Page 8. A new plan, big mountain climbs, ranch lands and that beautiful American hospitality.
Touring the Great Divide Route is a biggun so I’ll share bits of it over three pages.
Leaving Eureka on the quiet rolling back roads with a nice sunny afternoon was a treat. Although I now only had 29 full days left in the US, I felt it was enough time to ride to Denver in Colorado then take an internal flight to San Diego. I could then cross the Mexico border before my passport stamp expired, thankfully I was feeling good about the new plan.
This area of Montana was stunning, the route continues along the Rocky Mountain range and the landscape was impressive. Big beautiful lakes and forestry with whopper peaks at every backdrop. The route out and around the Flathead valley was a no go due to more forest fires in that area but there was a decent, slightly shorter, detour through Whitefish valley. I rode into the night that evening climbing up a remote forestry road and eventually camped by the track half way up the climb.
After surviving another night in bear territory, an early morning ride into Whitefish was a dream. Huge town in the area with some impressive lake side American real estate as you’d expect. It’s also a gateway to Glacier National Park which is the main tourist draw but I decided not to visit. Managed to catch up with the groovy gang again here and after stocking up on food we all carried on the route again together.
We planned a camp out that evening by some lake or river but near Colombia Falls we came across a sign outside a house welcoming riders to camp for free. As it was raining we decided to say hello and the retired couple who owned the place had been hosting cyclists for years. Tom and Patty where happy for us to camp in their barn out the weather and it was a beautiful property to spend the rest of the evening. Tom was some boy too, his bike frame building experience and motorcycle restoration projects where right up my street, he gave us the workshop tour and I was fascinated.
From here we had a 200km section to Seeley Lake where the gang had set up a place to stay with a friend for possibly a few nights. We decided to push on and make it in two days with a forestry wild camp in between. Thankfully the route works along the bottom of a valley for miles here and the nice flowing gravel track helped us along massively.
Before the town of Seeley on route there’s a big ol 1000m climb to go over starting at Holland Lake. It’s a beautiful Lake side spot so after a long lunch and a dip there we made a start on the climb. Ave was not feeling good so the group split and hitched a lift along the highway to town while Bjorn and I carried on over the pass.
Such a big advantage to this whole route is there’s usually a road to jump on at some point during a days ride. If you’re not feeling great, the weather turns or you have bike problems a connecting road usually isn’t that far away. This particular evening was especially nice though and I’m glad I carried on over the pass with Bjorn, stunning scenery at the top and hauling down the other side into the evening light was magic.
We where kindly hosted by our friend Mal at a lodge near Seeley Lake and her family was happy to let us use a room. A properly beautiful place so we made the most by having a few nights and a day off the bikes.
Leaving Seeley was where the group split ways, the gang went to Missoula from here and I carried on the divide trail. On the way into Seeley, we happened to met two girls who had cycled from Alaska too and I carried on the divide trail with them from here. This was cool since we were on similar trips so had plenty to chat about.
The route was pretty friendly out of Seeley towards Lincoln and we stopped for a break in Orvando on the way. A tiny town but nice little supply stop directly on the route. Coopers lake has a small free campground it’s a bit off the route but another stunning setting and beautiful quiet place the spend the rest of the day and camp.
This was the area that a few years previous a cyclist has been killed by a bear in the night while camping in a tent. It didn’t really change anything for us but an incident like that has a big impact and it was mentioned to us by everyone who saw what we were doing, we’d made it this far but you can’t get complacent.
The next day was a toughie, although the little town of Lincoln was nicely placed in the day for a good lunch break it was back on rough surface and with two big climbs to get over. We eventually made it to the famous Llama Ranch Campsite, and had already heard of this place as somewhere you must visit, it was well worth the effort to ride to. Not just a stunning setting to stay with nice comfortable facilities but John and Barb, the hosts, offer it all at their own expense with the only condition that you pay it forward to someone else. Really nice inspiring setup that they seemed to make work so perfectly for this situation. After a chat on the porch they put us in a cosy cabin gave us a beer and asked us to have as much food as we wanted. We were ready for a break but this was a real treat and chilling under the stars into the evening by the open fire finished the day off nicely.
There were other folks there riding the route too and we all had a social pancake breky together in the morning before setting off to ride the section into Helena, big town. I planned to ride on further here but after accidentally stripping a thread on my bike while replacing the chainring I needed the next morning at a bike shop. A lady on the Warmshowers website kindly hosted us at her beautiful house just outside the town here so it was another comfortable night indoors!
With a bit of luck involved I managed to get a replacement crank arm fitted the next morning. Unfortunately Hélène wasn’t feeling too good and needed to rest so I said au revoir to my French friends here and set off up Lava mountain pass on my own again.
The next six days riding and wild camping on the final Montana section to Wyoming was pretty hardcore but incredible. Plenty of climbing as per, bit of brutal off road walk your bike stuff hear and there, some deep sandy tracks which my heavy bike didn’t like moving on and some huge epic remote unpaved roads. The heat and exposure made it more difficult as the route moves away from the mountains a bit so it was much more dry and dusty. The ranch land areas were cool to ride through though and it was all looking like something out of a cowboy film.
Wyoming was next on route and the first job was visiting Americas famous Yellowstone National Park.
More photos with a few captions of this section in the gallery below,
Thanks,
CW
My One Year Bike Tour 