A LONG day!!

Not every idea is a good one, though they might let you learn a lot about yourself

Such was today. We got a bright and early start out of Wise River, Getting up about 530 and departing at 7 o’clock sharp. We have decided that it would be a good idea to make it to Lima Montana. We had passed through Lima on our way north with Dave Rutledge, and knew that there was a hotel; well kind of a shabby motel, gas station and convenience store and not much else… Except for a very nice rest area which will play nicely in this story.

we knew that there was a significant amount of climbing on the way to Lima but figured after our Protein lesson of the previous day we had things figured out and we could do it.

As we left White River we had a plan to eat breakfast on the road somewhere near the top of our first climb of the day, a 1700 foot ascent on pavement. Our breakfast of the day turned out to be Spam cooked in a pot over a stove, some leftover bread sticks, and a cup of coffee with Ramen.

After breakfast we were feeling pretty good about ourselves as we headed off towards Lima knowing that there was a 3000 foot climb awaiting us, but also knowing that there was a 3000 foot dissent on the other side of it that would take us within a couple miles of l

lima and a quick 8 mile paved road to finish

We worked diligently throughout the day keeping our eye on the goal of getting over the final pass. What we cannot predict was the intermediate climbing that we would encounter, nor the fact that all climbing takes much longer than we anticipate. At about 7 PM we estimated we had about five more hours to go until we got to Lima and decided to go ahead and push on and descend in the dark to the motel in Lima. We had no cell coverage to make a reservation, but figured at the Motel there would be a vacancy.

Now when you look at any profile and try and figure out how much climbing is actually involved in an assent to the top of the pass, what you can’t figure is all the ups and downs along the way that they could figure much much higher. Sometimes significantly so. Such was the case with our final ascent on our way to Lima. We finally crested the last climb at about 11:30 PM. This left us the “quick“ dissent to the motel. But we did not know is that it was so dark and the road was so rough, and twisty with additional climbing that this final descent actually took us almost 2.5 hours!! On the 8 mile ride on pavement to Lima it was so cold that we had to stop and put on warmer clothing. Our final arrival time at Lima was 2:16 AM.!!!! Making our day 19 hours long!

Now the fun part! By the time we reached Lima the hotel was closed. The restaurant was closed. The convenience store was closed. The gas station was closed! The only thing open was the rest area, and the restrooms.

After almost 45 minutes of trying to figure out what to do, we came to the conclusion that the only warm place we could stay it was inside the rest area in a corner.

So there it was that we parked our bikes threw are packs on the cold tile floor and went to sleep at 3 AM.

At about 5:30 AM we were awakened by the sound of the cleaning lady telling us to get out so she could clean the rest area. This put us outside at 5:30 AM when the only thing in Lima that opens doesn’t do so until seven. The restaurant didn’t open till eight. We eventually walked back in the rest area and just sat on a bench until 8 AM at which point we went over and ate a huge breakfast.

Keep in mind at no point have we changed our clothes from the previous day, nor had we taken a shower, no had we achieved sufficient sleep. So it was under those conditions that we headed-off at about 930 or 10 o’clock towards Red rock Upper Lake campground. However as we were only working on 2 1/2 hours sleep we were forced to pull over on the side of the road and sleep in the dirt so that we could continue our ride down 55 miles of the crappiest road you’ve ever seen in your life. Wash boards and rocks were the fare of the day.

We finally arrived around 7 PM, set up camp and went to bed…exhausted

Another fun day (actually two!) on the Tour Divide…

We’re Southbound and Down!

Shane and Ray