Day 6 – Not being one with the wind, on the GDMBR

All predictions on the beauty of the night held true.  Sleep was deep, for bikepacking.. only waking up occasionally to check the status of the nearly full moon.

We dug right into ‘the Gila’, cresting ridgelines and dropping into deep canyons.  It’s quite a road.  What I remember most was miles and miles of coasting and smiling.  Smiling and coasting, coasting and smiling.  There are some truly lovely coasts in there, with gorgeous scenery and pleasant calm roads.

And then there are some steep stinger climbs and other misgivings, but it can’t be all roses and rainbows, you know? 

We passed one hiker, doing his own loop in the Gila.  He was booking it up the road.

Wall Lake came faster than expected, and the 8 miles from there to Beaverhead also went quickly.  We kept all available appendages crossed as we approached the work center and the legendary pop machine. 

“Out of Order.”

Gah!

The first couple firefighters that came out to talk to us as we ate lunch and watered up didn’t have too much to say.  But the third one, Anthony, offered us that which we so desired: cold soda.  And Gatorade!  Trail magic!

Mission accomplished – soda at Beaverhead.

I think the machine is out of comission for good, so divide riders — don’t get your hopes up.

A CDT bikepacker has a difficult choice at Beaverhead.  There are multiple ways to go, including one we invented while out there (going to Snow Lake).  It’s not clear what is best, but in the end we opted for the Divide Route, thinking it the fastest/easiest. 

One could go out of the way, East, and rejoin the official trail.  I’ve ridden quite a bit of that, as part of the GET, and some is good.  Some is bad.  Some is non-existant, and not friendly XC country.  Also, the hikers don’t even use it or go anywhere near there.

Snow Lake was tempting, but looking at the Ley maps on my phone, there were some XC sections, otherwise we’d end up with 20+ extra road miles.

So we somewhat reluctantly took the GDMBR north.

At first it was gorgeous!  Best bike touring yet.  Tail wind, cloud cover, rock walls, lakes.  Oh my!

And then we turned west, for a long traverse below O-bar-O mountain, which does have CDT on it, but it’s quite a bear.  I wanted to save our “burl” credits for unknow CDT off on the west side and into Pie Town.

It may not have been the best choice, for today.  The wind just about crushed our souls.

Was it ever that bad?  No.

Was it just a little too long to deal with?  Yes.

Did it get smokey?  Yeah, not sure where from – a new fire?

We both sorta cracked a little, and our interest in racing or riding the Divide route fell to 0%.  We couldn’t wait to get off the route and onto something new.

Just a few miles off route, we rode from barren country into deep woods.  There was a creek flowing, and, hey, CDT hikers watering up.

The Dude, Trouble and Argentine were fun to talk to.  They asked where we started.  Crazy Cook.  No way!

Finding water and some hikers to swap stories with was a much needed boost.  It made the ensuing miles of evening climbing seem almost effortless.

As I write this we are perched just below the divide, with singletrack of unknown quality at the top of the climb.  If it’s really slow, we may see our hiker friends again! Who knows. We are pretty intent on making it to Pie Town, and there are various options, so it should prove to be an interesting day.

Ash is falling from the sky, but the wind has died down.  We are hoping for a clear day tomorrow.