Pictures and Stories About Bicycle Tour Adventures
Butte, Divide Creek, Wise River, Elkhorn Hot Springs, Polaris,
Bannack State Park, to Grant, Montana; June, 2012;
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in the
Pioneer Mountain Range of the Rocky Mountains;
Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR - Segment)
Day 2 - Divide Creek Road (at I-15) to Wise River
By Way of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR)
Above Left: This is the spot where we parked the shuttle vehicle (the vehicle and the Interstate are behind me). We will bike up the Frontage Road (a turn right/north at this stop sign) and bike about a mile to Divide Creek Rd and then turn left/west.
Above Right: We're on Divide Creek Rd, facing west. We will cycle by all of these listed items. It is Open Range Road and we will run into a few heads of cattle.
Above Left: This is an accidental picture that we decided to keep - it shows the pilot's view of the cockpit. The little wire looking thing on the right side of the frame is a wire-brace for the front fender. We are biking at 11.2 MPH. One is supposed to plan road tours at a 10 MPH average and mountain (off-road) at 7.5 MPH. We are making good time here, but things will change.
That Yellow Band on the Right Grip is used to Lock the Front Brake.
All about Why a Bike Tourer needs the Capability to Lock a Wheel.
Above Right: Well 'by golly' we have encountered cattle on the open range, imagine that. Actually it was no problem, the animals parted slowly as we approached slowly. We are not strangers to cattle.
Above Left: Cattle Guard, also known as a Grid in other countries. Notice the missing National Forest sign, this is a common issue in Montana. Even the steel signs will up and disappear on occasion. It is an endemic problem in Montana.
Above Right: We are heading toward Jerry Creek, for now.
Above Left: It is an old cabin. It is located right at the beginning of what I'd call the actual forest boundary. At the present, there a few other homes, ranging in age from, guessing 75 years old to 25 years old sparsely dispersed along the creek bottom/river-meadow for the next two miles (all on the north side of the road [right side] except for this cabin).
Above Right: Dense greenery along what I think is called Divide Creek. We are still primarily west bound
Above Left: This location is on NF-94 near the spot where the GDMBR turns sharply from west bound to southbound for many miles.
Above Right: Now we are southbound. This is our first peak at Fleecer Mountain in the far background.
Above Left: Looking North over our left shoulder. One is starting to get pretty high when they can see over multiple mountain ridgelines. There is old logging debris scattered about.
Above Right: We're about to have our mid-morning snack (turkey-jerky, trail-mix, dried mango, and a blueberry bagel). It is also what we will eat for lunch and for our mid-afternoon snack. Clever, aren't we?
Above Left: Looking North; Mt Fleecer is getting closer.
Above Right: Alpine Lilies (aka Glacier Lilies).
Above: Top of the world panorama. We have very tricky navigation ahead and we (I) mess it up.
We're supposed to go through the fence on the main road ahead (closer picture of fence/gate below), turn left, push or ride the bikes up a steep hill (we push because the pedals hit the sides of deep ruts - 25%-35% slope), then turn right on the first rise (just as one passes the set of trees in the picture). Unfortunately, the instructions leave out the word "First" and that road climbs up Mt Fleecer (9,436 Feet, always just out of view).
Our (my) navigation mistake cost us an hour of time, but we had a fantastic lunch and view on the side of Mt Fleecer.
Above: Close-up View of fence and gate and of the uphill climb. The climb angle isn't steep, per say, but the road changes from National Forest management to Rancher/Lease Management with intermittent deep Jeep ruts and more slip rock and/or gravel and sometimes the ruts are deep enough (not seen here) that a rotating pedal will hit the side of the rut and lift the bike over sideways. We tried to pedal for a bit of time and we had one Zero MPH fall over from a pedal stall/lift-over. We, being smarter than we look, changed our strategy and pushed the bike - We had the same problem going downhill but the downhill was steeper and a mile long.
Is this an Adventure or What !?!
Above Left: Uphill Push on the GDMBR.
Above Right: Terry looks at our backtrail on the GDMBR. We're taking a Push Break in the shade.
Above Left: This is the famous "solo fence" that we are supposed to travel-by - this is in normal vision view. We missed it.
