big skies, big views

Great Divide part 3 | Southern Montana | day 24

We’re deep in mining country; Some big, some small, and some mines deep in the hills off forgotten roads. At times we’ll be riding though some dry and wind combed forest, climbing over a hill to find a pile of rubble of lumber and metal nestled into the side of a hill; remanence of a mine that once harvested ore or baked bricks to be used in the early settlements in the area. Every dot on the map seems to represent a once-was mining town, digging for what these hills have, or had, to offer. Hills full of gold! And they are also good for bike riding.

Poor Man’s Pass

Poor Man’s Pass was a test, the grade was so steep we pushed our bikes until we couldn’t, clutching the brakes while we caught our breath, and then continued a few more feet until we were forced to stop again. Once we reached the top the trees we’re carved out 50 feet on either side, what for, I don’t know, but it sure made for bigger views as we made our descent into the next valley. 

The descent was quick and rough, over loose gravel and large rocks riddled with potholes; descent like these take every ounce of concentration and balance, leaving you out of breath from holding it the whole way down and hands sore from gripping the bars so tight. 



Llama Cabin

Upon entering Barbara’s property, we felt immediately welcomed as we pushed our bike through the gate decorated with wheels and bike parts. Having caught word of Barbara’s from northbound bikers and on our map it said “Cyclist welcome to stay in the cabin.” Barbara is a true Trail Angel, she has created a cabin for Great Dividers as a place to shake off the dust and stay a while. The adorable cabin is in a lush valley surrounded by llamas in the back of her property. The cabin looks straight out of the early 1900’s, decked out in antique furniture with every detail thought out, there’s even a solar shower outside! She had already housed 6 other cyclists that week and the night we stayed there were two other cyclists camping outside the cabin. It is with unbelievable generosity, that Barbra provides such great care for so many cyclists to come and enjoy this hidden gem and all she asks is if you’ll sign her guest book.



Priest Pass

The road between Lincoln, MT and Helena kept us at elevation for a good ten miles before dropping down into Helena. Those ten miles of riding around 7,000 ft were beautiful and well worth the climb. The big open views were breath-taking and even gave cause to stop mid descent to snap a few photos- which is saying a lot.



Betsy and Andy

We rolled into Helena with a pretty important “To-Do” list; Our bikes needed a little tune up and we needed to buy our tickets for India. As we were  debating on riding 5 miles to the nearest campground or begrudgingly shelling out some cash for the “Budget Inn,” we were approached by Betsy: “Hey, you’re touring right? Do you guys need a place to stay?!” …”YES!!!” Betsy and Andy are also avid cyclists and have done their fare share of bike touring. They have ridden the El Camino on a tri-bike with their then 9 year-old daughter. Andy is even on the board of Adventure Cycling. Occasionally, they will take cyclists into their beautiful home. We had a couple nights rest while we spent our days at the bike shop and putting down some major cash on a one-way ticket to Leh, India. 


New Surly crankset

When we were in our granniest of granny gears the chain would rub on our 2.5” Surly Extra Terrestrial tires. This was making it hard to align our disc brakes and in order to make the wheels spin at all we would have to misalign the tire, not a very ideal set up. Knowing we would be leaving for India in exactly 12 days we took our bikes to get checked out by The Garage in Helena. We needed new crank sets, our current crank did not extend the chain out far enough from the chain. Olivia bought hers straight off one of the bike techs in the shop and Eric called up a shop in Denver to order his parts and will have his replaced just in time. Our old crankset had 26 teeth and our new had 22, making our graniest of gears even granier, a welcomed upgrade for all the passes we will be peddling up in the Himalayas. We also got tug nuts to prevent our back wheels from sliding forward in the dropouts when under high torque. 



Sarah, Jordan and Brock

It was our first time using Warm Showers, the cyclists version of Couch Surfing, and it was a great success. Sarah and Jordan just signed up for Warm Showers in Butte and immediately had a packed house for a solid week of cyclists. They have a one bedroom home, a toddler, a dog, and they still find room for stinky bikers to crash for the night, Sarah even made us our first home cooked meal in a month. The town of Butte was a little strange, home to one of the largest copper mines in the world. Once the largest town between St. Louis and San Francisco boasting a population of 120,000 in the 1920's. After World War I copper prices dropped and the town shrunk to it's current population of 34,000, leaving most of the old buildings and homes abandoned. 

  

   


John

John omits an easy-going spirit who hails from Utah. Last year he crossed the country via the Southern Tier of the Trans America, this year he decided to do The Divide. Immediately after engaging John in conversation, one can see he’s done a lot of contemplating and reading with his time. He prefers to have no plans while traveling, nothing planned for his day except the coffee he makes for himself every morning, “If I had a goal I would feel obligated to complete it, and if I did that I wouldn’t be able to experience the random.” John was easily able to recommend a plethora of Eastern philosophy books, as we’ve been searching for in preparation for India. 


Southern Montana has brought us through some of our most memorable passes of the divide. Bringing us to the biggest views yet, and diverse ecosystems: forests, grass plains, sagebrush filled fields. As we are running short on time, Montana will be the last of our journey in America. 


  

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