Tour Divide Day 3

Day 3- Before Whitefish to Holland Lake Lodge, 100 miles (??)


It all started out with my alarm going off at 4:45. (I sense a theme!)

A quick and quiet prep got me out of camp without waking others up. The ride into Whitefish was pretty nice. It was only maybe 8 miles instead of the 20 Dave thought it was and it was rolling down hills. I was kinda frustrated by that because I could have slept in a warm hotel but at the same time I knew I was saving a ton of time by camping.

I followed my rule of thumb about arriving in a town, stop at the first place that looks open (the worst is passing an open place and having to turn around to come back to it because everything else is closed). It turned out the hotel restaurant that I stopped at was closed but they were nice enough to give me directions to a place that was off course BUT it was right next to a grocery store. Give and take...

The food at the restaurant was pretty good, especially to a starving divide racer that had already been up and riding for an hour. I also got the first of many stares when I ordered, "Yes ma'am, I did just say THREE orders of french toast with scrambled eggs and sausage."

After ordering I hit the bathroom and did a dirt bag biker shower in the sink. I learned that my gloves and socks were really stinky after just one day without washing. The smell of my gloves actually made me start dry heaving. Ahhhh yes, the life of a homeless man.

After my 'shower' I whipped back out to my table where my feast awaited me. Here comes another lesson. It only takes about ten minutes for your body to communicate to your brain that your stomach is full. That makes the ten minutes after the first bite hits your mouth EXTREMELY important. I found that I had to eat like a horse for those first ten minutes because once my body felt full, I just couldn't eat anymore.

A site note on eating:


It was always very difficult for me to get in enough calories. Being 6'04" and 237 pounds (at least at the start of the race), I burned upwards of 20,000 calories a day on the divide. I was continually in a calorie deficit and I just couldn't get enough food, which explains my ~30 pound weight loss. 

After gorging myself on deliciousness I went across the street to the grocery store. A little food, a little  A and D, a little anbesol, and a little gatorade made me good to go. I then realized I had lost a piece of gear... my hat I think. I found it back across the street in a parking lot. I wasted a little too much time messing around and loosing gear in town but it was early in the race and I'm certain that I wasn't the only one working out jitters.

The area leaving Whitefish was another pavement detour and I felt like I was cruising pretty well. My back was starting to give me quite a bit of grief (nothing new) but I couldn't even get into the aerobars which were in a very upright and highly modified position already to accommodate my lack of lower back mobility. To add insult to injury (litterally, ha!) I was passed by a rider wearing all moots clothing, again he smoked me like I wasn't even moving.

I just tried to find my happy place and cruise at my constant goal of 50% of maximal effort. The rolling country side was beautiful in this area and I enjoyed the rising sun immensely. I had an encounter with a hilarious farm dog that chased me for about half a mile. He was having a good ol' time trying to herd me and I was having fun taunting him to catch me. His antics were actually making me laugh out loud. Then I hit a down hill and lost sight of the pup. But, I know I was still smiling at his antics because a photographer from Mountain Flyer Magazine took a shot of me just as I started descending.

Look at all that fresh and clean gear!

Not too long after this photo was taken I came across a sign that was advertising goats for sale that came with a diary. That sign has perplexed me for the last several weeks. What does a goat even need a diary for? "Dear diary, today I was hungry so I ate a can."

Anyways I continued riding and came across a restaurant at a highway crossing. According to my notes I was expecting a gas station and the restaurant was really crowded. I decided to order a meal to go and re-up my food supply for a big push to Hopewell Lake. (Little did I know...) I ate my meal standing outside the restaurant as the Eurotrain/peleton/those-four-little-guys-that-I-just-couldn't-keep-up-with pulled in. I was quickly on my way as they sat down to wait for a table. 

As I pulled out of the parking lot I looked at my watch and noticed it was about 11 am. I continued to ride and came to the first of three climbs that I would need to face in order to make my goal for the night.   The first climb went well. The second climb went ok but I was starting to feel pretty weak. Then all of the sudden I hit a wall, like the famed wall in a marathon but about twenty times bigger. 

