Most of you know we completed our ride on October 25th. What a ride!!

We found that keeping up on a blog was difficult since we seldom had good internet or the time to download photos. Hans’s new iPod Touch worked much better since we could send updates and photos directly to Facebook. Those of you with Facebook probably heard more than you ever wanted about our trip, but those of you following our blog got left in the dark. We appreciate  the calls and emails we have gotten from people who were worried about us and wanted to know how everything went. So, no, we didn’t fall off the face of the earth!  We had an incredible adventure.

I am now back in La Cruz while Hans will be in San Diego for another week or so. I am working on updating the blog since we have a lot of photos and fun stories to share with you. Stayed tuned….

Hans has the lake to himself but a bald eagle keeps it’s eye on him.

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We really do have to give a little plug for “Hammer Nutrition” here. We have been gobbling up their products daily (Perpetuem, Sustained Energy, Recoverite, and Tissue Rejuvenators). I am pretty sure that has something to do with the fact that we can climb up some of these hills and still get back on the bike in the morning. We visited their headquarters in Whitefish. Hans was hoping for some swag and dressed appropriately!

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Everyone seems to have a beautiful vegetable garden in Montana. They keep them fenced with 8-10′ high wire fences in an attempt to keep the deer and moose out. I thought I was smelling someones herb garden but it turned out to be an entire field of dill, acres and acres of it. I’d love to know how they harvest it.

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Just when we’re starting to feel pretty bad ass we meet this bunch. Here’s a couple from Germany who decided to tour around the US for six months-with two little kids in tow!!  They stick to paved roads and stop every few hours to let the kids play. You can’t see it in this picture but she pulls a tiny bicycle behind her bike, guess they want him out of that carseat and pulling his own weight as soon as possible?! They camp every night, rain or shine and we’ve crossed paths with them at campgrounds as well as on a busy street in the middle of Helena. Wow.

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We gave our legs a rest and took a canoe trip down the river and into Seeley Lake on our day off.

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Ovando is the most bike friendly town of all. Population 50 but every one of them stayed up until midnight to watch the Divide racers ride through their town a few weeks ago.  If you haven’t seen the movie “Ride the Divide” you might not know that every year a few amazing souls ride this same route as fast as they can go. The winner did it in 17 days,it will take us 12 weeks!

Ovando offers a few interesting alternatives to camping: Cyclists are welcomed to stay in the teepee, the old wagon, or the town jail.

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Luckily, most of the critters we encounter are harmless and sweet. Then there are those pesky bears…. We are careful to store all our food in our bear bag (a Kevlar bag that reportedly can survive a bear attack) and everything else gets hung high in a tree away from our tent every night. We were surprised to see this tennis/basketball court next to a campsite out in the middle of nowhere but it made for a great place to store our stuff for the night:)

He said:

Wonder what these cows are hidin

We hit the road early this morning after last night’s big storm. I was worried as our guide book had warned that the next 9 miles could be “sloggy” if wet and we must have gotten a couple of inches of rain that night. As we headed out the road was wet and a little muddy but I thought to myself, well this is not bad. I wondered what all the fuss was about. We rounded a turn and came upon a wall of cows. I had already begun a love hate relationship with cows on this trip. They are very, very messy animals, and not the sharpest creatures in nature’s shed. They refused to move and I pondered what they could be hiding?

They were hiding a SHMUD highway!

Finally refusing to move, I shouted some obscenities and they parted. I causiouly proceeded in case they decided to stampede over me. Then I saw it, a mud highway that went for miles. Not just any mud, but mud mixed with cow poo! Denise calls it SHMUD!

It was the nastiest, most sticky mud I have encountered. It stuck to everything it touched and completely gummed up our bikes to where they would no longer roll. It was so thick that we could not even push our bike through it. Finally we ended up carrying them.

