Great Continental Divide Adventure Ride

Day 12 - Butte to Seeley Lake, Montana

CDR day 12 map Although only 201 miles, this was one of the tougher days of riding. This is because much of the terrain was rocky with many areas with steeper slopes, and seemed to go on for long stretches at a time. Your body takes quite a beating traversing through this, while also keeping your balance and control over the bike. Some of the slopes are quite steep, making it difficult to stop, instead forcing you to steer through or past any obstacles instead. While on the steep uphills, one must make sure to stay on the throttle to have some momentum to roll over the bigger rocks, and just go where the bike gets deflected while trying to keep it pointed in the right general direction. The worst situation would be to have a stall in the middle of one of the steep technical ascents, potentially resulting in having to turn around, go back down to a flatter spot, and then attack again with more speed. Given we had only one more day to the Canadian border, caution was starting to weigh a bit more heavy on me (and other riders) to be more mindful and aware in order ensure my completion of the ride in one piece.

Stopping in Helena for lunch and gas, the rocky terrain continued soon after getting off-road again. Later, after the town of Lincoln and a much needed break from off-road riding fatigue (for some ice cream and coffee), some of the route was closed due to forest fires, forcing us to take the pavement for about a 30 mile segment. The last 30 miles to Seeley Lake ended up being faster, but dusty, as was starting to become the norm on many of the dirt roads in Idaho and Montana. This required each rider to stagger a lot more to minimize its consequences.

Needless to say, most of the riders at the end of some of these dustier or muddy days would hit a local car wash (also a brief hosing down of the jacket and pants) in order to stay a bit more refreshed for the next day's riding. It was also nice to have a motel room at the end of each day's ride in order to clean up again and change into something fresh. Getting a clue from some of the other triatheletes and ex-military riders in our group, I also learned to be more efficient by doing my laundry at the same time while showering, rolling my wet clothes to dry in the motel towel, and then hanging them to fully dry on the handlebars and engine guards of my still warm bike. With this technique, you can get by on these trips with just one extra change of clothes.

Images (click to select the larger view at bottom)

Intro Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Conclusion

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