Generosity and Gratitude

Posted from: Steamboat Springs, CO

First, I’d like to acknowledge that I’ve really fallen behind in posting, and I’m sorry to all of our loyal fans out there for the delay! We’ve been through A LOT, and also Jack and I have been using much of our precious wifi time to search for and apply to jobs (gasp!), which has put the blog update on a backburner.

Good times/Bad times

Since our last update, we’ve had some of our highest highs and some of our lowest lows. The entire trip has been a rollercoaster of course, but the last few weeks have felt like an especially topsy turvy one. The entire month of July was hot and dry, dry, dry, but mother natch has decided to unleash allllll the rain that we didn’t get in July on us in one big, drenching dump, day after day. And let me tell you, bikepacking in the rain is one of the wettest activities possible. I would be better off just jumping in a pond with all my gear and my bike. At least sitting in a pond I wouldn’t still be getting saddle sores while soaking wet.

The other day, we were desperately trying to make it to Pinedale, WY before the Mexican food restaurant closed at 9pm. We were only about 40 miles in, with another 40 miles to go, and it was late afternoon. We were with our friend Jackson, who was riding a few days with us from Island Park to Pinedale, and he was doing his very best to be our super stoker cheerleader as Jack and I mustered the energy to make the push into town. We had already been through about three other rain storms that day, one of which was about a four-minute super soaker event that left us all completely drenched to the bone. As we cranked down the pavement towards town, we saw yet another dark storm cloud looming ahead of us, but this one was vast and impenetrable looking; there was no edge or hopeful ray of sunshine to be seen around the dark clouds. We all put our heads down and our rain jackets on (yet again), and pedaled into the heart of it. Soon it began raining, or rather pouring. With a headwind. For an hour. With no end in sight. It was 6:30pm, we were starving and cold and clinging to the fantasy of still making it to the Mexican restaurant before they closed. We stopped briefly to check the map, and we were still 15 miles from town, easily another 1.5-2hrs in this weather. Just ahead of us, though, we noticed a truck and trailer pulled off to the side of the road, with a man standing outside looking at us through the rain. Jack thought the man might be waiting for us, and he was right! We pedaled over and sure enough, he had passed us a few miles back and wanted to offer us a ride into town. YES PLEASE!! It only took one look between the three of us to unanimously vote to take him up on the offer. We tucked our bikes into his large ATV trailer and scooted into the backseat of his truck. His wife greeted us from the passenger seat and said, “Oh gee I wish I had some hot chocolate to give you all, but maybe some Hi-Chew candies will tide you over?” as she handed us a HUGE bag of candy which we immediately started wolfing down at a truly alarming rate. Ann and Kirk were their names, and they turned out to be from Taylorsville, Utah, just down the valley from where we lived in Salt Lake! They drove us into town and dropped us off at the Mexican place with plenty of time to enjoy a hot meal. We all got some photos together to commemorate our rescue, and as they were wishing us well and waving goodbye, Kirk slipped a $50 bill into my feedbag on my bike! Seeing this, Ann said “Oh come on, $50 doesn’t buy you anything these days!” and came running down the sidewalk after us with another $100 bill!! All three of us were completely stunned: Ann and Kirk not only picked us up off the side of the road in our time of greatest need, but they also gave us enough money to get a motel room and a delicious dinner?!?! I am still absolutely floored by the experience. We went from one of our worst moments to one of our best so quickly. Kirk and Ann’s generosity and kindness turned our day completely around, thank you both!

