Day 48: Kremmling to Grand Lake, CO

Ride time: 3:06

Average:  11.9 mph

Distance: 36.95 mi

I found a rock embedded in my tire this morning, so perhaps that's been the culprit?  That makes flat tire #6.  We made oatmeal in the hotel room and then got on way along Hwy 40 to get to Grand Lake.  I wasn't feeling too hot from last night's dinner, and my stomach was in shambles, so we rode rather cautiously.

We rode into Sulphur Hot Springs and had a decent lunch at the Glory Hole Restaurant.  We rode on and saw a beautiful fox cross the highway.  The storm clouds were brewing again, and as we rode onto Hwy 34 from Granby into Rocky Mountain National Park, we had to pitch the rain fly so we weren't blasted down by giant lightning bolts.  The weather around the Rocky Mountains amazes me.  The storms build so quickly, and they're so intense.  We hung out in the tent and played cards until it passed.  We then rode on into Arapaho National Recreation Area and camped at Stillwater Campground right on Lake Granby.

The view from inside the tent

Riding in the canyon before Sulphur Hot Springs

Day 14: Bigfork to Condon

Ride time:  6:02

Average:  8.2 mph

Distance: 49.87 mi

Today was a near Double McCoy, considering we're only 8 miles from our next spot.  We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning in Bigfork.  We almost immediately began climbing out of the town and the scenery quickly changed to thick forests that smelled wonderful.  We were in the full sun throughout much of the day and it was HOT.  We sweat profusely while doing a near 6-mile climb.  The flies were quite irritating while we cranked out about 4 mph, which isn't fast enough to keep a breeze that would blow the bugs off.  Nate saw a black bear in a meadow, and then we both stumbled upon a black bear feeding on some vegetation near the road.  It was scared off very quickly, but of course, it took a toll on my nerves.

We finally pedaled into our camping spot, and as the book pointed out, it was swarming with mosquitoes.  So, I suggested that we book it to Condon, a town off of Hwy 83, about 10 miles down.  Here you go, Dan, a town and creek named after you:

We stopped at a grocery store on the way and slammed Gatorade to help replace all the fluid we lost on our ride--our 3-liter Camelbacks were drained.  We tailed a crazy thunderstorm much of the ride, but we we pretty lucky in that we were moving slower than the storm.  We came upon a patch of dense fog that came from a hail storm and the sight was pretty spectacular:

Hail-induced fog

I also ran over some ding-dong's "TO OUR CUSTOMERS" pin that gave me a nice flat about 1.5 miles from camp.  Thank you kindly for leaving your trash in the road.

Jerk.

I left the pin in it and rode carefully to Swan Valley Centre, a one-stop shop for just about everything.  It was just in time, too, because Mike, the mechanic, was just leaving for the night, but he let us into the showers, gave us a bathroom key, and told us where to camp.

Our humble abode

Day 10: Tuchuck to Whitefish, MT

Ride time: 5:55

Average: 10 mph

Distance: 59.28 mi

Oh. My. God.  Let me start off by saying that I cried before going to bed tonight.  Not because I'm sad, but because my body hurts and I'm emotionally drained from the day's events.  The odometer hit 300 miles today.  It started out at 240.  We pulled a "Double McCoy"--we did two days in one, according to the book.  We were originally supposed to go from Tuchuck to Red Meadow Lake, but we decided to bypass Red Meadow and shoot for Whitefish.

We woke up to giant mosquitoes waiting patiently outside the tent for us, so this helped us break camp in record time.  We parted ways with Ed, the gentleman we met last week and have been riding with ever since.  I'm sure we'll run into him again.  Nate and I hauled down the mountain, thanks to the 29" tires, only to get slowed down on North Fork Road.  It was so ridiculously bumpy with rocks that I could only go about 8 mph.  We stopped for lunch, and then began our climb up red Meadow Road to the campground.  The lactic acid from yesterday's ride was making this a painful ascent.

