Day 11: Fleecer Ridge

August 29, 2024

Distance: 105km

Climbing: 1840m

Animals: cows, cows, cows, and a fox

A good night of sleep in a hotel and a breakfast (the typical cheap hotel kind that’s usually a disappointment but was a feast of calories for us) were very nice treats. Despite the luxury, as usual we were always working on something so we didn’t get to take a leisurely break, but I did squeeze in 20 minutes to catch up some interests.

Butte put us at the one quarter mark for the entire trail - there’s a lot left to see. Leaving Butte we had to navigate a bit of urban wasteland (the stroadiest stroads - IYKYK). But it soon headed into the hills, past a nice looking disc golf course, along an old rail bed, and through some nice singletrack that was just manageable on our loaded bikes.

We had a big climb and descent before lunch, through some beautiful terrain that reminded me of the hills above Boulder, Colorado. I got a puncture for the first time on the trip, but fortunately a plug and the sealant in the tire took care of it and we gave it a severe test for the rest of the day. Running tubeless tires on this route is just about essential unless you want to lose hours and hours changing tubes, which would take extra long due to the racks and bags we carry.

Filtering water to fill the bottles just as we start the climb up to Fleecer Ridge.

After lunch we faced one of the more famous sections of the route: Fleecer Ridge. Mount Fleecer sits on the divide and the route took us high on its flank (but not to the summit). It’s famous for its views, its height (we got to 2380m - our highest so far, but not for long), and the steepness of the final section, both up and down. The down was especially steep and loose so the prudent thing to do was to walk the bikes.

The views from Fleecer Ridge were great, although in this one we can see wildfire smoke.

From the high point we could see a forest fire in the distance.

Dropping off Fleecer Ridge we ended up in the very small town of Wise River, another place that has really embraced the riders coming through on the Divide. They make their Community Hall available for riders to sleep in and to use the kitchen to prepare meals. It’s another amazing bit of generosity and trust that people are showing to the riders. We would have loved to stay, but wanted more distance for the day so we cooked our dinner with the luxury of a stove and sink to do dishes.

Staying here would have been so nice, but we had sunlight to use and a distance target to hit.

We did have dinner here though so our setup when we got camp was quick.

Leaving town to squeeze in another 16km to the nearest campground we realized we were heading in the direction of the forest fire we had seen from the ridge. Thoughts of being chased out of a campground by fire only a few days after being chased out by wind and snow crossed my mind. When we got to the campground it was closed and hosted some Forest Service people. We talked to them and found that they were using it as their staging area for the firefighting effort, but that the next campground was open and that the fire posed no risk. We pushed tired legs a little further and the next site had the advantage of being more upwind of the fire so we have almost no smoke to deal with.

We’re in one of the longer sections without resupply options: 220km, so we have extra food on board right now and the weight difference is noticeable.

Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 1,226 km (761 miles)

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