Day 9. Riding alone and the Rail Trail. (Header by Michael Kinney) I woke up quick, early in the morning. My Achilles felt a little better. Nick was not feeling well. He decided it would be best if he made his way to a hospital, the nearest one being 40 miles away. I wished him good luck and a speedy recovery. I got out the door pretty quick and made it all the way across the street to the gas station before my body realized it was morning. I stocked up on gas station food, a breakfast burrito or two, and then I decided to try the glorious Excedrin Extra Strength. A pain killer with the same caffeine as a cup of coffee combined with a few more cups of coffee got me going that morning. By the time I left the gas station and got all sorted out for the morning, I had no idea where anyone else in my group had gone. I thought the faster guys had already left that morning so I decided to go and try to catch them. I rolled out of town down a dirt road with a bunch of potholes littered all over the place just before the sun started peeking up over the hills. I was out of trees. All the land around me was grassland in a big valley.
The day was going to be a good recovery day with not too much climbing and good for the CX bike. I was looking forward to it. My butt was sore but throughout the morning, the pain faded away as I warmed up and got my joints moving again. The mornings were always the worst. Everything was achy, I thought about maybe calling my dad to have him pick me up in Lima there. Maybe Nick was onto something. Spending a few more hours not riding a bike. And yet, I found myself back on the road, riding alone, and hunting down any riders I could catch. I caught Sara a few miles down the dirt road that morning. There were miles upon miles of washboard that day and in some spots the open range cattle had worn down paths in the side of the road. The valley seemed impressively large. I could see mountains in the haze and could see them fade off into the distance. I knew from the map that I would soon fade of into that same distance myself and I had another moment of “Holy shit, this race is really impressive. I’m actually out here in the middle of nowhere doing this race. Wow.”
On the north side of this East-West valley the road followed the base of the rolling foothills and on a few occasions I had to ride through a herd of cattle. Normally when you ride through the cows all scatter or run along the road for a bit, and then scatter. This one particular time, all but one bull scattered. He stood across the road and stood his ground. I read later that some other riders had encountered what I believe to be the same exact bull, on the same exact hill. According to one female rider in particular, the bull got aggressive and nearly scared her to death. I tried to chat with the bull, and tried to figure out the best way around him. I ended up riding through the grass in a big loop around him and kept riding. The path was so open, you could see for miles and miles in either direction from the top of this slight rise after the bull. I could see the faint dot in the distance behind me that was Sara and hoped that she got past the bull without incident.
The path turned south across the valley and I could see the road all the way across and for miles on the other side. I spied two faint dots way off in the distance on the other side and knew that I had some new rabbits to chase. I made quick work getting across the valley and then turned east once more. I was feeling great. I wasn’t as sore as I had been, I was eating well and consistently, and I knew I had people I could catch reasonably easily. After going over one short rise in the shade of the mountains to the south there was a small herd of antelope that seemed surprised to see me. I chased them down the dirt road for at least a quarter mile before they jumped off into the grassland. I passed the Scheid family farm and corresponding graveyard and wished I had a camera to take a picture for the Scheids back home. I entered a game preserve, rode past the visitor center, and got dusted by a few cars speeding past the other way while I was trying to enjoy the views that I had for the day. I could see the two dots I had seen earlier and they were closer now. I was making progress. By the base of the climb at the end of the valley I caught Brian and Brian. To be more specific, Steele, and Jett. I was feeling good so after chatting a bit I powered my way to the top. We all stopped for pictures at the top because it was yet another continental divide as well as the border between Montana and Idaho. Unfortunately the pictures from that day seem to be lost.
The short descent into the next valley was fantastic and beautiful, surrounded by trees as it opened up into another grassland valley with a big lake in the middle. We all rode together as Brian and Brian talked about their last time on the Divide. The road eventually turned to pavement and we caught another rider at a motor home park on the edge of the valley. We passed the rider, Pastor Greg Locke, as he was getting snacks. We pushed on, and then off the road onto some double and fun singletrack. We had to keep moving to stay away from the mosquitoes but it was a pretty fun section. The only problem was, I was running low on food and starting to get hungry. We passed through a few more miles of paved roads after popping off the double track surrounded by thick pine trees, very similar to the Tahoe, Truckee area. We finally showed up to a Subway and it was glorious. There were some new workers there that were just getting the hang of it so the order took a little while, but I can’t blame them too much because we rolled in and asked for a bunch of sandwiches at once. After we got our food the manager told us that we were some of the nicest bike riders they had seen in there. Apparently there were some rude riders that came before us. Not cool guys! After a couple footlongs, some Fanta, and a sub to go, we made it all the way across the street to the little gas station/general store. I got some ice cream and some more Kit Kats and starbursts because I felt like it. I do what I want!
Standing outside with a group of five riders or so, we watched as an ominous looking storm system rolled right toward us. Sure enough, it started to rain as we stood there. Some of the guys were discussing taking a nap, and waiting for it to pass by. I couldn’t take a nap in part to the amount of caffeine I had so far that day, and partly because I knew if I slept, it would be for longer than I wanted to. I threw on my rain jacket and took off down the path towards the infamous Rail Trail. I didn’t get too far until I had to stop and take off my rain jacket and just get rained on with warm rain to maintain my temperature. It was a little chilly, but better than sweating my butt off. I had heard nightmare stories about this 35 mile section of deep sand. I had people look at my bike and give me their condolences for what I was about to face. They’d say things like “Wow you’re going to do the rail trail on those wheels/tires?!” “Good luck with that bike, don’t endo” “You’re in for 35 miles of slow hell” but honestly, while It was slow, grueling, and painful, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t bad because I knew there was an end to it although it didn’t feel like it would. I started out slaloming down the road in search of the most hardpack route that I wouldn’t sink into while trying to avoid the wheel size potholes. ATVs and UTVs make speedy regular use of this trail that has been covered in dark volcanic sand. I could almost flow, or even pump through some of the dips and holes, but there were a few that just swallowed my front wheel and were jarring. There was the glorious occasional wooden bridge over a creek that was a nice break from the exhausting trail.
