Close Bear Encounters, Warming Huts, and Trading Food!

This is going to be a quite long blog post, so BEAR with us!! (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

After the mosquito frenzied end to yesterday, today had to improve…right?

Arising from our mosquito hastened entry into our tents from the previous evening, we awoke “rested” but filthy and smelling of DEET! So it was with much anticipation that we quickly got packed up and headed down the road, looking forward to our anticipated stop at the Togwotee Mountain Lodge, halfway up Togwotee Pass, and a well deserved sit-down breakfast (having skipped dinner from the night before due to our blood thirsty friends!).

Our first section of the ride had us on a short paved road which led to a 12 mile (or so) rough and surprisingly remote dirt and rock road which exited literally feet from the Togwotee Mountain Lodge and our awaiting fare.

Not long after we started our ride, we were surprised to see a remuda (a word I admittedly learned from my ex-cowboy riding partner) of horses entering the roadway from some undetermined location. We were a bit concerned about how these horses came to be on the road, until we heard the distinctive sound of shod hooves clacking down the road. There were maybe 20-25 horses in all. We slowed our pace so as not to spook the herd then slowly followed and pushed them down the road. After a couple of minutes, from the opposite side of the road appeared a rider on horseback. It was a young lady (cowgirl) who, apparently had been given the task of moving the horses from where they started (?) to a corral a mile or so down the road. She noticed us and thanked us for helping! We didn’t really realize we were helping, but acknowledged her and slowly continued our ride behind the pack until she ushered them off the road at a large, what I would describe, as dude ranch (Complete with a sign indicating they were closed for a private event. This was evident from the large number of cars, trucks, and SUVs already parked at the “lodge”) and into a corral. Our cowboy duties were done for the day!

Almost immediately after passing the ranch, we started our back-road climb on the dirt road that would eventually take us to the Togwotee Lodge and their awaiting restaurant.

Now, we had been informed through the grape-vine that this particular remote back road was a hot spot for Grizzly Bears. Most notably a sow and her two cubs who had been frequenting the area. Anyone that knows anything about bears knows this is a particularly dangerous situation. Accidentally raising the ire of a mother “Grizz” (As most locals referred to them) by getting between her and her cubs is a deadly situation, and one we were particularly keen to avoid. So we were already on edge as we entered into the heavily forested section of road, complete with dense conifers packed right up to the roads edge.

As had become our standard practice, Ray and I rang our bike bells continuously any time we were in dense and remote areas (which was A LOT!!) I would ring my bell and Ray would follow suite, or vice versa. This served two purposes. We warned any bears of our impending arrival, and we fooled ourselves into believing it would help!! :)

Ray and I had separated by maybe 50 yards, as we rode directly into the now rising sun, our visibility strained by the intense glare. It was about 5 miles into our 12 mile climb when it happened. Not more than 100’ in front of me a hulking mass of a large bear ran across the road. Surprisingly, it only takes a second for the human mind to recognize an apex predator and apply sufficient braking power to bring a bike to an immediate halt, while simultaneously retrieving bear spray from a feed bag on the handlebars, and shouting BEAR!!!

Now, seeing a bear is enough to get the blood flowing and nerves on edge. Not being able to determine it’s location immediately afterwords will set a new high HR record!! So it was that we spent a few minutes trying to figure out if it was still in the area or whether it had simply moved on. Not being able to see where it went, we cautiously made our way up the road and past where it had crossed.

This even further heightened our senses in anticipation (dread?) of the next 7 miles of our ride to the lodge. Bear Bells were rung aplenty!!!

Not long after we started riding, it became painfully obvious that one sow and her cubs were not the only grizzlies in the area. The dirt roadway was literally covered with two types of tracks. Mountain bike, and grizzly!

Above is a quick picture of a grizzly track. The mountian bike track to the left is a 3” 29+ track.

This was one of HUNDREDS of tracks we rode over/past, as we made our way towards Togwotee Lodge. It was a bit “unnerving” to say the least.

So it was with great pleasure that we arrived at a big GREEN metal pipe gate which marked the end of our road, and the immediate entrance to the lodge complex. BUT…there’s a bit more to the story.

We made the 30 second ride from the gate to the front desk of the lodge/restaurant and went in to speak to the nice young lady at the counter. The entire first conversation went something like this:

Nice Young Lady (NYL): Welcome to Togowotee Lodge

Nice young rider Ray (NYRR): Hi, we’re here for breakfast

NYL: I’m sorry the restaurant is closed.

NYRR: Ugh! I guess we’ll go to the convenience store.

NYL: It’s also closed.

It was after this VERY brief conversation that her phone rang. Her end of the conversation was this:

“There’s a grizzly at the green gate? O’K, I’ll let the “hazers” know.”

The green gate was the one we had just ridden through, not 2 minutes earlier!!!

