Imagine, if you will, a 6-foot step-ladder and you need to carry your 30 plus pound bike up this ladder. Now, imagine, about 15 ladders stacked on top of one another. Now, take away all the steps and replace it with roots, dust, trees, mud and a few loose rocks. That was the obstacle that I now faced, in fact, this barrier was featured early in the movie, “Ride the Divide”. The movie follows the race, but we follow the same trail. I managed to navigate by pushing, pulling, shoving my bike up this cliff and I guess it took 15-20 minutes. I wrenched my back in the climb, but was already physical exhausted by the time that I reached that obstacle. Now I know how Sisyphus must feel.

However, I digress since this was well into the ride. Today’s ride was a lot of climbing and descending but the fire roads were less travelable than the prior day and often full of rocks, ruts, gravel and other potential disasters. I had to walk my bike quite a bit on both the ascents and the descents. It was rough going. My Garmin was acting up again and it seems that my charging cable is bent and it doesn’t recharge all the time. Trying to find a replacement…

I was riding just ahead of the really slow riders who often stop for “coffee breaks”. At one point, the ride went over some single track, bush-whacking. I managed to crash 3 or 4 times because the trail was so rough and I couldn’t see all the holes. I also forded a few small creeks so that my shoes and socks were soaking and mud-encrusted. I decided to walk my bike in this area until I deemed the roads “rideable” with someone of my skill level. After a mile or so, I came upon the monstrosity described in the first paragraph. My spirit sank and my eyes tilted skyward.

I felt no triumph when I got to the false summit as I still had to climb a somewhat more manageable single-track climb but I was still pushing my bike up hill. To my relief, this segment ended and I was once again on downhill double track (fire road), but it was slow-going as the descent was treacherous for a novice-level MTB skill. I only crashed once and I was going slow.

I think it was on this segment that Patric, Pir and Bill came upon a cougar. They stopped and waited for the cougar to move on. They thought it was about 60 meters upwind. Simo from Australia came upon the trio, who suggested he proceed down the path to determine if the cougar had moved on.

The downhill became a little more manageable for me when I spotted two chairs by the side of the road. I have come to recognize this as a sign for “lunch”. A couple of other riders sped on by but must have smelled the food and returned. I could see the valley below and it seemed the route as promised flattened out. I enjoyed lunch and sitting for a spell. Jim and Sean advised that the border was only a few miles away and then we had “an easy” 11 miles into Eureka Montana.

I presented my passport at the border and it turns out the border guard is from Branson Missouri. I was happy to be back in the USA. The part that I saw of Canada was beautiful and the people were outstanding, but it was nice to begin another leg of the journey. I got down on the aero bars and rode as fast as I could into a headwind into Eureka, but missed the hotel and had to turn around.

I wasn’t the last into town, but I was probably in the worst condition. For a long spell, I just sat on the curb. I was exhausted, bleeding from a few small wounds, congested from a cold, my legs were numb from miles of climbing, my hands hurt from endless braking, my back felt strained from hauling my bike up a cliff, and I was probably dehydrated too. Many riders came by to inquire into my well-being and some suggested that I sit out a day or two. I was questioning the wisdom of continuing at all. Steve hauled my bags up to my room (I didn’t ask) but I was grateful for that small gesture.

I was pretty sure that I was going to call it over. I had overestimated my MTB skills and underestimated the difficulty of this ride. One side of me wanted to quit, but another side of me kept saying over and over, “You will regret it until the day that you die.” I once quit in a high school 2-mile race and I have never forgotten that feeling. I also didn’t want to let the folks down who were depending on me in one way or another. I am riding for the Backstoppers and I knew that by dropping out, I would potentially raise less money. I decided to sleep on it.

Tailwinds

Chuck