I really have no way to describe the effort it took Denise and I to get through other than it took us 6 hours to go 9 miles up up and up mud mud and more mud. To top it all off, we had to climb up 1000 feet. It was so sticky that our shoes weighed at least 10 pounds and were the size of snowshoes. Finally we tried blazing a trail through the chapparell, well this worked for a little bit, until all the brush stuck to the mud, then we ended up with a nice adobe straw material. Nice for building a home, but not so hot for wheels and shoes.

Every time we had gone over the last hill there was another. I swear if there had been one more hill. I would have left everything and hiked to the nearest road and hitch hiked back to San Diego. How we pulled it off I have no idea. Denise is my hero, what a trooper!

Finally completely exhausted at the top, we did find a stream and spent an hour cleaning the bikes so they would work again. Now it was 3:30 we were spent and starving from all the extra work. We had no food and were 35 miles to town. We had let our food reserves get low, because today was supposed to be an “easy day” that ended up in a good town to resupply.
We carefully looked at the map and found that fortunately the next 30 miles were down hill, as we had climbed to 7700 feet. With no food we really did not have any options but to push on.

Downhill fun!

We pushed on and it was also some of the most spectacular riding yet. I raced a cloud shadow doing 25 mph down a prairie hill for about 3 miles. Then we entered a narrow box canyon just like the ones Indians used to ambush settlers in on the movies. Then we entered a canyon and followed right next to a raging stream going down hill. It was EPIC Mt biking. Thank goodness because we really needed the spiritual lift.

After the 30 miles of downhill we ended up by the highway. Bob, who had smartly left us the day before was supposed to be in Lima, our destination. Fortuneatly we had cell service so we were able to call and confirm there was food and a nice warm hotel bed to crash on. Even though these last 5 miles were flat, we limped into town, and once again, ate everything we saw. More than a few beers were also consumed as we told our tale to Bob, assuring him, he had dodged a real muddy nightmare.

Day  Totals – 45 Miles , 9 hours 15 minutes, 1200 ft climbing

Ride Totals – 970.5 miles, 115 hours 45 minutes, 58765 ft climbing

Morning view from our tent.

This was one of those mornings where I got to unzip the tent door and look out on a beautiful scene. This time it was a pretty little stream about 20′ away, Hans had water boiling for coffee, and the sun was already out. Perfect.  Im glad I didn’t yet know how hard todays ride would be.

5 mile downhill ride!

Gathering drinking water along the trail.

We climbed the Whitefish Divide; 2 miles of climbing up a rutted road of loose gravel and very round, rolling rocks. I had to stop and push a few times but walking in bike shoes was no easier so I’d get back on and race along at about 3 mph.  I was absolutely exhausted by the time I finally got to stop pedaling. Hans on the other hand, scurried right up and was waiting for me on top. He made the mistake of scolding me for not drinking enough water (OK, he was right but I was not in any mood for his advice right then) so I chose to skip the photo opportunity and continue right over the top and head down. What a ride!!! We coasted along for about 5 miles without having to pedal. I went from being tired and frustrated to euphoric in just a few minutes.

The entire “town” of Polebridge.

Best bakery in the world.

Our day ended with a dusty ride  into a town 5 miles off our route but several people had told us Polebridge was a must-see.  I must say that when we finally got there I was dumbfounded to see that Polebridge is really nothing more than a general store, a rafting rental shop, and a restaurant. 10 extra miles for this??  We flopped our sweaty dusty selves down at the bar while we waited for a table (the place was packed) and watched some incredible looking food come out of the kitchen.  We enjoyed one of the best meals ever while listening to the locals chat about the condition of the river and the great raft trips they were doing.

Hanging out at the Hostel. Hans contemplates tomorrows ride while there is still daylight.

Our guide book and maps only show icons for places to sleep, it does’t specify whether it’s a hotel or a hostel or a lodge or a dude ranch so we weren’t surprised to learn that there are no hotels here,  just one hostel a little ways down the road.  With an outhouse.  Without electricity. But they did have a hot shower and we were the only guests in the room with 8 beds so we felt lucky to have a warm place  to roll out our sleeping bags.

