Riding The Continental Divide by Mountain Bike 2022

 

Riding The Continental Divide by Mountain Bike

August 2022

 

“It’s not the ordinary things you do that defines your life, it’s the extraordinary.”

 

Trip Overview: 

Stu Markey contacted me in the winter of 2022 all excited to ride his bike down the Continental Divide (Part 2 Helena MT to Jackson WY)  Being of sound mind and sober thinking, I did not say ‘yes’ until late May 2022.  So just to be clear, for “fun” the idea is to load everything we needed to survive for 500 miles onto our mountain bikes and pedal the bike up and over all the highest mountains in the USA.  The Continental Divide Trail is touted as the longest trail in all the USA spanning from Canada to the Mexican borders.

 

If you have a short attention span, you can read the next part of what actually transpired.  The longer journal is chronicled below the stats section. 

 

The Stat’s Here's the results of the trip if you're a numbers guy or you merely want to prove yourself sane and that we were crazy:

Eleven days straight of mountain bike riding averaging about 6-8 hours riding.   All nights were spent sleeping in our tents except for the first night which was on an old oak floor inside an old playhouse.

Food: two packs of instant oatmeal for breakfast, energy bars for lunch, dehydrated food for dinner.

Water:  never enough for how we were sweating

Temps on bike 34-98 deg F. The mornings were best. Afternoons were a bakefest.

Distance 400 miles, 100 feet of elevation at a time.

Distance the bike was pushed, twice about 1/4 mile.

Distance too steep to ride down was 3/4 mile

Total elevation climb 20,100 feet ( that's Kilimanjaro from sea level to the top but who's counting haha)

Bike and gear weight not incl each day’s water 60 lbs)

Water consumption per day about 2-3 liters

Weight loss: unknown at this point 😬

The Journal

Day 0

“Making the decision to go is not easy. Preparing for something you’ve never done a little harder. Not knowing what may happen isn’t hard because you don’t know.  It’s keeping your mind from thinking about all the stuff that could happen, nearly impossible.”

The final number was three of us doing the ride.  Jeff Sobczyk, Stu Markey, and Jim Bertsch.  Both Jeff and Stu are ‘tough as nails’ guys.  I was the youngest at 61 years old and the only one still working for a W2.   We flew from San Diego to Helena Montana with our bikes carefully packed, taped, and strapped into cardboard boxes.  At the airport, TSA broke the boxes open and then used their tape to sort of put it all back together.  Thankfully at the cheap motel in Helena, we re-assembled our bikes with success and no damages.  Thankfully, we found ourselves ready to start the ride one day earlier than expected.

 

Day 1

Highlights:  Great start.  Cool morning, perfect for riding.  Hot afternoon, perfect for teaching us a thing or two.  In hindsight, our greatest net elevation gain was on day 1.  Welcome to Montana!

 

With great excitement, we pedaled out of the cheap motel’s parking lot staring primarily at our handlebar mounted GPS.  We were looking for the little black line on our GPS that we would try to follow for the next eleven days.  With 60 extra pounds of gear;  two panniers, a backpack, and several other smaller bags, fully loaded with tents, food, water, electronics, first aid, tools, our bikes felt like there was a little hippo standing on the back wheel.  As we left historic Helena, we started climbing right away above 6000 feet elevation.  In fact, the whole trip would be above 6000 ft except for one dip.

Coming from drought stricken San Diego, it was mind blowing to see everything so green, water sprinklers running all day, and little streams constantly pouring cool clear water in every direction.  We wondered how some of this could be channeled to the Pacific side of the Continental Divide for the West.

Of course, the scenery was awesome in every way. Pine forests. Old mining country. Three big climbs for a day’s total of 3800 ft. Gain.  Our average was 7 mph so the 48 miles took a total ride time of 8 hours including a few breaks.  I will interject here, that on any Saturday, a road ride of 50 miles would take about 4 hours on our 18 lbs road bike.  Any hopes of going 50+ miles in a day, on heavy bikes, in 90 deg heat, were quickly modified on Day 1.

