After four days of riding, I'm taking a rest day. I got to Eureka late in the day but decided to check out the bike on the first ten miles of the route. I discovered the Spot batteries were failing and was able to get new ones. The next morning Pinkie transported me to Graves Creek where I ended the night before. It was a steady but gradual climb up to Whitefish Pass. There were several avalances across the road with little snow remaining but a jumbled debris field of broken trees and branches. I had to push over the snow and drag the bike over the trees but only a few feet. But at the pass was the biggest avalance I'd ever seen. I couldn't tell where the road was as the snow was piled high and ran across the entire pass and up the other side 100 ft above. I took the panniers off and started scouting a way through. After a few hundred yards I could see the road. The snow had to be more than 50 ft deep and some of the trees had a diameter of two ft or more. Going back to get my bike I here some talk an meet my first pair of riders heading to Mexico. Two more avalanche debris fields and I got to my first night campground. I had it all to myself and was happy there were bear lockers.
When I woke in the morning, the sky was covered with low clouds and it started to rain before I'd finished breakfast. It came down hard and I finished packing under the eaves of the outhouse. The day was a muddy slog but by noon had made the 25 miles to Polebridge and got a dorm bed at the Northern Lights Hostel, an eclectic off-the-grid solar powered lodge with propane lights. Each night they turned on the Internet for an hour. It cleared up when I arrived and two more Tour Divide (TD) groups showed up. Shawn was also solo with a BOB trailer and said he just followed my track at the pass. Drew and Larry were from CA and we're on an 80 mpd pace.
The next morning I had a huckleberry bear claw for breakfast at the mercantile and the four of us peddled up to red meadow lakes and pass. My plan was to camp at Upper Whitefish Lake but when I got there it was redneck city on the fourth of July. So I decided to do the extra 20 MI mostly downhill to Whitefish and hoped I could get a bed in town. Unfortunately, I missed a turn and went almost 4 MI before I realized it. I had just gotten back on track when two more riders caught me. They were doing the Polebridge to Whitefish as a day ride. They were staying at a new place called the Bike Retreat Hostel about 7 MI outside Whitefish and Cricket, the owner, provided the shuttle to Polebridge and was going to pick them up when they got back to town. They suggested I join them so I did. We stopped at the first brewery in town for a beer. It turns out Cricket had done the TD four times, twice as a racer and on a single speed. The Retreat was great with bike parts for fixtures and motif through.
Mark and Howard were great hosts. After showers we all drove into town for dinner. The next morning, they shuttled me back to town and I headed down the road to Bigfork. It was pretty flat but after 45 mi I was really beat. I checked into Wayfarer State Park at the hike in bike in group area and meet 3 more TD riders that were enjoying two rest days here so I decided a rest day sounded pretty good to. From here it will be three days to Seeley Lake and two nights camping out.
