Great Divide - Montana Mountains (Ted)

Farm country between Whitefish and Bigfork

After leaving Banff it was a relatively easy 41 mile ride to Bigfork.  This was to be my rest day, so I didn't take it to hard and was at the Wayfarer State Park fairly early.  Big Fork is a small tourist town on the northwest corner of Flathead Lake.  It was a nice place with a number of restaurants.  I met a couple I had seen going into Whitefish and we were both staying in the state park.  I was up early the next morning planning to ride 75 miles and climb off 6000 feet to Holland Lake.  I stopped in town for breakfast and meet another couple from Indiana doing the Great Divide as well.  They were hoping To make out to Holland Lake as well but I haven't seen them since.

Primitive campsite near Holland Lake 

It was a tough day of climbing gravel roads, usually with a slight tail wind in full sun which is hard for me.  The tail wind makes it feel like there is no wind blowing at all and I quickly over heat. The excitement for day came when I saw a bear.  He was clearly as scared of me as I was off him as he run up the mountain so fast I hardly got to yell at him.  It looked to be a fairly young grizzly.  I met a guy picking Huckleberries and he said he had walked into one the day before and they definitely scared each other... bears love Huckleberries.

Bear proof food storage

Mid afternoon I decided to take a nap on a bridge concrete support and let the sun get a little lower in the sky.  I can't believe I slept for half an hour there, on a 16" wide piece of concrete, but I was getting pretty tired. I started riding again and at 65 miles I came to a primitive camp site next to a creek and called it a day.  It was 6:30PM and I was tired and hungry.

The primitive camp site worked well with easy access to water. In the state parks the have "beat boxes to store your food, so at the primitive campsite I had to improvise.  I had read in one of the resources for the Great Divide trip to hang your food from a bridge.  Since that was handy that is what I did.

Today was another big climbing day.  After leaving Holland Lake, I was faced with 2500 feet of climbing in 20 miles.  Again it was mostly in full sun with a slight tail wind.  It was a slog to the top, but the single track descent was well worth the effort... It was GORGEOUS!!!

Single track ride down the mountain

After the single track section, it was back to dirt road for about 10 miles.  I had a decision to make, continue on for 26 miles or call it a day.  Since I had cell service again, I gave Beth a call to catch up since she and Nick had made their way back to Jeff  City.  After taking a rest I decided to call it a day. I am about 4 days ahead of my schedule and my legs are just a little tired.  So I rolled into Seeley Lake.  The  campground is full but I found an RV park with bike tent camping for $10 right in town.