We completed the day riding up a grade that even the US Hwy 15 chose to bypass since it was too steep.  If I’m honest, two out of three of us were cramping as we rolled into the interesting town called Basin, Montana. “where the population of dogs is greater than the people” 

Basin was an old mining town. No gas station. No store. Just One bar and grill. After the day’s cramping, I salted the heck out of a bowl of turkey soup then ate a taco combination plate with extra salt and proceeded to drink three glasses of water.  After dinner, the bar was nice enough to fill our water bottles and containers that we would need for tomorrow.  We spent the night next to the bar in a “Community Center”  which smelled like an old folk’s home with a touch of 60s cigarette smoke.   For $5, we paid the bartender and they let us sleep on the floor.  This sounded like a plan because the clouds were threatening and the center had electrical outlets so we could charge up our stuff.  Plus, we modified our strategy to trying to get riding as early as possible to avoid the afternoon heat.  We parked our bikes inside and tried not to disturb the nice ladies who were quilting.  No sooner had the quilters left and a few more bike riders showed up to share our accommodations.  We all went back to the bar for a few cold beers and exchanged stories and laughs.  It was nice to have a dry night’s sleep but no one slept very well because five people all in the same room was too much noise.  The other group got up at 02:00 to cook themselves more food.  Someone was always getting up to off load a bladder full of water.

 

Day 2

The morning was cool and crisp. The first couple of days, there was the usual stress of trying to get our navigation equipment to do what we wanted.  Eventually, we would modify that to understanding what the navigation equipment wanted to show us.

While I am on the subject, a quick note on navigation.  The website “Adventure Riders” had the GPS track, a road book, and maps for the Continental Divide trail.  We discovered that you better had not relied on just one of those items to really stay on track.  In fact, you needed them all.  Our three GPS, would often not agree (perhaps it was how all three were reading them).  Ironically, the cheapest method which was downloading the ADV rider app to your phone and then using that to navigate was the best.

Our morning miles followed a lazy river which we eventually departed and we headed into the mountains. If any climb is good then a steady uphill is best. We climbed 1000 feet for the next 10 miles. As we neared the summit and the crossing of the Continental Divide, the sky went from sunshine to black. There was much discussion and hopes that the thunderstorm was going to pass us but we got our raincoats unpacked just in case. No more than 10 minutes later, the first lightning and rain drops started. God smiled on us and there was a little forestry kiosk in the middle of nowhere.  I am not exaggerating.  Stu spotted it and Jeff and I wondered where the heck he was going.  About 200 yards off the trail,  It had a little roof just big enough for three grown men to stand under. As it started to pour, we parked our bikes and ducked under the kiosk. Thankfully the storm passed as fast as it was upon us and we were standing in sunshine about twenty minutes later. After a decent amount of climbing, we officially crossed the divide around noon. The downhill was a chance to dry all the rain and sweat away and we spilled out of the forest into a grass valley.    “Lunchtime “ was overdue but we couldn’t find a lick of shade to stop and eat. Finally we started getting grumpy so we stopped and sat in the shade of a bush that barely covered us. Our “lunch” consisted of random snack and ‘fun’ size treats we could muster up. Today, it was a bag of lightly toasted coconut granola.

As it turned out, we were only three miles away from Butte Montana but the last two miles were up a very steep climb and overhead sunshine.  Butte has gone from riches to not so rich.  Lots of history here so we should come again.

We are spending the night in a KOA outside of town. Very clean. Hot showers feel good. Feeling tired and a little homesick.

 

Day 3

Well, it was bound to happen. Today I ran out of chocolate chip cookies. In my defense, I did share them and even offered the last cookie to a very nice gentleman named Danny.

We left Butte really early in the morning to get a jump on the day’s heat. As we left the pavement I spotted a penny on the ground and dropped it into my pack. We climbed uphill all the way till lunchtime when we again crossed the continental divide. Halfway up one of the steeper sections we stopped in a patch of shade. Danny was coming downhill in his Polaris side by side and stopped right in front of us.  He was a seasoned retiree and full of enthusiasm and local knowledge.  He jumped out and offered us some ice teas and snacks.   I offered him my last cookie. We chatted it up and said goodbye and God Bless.

After reaching the top of the divide, we had a decent downhill but it always turns back into an uphill.  The downhill part seems to last 10 minutes.  The uphill seems to last forever.  This uphill was special since it finally got us to just push the bike instead of pedaling.  Afterwards the downhill was so steep we had to ride the brakes. We spilled out of the pine tree filled mountains into a wonderful grass filled valley. It was spectacular how far you could see in all directions. It was around 2:00 pm and the day was reaching 85 degrees so we spent about fifteen minutes hanging out under a concrete bridge. We had our sights set on camping at Beaverdam campground assuming there would be a nice lake which would allow us to make drinking water for the next day. The last three miles were a good climb. At one point, Stu started hiking his bike uphill. I got my bike restarted but in the lowest gear I couldn’t keep up with him walking so I stopped and started walking too.

