Week 2: Lava Mtn, Fleecer Ridge, & Scenic Byways
Thanks for joining me on my trip along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Whitefish, MT, to Antelope Wells, NM. I'll be sending this newsletter about once a week. It will be in a narrative journal format with a few pictures. To see more pics, please check out my Instagram account.
Day 9: Helena to Ladysmith CG
Leaving the cozy motel in Helena was tough, but that's not why I came to Montana. For a larger city it was fairly quick and easy to ride out of town and find the gravel road which immediately started ascending up to Park Lake through timbered hillsides. The lake was tempting for taking a swim, but I only filtered some water and moved along to the next rough section.
The gravel road turned into an ATV trail which spiraled up toward the peak of Lava Mountain. The trail was full of loose rocks, sand, boulders, and occasional logs, so the cycling was near impossible. I hike-a-biked a good portion. The track came very close the the top of the mountain, so I hiked up the rest of the way to find a spectacular panoramic view of the surrounding mountains.
The road eventually returned to normal and descended toward the small town of Basin. I didn't need any supplies, so I cruised a few miles west of town where I stopped at an overgrown, abandoned campground called Ladysmith which showed evidence of also being used by the local cattle herds.
Shortly thereafter my new friends Mikey, Tricia, and Howard arrived and we set up camp, ate dinner, and went to sleep.
Day 10: Ladysmith CG to Butte
I was the first on the bike in the morning, so I rode the easy 23 miles into Butte alone. It was 11am when I found myself in the historic uptown district, so I found a coffeeshop and waited for the others. The accomodations in Butte were limited to motels or an expensive KOA campground by a freeway, so Mikey, Tricia, and I split a room at Motel 6.
Butte was once a thriving mining town which was clear to see from the large brick buildings in the uptown district with old signs painted on the sides advertising hotels and mercantiles. The mines mostly shut down in the early 1980s, so the city has seen some decay since then, but there are signs of revival from tourism within the last few years.
Day 11: Butte to Wise River
We left Butte the next day on paved roads which climbed up to our fifth crossing of the Continental Divide at the Highland trailhead. Howard, who had opted for the KOA, caught up to us, and our gang of four has been riding together since.
The roads once again became gravel and rolled through some rangeland for several miles before quickly dropping down into a valley where the freeway runs through. The valley was shadeless and hot. It wasn't until we started climbing again that we were sheltered by trees. We eventually stopped at Beaver Dam Campground for a late lunch. Part of me wanted to call it a day and set up camp, but I succumbed to peer pressure and rode on toward the infamous Fleecer Ridge with the other three.
Fleecer Ridge is another ATV track with impossibly steep approaches from either side. After walking the bike up the last few hundred feet I was greeted by a gorgeous view of blue mountains stretching into the distance and a precipitous drop off the face of the Earth which was my road down. The two tracks were carved into a sagebrush covered hillside and strewn with sharp rocks and boulders. I tried riding it for a short stretch, but found it impossible. Instead I walked/slid down while gripping my bike's brakes. I can see the appeal of bombing down this hill on a light mountain bike, but not with one fully loaded with gear. The bike shop in Butte has a wall of shame covered in broken parts caused by Fleecer.
Once the road leveled out we sailed into the small town of Wise River and sank into some cozy barstools for dinner at the Wise River Club, before setting up camp behind the restaurant.
Day 12: Wise River to Bannack State Park
The following day had a nice change of pace to all paved roads following the scenic Pioneer Mountains Byway. The road climbed up to Grasshopper Overlook before a nice fast descent to Elkhorn Hot Springs where we enjoyed lunch and a soak. If they hadn't been booked up, I might have considered staying in a cabin there for the night. Instead we continued along to Bannack State Park campground where we found at least 10 other Dividers converging by coincidence for the night.
Bannack is a still-standing ghost town which was once home to miners and was occupied until the 1960s. Many of the 60+ old log and brick buildings are open to the public to explore including the chapel, the saloon, the hotel, the school, the jail, and many different sized residences.
Day 13 & 14: Bannack SP to Lima and rest day
Yesterday was unintentionally my biggest mileage day so far at 81.5 miles. The paved byway was over and a new backcountry byway on gravel through one of the most remote stretches in the country was just beginning. The Big Sheep Creek Backcountry Byway stretches about 60 miles through a patchwork of shadeless ranchlands and BLM lands. Once again, a climb presented itself in the middle of the day to cross the Medicine Lodge-Sheep Creek Pass. It was a tough morning as we were also confronted with hazy skies caused by wildfires in nearby Idaho.
Our original intent was to camp near a lake which supposedly existed two miles off route, but none of us could imagine a lake in this desolate land, nor did we particularly want to camp there, so we pushed on. A nice tailwind and a general downhill grade sent us flying along for several miles until the scenery quickly changed into steep, rocky canyon walls on either side of the road.
Mikey and Tricia opted to stop and camp in this beautiful canyon, while Howard and I were buoyed by the tailwinds and the hope for a motel room in the town of Lima. Unfortunately the motel was full for the night, so we camped in the RV park with many of the other cyclists we had met at Bannack and reserved a room for the next day since we wanted to take a break anyway.
Today has been a lazy day of breakfast at the local diner, laundry, and lounging. Tomorrow we head toward Red Rock Lakes and soon into Idaho and Wyoming.
The numbers so far:
- 558.4 miles
- 5 Continental Divide crossings
- 0 bears
- 43.4 mph - fastest speed on pavement
- 40.3 mph - fastest speed on gravel