hearts of hemp.  They might be a great addition to our food repertoire if they turn out to be easy to locate in small towns.

We headed out at 8:30 and ran across Mike, stopped with a flat tire.

After about a 20 mile downhill we ate lunch at a CG and began a series of connected ascents at a pace of 5mph or less. At one plateau we met up with Mike again; he must have passed us during lunch.  We all rode together for a while for the next 20 miles of descent, 20 miles of ascent and 10 more miles of descent again.

We saw a baby bear (some also saw the mother) and a bighorn sheep walking down the street.  Then came Radium Hot Springs, where we parted from Mike.  We spent 2 hours in the pools, swimming, and in our shower washed cycling clothes. We saw a small troupe of bighorn sheep climbing a slope while we were swimming, with 5 or more including babes.

Stepping out after swimming, we noted that rain was approaching, so we booked into Radium for groceries.

Redstreak CG is just after the 93 and 95 come together.  It is a long switchbacked climb of about a mile to the entrance, but it was 7:00 and they still had sites available.  Jamie went to the head of the line and asked if they had any hiker biker sites available and they gave her a map and let us go around all the cars.  This is the second CG with community kitchen (wood stoves) and pavilions. This pavilion had lights, but no outlets.

I had managed to rub some skin off my nether regions unsing the stock Surley vinyl saddle.  I am experimenting using New Skin on it VERY CAREFULLY, masking sensitive areas.  Can you say "ouch, ouch, MOMMY....".  There is a bear box at this CG as well.

Stats:
start ODO 258
total 58
avg- 12.6
max- 38.9

 

July 4—photos will be uploaded later—no cell service on T-Mobile

It cooled off dramatically overnight, so sleeping was much better than last night.  For a hostel, the Banff Y is pretty quiet at night.  Overall, it has been quite good, except when it is over 80 degrees during the day.  The staff is exceptional.

Heading out, we stopped for breakfast, then jumped on the Trans Canada Highway for 15 or so miles, then turned onto 1A.  We saw another Great Divide rider and the riding was pretty nice, without loads of climbs, yet. There was a peregrine nest on top of a bridge, with babies.  We managed to create a wildlife traffic jam, when the cars stopped to see what we were looking at.  Turning onto 93, things changed.

One long moderate climb, followed by a long moderate downhill brought us to Marble Canyon CG. It was only 1:30, but we scoped out the CG, set up camp inside a pavilion (not supposed to, but we noticed the sign too late) and then went to hike to Marble Creek "Falls".  The Falls were actually a chasm with high water running through it.  It was incredible and rivaled Watkins Glen in NY in incredibleness. I would come back, to both Banff and this CG to hike the falls again.

Afterwards, we ate a 10-year old backpacking meal (Stroganoff)- pretty dreadful.  Way too salty.  We met Mike, traveling alone and creating his own route coming down from Alaska.  Way cool.  Apparently a woman traveling north is also here, making the cyclists almost outnumber the car campers. There is a solid block building dedicated to food storage for cyclists and Roberta saw a bear down by the river.  The CG hosts had lots of advice about bears, again bells are no good, but spray is very effective, if a bear sniffs around your tent, move to the center, (your head away from the wall).  They were really sweet.  Common joke: how do you tell black bear scat from grizzly?  Grizzly contains bear bells.

Stats:
avg speed 11mph
max- 43.7
total miles- 34
beginning mileage- 224 (must be subtracted off every entry)

Putting It All Together

Slept fitfully because of the heat. When everyone was up, we went to Safeway for breakfast and ate in the park near the river. In the morning we assembled our bikes, marvelling at the ingenuity of the bike mechanics and their strategies for handling anticipated "hot spots" where the bikes might get compressed by the baggage handlers or rub through the boxes. Jake from Campus Wheelworks used old innertubes to protect things like the ends of the racks and the seat post and such, along with paper towel tubes to keep the frame from getting scratched by the racks rubbing. I wish I had taken a photo of it when we pulled it from the box.  Jamie's bike—the mechanic had taken a short piece of 2x4 to keep the rack from getting bent by compression.

We spent the rest of the morning shopping for food and gas and then packing panniers.
Roberta showed up around 2:30 and put her bike together and packed up. Jamie's bike wouldn't shift on the front derallier and we finally figured out that a water cage bolt had come loose and lodged in the derallier. It took a long time to figure this out because the bolt looked like it belonged in there.

We went to dinner in a pub and the waitress chopped out our bill by person and let us run our credit cards. Awesome.

I did my laundry, because i had managed to get oil on my shirt i couldn't get out by handwashing. Bed by 11:30.

July 4 pictures

More photos

You can see what the flooding did in some areas. In this case the bench survived.

Arrival in Calgary

I got to the airport 2.5 hours early to make sure United would take my bike. They did and so I had a lot of downtime.

The flights went well and I even got to watch them load my bike on the plane through the very small baggage door.

In Calgary, I was afraid I wouldn't recognize Jamie with all her hair cut off. I figured her boxed bike would give her away, but when she came through, no bike. United put it on the wrong flight, but sent it via courier to Banff at around 1:00 am. Roger arrived like a premature baby and shot out of the shoot in record time, which meant we almost walked by him at Tim Horton's. I recognized him because he had a boxed bike.

The shuttle to Banff traveled through the extensive flood damage between Calgary and Banff. The municipalities scrambled pretty fast to put things back together quickly and in some cases did a quick, but nice landscaping job.

Banff was around 90 degrees and the inside of the Y never cooled down, leaving us to swelter at night. We stowed the bikes, went into town, ate dinner and went for a walk.

The Bow river had reeked havoc in Banff and was still flowing extremely high. Falls were not falls, but sluices and giant rapids still were tearing at the banks.

We got to see the Banff Hot Springs hotel, which reminds me of some Bavarian castle, high above us.
John came in around 12 am and everyone crashed as best they could in the heat.