In a similar vein just a few days prior, we biked a full day in the rain near Grand Teton National Park. We were making slow progress and were, once again, completely soaked (remember: next time you consider biking in the rain, just go swimming instead). Jack, Jackson, and I sat in the pizza shop in Colter Bay, WY, considering our options as the rain poured down outside. Could we handle biking any further? Could we stay warm enough? Could we mentally handle setting up our soaked tents in the pouring rain for another night? Probably not, but all of the options nearby were at expensive national park prices that we just couldn’t fit into the budget. Luckily for us, Jack’s long time family friends Mark and Nancy had offered to buy us a hotel room at some point on our journey when we needed it, and now was the time. They answered our call for help and put us up for the night in a cabin at a guest ranch outside of Teton Valley. We didn’t know it at the time due to the rain and clouds, but the next morning we woke up to one of the most amazing views of the Tetons towering amongst morning mist. All of our gear was dried out and we had a warm night of sleep after an exhausting day. Again, our day was turned completely around by the generosity and kindness of others. Thank you Mark and Nancy!

It is often sobering to be traveling and living outside, for weeks and weeks on end. We are at the mercy of the weather, the road conditions, the traffic whizzing by on the highways. At times I feel so out of control, and I hate being out of control. But being so exposed, and having to accept what comes, also opens you up to incredible opportunity. It has opened me up to asking for help, whether of people I know or complete strangers. It has allowed me to say “Yes!” when someone offers us basically anything, rather than politely declining. It has given me the courage to reach out to people and create connections regardless of how much we have in common, because they are the people who are there with me. Being open and exposed, saying yes, putting yourself in the hands of someone else’s care, can be so scary. I always want to be independent and in control of myself and able to take care of everything I need, but a lot of times out here that just isn’t possible. We humans have a deep capacity to care for one another, and I’ve felt the profound impact that such care brings. I know I’ve remarked on this a couple times before, but I am continually amazed at how kind and willing people are out here. I am humbled, full of gratitude, and hopeful. I feel inspired to create my own ripples of kindness.

Hartford Haus Reunion Tour

Another highly notable event from the last few weeks was meeting up with our pals Bridger and Jackson to ride a few days into Island Park. Bridger and Jackson are some of my closest friends from college and we’ve lived together off and on for many years. Recently, we lived for about two years together in Salt Lake on Hartford Street, hence the name Hartford Haus (of which Jack was an honorary member, despite living in his own apartment down the road at the time). We’ve all been apart on our various life journeys for almost a year now, so meeting up all together again was a real treat!

We rode for three days together, ending at Bridger’s family cabin in Island Park where Jack and I took TWO rest days full of danky dank homemade food, watching movies, chilling by the river, and general good vibes. While riding there, we did one of our biggest days so far: 80 miles! It was so nice to spend time with good friends, especially in the middle of such a long journey. I’ve been missing our community of friends in Salt Lake, and reflecting on the importance of community in my life — it’s really important to be surrounded by love and good people and I’m looking forward to focusing on cultivating community when we finally land from this whirlwind ride. Having a little slice of it on the trail made my little heart feel full, and also made it really hard to say goodbye.

Endless Montana and Other Notable Events In No Particular Order

The Great Divide Route cuts sort of diagonally across Montana, which is already a very large place, so it felt like we were in Montana for an actual century. Lots happened since Jack’s update from the Llama Ranch, so here’s some of the highlights:

• Lava Mountain, Fleecer Ridge, Union Pass, etc. These are all relatively short but HEINOUS sections of the Tour Divide route, which is the route that is raced every June (the official Great Divide route differs slightly in some sections, often avoiding these extremely rough sections). We wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so we decided to ride these notorious sections instead of working around them, and they truly delivered. Fleecer Ridge, in particular, is so steep that we had to walk our bikes down it.
• Another cracked wheel!!! I had been noticing an increasingly severe hop in my back wheel, which was causing my tire to rub on my frame with every rotation. In Pinedale I asked the bike shop to take a look, and low and behold I had been riding on a very cracked rim for…500 miles? Unfortunately, 26″ wheels are hard to come by these days because everyone in bike manufacturing has realized that 26″ wheels are way less efficient. Thus, I had to steal Jackson’s rear wheel off his bike, which was luckily also 26″, while Jackson hitched back to Island Park to pick up his car. Thanks for letting me cannibalize your bike JP!
• Just outside of Butte, MT we stopped to camp for the night at an “informal campground” that was marked on our map. It was in the last bit of forest service land before getting into town, so it felt like our last option unless we continued riding for 20 more miles. This “campground” was one of the most terrifying places I have ever camped. First, it was tucked back in some dark trees, scary vibes from the start. Second, the whole place had clearly been something before, maybe some old stone houses? There were remnants of stone foundations, and a couple stone chimneys just out there in the woods. People had rearranged many of the stones into fire rings, walkways, and stairs, which was sort of nice but also gave off a creepy vibe. Third, an excavator had ripped up the dirt road leading into the camping area, obviously trying to keep people out, which made us wonder why, and if we should be there at all. And fourth, and this was really the icing on the cake, we found two GRAVES, for dogs, one of them memorialized with a plaque on a tree for Rufus. But the graves had been partially dug up, broken into, perhaps by animals but honestly who knows??? I was horrified and went on a long journey trying to find any campable flat ground literally anywhere else in the area, but there was none. Creepy camp was it. And it turned out totally fine, although I couldn’t help but think about poor exhumed Rufus and his doggy ghost haunting the woods as I fell asleep.
• Horse Prairie Stage Stop. This was a true Montana establishment. We rolled up at about 3pm, after already riding 65 miles that day. The Horse Prairie Stage Stop is in the town of Grant, MT which has a population of 19. The bar didn’t open until 5pm, so we waited outside on the porch until we could check in and arrange for a place to stay that night. As we sat, we suddenly heard what sounded like a relentless volley of gunshots going off somewhere quite nearby. We poked our heads around the corner of the building and saw a woman (who may or may not work at the stage stop, still unclear) wielding TWO bull whips and cracking them, rapid fire, one after another into the air. This went on for a full hour at least! Then, once the bar finally opened, all the cowboys from nearby ranches showed up, in their real cowboy attire — Wrangler jeans, nice hats, excellent mustaches, the whole bit. And real cowboys can drink. That night there was also some real cowboy live music, which some of the real cowboys danced to. And, notably, Jack enjoyed a real Montana steak that night, which he claims is one of the best pieces of meat he’s eaten. All in all it was one of the most truly cowboy places we’d been on the journey and quite an experience.
• Contrary to Montana, we crossed Wyoming in only six days. The Great Divide has two distinct Wyoming parts: incredible mountains like the Tetons and the Wind Rivers, and the Great Divide Basin. The Basin is notorious for headwinds and very little water, and if it rains the roads can quickly turn to impassable peanut butter mud. With our many recent rainy days, we were pretty nervous to set out across the Basin, but it had just enough sunshine to dry out and we actually had pretty smooth sailing! We crossed the whole thing in two and a half days, with two back to back days of over 80 miles! While out there, we ran into Jay Petervary, who is a renowned bikepacker and racer. We got to have lunch with him in Atlantic City, WY in the middle of a 200+ mile day for him. It was so cool and eye opening to watch the way he works, on and off the bike, to be able to accomplish such insane days on the trail. Truly an inspiration and so cool that bikepacking is a community where little biker novices like us can casually share lunch with an elite athlete and legend!
• Just before arriving in Steamboat Springs, we stayed a night at Brush Mountain Lodge, which has become a bikepacker haven similar to the Llama Ranch. Kirsten runs the place pretty much on her own. She greets every rider with a warm hug, a cold beverage, and a hot pizza that she cooks up in her wood fired pizza oven!! We hung out and chatted on her incredible porch overlooking a beautiful valley, occasionally petting her adorable dog, Polly. Two other riders joined us that night, Ally and Colin. In the morning Kirsten whipped up an incredible breaky of sausage, eggs, and blueberry and M&M pancakes. Despite being at the end of a looooong biker season, Kirsten was so warm and welcoming and made us feel right at home.