About 5 miles from the top, we heard thunder to the north and the clouds thickened to an eerie purple.  It was definitely pouring on the pass we had just come down.  Suddenly, Nate turns around and says, "Honey!  A bear!"  I misunderstood him at first (like I usually do), and thought he was talking about someone behind us.  I was not going that fast up the road, so I quickly jump off the bike, fumble for my bear spray, and try to run ahead and look for the bear at the same time.  About 100 feet in front of us, there was an adolescent black bear, checking out something in the road.  Nate was taking pictures.  The bear didn't notice us at first because we were down wind from him, but then he saw us and wasn't frightened of us at all.  In fact, he took a few steps toward us.  We then starting yelling, waving our arms, and kicking up rock to scare it away.  He finally got the hint and took off into the woods.  We quickly walked our bikes past the spot where he ducked into the woods, then hopped on and pedaled furiously just as the bear reappeared behind us now, clearly interested in something in the road.  We got about 100 feet away before the downpour set in.  A bit too close for my comfort to dismount and don rain gear, but we did it anyway and got fully clothed.  My nerves were shot at this point, but I hopped back on the bike and kept pedaling.  The rain quickly stopped, but the clouds loomed.  We pressed on the pass, ran through some snow on the trail (Nate almost wiped out going through it), and then raced down the other side.  The bear sighting definitely sealed the deal on getting to Whitefish...

Ahhh!!!

After a quick, but painful 30 miles, we stopped at a BBQ place and split a full rack of ribs, coleslaw, beans, and a salad, which we promptly inhaled.

One of many eating frenzies

Day 3: Mt. Engadine Lodge to Boulton Creek

Ride time: 2:31

Average: 8.9 mph

Distance: 22.6 mi

Turns out that Ed, the other Great Divide Route biker from California, headed out with us today.  He's in his mid-50s and is a very seasoned outdoorsman.  This is good; it lessens my bear anxiety (of which I haven't seen any yet, and that's okay).  We woke up to overcast skies and no rain, but of course, 2 miles into our ride, it starts to pour.  The bright side: it wasn't nearly as cold or incessant as it has been for the past 2 days.

Right after we donned our rain gear, a coyote comes down the middle of the road.  Nate instructs me to get out the pepper spray and says something about someone recently dying from a coyote attack, but I just checked Google news, and can't find evidence of any such attacks.  Regardless, I got it out and was prepared for a wild coyote attack.  It ran down the other side of the road and probably killed a prairie dog.

A killer coyote!

We rode well as a group of three and had a lot of fun.  We ran into two Belgian bikers that started in Anchorage, AK and had biked down the Pacific coast and were going to end in Calgary in the next few days.

We ended up at Peter Lougheed Provincal Park and camped at Boulton Creek.  

Day 2: Spray Lakes to Mount Engadine Lodge

Ride time: 1:40
Average: 8.1 mph
Distance: 13.7 mi

Guess what?  We awoke to more rain.  In fact, it didn't stop raining all friggin' night long.  I'm not exaggerating.  I woke up with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach due to the fact that it was barely above freezing and everything was soaked.  My fingers and toes were numb.  What a horrible way to start out our Great Divide Route trip.  And of course, today is my 31st birthday, and this is NOT how MY birthday is supposed to turn out...(watch Robyn's will run rampant)

We slowly packed up our super saturated camp, mostly because my fingers were not working that well.  We decided to bike east around Spray Lake instead of following the map, which was a great decision.  We saw Mount Engadine Lodge on the map, and agreed that we were going to stop there and warm up and get a room, if they had one.  We were in the middle of nowhere and this was the only service around for at least 50 miles (provided that we didn't bike back to Canmore, which would be really lame).

We ride into the lodge, and Chris, one of the innkeepers asks, "What can I do for you guys?"  All we could muster out was, "Warm food and a room."  Turns out, today was their opening day for the summer season and all they had left were two rooms.  We promptly set our bikes against the side of the lodge, walked inside and shed our rain gear, and got some delicious hot tea.  By the way, the tea they served is a local company in British Columbia called TeaLeaves and it's the best tea ever.  And I'm not saying that because we were cold; it's really delicious.

The lodge we stumbled upon was spectacular:

Departure from Engadine.  It's not raining...yet.

We saw at least 3 moose in the meadow behind the lodge, traipsing through the mud and soaking in the rain.
We ate super well and had great conversation.  In fact, we met another wet biker that is doing the Great Divide Route solo--he checked in yesterday.

Necessary gratitude list:
1. Dry sacks for the sleeping bags
2. Gore Bike Wear
3. Merino Smartwool
4. Lodges in the middle of nowhere