We arrived at Beaver Lake but a lady told us that the beaver dam was long gone and so was the lake. Fortunately there was an ole tyme hand crank water pump which welled up with the coolest spring water.

We picked out a campsite in the middle of the trees. Later we walked over to one of the only other campers. Since they had a trailer, the also had a cooler of beer which they graciously shared. We found out that it was his birthday and sang him a loud round of Happy Birthday. ( on a later walk by his wife said that it made his day).

We ate dinner and then gathered up all the food and put it in the park’s bear safe locker. Now for a nice sleep in the tent at 6600 feet in the Montana mountains.

Fun Fact. Chain lube makes a great fire starter. So do Fritos Cornchips.

 

Day 4

Highlights: a climb to 8000 ft high summer meadows which looked like the scene from The Sound of Music.

Getting better: how to sleep comfortably. Made a nice pillow out of stuffed clothes but the trick I figured out was to put a soft shirt over the bag as a pillow case.

Pain: legs are fine. Butt still hurts on the climbs. Hands are getting better at six hours of gripping.

We ‘slept in’ until six o’clock but there was no rush to get going. The plan was to ride fifteen miles to a post office and wait for a critical package.  Stu needed some supplies that was mailed to him to a rural Post Office which only was open from 8-12 o’clock. Waiting would’ve cost us about a day’s setback but an easy day none the less. So we kept climbing and climbing. At one of our shade stops, Stu got the idea to call the post office. The nice lady there said that if the package arrives before noon then she will drop it at the mercantile store in Wise River which was about the only other place open.  With that problem solved we headed over the pass for another downhill coasting session. The downhill stopped soon and the uphill started with a vengeance.  The last half mile up was a walk because we could not ride. Cows greeted us at the top of the mountain.

At the crest we headed down a really steep decent called Fleecer Pass hill. We stopped a few times to let our brakes cool off. About halfway down, the steep road turned into a near fall off so we decided it was safer to walk the bike last half mile.  We walked.  Our bikes skidded the way down with the brakes locked the whole time.

After the crazy hill, we spilled out into a beautiful canyon and some fun downhill. Thankfully the package was at the store as promised.  True to her word, the package was at the Mercantile Store.  The two ladies who ran the well-stocked store were very kind to us.  There was a young Australian rider who had come down the Fleecer hill before us.  He was not looking so well since he tried to ride down the hill and bashed his knee. 

We turned off the highway and I thought it looked like a ten mile downhill into a valley. I cheered for a downhill finish in the sunny part of the day.  In reality, it was an optical illusion so uphill another ten miles to our campsite by a percolating river.

Since we had been climbing all afternoon, a birdbath in the cool stream created much happiness.

We made our rounds visiting the various campers. We never turned down a nice offer of cold beer. As it turns out, even though people like to get off the grid and camp in remote areas, they still love good conversation and listening to grand stories.  A herd of cattle decided our camp ground was a great place too and wandered on through with us just watching.

Fun Fact. Almost all of our drinking water is coming from hand cranked wells. It’s super cold.

 

Day 5

Highlights:  Today, we did a bonus loop (read LOST) and we got to sleep at a ghost town.

We slept well in the mountains by a babbling river. The morning starts with the whole process of breaking it all down and getting into the packs. It was a cold morning, about 36 degrees. We had to ride the first hour or so with our down jackets on but since we were again climbing, the sun found us and had us peeling the jackets off. We ascended to almost 8000 feet so there was a nice downhill ride to 6500. A town called Polaris. On the map it looked like something but it only had a one room post office. I mailed some postcards home. Polaris was our only hope for provisions. Our snacks were running low. It’s been days without my primary staple of chocolate.! The only other thing that Polaris offered was cell coverage so I called home to my sweet wife.  The lady in the post office offered to drive us to the store which was “only” four miles away.  On a bike, an 8 mile detour is a big detour but we were not so dissolute that we needed to take her up for the taxi ride.  We declined her nice offer and rode down the road looking for a snack stop.  

Our goal was to reach the ghost town called Bannick making it a 50 mile day when normally we’ve been averaging 35 miles. The mountains of Montana are tall. Since we navigate by map, gps, and the road book guide, we were getting used to the fact that not all three would agree sometimes so a vote was needed. Our system fell apart somehow and we unfortunately rode 4 miles up a very steep hill. I’ll admit, I pondered as I went uphill in the heat, why are we riding in August??

