CDTBike Photos – Lima to Wisdom

We pedaled out of Lima, a day too early, as it turned out. When fatigue sets in two hours out of town, you know you might be in trouble. Luckily the first 30 or so miles are on the GDMBR, so it’s a gentle warmup.

These are beautiful GDMBR miles. Though I know the CDT miles are even better (I have ridden them before they were closed).

The gentle warmup ceases as soon as we jump on the CDT at Morrison Lake. There’s one pitch that’s so steep that hikers were still talking about it days later! Glad we aren’t the only ones that notice such things.

We found the divide, and the huge views that awaited us there. Light curtains of rain were caressing the landscape, in all directions.

It was a fine evening for sky watching.

We were glad when evening and camp time came. Hopefully a good night’s rest would energize.

triple track!

Because the rollercoaster beckons.

This was actually a fairly friendly section of divide-coastering. The surface of the ‘road’ was good, meaning the downhills were fast and straightforward. But, yeah, we pushed bikes up.

Elk Mountain’s singletrack broke the coaster-ride, while continuing to climb.

we heart riding on the divide

Wow. Above 10,000′ for one of few times in Montana, we praised the singletrack for contouring around peaks, even if it disappeared in the saddles.

The singletrack descent was pure gold, and even surprised us with a ripping contour descent where it looked like we were in for a steep climb. But eventually it did run out and we were back to coastering, all the way to Bannock Pass.

At the pass. Just placed by Stumbling Beef and Pepper Flake. We did not hitch, nor did we descend the 2500 feet into Leadore. Though we certainly should have.

Finding water was a bit of a challenge, though eventually one of the ‘to spring’ signs panned out close to the trail. Some of the signs told you to boil water for 5 minutes, others for 10.

We didn’t want to drop all the way down there when we had plenty of food. But we could have used the rest, and reportedly there was a very friendly innkeeper there.

The tree of souls. I loved how quickly the landscape would change from dry plains to enchanted forest.

Nearing Lemhi Pass, we bumped into all sorts of hikers, and we all ended up camping within a mile or two of each other.

Good singletrack and mellow terrain — on the divide!

Until it punched out of the trees and onto the talus. Pretty friendly terrain for XC travel, if you’re willing to push/pull/drag bikes some.

Gabriel, Marmot and Stumblin’ Beef, climbing the peak we just came down from. It was a real brake burner!

From scrambling over peaks to PRIME singletrack. The Goldstone Pass area is definitely worth a revisit, and more exploration.

The trailbuilders had quite a challenge to build this to sustainable standards, and I think they nailed it. Bring your switchback A-game!

We’re back on the trail after a bit of a debacle trying to resupply at Jackson Hot Springs. The springs were awesome, and we got a little rest. But we could have done without the 36 mile ride to resupply in Wisdom.

Just like leaving Lima, we were tired before we even got on the trail. Never a good sign.

Wrap the bedroll in the tarp, it’s going to be a rainy next few weeks.

This area has a wonderful primitive and wild feel. I’m grateful we are able to ride/hike it as a part of CDTbike, even if it did hurt us.

A near re-enactment of a classic CDT photo, found at Berthoud Pass and bikepacking.net.

Blooming bear grass!

Oops, only part of a bridge. Lots of trail work going on in this area. Super good news for bikepackers.

Upper Slag-a-Melt Lake. We get to see places like this! Pinch me, we get to ride in places like this!

We go down!

The photo I posted to ‘the facebook’ to gather some crowdsourced energy. It worked to reverse the slag-a-meltdown.

Moving again! Running from storms!

More incredible trailbuilding through very unstable and precarious terrain.

Down there, that’s Idaho!

Dreamy trail, surrounded by difficult terrain. Makes the reward all that much more sweet.

Too bad we couldn’t descend for longer above the treeline.

One word: wet. As in, everything was wet. Several rounds of storms.

A semi-tempting spot to hide from the rain for the night, but we pushed on.

Juicy. As was our camp back on the divide, at Big Hole Pass. At least we were able to determine that our little tarp is good enough for a good old fashioned downpour — our first of the summer!

We left the divide and descended straight to Wisdom the next day. The rain continued for the next two days.