Tour Divide Day5

Day 5- Past Helena to Wise River, 120ish miles (and close to 13,000 feet of climbing!)

Looking back towards the Helena area in the morning

I woke up to the sun rising over the creek near where I was sleeping. I unzipped my bivy sat up and stretched. As I blinked my eyes to ease the adjustment to the light I looked up and saw this beautiful cabin, about 30 feet from me. Somehow in the dark I had inadvertently bivied in somebody's front yard. Whoopsie daisy! I quickly and QUIETLY bagged up my gear and hit the road.

The road up and out of Helena had dried a bit over night so I was actually able to get some traction and ride up that bad boy in the middle ring. I really liked this section of trail. The air was moist with dew, the birds were out singing in full force, and sun was high lighting the beautiful forest flora with sun rays as they filtered through the large trees. It was remote enough to feel like  I was out in the woods but I also passed a cabin every couple of miles... it seemed like a nice place to live I guess.

I descended into another town along the highway (I can't remember the name), rode straight through, and hit another detour. This detour lead out into the hills on a long, long, LONG demoralizing false flat. I began to wonder what the hell was supposed to be so awesome on this trail that it was deserving of a TD reroute.

Then I rounded a corner and saw IT, a 20% grade rising for several thousand feet out of valley floor. It was the kind of trail that was so steep that rocks would roll from under your feet as you hiked it and not stop until they reached the bottom. I then recalled that Rob Leiphheimer, of Butte Outdoorsman fame, had gotten his truck stuck doing recon for one of the reroutes. I could see a huge mud hole halfway up the climb that still told a tale of an epic 4x4 adventure gone awry. (Thanks for doing that Rob!!!)

You'll note it's so steep it looks like my aerobars are pointing up into the sky (that's because they were!)

Here is a video of the climb as well. You can tell just by looking at me that I was pretty pooped.

Near the top of the climb the trail went under some super high powered electrical lines. You could actually hear a loud buzzing sound coming from the lines. I was really glad that I made it under without the lines falling on me....

For perspective on the hugeness of this climb, those power lines that look like they are just a few feet off the trial are actually more like 70-90 feet up in the air. 

After the climb topped out, there was a fun descent through an old mining town. Then the trail followed the river for a while until it came to another small town on the highway (I didn't stop here either so I can't remember the name). Then the trail pulled the ultimate mind trick. It paralleled the interstate, a large smooth PAVED road, for 20 + miles. I spent those 20 miles climbing and descending a rough rocky trail all while being able to SEE the roadway. That's just wrong!

After all the climbing that I had done in the last few days with a 1x9 system, I was getting pretty anxious to get to the Butte Outdoorsman. I just wanted a big ring and a small ring in the worst way...  Finally I hit the highway and descended into Butte. After a little finagling with my phone I was able to locate the bike shop (which is right on route FYI).

The guys at the outdoorsman treated me like a king. They had my bike up in the stand before I even knew what was going on. They looked up the internal routing video instructions on line and got my shifting going. It turns out the XO grip shift had gotten grime in it and the grime was binding the gearing.  A TD fan/blue dot junkie even came in to see me, he wanted to make sure my shifter got fixed ok. I really can't say enough nice things about the Outdoorsman, they were phenomenal, the best, an oasis. Thanks so much guys!

I hit up the grocery store and resupplied. When I came back my stallion was ready. I also saw Dave G. again. Dave was ready to leave about the time I was and we headed out together. 

Dave of course dropped me as soon as the climbing started. I continued up at my best day long sustainable effort (i.e. 50-60%) even though it was hard to watch him ride away. It turns out this was a good move on my part, I ended up catching him at the bottom of the descent. We went up Fleecer together, until the snow hiking began. Then he dropped me. I love being a cripple!

Here is a video from the top of Fleecer. I thought I would be the last one to make it over that night, turns out I was wrong. The Eurotrain made it to Wise River at 2 am. Little punks!

I descended fleecer ridge and actually stayed on the bike for most of it. I could have ridden the whole descent but I started to get worried about wearing out my brake pads/calipers. After walking the last bit of the major descent I jumped on my faithful steed and rode the descent into Wise River. The descent was really cold and it didn't help that the trail was basically a creek that was a foot deep in water. I was seriously daydreaming about warm food. Everything was dark as I rolled into town and I started to fear that I wouldn't be able to find anything that was open.

Thankfully the bar was open! Dave had beat me to the bar by a few minutes and he was eating a club sandwich. The nice lady bar tending made me two sandwiches and I got a beer. She just so happened to run the connected hotel so I snagged a room and hot shower as well!

The bar scene in Wise River. You'll note it's only dudes standing in a circle....

After a shower I was off to bed. That's when I shot this next video. You can tell I'm smoked because I keep falling asleep mid sentence. HILARIOUS.

(P.S. Don't ask what I'm wearing under the blanket.)