A Tour Divide Day Everyone Anticipates (Dreads?)!!

So the day has arrived!!

Anybody that rides, tours, or races the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) knows about it. The Great Basin in Wyoming.

A vast and wholly unpopulated stretch of largely featureless plains in central Wyoming that stretches from Atlantic City to Rawlins (or an alternate route to Wamsutter). From Wikipedia “The Great Divide Basin or Great Divide Closed Basin is an area of land in the Red Desert of Wyoming where none of the water falling as rain to the ground drains into any ocean, directly or indirectly. It is thus an endorheic basin, one of several in the United States that adjoin the Continental Divide.”.

Now, normally one would be relieved to ride across 130 miles without having to climb any major passes or mountains. There are however a few things about the Great Basin that makes this an especially challenging section of the GDMBR.

For one, as the basin doesn’t drain into any ocean , you would think there would be an abundance of water there. NOPE!! Not a drop! For a stretch of over 80 miles there is simply no surface water of any kind!

About 20 miles outside of Atlantic City, there is a single source of water, called the Diangus Well. Little more than a 2” pipe sticking out of the ground, about 100 meters off the main route. It’s really easy to miss, and is in the middle of a cattle pasture. The water must be filtered and, for good measure, treated prior to drinking.

For the next 80 miles (in bikepacking terms, about 8-10 hours), there are absolutely no water sources of any kind. At the 100 mile mark, there is a resovoir off route that might serves as a water source if you want to add to your 130+ mile day.

Secondly, on the occasion where the basin does get precipitation, (about 10 inches a year), the unpaved dirt roads turn into an unpassable mess! The mud clings to tires, bike, and packs with tenacity!

This sets the stage for the day, now onto our journey!!

We arose early in Atlantic City, having stayed at Wild Bill’s place. One of the benefits of the stay at Wild Bill’s is the fact that Bill will get up and make you breaakfast (included in your $66/person lodging cost!!) at whatever time you inform him you will be leaving. For us (Ray and I, as well as Hannah Bingham, Darren Jer, and Rob), that was 0600.

We made our way across the “Main Street” through Atlantic City to a old structure that Bill has refurbished. Apparently this was a major meeting site in Atlantic City’s heyday. We were incredibly suprised to find a well set table upon our arrival. We all sat down for breakfast with Bill and his wife Carmella. What a great start to the day!

So it was that our breakfast ended as we went back to our respective cabins to pack our bikes, and get on the road.

After being guided by Bill and having him see us off, we were greeting by our first challenge. We immediately started up a 15-20% grade..Hannah riding, Ray and I walking!

After we topped out, we spent the next twenty miles or so enjoying the rolling hills and fairly good roads of Wyoming. This brought us to our last opportunity to top off our water bottles at the Diangus Well.

The well is about 100 meters off the road, and not that easy to find. We originally rode past it. After quickly determining that we had, we turned around and soon located the path to the well. After riding/walking down the road, we walked through the sage brush into the pasture where the 2” pipe discretely rises from the surrounding pasture.

It only took about 15 minutes to filter the water into our water bottles. We went the extra step of also adding in water treatment tabs.

While we were filtering our water, we noticed Darren and Rob ride past, apparently deciding that they would not need the water, or missing the obscure opportunity.

Not long after the water stop at the Diangus well, what we hoped would not happen did. It started to rain. The only good thing about the day was that it was cool, but not cold. That said, this rain started a process that was repeated numerous times throughout the day. Rain starts, put on our rain gear, rain stops, take off our rain gear, rain starts, put on our rain gear. Rinse and repeat!!! Over and over. Just part of what you have to do on the Tour Divide.

The reason we did not want it to rain had more to do with what happens to the road when it rains. The dirt turns to a slippy, sticky mess! It sticks to your bike, your gear, your clothes, and most importantly, your tires! Luckily Hannah on her Bingham Built bike (See Hannah, I’m providing free advertisement!! ;) ), and Ray and I on our Salsa Cutthroats had significant tire clearance so the mud didn’t impede our progress. The same could not be said of Darren..His bike has less tire clearance and the mud simply packed in and would not allow his tires to turn, until such time the we used sticks and rocks to scrape the mud off. Unfortunatley, after just a few meters of getting going again, Darren’s bike was once again packed and unrideable. As Ray, Hannah and I rolled up the road, we were confident that we would once again see Darren and Rob down the road. Such it was everyday that we would leap frog other riders/racers as we all rested and rode at our own paces.

We spent the next 80 miles or so (somewhere around 9 hours) riding through mud and trying our best to surge or rest in an attempt to dodge the coming-and-going thunderstorms. Hannah got more rest time as she found herself dropping and then waiting for Ray and I. “Hannimal” is a well deserved nickname!!

At about the 9 hour mark, we passed the final water stop opportunity (a reservoir a couple of miles off-route) and found ourselves with a tail wind and headed towards a huge storm, shown in the first photo above. Luckily we reviewed the route and saw that the course made an abrupt, about 130 degree left hand turn. We were lucky in that the storm built and the turn then gave us a tailwind in almost the exact opposite direction. This was on the paved road towards Rawlins.

Ray and I rode, again, behind Hannah. We stopped several times to take the photos herein, and finally watched as Hannah rode off into the distance.

The final 40 or so miles of pavement were at first beautiful and easy. That continued until just about dark when we realized that we had to ride over one more small (500’) hill and then another several miles to Rawlins on a highway.

The temperature continued to drop and our frustration after 15 hours of riding began to rise. Finally, at about 10:30 PM we rolled into Rawlins. We spent almost an hour trying to find lodging and food. We finally found a motel to stay at (after being rejected at our first stop based solely on our looks we believe. We did look homeless to be honest). The ONLY food stop we could find was a McDonald’s! So it was that at 11:45 PM in Rawlins, Montana, I checked off a bucket list item. We got to stand in line at the McDonald’s drive-thru to place an order and receive our dinner!!

We finally made it back to our lodging at about 12:00, looking forward to another day on the Tour Divide the coming morning!

We’re South bound and down!

Shane and Ray