As it turns out, she informed us, there were multiple young male grizzlies AND the mom and her cubs that had been causing issues with the guests. Nobody was quite sure why they were all descending on the lodge or in the area, but it was BECOMING a problem!

So now we had multiple problems 1) Bears! 2) No sit down food at the Inn!! 3) Many more miles to ride!!

We were able to get some food (Hostess doughnuts, and frozen burritos (with Hatch Green Chile, which Ray inspected for authenticity!!), coffee, and water. Soon we continued our climb up Togowotee Pass, still hyper aware of our journey through big bear country.

We finally got our sit-down meal (of sorts) at the Lava Mountain Lodge. All the while being stink-eyed by the locals. We did the the chance to meet another group of riders who were just finishing their meal as we arrived. They were three guys going north bound and one riding the trans-continental route on a recumbent. (It was great meeting and speaking with the north bounders Conner, Ben, Lucas, and the recumbent rider David!!)

Not long after, other friends arrived: Darren Jer and his riding partner Rob! Darren, as you may recall, had ridden with us several times after we met him on Fleecer Ridge and was a primary cause of my hangover from Squirrel Creek Elk Lodge! It was always great seeing and hanging with him!

So after our lunch of an Italian Sandwich (Some salami and cheese on bread, which took about 45 minutes to get. Apparently one of the cooks got pissed and quit on the spot, thereby causing a rift in the entire and complex sandwich making process.) we were on our way off to climb Union Pass and continue with our plan to make it to Pinedale, WY, now 92 miles away.

The Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) maps are good, but there is NO WAY to accurately depict the amount of ups/downs you will encounter as you ascend a pass. What looks to be, say, 3000’ of climbing actually turns out to be more like 5000’-6000’. This is one of the reasons our anticipated/planned days were often off by so much. Until you actually ride a section, you have no real way of knowing how long it will take. This is particularly why a second trip (hmmm??) down the GDMBR would be much less stress: You now have an idea of what the hell you’re doing!!!

So it was that the trip TOWARDS Pindeale took an incredible amount of time.

Several hours later, we finally made our way over Union Pass and started our slow descent down the gentle slopes and rolling hills on the other side!!! A bit later, towards the late evening, maybe 8 PM, as we were running low on water, the route took us through a series of shallow valleys and rivers, complete with marshy areas. While beautiful, it also afforded us the opportunity to have a visit from our less-than-favorite friends: MOSQUITOS!! More mosquitios and of a bigger size than we had ever seen in our lifetimes! Billions (No I didn't stop to count) of them!! The size of houseflies!

We quickly pushed on, and made our way over a small rise. As we crested we saw an incredibly nice, but small “cabin”, and a Forest Service Pit Toilet (perhaps the cleanest of the entire trip!). As we slowed to ride past, we saw an individual peeking out the window of the cabin. We asked if he had any water and he indicated there was some bottled water inside.

As it turns out, this was a warming hut for potentially stranded snowmobile riders! Complete with picnic tables and a wood stove.

We went in and got some bottles of water, left a more than sufficient donation in the donation box, informed the occupant of the warming hut (the official name is the Strawberry Warming Hut we later learned) we would be moving on, and out the door we went.

We had only been stopped for about 15 minutes, but as we started down the road on what we figured would be another 5 hour ride, it was obviously much colder than when we stopped. Ray and I stopped and began to take account of what we had and what we were doing. We had limited water, limited food, at least 5 hours of riding ahead, and the sun was now about to set. After a quick conversation, we decided we would go back and ask the resident of the warming hut if we could join him for the evening.

So it was that we then formally met Kai! (Kainoa Kelly). Kai was a northbound rider. When we asked if we could crash his hut, he was more than gracious and turned out to be great company for the evening.

Ray and I made ourselves at home, hanging our wet tents and rain-flys, rolling out our pads and bags and settling in for the evening, disappointed for not reaching Pinedale, but thrilled for having a warm dry place to crash for the night.

One interesting thing that happened that evening was food bartering. Ray and I had previously purchased a HUGE bag of beef sticks. The evening consisted of us sharing beef sticks with Kai, in appreciation for his courtesy of letting two strangers into the hut, making dinner (Ramen of course) and talking about our respective journeys. Having had more than enough beef sticks over the past several days, another thing occurred. Ray and Kai decided that a trade was in order. Ray, seemingly happy to rid himself of the substantial weight of an entire bag of beef sticks, traded them to Kai for a single serving pack of SPAM! This transaction was officially documented and recorded for legal purposes by me, as can be seen in the photo below. This passed for excitement on the Tour Divide!

So it was that our evening came to an end. Not where we wanted it to, but with a roof over our heads, and an new friend. Not much more one could ask for.

We’re South bound and down!

Shane and Ray