day 15

we left helena early today, with “leaving early” a new experience for scott and me.

usually, we take advantage of sleep. sleep is the great equalizer during arduous efforts, and for every good night of sleep on this journey, there have been an equal number of bad ones.

sometimes, you can’t shut off the trail. sometimes, the dehydration kicks in and your heart pounds. sometimes, you are too tired to sleep.

the forecast is driving our buggy now. we are back in the 90’s with an unimpeded sun and combined with the trail itself, the ride seems to be getting tougher.

today’s ride was not linearly significant, but it had three climbs, bringing us to a summit of 7,300 feet above our starting point of 4,000 feet in helena. those three climbs accounted for almost 6,000 feet of elevation gain.

the trails again started out tame, with a steady, 4-5% slope, but quickly morphed into feral strips of boulders and rock and gullies and ravines and oh, just to make it interesting, some pockets of loose sand. pitches of 10-15% were common and because of them, we had several sections of hike-a-bike.

we were water challenged, but pushed each other to hydrate along the route. feeling divide lethargy, we changed our destination from the mormon gulch campground to the town of basin, where a hostel-type setting is available for malodorous bikepackers from around the world.

as i type, i am laid out in my sleeping bag on the stage of the basin community center, which is where the citizens of basin prefer their bikeackers…enclosed in a building and near a street light.

today was our 15th day since leaving canmore. we are right at 700 miles pedaled, and 49,000 feet of climbing.

i won’t kid you. the effort has been intense and we are ready for a day off. right now, we are leaning towards a rest day in butte, maybe a visit to the “butte lead museum”, or a wendy’s.

so many options.