Ovando to The Cabin Heaven

This will make more sense if you read the narrative first

The adveristement for the cabin in Ovando

Keith's rig

Flat Montana. I climbed over the mountains in the distance.

Looking back where I was from the climb

Looking back from even higher at the same place.

Lotsa burns

These are my cow friends.

Lincoln loved us!

This tent, at the same bar, is stocked by parents who's son did the Divide. It has bike parts, tools, a work stand, and home made cookies!

The climb after Lincoln was very steep...

and had down trees...

and lakes...

and was very steep... and hot...

but this was at the top!

The climb (if you zoom in on the sign) was called S FK Poorman.  I bet you know what I think the S and FK stand for.

But I got to the top of the continental divide for the first time on this trip!

The descent was pretty.

Sweet Lakehouse!

The rest of these photos are of the cabins

Where I am staying

Inside my cabin

South Bounders and Llamas

North bounders and their bikes.  The bikes below this were the south bounder bikes.

The big cabin

This is out of order, but it's also inside my cabin

Also out of order, it's a sign for the Continental Divide Hiking Trail!

Holland Lake to Ovando Photos

Morning Steve!

Morning Barb!

Morning Richard and his buddy! 

Climb photos

This was more what I was expecting.

The top! Also my first service in awhile.

Helmet hair!

A screaming descent!

Wild, a fire...

A northbound riders rig.

One last shot of Richard and buddy as I was leaving Seeley Lake and they were arriving. I wish I'd had more time to get to know them.

The ride to Ovando.

Logging, burns, and pine beetles 

Outside Ovando. We've changed biomes.

Ovando!

Henning and Keith

Henning's rig. He also has a back pack.

The jail!

The tipi and wagon

Inside.the jail

Holland Lake to Ovando, Mt

I need to make this quick because it's after 11pm and it's getting cold. I'm sitting in a tipi in Ovando, my favorite town in all the places I've ever bike toured. Ovando... What can I say about it?

Back in 2014 I stayed here on my solo four thousand plus mile, 64 day bike tour from Eugene to all over. That night I met a crazy divide rider who rolled in at 2am to stay in the jail I was staying. Her, along with Iowa Mark, inspired me to do this ride. About a week or two less than four years ago I decided to do this very difficult ride, and only four years later, despite two near death experiences and a very difficult divorce, I'm here doing it. That's pretty fucking good follow-through (if I do say so myself).

Ovando is town of 50 or so with only a few buildings, but it caters to bike tourists. It has an old vintage jail, covered wagon, and tipi you can stay in. I'm in the tipi this time, and last time I was in the jail. In case I didn't make this clear, this is a joining point of the Lewis and Clark Adventure Cycling road route and the offroad divide route.

Today  may have been the best ride of the trip. It started with a nice morning with Barb and Steve, and then a 16 mile beautiful (and difficult) climb on dirt and single track. Then it had the best descent of the trip! A fast, screaming mountain bike style cliffside downhill into a sweet downhill burn (a forest fire hit there last year) for about 15 miles. The single track was just cleared of downed trees and stuff today, and Henning then I (you'll meet Henning later) were probably the first two riders to ride it since it was cleared. It was screaming fast! I met the saw crew on the way down, and they were stoked to see us riding it! Their work was not wasted. I fact, I know at least five south bound and one north bound rider did it today!

I took a detour to Seeley lake to get food, and then 25 fast miles into Ovando through some logging and with a tailwind. In Seeley lake I met a north-bound rider from Austin, and passed a nobo rider on the ride to Ovando who didn't stop.

Back a the top of the big climb I met Henning from Holland, who is riding much faster than me. He is trying to do the Divide in 30 days!  He is camped in Ovando as well, but he got here way before me. He's a psychotherapist helping people with drug addiction in Holland.

Also in Ovando I caught up with Keith, originally from Missouri and now living in LA, who is a classical violist who plays on movie scores. I'm moving a bit faster than him. Tomorrow I'll go farther than Keith, and Henning will go farther than me.  The three of us had a great time together in Ovando and shared lots of good info.

The Divide is very different from all my other tours. The route is very much dependent on things like rain and wildfires. Wildifire influence is obvious, but rain can turn a volcanic soil road impassible due to mud. Every year and every month is different. I don't know what flavor of Divide ride I'll have, but I know I'll have to be flexible, and I know I will be dissapointed at  times, and at times it will be very hard.The Divide is a great teacher, I feel.  All of my tours have been, but never have I been so dependent on conditions- which is saying a lot. Bike touring is about surrendering your comfort to the elements as it is, but with the Divide, it's even more extreme.

That's what I love about adventure. it's not comfortable, it's not easy, but it is hard - and some thing are worth doing just because they are hard. And, sometimes, you spend a wonderful night with people who believe the exact same thing and have made the same ridiclous life choices.

The Divide is no-ones first tour. At least not anyone I've heard of. My 3.5 times across the country already seems average. I can't really explain what it's like to have these people as peers, but I Iike 'em, and it's nice to know I earned my spot. :)

Whitetail River Clearing to Holland Lake

Well, today was just delightful. It was much harder than I expected it to be - 46 miles, 4:24 on bike time, 6:30 total time, but I got to camp around 3pm and had a good nap at the halfway part.

There was lots of climbing and dirt etc. We had our first bit of single track as well - and for the most part today was very remote and rugged. It made for pretty hard riding.

Did you notice that I said "we?" I made friends! Partway through today I met Richard and (insert name here) from Colorado riding the Divide from that town south of Whitefish back into Butte. They are doing the ride with Bob trailers, and do a lot of rides like this, and have section ridden much of The Divide and other trails.  I think we may end up camping in similar areas for a few days.

