Tour Divide: Montana

Travel Day: June 27th

We’re excited to share that Richard has recovered from his virus! We’re now heading to the Canadian border in Montana to restart the Tour Divide.

To make it back in time for work, we decided to skip the Canadian section of the route, which will save us 2–3 days. We’re looking forward to getting back out there and seeing what this second attempt has in store.

A huge shoutout to my parents for hosting us this past week while Richard recovered and for driving us to the border. It’s hard to believe it’s already been two weeks since Richard’s parents drove us to New Mexico for our original northbound start. We’re incredibly grateful to both of our parents for helping make this adventure possible!

Starting at the northern border couldn't feel more different than starting at the southern border. In New Mexico, we were freezing our water bottles and worrying about the desert heat. Now, as we drive north in a steady downpour, we're thinking about how to stay dry over the coming days instead. Whatever happens next, at the very least we’ll have a picture at each border 😅 

Our goal is to make it back to Silver City, New Mexico (where we left off) a few weeks from now, but there's a lot of ground to cover before then, and plenty that could happen along the way. We put countless hours into preparing for the Tour Divide, but one of the biggest lessons this experience has taught me is that even the best preparation can only take you so far. Sometimes you need a little luck, too.

We encounter some bad luck on the first attempt, so here's hoping for a little good luck this time around. 🍀🤞 Either way, we'll do our best, embrace whatever comes our way, and enjoy the journey. ⛰️🌲🚲🌵☀️❤️

After nearly a two week break of recovering from a virus we are back out here. We spent almost a week in Silver City NM and then a full week in Boise Idaho. We also are running short on time and had to skip the Canada section.

Today Ashley’s parents dropped us off at the US Canada border. We got an early start to try and beat the rain as best we could. I find it’s always a bit nerve wracking to the ride in Grizzly country, especially the first day. We got over it quickly and settled into the ride and enjoyed the Montana scenery, beautiful mountains covered in pine trees that sit above crystal clear rivers and streams.

As beautiful as it was we did not beat the rain. Just past noon it started dumping on us as we climbed to red meadow lake. Between the elevation and the rain we were very cold despite good rain gear.

After Red Meadow it’s a long descent into whitefish. Normally this would be quite awesome but it just made us even colder. Our spirits were quite high though, we are just so glad to be out here touring it together. Tomorrows forecast is even worse than today. Hopefully it improves!

We decided to take a short day given a very rainy forecast. We had enough of that yesterday. 

We slept in, blew dry our damp clothes and made a stop at Safeway to stock up with food for the next 2.5 days. Richard ran out of food on the next section and didn’t want to repeat that experience.

We rode from Whitefish along country backroads to Big Fork. The clouds looked very threatening but amazingly we managed to stay completely dry. 

Towards the end of our ride we caught up with another rider named Chris from McCall, Idaho. He was a really nice guy and we ended up riding together for about 10 miles before our turn off for our accommodations for the night.

We had booked a nice room that sets us up well for tomorrow’s ride. They even have a bar and grill on the property. We met the owner and his daughter, who is the general manager. They couldn’t have been more welcoming. They even let us do laundry for free. 

We’re grateful to be easing back into the Tour Divide after taking the last two weeks off. Tomorrow is looking better weather wise, which we hope holds true since it’s going to be a much longer and harder day 🤞

Looking at the data for this day, I knew it was going to be challenging - 110 miles, 8.5k elevation gain, on almost completely gravel roads. Actually doing it on a fully loaded bike really pushed my limits. We started out of Big Fork at sunrise and didn’t get to our final destination of Seeley Lake until 8pm. We were riding our bikes for 12.5 hours (not including breaks). 

We rode out of town with our headlights on and up into the forest. The skies were overcast and the forest wet from the previous rainy days. We spent much of the first half of the day climbing, then dodging puddles as we descended down the other side. This allowed us to avoid the busy highway, but it wasn’t the most scenic of riding.