I got really emotional. I got frustrated with hills. I took a few wrong turns. I started getting pretty upset. I realized I wasn't going to make my destination so I looked at my profile sheets to find a plan B. I misread my sheet and thought that Holland lake was another 30 miles and over ANOTHER big climb. I was about in tears. I couldn't figure out what my problem was. 

I decided to call Liz, my lovely wife. As soon as I heard her voice I started to bawl. I was crying so hard the lenses of my glasses were filling up with tears and over flowing as I leaned over my aerobars with my head hanging. She gave me a few words of encouragement and I decided to push on. As I hung up my phone I saw the time..... 9 pm. I realized it had been ten hours since I ate last. 

IDIOT!!!! 

Kids, today's lesson is very simple: EAT. (Period as in END OF SENTENCE.)

No wonder I was bonking like crazy. I popped in a snickers and all of the sudden I was on top of the world. Then I rode up to the roadway crossing and hit the dirt towards Holland Lake. Then I saw a sign that said the lake was only 4 miles away. What?! The day made a complete 180 degree turn. To top it all off I then spotted a black bear walking down the road under a rainbow.

That's when I shot this video..... Sorry it's sideways, I can't get it to rotate.

Then I cruised an easy ride into Holland Lake Lodge, which FREAKING RULES. Sitting by the fire was none other than Ben Oney who had once again out ridden me over the climbs. The lovely staff at Holland Lake Lodge hooked me up with a stellar four course meal, a good beer, a nice room, and a hot shower (I also washed out all my clothing and hung it up to dry). 

I was a bit upset with myself for stopping an hour earlier than I wanted to (my plan being to ride from 5 am to 10 pm every day) but it had been a very difficult day emotionally and sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. It turns out this was a good move on my part. The next two days would turn out to be very difficult physically and the extra hour of sleep really helped out. Besides, did I mention how good the food was. I mean fillet mingon.... I'm only human you know!

Again I set my alarm for 4:45 and I passed out to sleep the satisfying sleep of the near dead. 

Side bar:

I can't recommend Holland Lake Lodge enough to anybody who comes across this blog. I will even go out of my way to ride down to the lodge just to partake of their food the next time I race The Divide. 

Here are some photos...

It was awesomeness.

Tour Divide Day 2

Oh man, I just realized I deleted all my saved daily tracks from my GPS at some point. Major bummer, I was stoked to have all that data saved. I guess my daily reported mileage will have to be my best guess from this point on!

Tour Divide Day 2-Sparwood to just before Whitefish, 110 miles (I think!)

This day started off well. The alarm went off at 4:45 and I was up and moving right away. Thank the good Lord that there was a gas station open at 5 as I was riding out of town, other wise I would have gone hungry on the way to Fernie (a town that wouldn't normally be on the route but due to the snow reroutes it was). Thanks to my early start I was actually near 7th place for most of the morning. Thanks to my slow pace I would fall way below that before night fall.

The paved alternate to Fernie was pretty stellar and it was my first taste of solitude in the race, a concept that I would later become VERY familiar with. I have to admit the loneliness was nice at first. It was like trying to eat a five gallon bucket of that crapy ice cream you buy for your kid's fifth birthday party. It tastes pretty good at first but then you get full and you are still two weeks away from the end of the bucket and you just want somebody to share the misery of finding the glorious clear plastic bottom of the ice cream container but there isn't anybody for hundreds of miles away and it's freezing one day and one hundred and fifteen degrees the next day....

That's what two and a half weeks of loneliness is like on The Tour.

Anyways, the ice cream was still tasting good at this point so I hammered away in the aerobars. This is where I would learn another lesson. If you are counting on a place for food, sleep far enough away so that when you start out in the morning you will have enough ride time so the stores are open when you get there. You guessed it, the stores were all closed in Fernie! Well, that's not totally true... I found a gas station but gas station food sucks when there is a restaurant that will open in fifteen minutes RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

Oh well, cheetos and OJ for breakfast.

I continued on the road out of Fernie and as I hit the dirt I was caught by Dave Goldberg of infamy from Marshal Bird's blog (awesome blog by the way). We rode together for a bit and we were quickly caught by a very strong rider, Ben Oney. The three of us rode together, took a few wrong turns together, and then the group broke up as Dave took off on a long climb and Ben and I stopped for a potty break/food resupply. I continued on as Ben sat to finish his snack. When you are a strong rider, you can afford to take breaks. When you are weak like me it's all about maximizing crank time!