I had been riding alone for a while and that area is definitely bear country. I might have been paranoid but there were a few times I was riding along and thought I heard a bear. One of the times it was a herd of deer moving through the trees and I saw them as they jumped out into the meadow. Somewhere on the Rail Trail, David Schlenker caught me. He was holding an impressive pace just blasting through the holes and dips on his lightly treaded rigid 29er. I did my best to keep up for a while but I couldn’t match his pace. I eventually had to let him go. There weren’t too many times that I just watched riders slip away from me as I tried to keep up. It was demoralizing. My Garmin was behind a number of miles and I was going off how many miles were left on the cue sheet. I still had so much farther to go on this one small 35 mile section of trail. After Dave the German left me behind, I was caught yet again by Brian and Brian and rode with them for the rest of the waning day. The trail opened up into meadows with ATV cattle guards. They were made of square steel tubing that was steeply spaced out up to a little over hub height. I tried to ride the first one I encountered. I rim striked my front wheel on the first bar but managed to clear it somewhat unceremoniously. I decided it was unwise to try and ride the next one so I tried a cyclocross race dismount, run over, and remount. That hurt. My shoulders were in pain from tensing up over all the bumps that day and my Achilles were a little swollen and didn’t like the act of clipping out.
On the third cattle guard, I came to a slow stop, dismounted carefully, hiked over the guard, and grabbed a snack on the other side. Brian and Brian made some progress on me while I thought about continuing to ride, but I decided it would be best to catch up. After all, they had spent the last few hours talking about this delicious place just a little past the end of the trail. Then we approached a river and started descending. It was fast and switched between overgrown doubletrack brush to singletrack and back. It would have made for a spectacular train ride back in the day. The river was flowing quickly and I wanted to go for a swim in one of the pools but I figured that would be a little cold and people would pass me. We came across a tunnel that would have been so cool to ride through but it had been closed up and we had to ride the singletrack around the tunnel. It was kind of a major disappointment. We were close to the bottom and pulled into a campsite parking lot area with a bathroom. We rinsed of our gritty bikes, I grabbed a Kit Kat, and we headed off down the paved road. It was so nice! We crossed the river we had been paralleling and then climbed up onto a ridge out of the trees and looking out across wheat fields. Brian Steele was starting to hurt (relative to the regular amount of hurt) and was slowing down. The sun was setting in the west, to my right, over a majestic mountain range. The golden hour light shined across the wheat fields with a slight breeze for effect and off in the distance the iconic Grand Tetons jutted out of the ground in a beautiful golden haze. This. This was why I was racing/riding the Tour Divide. Moments after suffering for miles I was rewarded with a memorable view like that. I was so high on life. All the doubts I had that day were washed away in the golden hour light. I just wanted to freeze time, grab a hammock and enjoy it for hours or days. At that point, if I wasn’t so hungry I would have waited there until it got dark. My stomach moved me forward. We had some dogs jump off a porch and start chasing us. They gave Steele the hardest time. I managed to get away fairly easily. As twilight set in we arrived at Squirrel Creek Elk Ranch where Dave the German was already waiting for us, chilling in a deep comfortable couch. They had some super hospitality and let me use their laptop to upload to Strava and check in on Facebook.
“I am so high on life right now. As I rolled into my stop for the night I had a big sky sunset to my right, golden hour in the middle, and the Grand Tetons to my left. Incredibly beautiful! I’ve been riding through some beautiful countryside and not only made it past 1000 miles today, I made it past 1100 miles. I got up and had coffee and had some Excedrin extra strength and then got PUMPED and rode bikes fast. I feel bad for Nick who was feeling sick the past couple days. I left him in Lima Montana. The wildlife has been spectacular. I’ve chased antelope down the road, saw an eagle, and a whole bunch of smaller creatures. I’m sore but I’m getting used to the routine and riding 100 miles with no supplies along the way is no longer as daunting. I will need another 3 Liter bag to strap somewhere so I have more water as i go down south. I’ve been going through 7ish liters of water a day. Montana was tough, and now I’m starting to like my CX bike choice more and more. There are pictures of me floating around Bikepacking.net but I’m not sure where. I’m feeling good and I’m looking forward to the Colorado.https://www.strava.com/athletes/24295
http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide15
there’s more, but I’m borrowing a computer. It will have to wait.”
I filled up on breaded chicken and a burger. I was hungry again by the time I crawled into bed but they were asleep so and it was late. I ended up splitting a small cabin with Dave the German. The cabin was so cool! It was small, just a fireplace, chairs, and a bathroom on the bottom and a loft style ladder and two twin size beds up top. I was able to take a shower and then I slept so well that night with my feet hanging off the end of the bed. Day 9, a relatively flat day with 132 miles, and 5.3k of climbing. It was days like that, that make the people that do well on the Divide truly impressive. I only had 10.7 hours of moving time, but the guys that did well just kept going and powered through the exhaustion. I bowed to the comfortable bed and a warm shower instead of pressing on into the night like the fast people do. I suppose there’s always next time.
The Adventures of Will Scheel 