In the morning we went back to the restaurant but it was closed so we followed the crowd to the little general store and found the best bakery in the world inside. Huckleberry muffins, huckleberry scones, huckleberry pancakes, huckleberry coffee, I guess it’s huckleberry season.  They tell us this is an especially good year for the berries and that means the bears are fat and happy (and probably not looking for any human food supplements).

He Said:

We woke up to quite a change in camp (see day 7),  with the new Russians arriving in the middle of night, several new tents had “popped up”. We now had a full-blown Russian tent city. It was very cold, as is usual in the morning, and as soon as we popped out of our tent shivering, the new Russians were excited to talk and hear our story. They were a very nice couple with four kids with a lot of questions and interest in our travels. We were anxious to roll as we would be leaving Canada and entering the US, so we had to cut the tales a little short and move on. The thing we were most excited about being back in the US was to get our cell service back. Being the frugal bikers we are, we did not roam while in Canada.

Most of today was on highway leading to the border. As we got close we could see the crossing with a line of cars about 15 deep. We were told we could cut the line and get to the front being on bikes, but I wanted to do my good will for cyclists so we waited in line with the rest of the vehicles. It didn’t take but about 20 minutes to get our turn. It was fun pulling up to the inspector on a bike. Sadly he had his typical, don’t like my job attitude, and didn’t appreciate any of my jokes about not having a passport and that I was from Guatemala seeking political asylum. Fortunately I suddenly “found” my passport before he could draw his gun.

Waiting our turn

It was very interesting being back in the US. As soon as we crossed the border, the amount of road traffic increased 10 fold, while the courtesy of the drivers decreased by 100%. Everyone was in a hurry and they seemed to not like cyclists sharing their road. Quite different from Canada. This was a theme that would continue through most of Montana. For some reason, Montana Rednecks do not like cyclists. Dont take me wrong, being a Redneck is in no way a negative thing. It is just an easy way for me to give a stereo typical discription of a life style and those that drive big pick ups.

However being back in the US did increase the availability of goods and services. We hit a hardware store within 5 miles of the border and I was able to buy and add an American Flag to the pole on the back of BOB (the name of my trailer, stands for Beast of Burden). I was hoping that it was the lone Canadian flag I had on BOB’s pole that making the Rednecks ornery towards us, but sadly adding the American flag did not increase their politeness towards us. Still I am proud to be an American and wanted to add it. It also works well for traffic visibility having the good old Red, White and Blue waving behind. When we ride on the road, I generally bring up the rear hoping that the flags will help traffic see us. Also I feel I am helping to protect Denise, if they are going to hit someone, I would rather it be me.

Today was a short day, only 35 miles, but we had a head wind most of the day. We were more out in the open country than in Canada so it drained us quick. Toward the end we were very tired. Then about two miles from camp, I saw a sign advertising a Brewery with wood fired pizza.

Brewery sign, it has to be a mirage!

Denise asked if I saw it and I told her it had to be a mirage because there was no way there would be a brewery out here in the middle of no where, so we pedaled on. Turns out the camp was 3 miles off the route and we had to climb a big hill and then go down a steep hill dropping back down to Grave Creek. It was a very isolated camp right next to the creek. As we were setting up camp, a couple that was motorcycle camping stopped by and asked if we were going to the brewery for dinner. I told them we were too tired to ride the 4 miles back, but they kept raving about the pizza.

After setting up camp and staring at uncooked packets of freeze-dried food, we gave in and hiked back to the brewery. The walking actually felt good as we had our butts were vertical instead of horizontal. On the way we passed a field with about 25 White Tail Deer. We stopped and took photos and pushed on, motivated by beer. Turns out that H.A. Brewery was quite the happening place. I don’t know where all the people came from but they were coming and going, during our entire stay.

Happening at H.A. Brewery

Best pizza we have ever had, it was no mirage!