I took this video en route to the border. Apparently I was pretty excited about how awesome my gear was working out. Also, I was adamant that I only stopped at the hotel because I was gonna stop at that time anyways. (Which is kinda true but still.... I should have camped.)

I rode towards the border and off and on with Dave for a while. We both stopped at the same store for food in Eureka. Again he stopped for a break and I kept riding. (He caught me later on a long climb/snow-hike-extravaganza). I discovered a renewed love of corn dogs on this stop. Get three to go, pull out the wood sticks, toss the sticks in the trash, and voila a perfect calorie and fat dense pellet shaped food.

The Fernie alternate was pretty easy with only a one mentionable section, the pass up and over to Whitefish. Even just the lower part that we did was covered in many feet of snow for about ten to twelve miles. I was still far up in the pack when I hit the snow. However, the lack of strength in my left leg (about 60% of my right leg) means that I'm a pretty weak hiker, especially in snow that is mid calf deep. For a time frame reference, I hit the snow about four pm and I hit the first real rideable trail about midnight. (That's like ummmmmm... 1-1.5 mph!)

Another 45 minutes of riding brought me down to the lake prior to town. This section was pretty freaking cold. As I started riding again I realized that I had slush completely filling my shoes not to mention the fact that I was completely covered in sweat. This made for a teeth chatter inducing descent into the humid night air.

According to Dave it was about 20 more miles to town so a group of us stopped for the night. I think it was Ben, Dave, myself, and some other dude (If you are reading this email me! I know we ate breakfast on day 1 together but I can't remember your name for the life of me.)

I set my alarm for 4:45 again, snuggled up in my bivy, downed some calories, and then beautiful sweet sleep.

Tour Divide Day 1

Day 1- Banff to Sparwood, 145 miles 16 hours

Day one was cray fun. I had been in Banff for a few days prior to the race. I basically hung out at Starbucks and watched old reruns of TV shows online, whatever I could do to keep myself away from my bike and all that nervous energy up at the Banff Y hostel. I went to breakfast at Mcdonald's with some other racers. Man, that was the first of many a greasy meal!

I rode back up to the start and it was like a who's who of endurance biking. I saw most of my favorite riders, even Aidan Harding! (More on that sneaky fella later...)

Here is a picture of Mike Dion from Ride the Divide!

I learned they were shooting film for another sweet movie, The Path.

Crazy Larry, an infamous Divide character, announced he was going to lead the group out. And just like that we were off! It was really interesting riding out in such a huge group of mountain bikers loaded down with tons of gear, food, and water.

As the peloton made its way down the bike path to the official start of the trail I heard some guy making wise cracks about the Canadian Forest Service. I looked over and it was none other than Kurt Refsnider! I was just super stoked at this point. I had worked so hard just to be where I was and overcome so much that I was nearly in tears thinking about it all.

This would not be the last time that I was in tears.

The scenery was stunning all day long. It really reminded me of riding back home in Alaska. I think I had a level of comfort all day long that lots of other people didn't. After a few brief conversations I figured out that I had trained a lot more than most people ( Few people had even done a multi-day ride..... WHAT?!) and I had organized my gear WAY more (Lots of riders in the group hadn't even decided what to take with them until the morning of the race.... WHAT?!).

As the race progressed I was steadily passed by many riders, I actually don't think I ever even passed a moving rider the entire race. The reality of my injury and the toll that it took on my speed was obvious. I walked many climbs that other riders just whipped right up. However, I also realized that I was trained to ride long hours without stopping while others were stopping frequently and for long periods of time. This would play out to my benefit over the weeks to come.

I rode with a few other riders into the first little shop at about 60 miles and then I was quickly off, passing about 15 riders that were laying out on the grass for a break and eating. I continued on through the rolling hills of the Canadian Rockies (Hahahahaha, I said 'rolling hills'!) for sometime until I came to Elkford. I hit up the gas station for some food but only enough to make it to Sparwood, I would later regret this decision a bit.