Above Right: This is the same view with a photo cropping - Can you see the fence? If you know where to look closely, dead center, it becomes visible. The fence is about 50 feet long (16 yards/meters). The road that leads to the fence has had nearly complete re-growth and we totally missed the road turnoff. There is a better close-up image in the second following picture.
Above Left: From here, the road keeps "rising" and we kept rising. It did not take too long to figure out that we missed a turn. That is Mt Fleecer at the top of the Rise. It is a long ways to the Top Rise (we sense a navigation error here).
Above Right: We have back tracked and found the fence. Here, Terry is holding the bike so that I can get a photo of this famous location on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Check-out the road that leads to the fence (it is barely visible).
Above Left: We're back on track. The road is now double track and it will soon become double track ruts that only an ATV or Jeep may travel. It turns out that motor vehicles are not allowed here, but the No Vehicle Warning Signs are on the other side of the trail.
Above Right: The route gets steep just over the brim.
Above Left: We dismounted and guided our loaded tandem bike downhill in a semi-controlled slide in many short stretches.
Above Right: Deepening ruts on the GDMBR.
Above Left: That segment uphill from Terry is about 85% to 95% slope grade.
Above Right: A little flat spot, only about 25% grade. The ruts are easily a foot deep.
Above Left: Plants on the Hillside: A new plant to us, American Bistort (like a tuft of cotton on a slender stem).
Above Right: Loco Weed.
Above: The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR): Getting worried a little, it kind of gets steep ahead; from here we should be seeing the bottom or the slope, that road ahead is 1 mile/2 k further than we will actually emerge. Our slope is just like that slope across the valley (on the right side image).
Above Left: The flower is probably Northern Fairy Candelabra but it could be Nuttall's Linanthastrum.
Above Right: For the first time in about an hour, we can see the bottom of the downhill tracks.
Above: We had to get the bike off of the trail. It was too difficult to control the bike in the descent on the slip rock. In some places, the ruts were so deep and narrow that Dennis had to walk outside of the rut and bend over at the waist in order to maintain an arm's length control of the bicycle's steering and brakes. Our safety was at stake. If the brakes were locked the bike would keep sliding downhill on top the loose sliding rocks. Picture by Terry Struck at a spot that allowed us to take a pause for a photo. The slope right here is about a 30% grade (plus or minus a few percents).
The Up-View from the Bottom
Above: We're OK. We're just resting. It took us 1 Hour to walk our bike 1 Mile downhill. This is the back view from the bottom of the descent.
Above Left: Here's a picture of the little mountain park at the bottom of the big downhill descent. Now we need to head down the valley and criss-cross its creek (Jerry Creek).
Above Right: This is a side tributary, Parker Creek. We could have ridden across this creek; we're just gun-shy at the moment. This spot would be a great place to camp. We pass by a few of these remote camper's Dream Spots with water.
Above Left: Working our way downhill, barely pedaling, it's our reward for hard work.
Above Right: Hill side descent.
Above: Another creek crossing (best walked).
Above Left: Biking along a spring.
Above Right: At the far end of the bike route, we see a Closed to Motorized Vehicles sign.
Above Left: It is NF-83, a regular Super Highway as far as we are concerned.
Above Right: We are crossing Jerry Creek. We actually cross the creek 3 or 4 more times and each time it gets bigger. Nice definition dude.
Above Left: We stopped because we thought that these were Roses, but they are Wild Geraniums.
Above Right: GDMBR: NF-83, Super Highway!
Above Left: The first dwelling that we see.
Above Right: Pretty Horses.
Above Left: Jerry Creek Valley. Montana Hwy-43 is in the far valley, about 2 miles beyand the slot; we'll then turn right/west.
Above Right: Montana Hwy-43. We are on our way to the Town of Wise River (about 3 miles).
Above Left: A view of a nice house across and nice field and Jerry Creek.
Above Right: We passed over a saddle and changed watersheds and now we are entering the Town of Wise River next to a river called Wise River.
Above Left: The Wise River Mercantile.
Above Right: The Wise River Club's Motel-Bar-Cafe, our home for the night and the next night, and we will use all 3 of their offerings (starting with the Watering Hole!).
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