Over the Ridge!!

Well, every day is a learning experience.

Last nights previous post talked about how we had a gone to Papa John’s for a carb feast before heading to bed in preparation for a big day over Fleecer Ridge.

Well,…… Not everything turns out like you would like it to.

we woke up in the morning to two very puffy looking individuals! Both of us with swollen eyes swollen extremities, for no apparent reason.

At any rate, we headed out of Butte Montana for a long day of climbing and a epic crossing crossing of Fleecer Ridge. It was pretty apparent from the first moment that we got on the bike that things were not good. Neither of us could produce any power and felt like we were climbing huge hills, even though we were just trying to get out of Butte. We struggled through the first 10 miles before the first climb of the day began. About a minute after we started the climb, we saw a fellow tour racer, Pearly, a woman from Rifle Colorado. She had left earlier than us and was now coming back. As she rolled up to us, and we started talking, she told us about having puffy eyes and no energy and was seriously going with the idea of quitting the race. We did our best to try to convince her to take a rest day back in Butte before making a decision to quit the race. After a quick conversation, Ray and I pressed on and she headed to town.

The first climb of the day was about 1700 feet, and a fairly gentle grade. While going up the climb we passed two individuals from Boston, Alex and Steph. They had recently driven from Boston to Helena There they sold their car and started a bike packing journey to Santa Fe with their dog Nina in a basket in the back of the bike! Steph informed is that one of the reasons we are probably puffy was that we had not been eating enough protein.

Well, we had already crossed that bridge we were on our way down The descent towards Fleecer Ridge

Fleecer Ridge is a legendary descent on the Tour Divide. More of a cliff than a trail down. The approach to Fleecer is a grind, with a huge hike a bike up to the ridge ( didn’t see anybody able to climb it). The ridge lived up to its reputation!! It was a brutal climb and a edge of your seat drop down

Once down, we completed the descent and eventually rolled into Wise River Montana where we stayed in a beautiful little cabin next to a bar/restaurant.

Remember the protein issue? Well we tried our best to solve that at the restaurant! Burgers all around, and maybe a beer…

We’re Southbound and Down!

Shane and Ray