When the sun shone through our tent, we got up and started to pack up, getting ready for what was anticipated to be a fairly chill day.... We quickly checked out the visitor center to see if they had any supplies we needed and saw a bit of the cute ghost town where a tour was just starting. Heading back to the road, I struggled against the morning headwinds as we headed north, Ziven impatiently waiting for me as I slogged on. We turned down another road and the headwind became a crosswind for a while and eventually died off a little. From the main highway we turned onto a historic bypass that we would stay on until our destination in Wise River. The first section wove through a pretty valley and we trundled up and down the rolling hills and passed a group of older riders with their commercial sag wagon behind them. Running a little low on food, we turned off the route for half a mile, following the signs for a little general store called Ma Barnes Country Market where, aside from a disproportionately large Israel flag, a tiny house filled with ornate birdhouses for sale as well as a large variety of snacks. Gathering snacks and drinks, we ate some of them at the picnic table outside while saying hello to some cute doggies that were hanging around a pickup truck before their owner returned and loaded them up. Heading back down the hill, we rejoined the road and started a climb into a more alpine environment, passing a small ski area and more bikers from the group we had seen earlier. We wound our way up the mountain and then descended into another valley with pretty rivers and lakes, pulling over to stop at the crystal digging area.

Staying with our bikes, Ziven hung out by the entrance as I clambered around on a steep, soft soil slope with our unused poop shovel, trying to figure out if there was any sort of strategy and also what constituted a crystal. I puttered around and found a few glistening rocks, pocketing them before trying a few more locations and heading back to Ziven. We kept going, passing more lakes and going back into the forest for a while as it flattened out. Passing through more of the same, and continued on until the road hit an intersection and we were suddenly on the main road of Wise River. Stopping in at the main restaurant in town, we asked about places to stay and were informed that we could park in the backyard, get a room in the nearby hotel, or check out the community center. We deliberated and decided to go to the community center so we headed over to the general store, paid a donation, and got the passcode from the cashier.

It was empty when we arrived so we staked a claim on the best cots in the corner and spread out our wares on the tables that we arranged near our beds. While we went to dinner at the restaurant we started at, more riders came and when we returned from our pulled pork sandwiches and retrieving snacks and ice cream from the general store, there were four other riders. We greeted them and went to wash our bikes at the spigot outside before getting roped into a conversation with a Tour rider that was borderline hypothermic. While our ice cream became softer and softer on the table, he regaled us with his tale of starting from his home in the midwest and biking all the way to the start of the Tour Divide in Banff. After their terrible weather during the Canada section (including Koko’s claim that he said was truly horrendous), he was now faced with mechanical issues and considered calling it and heading home from the nearest airport. Bundled in his down jacket and mittens even in the temperate community center, he shook and shivered as he told us about the vampire mosquitos on Lava Mountain, our next obstacle after Fleecer Pass the following day. With full conviction and photographic evidence, he also told us about seeing an alien spaceship during his 3am approach to Butte. Convinced he saw a huge white orb descend from the sky, he showed us a photo that definitely showed something other than the moon but what could not conclusively be a spaceship. After his story, he fell back into contemplative silence and we went to eat our melty ice cream sandwiches on the porch. One of the other riders came out and we chatted for a bit before he and his impressive beard left to go to a bar on the edge of town owned by someone famous. He told us about his near miss with a grizzly somewhere in Canada when he was descending a gravel road right before the border. Amongst the snow and freezing temperatures, he was unable to brake properly and went a little too fast in his eagerness to be rid of the area that held “The Wall,” another obstacle that we would soon be facing. Going around a bend, he spotted a huge grizzly in the middle of the road and knew he could not stop or grab his bear spray in time. He braked a bit and, hearing the squeak from the wet brakes, the grizzly jumped out of the way before any collision occurred. When the man finally made it to the American border, he was too rattled and frozen to extricate his passport and they gave him hot coffee to warm up and recover from the terrifying near miss. After hearing these tales, I was apprehensive about the coming days but Ziven and I still enjoyed our ice cream before settling onto our cots and drifting off to sleep.

Ziven here, while the story of the spaceship had many plot holes and didn’t line up with the route we took, the bear story fit every detail of landscape and location perfectly! This was the first time I started to get apprehensive of the rest of the trip. As I mentioned earlier, my mind was dividing distance into percentages and so I felt great about our progress at this point. Only after the stories from southbounders did I realize that more than miles, we had real struggle ahead. It was at this point that Elisa and I had a long talk late into the evening about what the Great Divide meant to us, which included trying to remember why we even started the thing in the first place. We talked about what struggle meant to us, regret, the value of suffering, and more. In the end we decided that the value of it all was twofold. Firstly, the incredible self assurance that we could do anything. Secondly, the literal memories that would last a lifetime and be told to our kids and maybe even theirs. As far as building the self confidence to do anything, we knew we needed to push ourselves just a little bit farther than we thought we could go. We rationalized ourselves out of Koko’s claim, based on our understanding of the legitimately high risk. However, we decided to try our hand at Fleecer Pass the next day, knowing that it would be brutal but at least relatively safe.

I also made a comment to Elisa that really (and rightly so) pissed her off. I said that two of my reasons for wanting to continue on the hardest route were because it hadn’t been that hard so far, and so that when we finished we could be truly finished. She understood both, and agreed with the latter. But the former felt like a personal insult to her suffering. I should have been more understanding, because two people can do the same thing and have different experiences. And to be fair to her, it was LITERALLY a more difficult trip for her. I had virtually ZERO problems to date. She, on the other hand, was riding a slightly heavier bike, with less gravel and mtb experience. She was also unlucky with a cold that stuck around for a while, in addition to simply being younger! I have stated many times, but would like to repeat that I am incredibly proud of and impressed by Elisa. Even now, as we write our documentation many months later, she is a full time Civil Engineering student at the best school for it in the world, on top of leading two clubs, and a part time job as a Senior R.A. It’s hard for me to give advice to other people riding in groups, because none of them will ever have a teammate as incredible as mine :)

The other thing we discussed was when to take our next and last rest day. We originally thought Butte would be perfect, but other cyclists told us it is not a great place to stay. We also had some anxiety about Lava Mountain, and figured we could rest better after putting it behind us. As such, we planned a rest day in Helena and in was, even in hindsight, the best strategy.