Morning of Day 5

Every friday for the past two years, Chris and I have gone on a "Starbucks date." We get up early before work, go to the starbucks by our house, and sit and enjoy each other's company for a nice cup of sugary coffeish drink for him, a hot chocolate for me, and two cream cheese danishes. We are creatures of habit, and this tradition has been the highlight of both of our weeks for a long time. No matter how busy we are, what we are doing, where we are, we make time to have our Starbucks date (we even managed to find a Starbucks in Banff last friday).


Chris called this morning practically in tears because he realized it was Friday. He wanted to wish me a happy Starbucks date. I promised him I would keep up the tradition while he was gone (and eat his danish :) ) and he promised me he'd find some sort of coffee type item out on the route on Fridays. This morning he had a nice cup of coffee in Lincoln, MT and I am headed out the door to get our danishes and my hot chocolate from our Starbucks on my way to buy his new GPS. We may be a cheesy couple, but we've been basically happily glued to each other's sides for the past 7 1/2 years. We are cool with cheesy.

All in all, his mood perked up. Mornings are very hard for him (and it sounds like it's similar for Stephen -- they awkwardly laughed on the phone last night about how emotional they are -- haha). He's ready to ride, make it to Helena, and buy a new bike computer to get him through. He's hoping to push on to Basin (a little town that you can see if you zoom in the map a little -- it appears to be halfway between Helena and Butte). He knows it will be a long day, but he seems pumped and I'm sure will do great. He has really enjoyed having some company for the day and he said Stephen was happy to have someone to push up his pace a bit.

So here we are. Another day. Thank you SO much to everyone who sent me help on the GPS. I will try to load the tracks this morning and might be calling you if I need help. This community of bikers never fails to make me proud.

p.s. Good luck to the GDR racers who start today at noon in Rooseville, MT. They are doing the same sort of race, with a bit tighter rules and without the Canadian section. Extra good luck to some friends (Geoff and Fred -- as in Saint Fred from our Kokopelli trip, and Jen from England-- who we met in Banff and will be rigid single speeding the trail). I wish you all the best, and your wives/girlfriends/SOers at home. The first day is the hardest, it does get better.

End of Day 4 part II

Just talked to Chris again from Lincoln. He is in a very very good mood. He put down some ribs and salad and ice cream. He seems to be eating better than me! Lucky boy! He's not freaking out about his GPS situation, which is good, because I kinda am. He is going to make it to Helena tomorrow and buy a new little bike computer to get him through until we can coordinate a GPS package. He points out that he is quite well-rested according to Great Divide standards, and so it should be fun to watch him actually 'push his limits' towards the end of the race. You'd think he was just out for a quick stroll around the neighborhood.

Anyway...
The purpose of this post was really just to pass on this funny train of thought:

Chris decided, while riding through bear country, that his choice of bike gear and clothing was perhaps not the wisest. When I got confused and asked why, he went into a well thought out scenario where, while riding, he decided that his white SLR saddle may make him appear to be a white tailed deer. He also decided that his red knee warmers would make the bear think he was an injured white tailed deer. Then he rationalized that he wasn't sure bears could even see color, or that they eat deer, but... so goes the train of thought of a great divide racer. So, he wanted all the readers out there to know that maybe a white saddle is not the best choice for a great divide attempt. Haha.

End of Day 4

Chris just called in from Lincoln. He is splitting a hotel with Tour Divide racer Stephen Gleasner. Chris made it over the nasty pass. Said part of it was sketchy for sure, but he made it through it in around 2 hours. He also had a small crash where he got snagged by a tree and thrown face first into a muddy puddle. He seems to think that was funny, so that's good. He's in a very good mood despite a few troubles on the day, so I think Stephen's company is a very good thing.

Big news of the day was that he launched his GPS off the bike and now it's gone. DAMN. That was his only "computer" on the bike and the maps are based off of mileage, so basically he was screwed. Luckily, just before that happened, he met up with Stephen on the trail and they were able to ride together into Lincoln. Now I need to go buy a new GPS and load the tracks and have it ready to overnight in the next few days to... well... somewhere. Anyone out there in bloggerland able to give me an email tutorial on how to download the tracks from Topofusion onto an E-trex Vista HCX by tomorrow? The tracks *should* still be on my parents' desktop, I just need to know how to get them from the computer onto the gps so that he'll be able to successfully see them. Dang. Should've paid attention to that when he did it the first time...