They leapfrogged with me much of the day.  They also saw a mamma black bear and three cubs crossing the road, and the black bear stood up and was angry at them for a moment. This was when I was in front of them, so... I just missed my first bear experience.

Camp tonight is at Holland Lake campground near Holland Lake Lodge on ... wait for it.... Holland Lake. I went to the lodge first before securing a campground to inquire about food, but it was $30+ a plate so I declined - but I did play their piano for a bit. I miss music. I also went back later to buy a beer and mooch some power. Guess how much the beer was? $8.50. Oops.  They must know the are in the middle of nowhere.

I went back to the campground later to secure a spot, and was told that two other cyclists were also looking. I figured it was Richard and his buddy so I rode over to see if they wanted to share a spot and cost. But, it wasn't them, it was Steve and Barb, the baggers I met yesterday!

Steven, Barb, and I shared the campsite, and Richard and his buddy arrived later and took a campsite next door. I had a great night talking to Steven and Barb, and we may even know some of the same people in Eugene. They treated me to the campsite and fed me snacks as well. Unfortunately I think we're are pacing differently, so this is likely our only night together.

They've ridden all over the world, including across the country with their two-year-old (who is now starting college). They had tons of great stories. They've even done this section of the divide before, and apparently tomorrow will have some rough, hard-earned, beautiful miles.

Speaking of hard-earned, my hands are killing me when riding. I'm used to drop bars, and these flat bars combined with the rocky roads are rough. I'm hoping my hands just need to toughen up to the new positions and it will get better rather than dehabilitating.

I'm also running pretty low on food, as the last two nights I didn't end up camping where food was available like I expected. I cooked last night, but tonight dinner was peanut butter bagels, cheese and crackers, and snickers. That's not satisfying when it's also all your lunches. It may require a detour tomorrow to restock before my end destination, which will make what will likely be a really hard day even harder. Road touring does not have these kinds of problems. ;)

Whitefish to clearing near Whitetail Creek

I'm sitting on a bridge of a rarely used primitive road - of which I've been the only vehicle on it for at least the last 5 hours (since I got on the road), overlooking a Whitetail Creak and it's flood plane (and my drinking water) with my phone propped up against my can of bear spray.  The sums up the second half of my day quite well.  Also, a skunk tried to walk up to me while I was proofreading this. I said "Go away Skunk!" and it did. I'm going to say that was a positive skunk encounter. Also, a turtle just appeared on the bridge, rather close to me. That's a sneaky-ass turtle. I'm going to stop updating on these sneaky animals or I'll never be done writing this.

The first half was very different than right now.  Jenny and Tim woke up with me and Jenny cooked me a nice breakfast, and then I took off about 8:45 on what felt like a very standard bike tour. For whatever reason, today may have been the day with the most pavement all trip. The first 40 miles were flat, fast, and included a town 10 miles out and 40 miles out (after a 2-mile detour.)  While my bike is not meant for road, it's still the lightest bike  I've ever toured on and very aero for a touring bike, so I was able to pound out those miles really easily. It felt like old times. :)

I ate lunch in a nice diner in Big Fork, which sits on the biggest freshwater lake this side of the Mississippi. It's called Flatfish lake? Apparently smaller than The Salt Lake, or it'd just be the biggest lake over here. Side note, how many non-fresh water lakes are there in the US?

I ended up doing 77 miles today, with 6:44 on bike and being on the road for about 10 hours, finding a camp spot around 6:44pm.

I wasn't sure where I was going to stay tonight, but I knew that I had a 2,000 foot, 6 mile dirt climb coming - so I decided that a 2 mile dirt detour into Big Fork was worth it. An hour and a half break with diner food set me up for that climb better than 30 minutes on the roadside with a bagel. There will be time for that kind of crap later. Also, the town was cute. I like cute little touristy towns.

The second half of the day was all dirt and remote, and beautiful. Well, both halves were beautiful.  I met a couple riding up the hill on standard touring bikes instead of my bike packing setup.

Slang lesson: People with that setup, and what I usually tour with, are often called "baggers."  People with my current setup are referred to as "bike packers." Both setups are pretty sweet.

The road was much smoother than the dirt I was dealing with a few days ago,  but still not great and it got very muddy later. My bike ate it up, but I'm glad I wasn't on theirs.

Nerd Moment: I'm running 29x2.35 tubeless tires. On the roughest roads I was running 20 PSI, today I ran 35 almost all day on pavement and on the dirt. I only dropped my front pressure near the the end when the dirt got rougher and I wanted to give my hands a break.

I made a wrong turn near the end of the day, but a local in a truck stopped me within a mile, told me I'd made a wrong turn, and then gave me a cold beer.  He says he meets and helps a lot of divide riders. That beer tasted reaaaaallly good.

After the free beer my plan was to ride on this muddy  road until I found a place to camp, knowing that a primitive campground was 10 miles away if didn't find anything (that would have made for over an 80 mile day).

I had trouble, the first few miles there were streams but no clearings,  and then lots of clearings but no good water sources (some stagnant ponds, but I was feeling good enough to be picky.)  Eventually I found the river that I'm sitting on now, and a good clearing just down the road from it. Close enough to walk back and forth. Score!  So now I'm camped... somewhere...

I've been yelling "Hey Bear" every 20 minutes or so. Solo camping in Grizzly wilderness is kind of weird. Without human conversation they could easily just stroll on by.  Also, putting everything I have that smells into my Lopsak (smell proof) and Ursak (bear proof) bags is annoying. It takes a lot of friggin time.  I will be glad to be out of bear country in a few weeks. Also, having bear spray within arms reach at all times is also annoying.

Tomorrow I have less than 50 miles to Holland Lake, where I hear they have a sweet lodge with food. I don't have any big climbs either, so tomorrow will feel like a rest day. :)