75 miles into the day we made it to Holland lake. It was around 3pm and we had to make a decision to either commit to a tough climb and 35 miles more of riding or camp at Holland lake. There were pros and cons to these two options. The main pros to continuing were having a real meal up the road in Seeley Lake and keeping on pace with our daily mileage goal. So after refilling our water bottles at the campground, we pushed on.

After 10 hours of riding that last climb really got to me. The fatigue was intense and I was struggling to eat more food after all the candy, bars and chips I’d already eaten that day. I was so grateful for Richard’s support and encouragement up that final climb of the day, which included basically force feeding me apple pie oat bars and walking short sections with me. I also cranked up my Spotify playlist, which helped lift my spirits. We finally made it to the top, where we were rewarded with incredible views at and some fun single track, which I was surprised by how much I enjoyed. 

We made it to Seeley Lake at 8pm. We were stoked that the BBQ place we’d eyed up earlier in the day was still open. After enjoying BBQ sandwiches and milkshakes, we rode a mile down the road to our campsite for the night.  After setting up camp, we finally got to bed at 10:30pm. It was a long, hard day, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else (love you babe!) ❤️

Woke up to a beautiful campsite on Seeley Lake. No coffee this morning, but we did have muffins! The air was crisp and refreshing in the early morning.

We managed to keep our streak of getting rained on alive, although it didn’t last too long. The real challenge was figuring out the right combination of layers as the weather kept changing.

We made it to Ovando in time for a late breakfast and met four other northbound riders—John, Mike, Des, and Derek. Two of them were from New Zealand. Breakfast was incredible: pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and two cups of coffee. I was in heaven. I talked about it for hours afterward. I’m beginning to realize just how food-motivated I really am. Maybe that’s part of why I’m out here.

The views throughout the day were spectacular. Ponderosa pines lined the mountains, giving way to wide-open grassy plains. It’s some of my favorite scenery on the entire route.

After yesterday’s long ride, we decided to stop early in Lincoln, Montana, and enjoy a well-earned rest.

We planned our morning around the opening of the coffee stand down the road from our hotel. After each having a cup, we rolled out of Lincoln around 7:30am. There were nothing but blue skies in sight, which was quite the change in comparison to the previous days. 

The riding started out on nice smooth and fast gravel farm roads, until it suddenly kicked up onto steep rocky roads. This made for some very difficult riding. We even had to walk sections due to how long, steep and difficult the terrain was to navigate. We did start to see tons of butterflies though, which lifted our spirits and made the ride feel more magical. 

The decent that followed felt amazing, bring us out of the mountains and into a beautiful valley. On the way down we started to encounter our first Continental Divide Trail (CDT) hikers. They all seemed envious of our speed, especially since we were currently on our way downhill. 

At the bottom, we stopped at the Llama Ranch, which is well known for their hospitality towards bikepackers and through hikers. The owners have been hosting cyclists since the ACA started the route in 1998. Last year they had over 900 visitors stay with them. They charge nothing. They gave us a cold soda and offered us a sandwich. They drove a hard bargain trying to get us to stay there for free tonight, but we had only done 22 miles at that point so we didn’t take him up on his offer. We did stop for a pop and to chat with him and a couple of CDT hikers on the front porch.

As we continued on our way, it was pretty fast riding, until we started our next climb. It wasn’t as steep as the first, but it was hotter which became its own challenge. We were drinking more water than the previous day as a result, which meant we were running low. We found a river and filtered some water. Unfortunately soon after we started to see signs of cattle, making us fearful of drinking the water we’d just filtered. We both still had some water in our bottles from earlier in the day, so we decided to try to make it to Helena with what we had. 

The decent was on a pretty rough road, which caused a screw for my rear Tailfin bag to come loose. My first mechanical of the trip. Thankfully Richard had extra parts and had it fixed in record time!

We hit pavement 8 miles out from Helena. At this point we were both out of water and grateful for a tailwind to speed up the final stretch of the day. We were happy when we saw our first gas station, which we stopped at to get some water and protein shakes. It was a tough 60 miles and we were ready for some rest. 

We decided to skip the rough trail today between Helena and Basin. We took the frontage and cattle roads. It was surprisingly beautiful, we saw many campers and fly fishermen along the way. Also saw tons of deer and an Eagle.