The pizza and the beer was amazing! Not only that we had internet access for the first time in about 3 days so we were able to catch up with family and friends. The pizza was so filling that not even two starving cyclist could finish it, so we had some to go. The walk back was much more enjoyable with a full stomach and a beer buzz. Saw more deer and the biggist dog I have ever seen. Thank goodness he was friendly.

We were camped in what I saw as prime bear country, down by the river, with berries. Sadly that night there was still a fair amount of wind. I heard every rustle which I was sure was a bear checking out our camp. Fortunaely this camp did have a metal bear box for us to stash all our food in. Still being the head of bear security on this trip, I took my duty seriously and did not sleep much keeping the can of bear spray very near by in the tent. Finally dawn revealed all was clear, even though it was a very, very cold morning.

Camp at Grave Creek

Days Totals-  35 miles,   5 hours 20 Miuntes,  1919 ft climbing, 2497 ft descent

Ride Totals-    193.6 miles,  24 hrs 50 mins,  9387 ft climbing,  10,612 ft descent

Leaving Fernie, we didn’t want to go

She said:

We hated to leave Fernie but it turned out to be one of those rides you imagine while browsing through the bike tour catalog: a smooth winding road past a hidden lake, more pastures and happy cows, and an off the beaten path burger joint just when we needed it. The hills were small and the weather was perfect. Ahhhh, 2,000 miles of this?  No problem. Then comes that exhausted phase where the last few miles take forever and again, of course,  are uphill. We pedaled into another of those “primitive campgrounds” and got the last campsite available. We set up our tent, cleaned up in the lake, then rehydrated some noodles and were ready to call it a night by about 7:00.  We have learned that when you have only a tent and bikes in a large RV site it’s inevitable that someone is going to show up late and ask if they can share the space. We lucked out in that it was a Russian guy celebrating his birthday with his adorable 12 year old daughter who joined us and they kept us awake and laughing for  hours. We learned that Russians make up a large portion of the population of Calgary and this is their get away of choice because the lake here is warm.  After treating us to watermelon (and introducing us to cinnamon whisky?!) they brought us down to the lake to show us the turtles. We were happy enough to stand on the shore and see their little heads popping out of the water but the next thing we know,  the guy jumps off the swim platform and charges through the water as if being chased. We were a bit startled but suddenly he stops and holds up a flailing turtle! “They’re not all that fast” he says.

As we crawled into the tent our new friend mentioned that another couple and their 4 children (Natalia, Natasha, Sasha, and Nasasha I think it was) would be arriving a little later. It takes about one minute to fall asleep these days but when I woke up a couple of hours later it was to the sound of a parade passing by, or so it seemed. Kids giggling, dogs barking, car doors slamming, tents flapping in the wind, tent poles clanging……  Every campground has a camp host but this place had “Lorraine” and Lorraine doesn’t like anyone messing with her campground rules. She was OK with 1 car joining us but 2 was putting her over the edge.  I have a never heard anyone talk so loud or so fast while still whispering but she was giving a lecture about how it wasn’t fair for us, paying guests, to be disturbed. She didn’t seem to see the irony here.  Once they agreed to pay her again for each car she seemed content to go away and let everyone get to sleep.  Lorraine ain’t afraid of no big Russians!

Loon Lake Campers

The Russian gets a turtle

He said:

Today was a long day. It was a pretty ride with a lot of different types of scenery, including a very big down hill, then steep climb on a busy highway.

Steeper than it looks

It also included a hitch hiker. I had a butterfly land on my riding glove that wanted a free ride. It hung out with me finally taking off about 3 miles down the road.

All was pretty good until we had to climb the last two miles off the route up to our camp ground. We were out of water  and assumed the camp ground would have water. Well wrong. Fortunately the nice lady running the camp ground felt sorry for us and gave us enough water to cook our food.