Just out of Elkford there is a HUGE paved climb that sapped the life out of me. I'm not sure what it was about the climb that got to me, other than the fact that I wasn't expecting it. I recovered from the climb on the nice rocky descent towards Sparwood as the sun set.

Once it got dark and I hit the pavement, I started to get COLD. I didn't want to stop because I wanted to make Sparwood so I just pushed on through my chattering teeth. As I made it to town, about midnight, I quickly realized that all the stores were going to be closed. I even flagged down a local who laughed when I asked if anything was open. In retrospect I should have grabbed a bit more food in Sparwood so I could have a good dinner in the trees past Sparwood.

Without food and the fact I was shivering like crazy I decided to pop into the hotel and get a room. The hotel kitchen was closed but I did find a vending machine.... Mmmmmmmm nothing satisfies like sour gummy worms, doritos, and cornnuts.

I washed my shorts, gloves, and socks in the sink, cleaned up the bike, and hit the sack about 1 am. As I dozed off to sleep I was still excited and ready to go, I guess that's why it was still easy to set my alarm for 4:45!

Overall it was a great day on the divide. My kit was working out very well and I felt rewarded for all the work that I had put into it.

Ah but the adventure was still begining, many glorious hard days to come......

Look at that sweet kit on the Niner. It looks like it only weighs about 30 pounds because it does only weight about 30 pounds! A post about my bikepacking setup is coming.....

Why the Tour Divide?

I have heard that some people are upset that I was able to do something like the Tour Divide, despite the fact that I was too injured to continue my career as a police officer. I'll be honest and say that it irks me to no end to hear that people are talking trash about my disability and it kinda makes me want to throat punch takedown somebody.

However, it is probably better that I don't.... a criminal record doesn't bode well for my possibilities at getting a medical license down the road. Therefore I have decide to write a post about why I chose to do the Tour and the effects of my disability. If there are people out there that still don't believe me consider this; the police department that I used to work for fired me because they believed my injury was real and kept me from being able to work as a cop.... IT WASN'T MY CHOICE.


Here is the story from the beginning.....

In 2009 I was working as a police officer. I had volunteered to go to a traffic fatality that was out of my area and help with the scene instead of taking my lunch break. I was parked in my patrol car on the highway, which we had shut down for the investigation, and working on paper work. A vehicle traveling down the highway drove through the traffic control pattern that we had set up and into the back of my patrol car.

Needless to say I was in quite a bit of pain and the collision rung my bell pretty good. After other officers arrived one of them had to grab ahold of me because I had wandered out into the lanes of traffic that were open on the highway. I was transported to the hospital and seen by a physician. At the time it seemed like I was just suffering 'whip lash' and that I would be fine.

I went home and was sore but after a two days I realized that my lower back was feeling worse. After three days I knew something was really wrong. I made an appointment with the physician that the ER doc referred me to.

Long story short, an MRI showed that I had two severely herniated discs in my lower back. The discs were so badly herniated that they were damaging nerves. As the nerve damage progressed I developed severe pain along the area that the nerve innervated (my left glute, hamstring, calf, and foot).

The pain was bad but the worst part was the weakness that followed. I was only able to flex the muscles in my left leg at about 25% of what my right leg could muster. This lead to muscle atrophied or muscle wasting. My left leg became visibly smaller than my right leg, at worst my leg calf measured 1.5 inches smaller in diameter than my right calf. Before the accident I was a sponsored amateur triathlete, after I was so crippled I could hardly walk.

Even though the prognosis for my condition was bad, I was determined to get better... or at least be the best that I could.

After six to seven months of physical therapy my therapist suggested that I try riding my bike again and my doctor cleared me for it. Needless to say, I was psyched beyond belief to be getting back on two wheels. It would be GLORIOUS!

I put my road bike on the trainer, oiled up the chain, pumped up the tires and put on bike clothes that were entirely too small (thanks to all the weight I gained after half a year of laying in bed and eating). And then it was time.... finally time to ride!

I was slowly able to get my leg over the bike and get my left foot clipped in. (I lacked and still lack fine motor control of my foot so clipping in can be difficult.) Then I got my right foot clipped in. Spinning the tires, even in an easy gear was incredibly hard, due to muscle weakness, and sitting caused immense pain in my spine.