I had mixed feelings about taking an alternate route but was very glad we did. We ended up reconnecting with the route in Basin and rolled into Butte at a reasonable 5pm.

Started in Butte and got an early start to try to make it to Polaris so we could stay at the Grasshopper Inn—one of Richard’s favorite places to stay on the route.

We both felt pretty sluggish in the morning because the fireworks had kept us up the night before. There were three major climbs today, bringing us to just over 7,000 feet of climbing across 87 miles. Near the end of the first climb there were tons of cows, which we unintentionally herded to the top. We were rewarded with breathtaking mountain views. 

The second climb was called Fleecer ridge and was known for being very steep at the top, making it unrideable for most, including us. The way down was particularly steep with loose rocks, making it tricky to hike our fully loaded bikes.

After riding for nearly 8 hours, we were grateful to be riding to the only small town along the route today - Wise River. We stopped at the small store to get some snacks. They were very welcoming and even asked us to sign their guest book. While here I realized that on the rough decent into town, I lost my vest, which I had stuffed into the top of one of my feed bags. I was super bummed. A few minutes later a northbound rider rolled up, Jewels. She was headed to Butte and agreed to keep an eye out for my vest along the way. So there’s still hope I’ll get it back 🤞

We had about another 40 miles to the Grasshopper Inn with almost 30 miles up hill. It was all along pavement, so we figured that would make it a bit easier at least. We left Wise River, straight into a headwind, making for more difficult riding than we would have liked. While sitting at the little store, eating our snacks, my right leg had stiffed up, making each pedal stroke feel painful. 5 miles in, we had to pull over so I could massage my tight leg muscles, which helped a ton and we continued on our way. The last 8 miles got steeper and I was struggling with the heat and fatigue. We were less than a mile from the top, but I had hit my limit for the day and we had to pull over again. After shedding some tears and getting a pep talk from Richard, we were able to make it to the top and were rewarded with a long and fast decent into Polaris. 

We arrived at the Grasshopper Inn to find the place packed, with a live country band playing out front for the Fourth of July. They immediately cooked us steaks and burgers, and we truly felt like we were getting the star treatment.

It was a very challenging day. My legs are killing me and the turnaround between days has been rough, so we’re taking tomorrow as a much needed rest day.

We took a full rest day yesterday at the Grasshopper Inn. Ashley has been having a bit of pain in her legs - from pedaling 10-12 hours a day. It was a welcome rest, and this morning we rolled out just after sunrise. We saw a pair of Sandhill cranes as we rolled down our first descent of the day.

We got incredibly lucky with the weather. It was overcast almost all day, and the temperatures were perfect - mid-60s. 👌 In the past, this was a long, hot, dry stretch. I was so happy with the conditions today.

It’s a very interesting day of riding because the terrain changes so drastically. We started out in the mountains and ended up in the plains.

Arriving in Lima was great. We had a tailwind along the paved road into town. It was magical. The magic continued because the rundown motel in town has been recently renovated by a younger couple, and it’s so nice now! They have a homemade ice cream stand in the parking lot, which was incredible. They also have a burger stand, which was equally amazing and felt like a true homemade meal. After riding 100 miles today, it was a welcome treat.

The recently renovated motel has become a very popular cyclist hub. They are sold out in rooms, but there is only one car in the parking lot. We met a ton of nice riders. Such a cool community.

We were rewarded for our early start this morning. Just outside of Lima, the sun rose over the mountains. In the first photo, you can see a fox we came across. It was pouncing playfully all over the road and stayed there as we rolled by. It was a very special moment.

Not long after, we got near a lake that had produced a dramatic layer of fog. It was such a contrast to the surrounding area.

The rest of the day, we pedalled through cow country until we got near the Idaho border. The countryside was littered with tired cabins of the pioneers that took on this remote wilderness years ago. As we rode through it - gradually the mountains became steeper, and the forest reappeared.

We crossed into Idaho today. Feels good to have Montana done! Congrats, Ashley!!