Middle of Day 4

As Chris has been trudging along in the wilderness with no phones, I don't expect to hear from him again until he reaches Lincoln tonight. I just wanted to check in and point out that he successfully made it over the *scary* pass that other TDers complained of (Richmond Peak, I think). What took others a said 5-6 hours, looks like it didn't take nearly that long according to his spot. Perhaps his strategy of letting stuff melt an extra few days paid off. We'll have to see what he says tonight. He's cruising super fast and looks like he should make it into Lincoln way before his expected "late night".

This Spot makes following along so much more fun! Anyone ever try to high five a computer screen before? Yeah, didn't work so well. When I saw he was over The Pass, I couldn't help but cheer. I've had nightmares about this dang pass since first reading about it on the Tour Divide blog.

In other news, looks like our friend Dave Nice has given up the good fight. This was his third attempt at the route on a fixed gear bike. He seems to have some terrible luck when it comes to traveling and racing lately, and this time he seems to have come down with a bad cold. Poor Dave :( He still made it a good, long way and we're all proud of him back here in Denver. Chris will be super bummed to hear that he's out, so I'm not sure I'll tell him unless he asks. Chris even made the comment that if for some reason he couldn't finish, he would be want more than anything for Dave to finish. You did a good job, Dave! I can't wait to hear about all of your adventures when you get back to town! (Chris took this picture of me and Dave sitting on the back of the E before Dave's departure. It makes me look miniature :D

Start of Day 4

Chris just called from breakfast and is about to head out for the day. He will try to make it to Lincoln, which I have estimated as about 13 hours away. It is a short day, distance-wise, but will be tiring I'm sure. Hopefully the spot will continue to work better today than yesterday...

End of Day 3

Chris just called from the bar at/near Holland Lake Lodge. This was his goal for the day, so he chugged along 150/160 miles today and made it (the downed trees, he said, were not nearly as bad has he expected)! He ate some steak, potatoes, and dessert and was getting ready for a shower and bed. He sounded pretty good, although tired. He said he was doing great and hopes to make it to Lincoln tomorrow. He will tackle the snowy pass tomorrow morning and keep pedaling along. He had some Achilles tendon pain in his right foot today but is hoping it is gone in the morning. He said it doesn't hurt constantly, just in certain positions. So hopefully tomorrow that will be feeling better and he will make it to Lincoln. He will be starting after 8 am since breakfast is not served until then!

Pictures

This may be a few days late, but here are some pictures of Chris starting off the first leg of this journey. It was a crazy, emotional morning. We were both anxious, excited, and sad at the same time.

Chris's "Scare The Bear" face -- perhaps my favorite picture of all of them. If I were a bear, I'd be shaking in my fur.



The front gear.


Proof that he really left at 10 am on the 16th :)

My mom and I worked hard to attach more padding to his pack straps. It isn't pretty, by any stretch of the imagination, but lots of love went into those stitches!

A practice picture.

The real thing. Lots of cheering going on, echoing through the Canadian Rockies.



There are, of course, more. I will sprinkle them through the rest of the posts.

Latest update: When I talked to Chris in Columbia Falls he was super upbeat. He left from Polebridge around 5am. He had a nice night last night... ate some pork chops and drank a lot of lemonade. He said he was a bit dehydrated but quickly got that under control and slept wonderfully. He fell asleep upon going to bed around 10, woke up at 2 and saw his watch, and easily went back to sleep until he finally got up for the morning. He had some breakfast, but said anything sweet is having a hard time going down. He ate a little bit of coffee cake, had some gels and bars on the trail, and felt pretty good. He did make the comment that he repeatedly feels terrible upon waking up but then he'll eat and drink whatever he can get down and then he feels better.

Chris hit the Whitefish pass early in the morning and got over the snowy part (that other racers had reported took about 1.5-2 hours) in about a half hour. He hit it when it was still frozen and instead of having to hike through, he was able to ride on top of it. He was super excited that he had timed this correctly, and he's hoping to be so lucky on the rest of the passes. He saw two black bears and made the comment that black bears are much more fun to see than Grizzly bears because they don't eat people :D He said they were really cute and "scampered" up the hills. He then zoomed down through Whitefish and had some lunch in Columbia Falls. He wanted to see Dave Nice and try to cheer him up in Columbia Falls, but he needed to get on the road as he had another 100ish miles to go today before his intended stopping point at Holland Lake Lodge.

The boy is truckin'! I couldn't be more proud and excited to hear him so upbeat!