Today went a lot better than yesterday. There were two huge climbs, including the legendary Fleecer's ridge, and it was still chilly, and long, but it didn't rain and I got great rest last night. It also didn't have a crazy boulder feel to bike through.
John, my Warm Shower's host in Butte, made me breakfast and home roasted coffee, which was great. We hung out a bit that morning and I juggled some for his kids, and I left town feeling in good spirits around 8:45am.
The first bit of riding was pavement, and I banged out the first 10 miles quicky, and then climbed several thousand feet on dirt and crossed the divide again about 16 miles in by 12:30.
I descended a little and then had a long ride at elevation, around 7k feet, and I got to thinking. I'm really up high. I need to cut myself some more slack for these high altitude days. I'd be huffing and puffing over steep inclines and kind of mad at myself for having such a hard time, until I realized, shit, I'm actually high enough that altitude matters.
For example, I'm camped at 6k feet now, which is higher than all the climbs I did before today but one. I almost got to 8k feet today, and in a few weeks I'll be camping above 8k and climbing up to 12k feet. That's nuts. No wonder this is hard, I've only been doing this 8 days and I live at 300 feet!
After the long ridge ride I did a rocket fast brake burning descent into a valley, with Fleecers' Ridge looming over me across the way. Fleecer's ridge is legendary on the divide for it's beautify and it's danger. I wasn't sure exactly what the danger was, but I knew that the descent down the other side should be walked if I value my life. I also knew it to be a hell of a climb. People had been taking about it for weeks, both nobo and sobo people, with some sobo planning to take a pavement highway bypass.
If I felt bad I was going to camp early in that valley, but I didn't, so I ate lunch on the side of the road while staring Mt. Fleecer down and then took off.
Somewhere around 12-14 miles and 2k feet of climbing later, I made it to the top and it did not disappoint. Finally I was getting my high alpine meadows that I wanted from this trip. Sure, wilderness is cool, but one tree covered road looks like the next. This was amazing! I could see mountain ranges all around, and even could look waay back at Butte in the distance during the climb.
The descent was nuts. I could ride some, but it dropped 1k feet in about a mile, so that part I walked. It was very difficult even to walk it. I met a nobo rider just past it when I was about to descend. He said his friend tried riding it, went over his handle bars, and fractured his face and a few vertabra. No thanks. See the photos and video.
I eventually got to Wise River about 52 miles in around 4:30, but it didn't have much so I resupplied and rode another 6 miles into a stiff headwind aiming for a national forest boundary. About a mile after the boundary I found a water source and a clearing, and am now camped by a forested stream all by my lonesome, about 50 yards off the road. It's actually kind of nice, I haven't had a night to myself since the night before Holland Lake, about 5 nights ago. Crazy to think that on this trip I'd meet so many people! Finally, I can get to bed at a decent time! Not that I'm complaining about meeting new people though, they've been real highlights of this trip.
Tomorrow I ride 50ish miles and a big climb (every day has a big climb, or several) into Banack, the former Capital of Montana before Virginia City and later Helena, and now a legit preserved ghost town with a campground nearby. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment