I got a quick 4 hours, as I wanted to be out of the spot before anyone noticed. I headed over to the lodge to see if anyone was up and found some racer’s bikes outside. It was Tim, David, and Brandi. I found out later that they had gotten in a bit early and had dinner and decided to stay. I’m sure their accommodations and dinner were much better than mine. I headed into the lodge, but didn’t find anyone around so I decided just to head out again, not wanting to have another late start.
I got over the Richmond Peak fairly easily. The climb up was less difficult than I remembered, and the single track on top was a lot more fun with a better bike. In 2013 we met Billy Rice riding up the pass heading north on his yo-yo attempt. He exclaimed that he couldn’t imagine us riding with all that gear.
This time I had a pretty light kit and enjoyed the decent a lot more. It was also a lot longer and less straight down than I remembered. I opted to take the slight detour to Seeley Lake since I didn’t get dinner or breakfast. I stopped at the closest restaurant I could find and had a burger and fries. It was kind of a time suck to sit down and eat, but I was kind of tired and grumpy and really just wanted a hot meal.
After that I went to the Ace hardware / gas station to resupply. I probably should have just gotten something for lunch there. After that there was a fairly uneventful ride to Ovando. In my original plan I had wanted to stop at Ovando for the night, but the mileage just didn’t work out quite right. Today it was early afternoon so that meant there was still plenty of daylight. I texted friends and family to check out the webcam and ate a hotdog and an ice cream bar. Brandi has stopped there too and we both set off over the next pass together.
Huckleberry Pass isn’t that bad normally and it was nice to have someone to chat with on the way up and over. Brandi wanted to push on to the llama farm tonight but by the time we got to Lincoln I just wasn’t feeling great, physically or emotionally. I called my wife and talked about it and I decided that it would be better for me to stop tonight and leave extra early in the morning. I needed some good sleep and I was still dealing with stomach issues which was probably contributing to my overall attitude.
I told Brandi I was going to stay here and she headed off down the trail while I went to look for a hotel. There weren’t a lot of options but I ended up at a log cabin hotel. They were very accommodating. I ate a little in the room and made a plan to be on the road around 5.
