The unexpected

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GDMBR. July 27. 2015

It’s 12:45 PM and I’m in my sleeping bag. I can see my breath as I exhale. My fifteen degree bag is barely ahead of the chill.

On the morning of Monday, July 27, 2015, we leave the motel in Lima at 6:00 AM. The forecast is not favorable; calling for winds out of the north and 94% chance of rain. We say goodbye to Barbara and Paula, pass under the freeway and head into the wind on the frontage road adjacent to I-15.

Seven plus miles later we turn left onto Big Sheep Creek Road. Big Sheep Creek has cut a deep canyon into the divide. Within the canyon, the wind is negated and the road grade is minimal. We enjoy the ride up the canyon; often stopping to marvel at the canon walls and the beauty of the creek and to take pictures.

Twenty five miles into the ride the canyon widens, the wind picks up and the forecasted rain arrives. My hands are freezing so I stop to get my winter gloves. My numb hands barely function and it takes ages for me to get my mittens on because I cannot grip the mitton edges and my lifeless fingers won’t cooperate by wiggling into position.

At mile 35, all three of us have trouble negotiating the mud that is now gobbing up on our wheels and drive train. Paul is pushing his bike because the mud has rendered his rear dérailleur inoperative. Jamie spots an abandoned barn a hundred yards off to the left of the soupy two track road and checks it out. We all agree that this is an opportunity too good to pass up.

The barn is primitive and obviously hasn’t been used for some time. The barn was made of raw timber. Barn Swallows and their characteristic mud nests have taken up residence. The tin roof kept rain off and the raw cut sideboards kept the wind at bay. We set up our tents on the dirt (dried cow dung) and put the rain fly on for insulation.

Once inside the barn, Jamie does triage on the dérailleur with the confidence and focus of an emergency room doctor and has it up in running again in about fifteen minutes; much to the astonishment of Paul and me.

I crawled into my down bag to try to get warm. We were wet and cold. Paul and Jamie set about to start a fire to dry out our clothes. The snow level was about 100 vertical feet above our current elevation.

The big question was: will the roads be rideable in the morning?

Tuesday, July 28
As we closed the gate behind us, Paul proclaimed, “I think this is rideable mud.” Twenty yards later we were all pushing our bikes through the grass and sage brush off road. The mud was sticky and adhered to the tires. Forward movement in the mud was limited to about 1/3 wheel rotation per clean out of the front and rear wheel.

We pushed the bikes five miles to the divide pass. The last couple of hundred yards up to the summit were especially bad. We had to carry / drag our bikes through the mud a few yards at a time. It was excruciating. It took us two hours to get to the top.

It was decision time. Do we wait hours in the cold wind for the mud to (hopefully) become rideable or do we press on with pushing our bikes off road? Jamie said firmly, “our goal today is to get to the paved road thirty miles away.” Paul agreed. I was uncertain, thinking of how difficult it was dragging our bikes a few yards at a time and couldn’t imagine doing so for thirty miles.
It was push-a-bike through the sage brush- which is much harder than one would imagine- for a few hundred yards down the backside of the divide. Then, unexpectedly, the mud became less sticky and we could actually ride the downward trending dual track.

We arrived at the paved road about noon and decided to proceed another twenty miles and camp at Bannock State Park, the sight of the former gold rush town and capital of Montana Territory. We had a lovely place to camp and enjoyed touring Bannock.

In hindsight, if we had known how difficult crossing the divide at Big Sheep Creek would be in the rain, we might have waited out the rain in Lima or stayed an extra day in the barn. Certainly, we might not have set out walking / pushing the bike the five difficult miles to cross the divide and we could have tried waiting out the sticky mud at the divide crossing.

Fortunately, we did press on and at the end of Tuesday we were in Bannock and still on schedule to be in Wise River in three days. Sometimes it’s best to just move forward and hope for the best.

Today, Thursday, July 30, we are in Butte, Montana…on schedule.