Another early-ish morning, but not quite early enough. I woke up a few times during the night, and didn’t get super great sleep. I think I could have picked a better spot to put my bag on. Packing up everything always seems to take just a little more time than I want. Also it seems like I might be faffing around a bit, or maybe that’s just because my pack ‘organization’ is a little too complex.
Brandi and I started off together this morning. I was worried about the wall, but more the section leading up to it. I knew from the queues and videos that the meadow leading up to the wall is all single track, which seemed like it would be a great place for bears to hang out. This was another reason why I wanted to stop at Wigwam and not push further. That meadow kind of scared me after the encounter yesterday.
We rode through it without an issue, and the wall turned out to be hardly anything compared to Koko. It was tough, but it was very short lived. If it had been raining I could see how that section would be a nightmare, but it was dry and didn’t take much more than 20 minutes to get back up to the rideable section.
Up we continued, over Galton pass. It wasn’t a bad pass, as I remember it, or at least nothing of real note. I think it was on one of the blind corners on this climb where I saw a mountain lion crossing the road. It was either here or in Montana. The roads on climbs can tend to look the same, especially when you are trying to zone out and thing of something that isn’t a tough climb up a mountain road.
The descent down Galton to the road was super fun, fast, and a much needed reward. I knew once down to the pavement it was just a short ride to the border. I was so looking forward to crossing back into the US.
After a quick and uneventful reentry, I called my wife, and then started on the 10 mile paved section to Eureka. This was the same section we took in 2013, and I knew this part of the race would start a lot of nostalgia for when I toured.
I stopped at Subway for lunch, and then resupplied at the gas station. My stomach was still giving me trouble and now I just felt far too full. After an extended lunch at the gas station I started back on the route. Down through downtown, and past the city park where we camped in 2013. I have fond memories of finally being back in the US, but nightmares about the shower there. I hope they’ve cleaned it, but I wouldn’t have recommended it to anyone back then.
The climb out of Eureka is a nice paved road, which is closer to the size of a bike trail. I don’t know how two cars can pass each other on this stretch. I had to stop again for stomach issues before I got to the top, an unfortunate trend in the first few days.
I caught up with a few guys that I had met in Banff, that were riding a bit slower, but stopping less often, or for less time. We rode for a while near the top of the climb and by the time we started on the descent the rain and hail started. I tried outrunning the storm by descending super fast, but I wasn’t able to outrun it. I guess the others stopped back up the trail under a tree or something as I didn’t see them, but I knew there was a little campground coming up and I ducked into an outhouse for 20 minutes to wait out the weather. It was still nice and warm but outside the temperature had dropped quite a bit. I was pretty damp and I thought it would have been a bit dangerous to stay out in the rain with it being so cold.
I warmed up a bit and head back out. This was a section that we did in 2013 and it was all coming back to me as I rode toward Polebridge. As I got closer to the turn for Red Meadow I sort of wished that the route went through Polebridge, but I wanted to get to Whitefish tonight, and I seemed to be making pretty good time so up to Red Meadow I went.
This pass was a bit notorious for our trip in 2013. It started a bit dubious, when a guy in a Jeep drove by us as we were struggling to climb with our overloaded bikes, and then we saw him come back down. He stopped and told us that the snow was covering the road not to much farther up and that he couldn’t make it through. That didn’t sit well with us as that meant we would be pushing our heavy touring bikes through snow for who knows how long. It ended up being about 2 miles of walking.
This time there was no snow to contend with and I was able to ride up the whole pass. It really didn’t seem too bad either. If it were later in the day I would even consider staying there, but I had a hotel in my brain. I needed to get somewhere to clean up my leg. I hadn’t really washed it since day 1 and I was worried that it would get infected if I didn’t clean it and protect the cut.
The ride into Whitefish had a lot more pavement and climbing than I remembered, and it was well dark by the time I got to the outskirts of the town. I kept pushing hard as I knew I had a lot of work to do after I got in for the night. I had my leg to clean up, I needed to charge my electronics, and I needed to get some real food in my body.
I made it to the viaduct where you have to turn right off of the route to get into town at around 11:30pm. It was sooner than I expected and I called my wife to let her know where I was. She was surprised since the tracker estimated I wouldn’t be there until around 2am. I got into town proper and got groceries, bandaids, and checked in to a cheap hotel, not far from downtown. I ate, got cleaned up, and tried to get to bed at a reasonable time. That didn’t really happen, but I was determined to get up early and get on the road.