Days Totals – 53 miles,  5 hrs 16 minutes, 1919 ft climbing, 2497 descent

Ride totals 7 days – 243.6 miles, 29 hours 21 mins,  12,127 ft climbing, 13,412 ft descent

Fernie Town Hall

She Said:

Fernie is full of art galleries, sidewalk cafes, breweries, and coffee shops. (We tried them all!)  It’s where all the outdoorsy athletic couples with dogs go once they start having kids. We stumbled upon a free concert in the park and had a blast watching people dancing in the street with their toddlers, and dogs.

Free concert at the Fernie Train Station

He Said:

Although today is a “rest day”, there is no rest for the weary. As Chief Mechanic on this adventure, I had to take advantage of a non riding day to get all the bike maintenance done. Denise’s rear tire had been giving us problems since about Day 3 and I was getting tired of pumping it up about every 4 hours. I could not figure out why I could not stop the leaking so we took it into one of the many great bike shops in Fernie. Turns out there was a bad bead on a brand new tire, so we got a new one installed. I took the time to wash the bikes and inspect them very closely for wear and tear. The local bike shop had a free bike wash, which was very handy for getting everything clean and checking everything over. So far, knock on carbon fiber, everything is holding up very well.

Free Bike Wash

Of course there was some time for R and R and we stumbled on a great free concert, excellent local beer, and of course, our main stay junk food, A & W root beer floats! Fernie, at least in the summer, is a very bicycle oriented town. I really like it and it has been the hit town of the trip so far. I could see myself living here, at least till the first snow flake fell.

She said:

Since today was a short day we had the luxury of hanging out at the campsite doing crossword puzzles while the tent dried off. Most of todays ride was on the shoulder of a very busy road but the last 5 miles wound through beautiful farms, hayfields, and horse pastures. We had the road to ourselves except for a few elk that crossed in front of us and it was actually FLAT for a change.

We had been looking forward to Fernie since we had heard it was a cool little ski town and also because we plan to take a much needed day off. The hotel we grabbed was next door to the Hostel where our friend was staying and he introduced us to a young guy from London who had done the ride from South to North  and was now near the end of his trip. He looked exhausted and was ready to go home but he still smiled and assured us we would love what was ahead.

At the Fernie Youth Hostel with Bob, and two other Great Divide Riders

Days Totals- 20.2 miles, 1 hr 40 mins, 117 feet climbing, 538 ft descent

Ride Totals 6 days- 190.6 miles, 24 hrs 5 mins, 10208 ft climbing, 10915 descent

He said:

It was nice staying in a hotel for the first time of the trip. It gave a chance to do laundry and take a shower for the first time. Also, we needed to dry out all our gear. We knew there was a big, very steep climb of about 2.5 miles leaving town, so we kind of delayed our departure enjoying a big breakfast at the next door café. Finally we could delay no longer as we were kicked out by the owner of the, over priced hotel. Time to hit the road. Bob decided since he was having shifting problems on his bike, to take an alternate road route avoiding the hill and headed to a bike shop via the highway, several towns away. 

The climb was steep but we took breaks at the runaway truck pull outs. There was a fair amount of big rig truck traffic but I managed to get most of them to give us an air horn salute by giving them the tug signal. Finally after about an hour climb, we crested the top and took a breather. At the top we checked the course, and I noticed that my Garmin was telling us to head in a different direction than the map and our cue sheets. We navigate by three methods. I have cue sheets that give us mileages for each turn we are supposed to make. I carry this on top of my handlebars and watch my odometer so I know when we are supposed to turn. Denise also has a map that she carries open on top of her handlebars. The maps shows the course and also has the major turn mileages, she also has an odometer. In addition, I have a Garmin GPS navigation bike computer that has the entire course downloaded on it (thanks to my son in law Nick).  Since we downloaded the GPS course from a source other than the creators of the Great Divide Ride route, I was still not sure of it’s reliability to show us the correct course.