At least we had a good downhill ride to get us back on track.

We found the campground five miles later and set up near the lazy creek that ran through it. Again we went down and took a cool birdbath in water which looked like old tea. Despite the brownish color it was super refreshing and the little fish found great fun nibbling at our feet. After dinner of dehydrated Thai surprise, we wandered around the ghost town of Bannick.  A definite must visit as there are over 20 dwellings all preserved as a park.

At the end of the day, we are all pooped out. If I’m honest I think “is it really what you’d call fun?” Every day has been arduous (did I mention no chocolate?) but to a degree it becomes our routine. When we wake in the morning, our bodies refreshed, the trip again becomes an adventure.

Tomorrow I think we will be halfway.

For now, we look forward to going to bed early. My tent is a refuge. I use the final moments of the day to write this journal. I sleep on an air mattress that is glorified bubble wrap and a pillow of clothes. I say my prayers and hope the gift of sleep comes early.

Fun fact: every camp to this point, no matter how remote, we have befriended a cold beer.

 

Day 6

Highlights: moving from the high mountains of Montana into the valleys. Knocked out 50 miles. Hope to reach Idaho tomorrow. Last time we saw a store was two and a half days ago and today’s store is a gas station.

 

The mountains are very pretty but you can only see so far. We spilled out into some valleys today with views over ten miles in most directions.  The few cars we saw usually blow by us only gifting us with cloud of dust.  A nice couple in a car stopped for us and gave us three cokes. Since it was only nine in the morning, we rationed each can over the day. We had a nice downhill go of five miles The ranches out here seem to be doing quite well. Coming from drought stricken California, we awe at the amount of watering alfalfa fields take. But then there seems to be water flowing out of the mountains everywhere.

Our food is running low. It’s like being on a long drive with only a quarter of a gas tank. Probably going to be ok, but if it goes to empty, things get serious real quickly. The towns on the map look promising but often there’s no services.  So we had to make at least 50 miles today to replenish. After 15 miles of taking turns out front pushing the wind and heat, we rolled into Dell then a few miles later to Lima. The store here is an Exxon gas station. It’s stocked but it’s still a gas station. Fortunately across the street was a hunting/auto repair shop which sold dehydrated meals. More calories without the water weight. We also stocked up on snacks which often are our lunch. With the necessities done, we walked over to the diner which fortunately had air conditioning. The menu had four kinds of hamburger , some sandwiches, and not much else except for ice cream. We ordered hamburgers and a scoop of ice cream. The waitress took pity on us old geezers and found a sundae glass and offered us whipping cream and chocolate sauce exclaiming , “I haven’t made a sundae in awhile, you want one of those?” How could we refuse??

Fun fact: tonight we sleep in a little grassy ‘park’ next to the gas station. Ironically, there’s a sign that says no dogs since it really looks like a dog run. We slept with earplugs since there is a truckers’ rest stop across the street.  A famously long train rolled through town no more that a stone’s throw from us.  In the morning, Jeff and I were amazed at how long the train seemed.  Stu only commented ‘What Train?”

 

Day 7

Highlights: our longest push, we rode 57 miles. today we crossed grass covered valleys that were 15 miles wide. The views were so expanse that our cameras would never serve it justice.

It was warmer today right from the start. A perfect temperature for a ride is about 50 degrees. cool enough for a jacket. This was not going to be a perfect day starting at 68 degrees.

We were in great spirits as we rode out of Lima climbing a little valley back into miles of farmland. We were following the Lima River that was moving so much water, we thought for sure there must be a hydroelectric dam at the top. As we crossed over the rim of the dam , we could see the lake it was holding back would’ve been a water skier’s dream. Glass like water for miles. We ate lunch early around 11:00. There was no place to rest our bikes or ourselves, so all just plopped onto the dirt. As usual, the ride starts getting serious at noon because we are above 6000 ft elevation still, there’s nothing to slow the sun’s full force. We just kept knocking out the miles. 20,30,40. Between 40 and 50 miles, the air temperature rose above 100. It was so hot that we dipped our shirts in every little trickle stream running in the culverts under the road. It was easy to find them because the cattle would line up for drinking.

