It’s hard to describe the kind of fatigue that settled in during the last quarter of the trail. We could still put in big days and cover difficult terrain, but resting no longer returned much strength to us. Huge town meals were a way to survive, instead of giving us an instant boost of energy and the feeling that all will be well. We didn’t wake up from nights spent indoors feeling refreshed and ready to camp again. It felt like we were just minimizing the damage, and could never quite get ahead.
I’m not sure why this was, exactly. The length of the trip, and the difficulty of the route are obvious reasons. Neither of us have ever been on ‘the trail’ (any trail) for so long, let alone one this hard. We’ve never spent so much time pushing and dragging our bikes — ever. The hike-a-bike threshold of tolerance ran out sometime in Colorado, I’d say. Then there’s the fact that in order to reasonably ride singletrack, you have to run a very minimal set up. We had many good nights of camping, but far more cruddy ones — especially in Montana. Running a 40 degree sleeping bag and no tent worked out beautifully for us in New Mexico and even through Wyoming. It’s worked perfectly in so many other races and thru-trips, too. But I think the effect of sleeping minimally and uncomfortably began to take its toll after 3 months. Even though we slept every night, we were digging ourselves deeper and deeper into sleep deficit (as evidenced by the continued 10+ hour nights we are still enjoying now in October).
Whatever the cause, we were getting tired, and going for another brisk paced day ride in Butte probably wasn’t good use of one of our ‘rest’ days. It was incredibly fun, and I’m ever so glad we got to ride ‘the Lady’ section of trail, but our legs were used to loaded and slower pedaling. I think it cost us, and it wasn’t one of our best decisions.
Nevertheless, we left Butte, by backtracking to official CDT. It was primarily a nicely graded road at first, followed by rideable 4×4, and unrideable rutted track.
Rains forced breaks in the trees. Perfect.
Our half day of riding ended with the Nez Perce moto trail, which was a brilliantly rideable descent.
Dinner of mac ‘n cheese, in the woods, as the sun sets. Beautiful, especially with only a half day’s ride in the legs.
Rumors of more bike-friendly trail north of Butte were true.
swoooopy
Very true!
But even bike friendly trail along the divide takes its toll, and it’s still bikepacking.
Still, it was ever-so-dreamy to make such progress, watching actual miles roll by while on CDT singletrack. Everything up to Champion Pass is a superb ride.
This colorful dragon joined me for a good distance, as we pedaled short singletrack detours of steep tracks.
The maps said Cold Springs was ‘kaput’, but it was one of the best Montana springs on the trail. Hurrah!
The maps, GPS and signs were not in agreement, so we made locally optimal decisions. This was a good one, faint contour track with big views of Deer Lodge.
The bypasses ran out, it was time to gain elevation for reals.
Oh the many highpoints of the divide.
We spent a wet and cold night near “Leadville,” waking up to surprisingly tasty trail.
Not sure why we were so worried about keeping our feet dry here — the moisture on the greenery was doing a great job of soaking our shoes anyway.
More confusion on what is actually the CDT continued, but everything we did ride was good.
Apparently the CDT is a one way trail here.
Choose your own adventure. As in so many other areas of the trail — you’ll get there eventually.
Surely, being in bear country didn’t help our light camping issue. Hanging and dealing with food is a pain, and thinking about bears in the middle of the night isn’t known to aid deep sleep.
Huge blow down.
Ummm, where’s the trail anyway?
Easy to follow in the trees. Fun too!
Death by a thousand rocks! Dropping to Priest Pass — rocky by Montana standards.
Very old railroad trestle, being swallowed by the forest. The trail we rode briefly along the old grade was primo!
Mercy roads along the divide. Yay for bikes.
Not so merciful. Celebrate for more hike-a-bike!
Enchanted forests on top of the world. Forests that few ever visit. I loved these lesser known spots of Montana — places only divide travelers will ever visit.
Tricky descending through a tricky forest.
But what’s that? A huge switchback platform, thank-you-very-much!
Wind from the incoming weather woke us from our high camp on the divide.
It was out of control in the exposed sections.
We just tried to survive and keep moving, sitting right on the boundary of the front, right on the divide.
Eventually the divide could not hold it, and the blizzard came.
Just as quickly as it came, the sun came shining through.
And we bid farewell to our last piece of bike-legal CDT — on our thru-route, anyway. Celebration ensued, but we were still far from being done, far from Canada! The divide had more surprises in store…
Amazing accomplishment. Everything else will seem easy.