We chose to follow the map, and the cue sheets, which would later turn out to be a big mistake. We dropped down into a pretty little valley, that soon turned ugly. At the bottom was a big open pit coal mine, with large piles of coal dust spilling into a very nasty holding pond of water. We took a few photos and turned off the paved road, heading to a long descent down a dirt road. About a mile down the road there was a sign that said “Road washed out”. I took note but thought, well there is not much of a road wash out that could keep a couple of Mt. Bikes from getting around, this would be my second mistake. We continued down a 10 mile descent through a really pretty valley. We past a pretty river and started uphill. Just as we got going up hill we came to a barricade indicating that road was washed out. We thought no problem we can get around this, till we took a look around the corner and saw that a 200 foot section of the road on a steep bank had been washed away by the river.

I took a look at the map, and there was no other road around. There was no choice other than to climb back up the 12 miles we had just come down. The bank was too steep to go up and around and below was the river. We had already crossed one smaller river on our first day, so I was thinking this was the best option. I put on my tennis shoes and climbed down the 50 foot bank to the river to take a look. It turns out, we would actually have to cross the river twice. Once to get to an island, this was the easy section, only about 2 feet deep and not moving very fast. But the section that got us off the island and onto the other bank was moving swiftly with a rapids look to it. I managed to wade across this section to the other side with out getting washed down stream. However, the rocks were very slippery and had my doubts about making it carrying a bike. Returning to Denise, I told her I thought we could make it across the river. Honestly, I didn’t really know if we could but I just did not want to ride back up the hill.  It took me about 10 minutes to convince her that we could. Actually I think it was the “well we can always ride back up the hill 15 miles” that made her think we could.

We both waded across the river to the island carrying the trailer. Then, I went back for the bikes one at a time, while Denise ferried her two saddle bags across. It was not too bad getting to the island but now came the tough part, crossing the rapids. I had Denise wait on the island while I gave it a shot at getting one of the bikes across. I took my time moving very slow holding the bike as far as I could out of the water. If it got in the water, the current wanted to quickly wash it away and would probably take me with it. I finally made it to the other side, but now I had to back across again, and do it again. Denise made two trips bringing the saddle bags across. Then we decided to try and get the trailer across. It turns out that because all of the gear in the trailer is in a water proof bag, that the trailer can actually float. Well this turned out to be a good thing and a bad thing. As we got too tired of holding the trailer up, we could rest a little by setting it down in the water. The bad thing is when we set it down in the water, the river wanted to take it away. I had visions of all our gear heading very quickly downstream to who knows where???

We somehow managed to get that trailer across the rapids to the other side. Now all I had to do was to go back and get Denise’s bike. As I crossed the rapids with Denise’s bike, I was just about as spent as a salmon heading home. Denise’s bike is heavier than mine, and finally I could not hold it in the air any longer,  I had to lower it down. The river did its thing and just about ripped it out of my hands. All I could think of was that we were about 15 miles in the middle of nowhere except bear country and we could not afford to be down to one bike. Just before the river claimed the bike I mustered up a final burst and lifted the bike back up and inched toward the other bank. Somehow I made it and Denise gave me a big hug. We rejoiced, till we took a good look around.

We were now in very, very thick brush, next to a river, with lots of berries, in the middle of bear country. To say we put the bikes back together very quickly, making as much noise as we could would be an understatement. There was a very little used trail, probably a bear highway, leading thru the brush. We climbed on our bikes and started pedaling as fast as we could. As we rounded a corner, I noticed that suddenly, I wasn’t going anywhere. I was bogged down in 8 inches of mud. I got off my bike and tried to keep Denise from riding into it but it was too late. As I tried to push my bike out, the mud kept pulling my shoes off. Great I thought, cool trick, bear leads people to mud, people get stuck in mud, bear eats people like a popsicle.

Fortunately, the mud bog was only about 50 feet long and we managed to smuck our way to the other side, somehow keeping our shoes and our gear. We didn’t linger long, as now we could see the road we were trying to get to about 50 feet up an embankment. I don’t think anyone has scurried up a bank as fast as we did as we were convinced that there was a bear convention heading our way. Finally pedaling down the road again, we still looked over our shoulders. Completely exhausted, my heart sank even further when I glanced down at my odometer and figured we still had about 20 miles to our next campsite.

