Day 1…interesting and in the books!

Well, day 1 is in the books!

We started the day off by hanging out with all the New Mexico racers, including former governor Gary Johnson. Great way to start the race.

The race started as it was supposed to at 12 o’clock on the dot. The pace was fairly brisk for a 2500 mile race!!

After about 10 miles we settled in and started rolling south. And about the 2 1/2 hour mark, Ray and I took a break to eat a Subway sandwich and get some calories down our throats. We then started the first climb of the day over a small pass, about 3000 feet. Things are going along pretty swimmingly until… Everybody around us came to an abrupt halt.The reason for the stop was that there was a good-sized grizzly sitting in and then strolling up the road. The word went out that everyone should get their bear spray out and we would just keep an eye on him as he walked up the road. We followed him for about 100 yards until… He turned around and sat down and just started staring at us. It was at this point that we all started BACKING our way down the road, with Bear Spray in hand. About 10 minutes later, we ventured up the road I could see that the grizzly was making his way up the same way we needed to go. We started following him from about 100 yards back. We came around the corner and… He was gone, nowhere to be found. That was incredibly disconcerting! It wasn’t until about 2 or 3 minutes later that we finally spotted him in some dead fall on the right of the road, about 75 yards off the road. After some tense moments we all made it, But it did cost us about 20 to 30 minutes of race time.

Two hours later found us riding to the top of another pass, Red Meadow. This is where we experienced another delay, as we crossed snow fields on and off for about 2 miles. After cresting the top of the pass at Red Meadow, we had a fun and fast dissent to Whitefish Montana.

As we had started at noon, the day ended early as we rolled into whitefish 10+ hours after our start. Apparently every grocery store and every restaurant in whitefish closes at 9 o’clock. We were able to pick up some “food“ at a small market, and found a nice hotel in the middle of Whitefish. We’re a little bit short of what we had hoped for on the day, but given the bear and the snow we’re happy and satisfied with our progress. Tomorrow is another day!

Thanks for following along!

Shane and Ray…South Bound and Down.