Our own drinking water was getting critically low but we made it to the ranger station by Mile 52. We drug ourselves inside and proceeded to drain the water from his drinking system. Thankfully the last four miles were mostly downhill. To a campground by a lake.  I tried to go for a dip to rinse off and sank to my knee deep in mud.  Luckliy, there was a two inch pipe that flowed cold spring water near the camp.  We did a bird bath and laundered our clothes. 

Fun fact: the u/v rays from the sun are a great anti microbial that’s why clothes line dried clothes smell fresh.

 

Day 8

Highlights: Goodbye Montana. Hello Idaho.

Today our shortcut cost us two hours!

We stopped for the day at fifty miles with just enough time to hide in our tents from a hailstorm

Ironically, no matter how early we get up, we still start rolling at 08:00. Every morning we wake and immediately start putting away all the camping gear in reverse order. It takes lots of organizing to get everything back into all the little packs.

We rolled out of our site, nestled up against a granite mountain on one side and a ten mile lake on the other. Thankfully the big climb was early in the cool of the day. Heading out of the preserve we finally crossed over the divide and into Idaho.

We rolled down hill some and we’re treated to a RV store and cell reception. I made a call home to hear my wife’s voice.

Next we rode another hour into town. Had a real meal and charged our electronics.

We wanted to head over to the scenic bypass but the shortcut we took went right down an old rail trail which was very loose gravel. We could’ve walked faster. Our shortcut cost us about two hours. Back on the busy highway for eight miles and finally reached the scenic byway we were looking for. We pedaled till we all were tired and pulled off into an unmarked area looking for a campsite that was on the map. Thunder clouds were fast upon us so we put up our tents as quickly as possible. Just as I was making the last preparations, large drops of rain and hail started falling.

Inside my tent, I could hear the rain coming down. Thankfully we have cell coverage so we were able to make phone calls home.

The storm broke just long enough to eat dinner basically squatting in the forest.  It started sprinkling again but we are ready for a good night’s sleep.

Fun fact: it’s possible to fall asleep before the sun goes down.

 

Day 9

Highlights:

I hate my bike seat

The butterflies we’re racing us uphill.

We left Idaho and now in Wyoming.

 

Our remote campground served us well. We all caught up on sleep, nearly 12 hours. Even though it rained the night before, the high grass surrounding our tents wasn’t wet. We maneuvered out to the dirt road to prep our breakfast. Eating is always a happy event.

As we said goodbye to our place in the forest, we had a great downhill run following Warm River. At one point we pulled into a scenic overlook seeking to replenish our drinking water. We were gifted with looking down at a grand set of Idaho waterfalls. Ten minutes later we were at the lowest point in our ride 5200 ft elevation. It was fun coasting while it lasted. But from 10:00 to 15:00 we climbed back uphill. Around noon we stopped at a storybook place called Squirrel Lodge. In the middle of Idaho potato fields was a family oasis. A cafe, (not open) a big lawn area and a covered bbq kitchen area for big events. The short amount of pavement ended onto this gravel road which was kinda maddening. If you chose the smooth part of the gravel road, you had to put up with the constant bumps of a washboard road. If you moved to the side, the deep loose gravel took more effort to power through. My bicycle seat was torturing me the whole time.

We found a place to set up a primitive camp near a stream so we could call it a day. Fat drops of rain started just as I was trying to do laundry so I walked back to camp. It cleared up fifteen minutes later so we all went back to the stream.

Another dehydrated dinner of Mac n Cheese which filled us up. We made a fire and solved the world’s problems. Now a sudden big wind is ripping through so who knows what weather is behind it.

Fun fact. As cool and clean as a stream looks, you cant trust that it is suitable to drink without the correct filtration.  If you do drink, it will be the quickest weight loss program you’ve ever experienced.  No filter?  Take a clear bottle of the stream water and let it sit in the sun for a day.  You can drink on day two.

 

Day 10

Highlights:

Sandwiches

The lodge

The pavement

Last hill

Last hiding in tents from the thunderstorm

 

We emerged from our deep woods camp site ready to take on the two big climbs remaining. Our moods are always rejuvenated with rest and food. The good news was, the weight of our food now is nearly nothing. The bad news is we will be living for a day on one oatmeal packet, some instant rolled oats, and our last snacks. ( more trail mix for lunch).