Finally after about two and half hours later, there it was. A mirage. A beautiful mirage. Those two beautiful, giant, orange letters…… A & W. I was sure it was not so, but as I pedaled closer, I could smell the mirage too. The guys working behind the counter tried not to stare too much, but two sweaty, smelly people, wearing helmets (didn’t take the time to take them off), in mud covered spandex, made for an interesting sight. I am willing to bet that a Papa Burger and a Root Beer float has not been often consumed any faster than that moment. In fact, I am wondering if my order  ever actually managed to touch the counter. Slightly refreshed, and reveling in our victory over the day’s challenges. We pedaled over to a nearby hotel.

The manager at the hotel, gave us pretty much the same look, as those working over at A&W. He kindly offered that he was full but that there was a camp ground about 2 miles away.  Not thinking I could actually pedal two more miles, he added that it was down hill, had showers and had a liquor store next to it. He knew how to sell me on it, and I am sure he was happy to keep us and our grimy gear out of his room.

As we pulled into the campground we were greeted by our two Dutch friends we had met two days before, Peter and Grosch. They were already drinking a beer and gave us three cheers after hearing our story. They had managed to miss the wonderful washed out road, taking the alternate route that Bob had taken.  As we set up camp, I noticed a Beware of the Bears, sign next to our camp. I thought geeze, not out of the woods yet! Do you know what a bear calls two campers in a tent??? A burrito! Showers, and cold beers to forget the bears, quickly followed.

Days Totals – 35.4 miles,  4 hrs 20 mins ride time, 1500 ft climbing, 1800 ft descent.

Ride Totals 5 Days-  170.4 miles, 22 hrs 20 mins ride time,  10091 ft. climbing, 10377 ft. descent.

She said,

So this morning we hopped out of the tent feeling good and ready for our first big climb. It was only .4 miles long so whats the big deal right? Pushing a bike with panniers is easy enough but when you are on a steep grade with rolling rocks the panniers only slap you in the butt every time you try to take a step and how poor Hans pushed that trailer up this hill I dont know. It was slow going at best but then we were on a beautiful path through the forest that was made when they put in the power lines.
Im busy trying to name all the wildflowers and feeling happy that I can see the trail ahead with no big hills in sight when I hear that sound that dolphins make when they pop up next to Vamonos. Huh? I look over and see a bear, then a cub, no more than 100′ away. I quickly remember the difference between a dolphin and a mamma bear and lets just say I can pedal pretty darned fast sometiimes. When I yelled to warn Hans the cub turned and ran and mamma just sat and watched us so I imagine she has seen a bike or two before. The rest of the day we rode through their habitat but saw no more of them. “Buck” was a jerk today and again! threw me off onto the side of the trail. This time it was soft grass but he is really pissing me off. Its like having to learn to ride all over again and the scenery is way too awesome to have to pay so much attention to the trail. I am more black and blue from that stupid bike jacknifing and tumbling onto me while standing next to it than i am from falling off. So I decide I am just tired and Hans agrees to stop at the next possible spot which turns out to be a single picnic table under a perfect shade tree next ro a raging river. We wade in the cold water and even bring out the stove to whip up some mac and cheese. Quite the celebration is going on when 2 guys from Holland, doing the same ride, roll in and start setting up camp for the night. We feel like amateurs as they tell us how they have ridden through Norway, Italy, and Vietnam before doing this ride. We decide to press on to the next town since a hotel and dinner sounds worth the 50 miles we will have ridden by then. Had to bundle up and ride in the rain for a bit but yea, the hotel was worth it:)

Day Totals –    50 miles, 4 hrs. 30 mins. ride time,  1800 ft. climbing, 2800 ft. descent

Ride Totals – 4 days, 135 miles, 18 hrs. 20 mins.ride time,  8591 ft. climbing, 8577 descent