I gutted it out for as long as possible and I finally unclipped feeling proud that I actually gone for a ride if even for only a few minutes. That's when I looked down to see how long I had been riding.... I stared in disbelief at the time, thirty seconds. THIRTY. I thought I would never really ride again.

I continued to work at riding, physical therapy, and just plain psychological recovery. The accident had devastated every part of my being.

After several months I was finally able to ride for 30-45 minuets a few times a week. I decided to go for my first ride off the trainer. I called up my good friend Chuck and we went out for a little ride. My back was so sensitive to impact that I was actually riding my snowbike with low air pressure just to ease out the bumps (on pavement!).

As Chuck and I rode we talked about dream rides and he brought up The Tour Divide and a local guy Pete Bassinger that had raced it several times and done very well. And that is basically when the bug bit. All I could imagine was being well enough to endlessly ride my bike. I felt like I would be able loose the feeling of helplessness that my disability had given me if I was able to even attempt riding the divide.

I continued to ride my bike for physical therapy. I found that the weakness meant that I was pretty slow. Ok, ok, ok.... I was REALLY slow. However, I realized that I could ride for increasingly longer periods of time because I was going at an effort that was about 50% of my cardiovascular limit. This trend continued as my ability to ride improved.

I also learned that I could ride longer if I changed positions frequently on the bike and stretched. This turned into a routine that literally stayed with me all the way to the finish line of The Tour. I would get out of the saddle and stretch my back every three to five minutes as I was riding. That's stretching on the bike 12-20 times an hour all day long, or 240-400 moving stretch breaks a day on The Tour.

Training was challenging, both in that it was physically hard to ride but also that it was psychologically hard to ride knowing that I was riding so far below my previous level. But, I continued on seeking out a way to make myself feel less. Less pain. Less weakness. Less......... like a cripple.

I can't tell you how hard it is to be disabled. I can't pick up a bag of dog food. I can't drive over speed bumps faster than half a mile an hour. I can't swing a baseball bat. I can't bend at the waist very far. I won't even be able to pick up my kids once they weigh more than about 30 pounds.

BUT,  I can still challenge myself. I can still be strong in my heart and my mind. I can still make myself better. I can still excel. I might not be able to get over my disability but I CAN get around it.

So that is the why. I did the tour because I needed to do it for me, I needed to feel like me again.

Oh yeah.... and a perfect excuse to buy tons of sweet gear didn't hurt either!

Stay tuned for more. I have tons of pics/videos and I am going to write up a day by day journal for the race. I also plan on reviewing my gear set up. I think I had one of the lighter rigs on the divide this year ( ~33 pounds) and I think some of the lessons I learned could be pretty helpful for others.

Classic Lazy Blogger Post

I just saw that my last blog up date was in May..... I said, MAY. Ugh (also a classic lazy blogger term!).

I owe an apology to my loyal readers, all seven of you. This has been a tremendous time for me. I just raced the tour divide, a self supported mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico. It was quite the under taking. I originally did it to prove to myself that I was mentaly stronger than the weakness that my disability gave me. It turns out I was right and wrong (more on that later!).

Also, Liz and I are finally having our honeymoon!

With family in town over Christmas for the wedding and medical school interview season, we just couldn't finagle a honeymoon. On the other hand, now we can!

So far we have chilled in Vegas for the Fourth of July, hiked the Zions Narrows, and mountain biked in Moab. Next up is the Grand Canyon and a family wedding in Vegas.

This summer has been perfect for giving myself some perspective as I transition from cop to doc.

I plan on writing a day by day account of the Tour Divide along with daily video journals that I made on the trail. I also plan on posting about my tour divide set up and gear as time allows. Up until now I haven't posted about bikepacking because I felt like I didn't really have room to talk. Now however, I feel like others might be able to glean from my experiences out on el trail-o (that's Tex-Mex for 'the trail').

Here is a photo from my cruise into the Tour finish. I hadn't had a shower for about eight days at this point....



Ok, I guess I can't load photos from my phone. Never fear citizen, plenty of Tour multimedia to follow!