The first dreaded climb was steep but not nasty. The cool of the morning and a few cowboy songs kept it manageable.  In a few hours the dirt road spit us out on top of a dam holding back a beautiful high elevation lake. We all agreed a photo was mandatory. As we were standing there trying to take a selfie, a camper towing a side by side rolled up and the passenger jumped out and offered to help take the photo. Tim and Tracey were on their first post retirement trip. We told them our story and asked if they might be so kind to make us a simple sandwich. With a jovial yes, we were blessed with grilled cheese sandwiches which way out did our trail mix that we were planning on. People are so nice! We continued our climbing and finally crossed over 7800 feet for a nice downhill skirting Yellowstone park and into the Teton NP area. Sadly, we filmed leaving our last dirt road for the last 65 miles to the finish. No more than ten minutes later, we were sitting in very comfortable sofa chairs at the Headwaters resort, drinking a bottle of mocha Frappuccino. We were in cultural whiplash. We forced ourselves out of the comfy chairs to finish the last ten miles with a bonus climb of 700 feet, in the midday sun, 83 degrees. I struck up singing a few songs to make the hill go by. Down the other side we zoomed three miles to our campsite. As I sit here writing it all up, tomorrow we will be in a hotel but tonight we are hunkered down in our tents again from an afternoon monsoon thunderstorm.

 

Day 11

Highlights:

Today we rode all the way around the Grand Teton National Park and finished our last mile.

 

Our routine every night after dinner was to look at the map and strategize the next day. Our last day of travel appeared to be anticlimactic because we would be on the road and on a paved bike path. The day would prove this wrong.

As we stowed our drenched tents from last night’s rainstorm, it was a mixed range of emotions to set out on our last day of riding. No one looks forward to eleven days of riding on the first day, but after awhile riding all day becomes ‘what you do. ‘

We were down to our last provisions so it was the last oatmeal pack, the last bit of oatmeal crunch. The last hot chocolate was long gone. The last thing we did after everything was packed was rode over to a newly engaged couple, whom we had a great conversation with the night before on our social walk. We have them a gift of $30 to buy a bottle of wine to celebrate their engagement. They laughed and waved goodbye. For every ending, there’s a beginning.

Teton NP is a range of mountains that are as far as the eye can see and reach up to the big sky of Wyoming. There are a few lakes at the mountains’ base which dimly reflects their grandeur. We had about 40 miles left of riding. 40 as a number doesn’t sound like much but we basically rode today all the way around the whole range of these grand Tetons and saw them from every angle. I think the fact that we could actually see the distance to ride today had us all in awe. We stopped at the park’s overlooks which were packed with visitors. Being around lots of people again was still an adjustment but it was fun to share our stories with folks who were interested. “Really?” They would ask, “your rode your bikes here?”

Leaving the Grand Teton NP we rode down a marvelous bike path which for the most part was a steady downhill grade. The skies could not make up their mind on whether it was going to be sunny or start to rain. Ahead in the distance was our last town, Jackson WY. The finish line is a thing of joy, accomplishment, and completion, yet it also meant that our odyssey was coming to an end and so our mood was a a-bit melancholy. At one point during this last day, there were some moist eyes but we would say something flew into our eyes. We stopped for a group photo at the city limits then cruised into town and merged with all the traffic and tourists swarming this little town.

We checked into our hotel. They were gracious enough to store our bikes in a unused room. Ahhhh so many luxuries after eleven days of remote riding. Our first hot shower was punctuated with seeing all the dirt rush down the drain. Our laundry, even our non riding clothes, smelled famously! I set the commercial washer on the heaviest setting it had. I swear that as I closed the door, the machine gagged as I put a handful of quarters in to start it. Even after our showers, the hot tub seemed like a wonderful luxury so we headed over and bubbled away the trail owies. The timer ran out and we set it for another go. After the hot tub came a real meal. After dinner, we stopped by the famous Cowboy Saloon and listened to a country band play some tunes.

Another interesting phenomena was that for the next few days, we would eat a meal then afterwards become hungry for another meal almost right away. No restaurants were open after 9:30 so we walked over to Wendy’s and ordered a second dinner.

The last day was spent cleaning our bikes and dropping them off for shipment home. Another big lunch and an afternoon nap ( wow! A nap? What a luxury!!) and off to another big dinner with Jeff treating us to a generous ice cream finish.

As we fly home, our hearts look forward to hugs from our wives yet our thoughts look backwards to a trip that will make for wonderful stories to tell our grandkids and they will say, “Tell us again Grandpa about when bicycles actually had to be pedaled to make them go over the Great Continental Divide!”