SUMMER 2011: MY GREAT TRANSAM DIVIDE ADVENTURE - STORY AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL MCCOY
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Summer 2011:
My Great TransAm
Divide Adventure
Story and photos by
Michael McCoy
F
In the summers of 2011 and 2012, ive days before my planned Grant, Montana, where the GDMBR
Great Divide Mountain Bike Route departure for a ride on the meets Montana State Highway 324,
Great Divide Mountain Nancy dropped me off, along with
architect Michael McCoy revisited
Bike Route (GDMBR), and a Fargo 29er loaned to me by Salsa
the trail by bicycle. In 2011, he set one month before my 60th birth- Cycles and my seriously overload-
out solo and self-supported before day, the dreaded “it” landed in our ed BOB trailer. I watched her drive
meeting up with friends and their mailbox: My first-ever senior-citizen away, then pedaled off.
SAG truck several days later. In offer. Adding insult to injury, it came Having been there before when
2012, Mac and a group of 11 others from Sunset Magazine. I took it as a researching the GDMBR in the
sign. mid-1990s, but at the wheel of a
rode the Canada section of the
“Sunset schmunset,” I told my Jeep Cherokee and not aboard a
Great Divide. His report on that wife Nancy. I knew I had made the self-propelled Fargo 29er, I knew
trip will appear in the March 2014 right choice, and that it was time to I was headed solo into some of the
edition of Adventure Cyclist. hit the trail. Just east of miniscule emptiest reaches of sparsely
populated southwest Montana. And that
Lewis and Dillon AB
felt great. Clark Trail SA
RO
MONTANA
Grant
I pedaled eastward for four miles Lemhi
Pass Red Rock
K
A
along a stretch of pavement that’s note- Pass
Yellowstone
Big
RA
Lima N.P.
BI RAN
worthy in the context of the Adventure
NG
hor
TT
Cycling Route Network because it’s the
n R
E
ER GE
.
O
only place where the GDMBR and the
O
Grand
T
Teton
Lewis & Clark Bicycle Trail share the N.P. W Dubois McCoy’s Route
same route. Had I pedaled west instead, IDAHO IN
D
RI The Great Divide
in about 20 miles I would have crested e
R
.
VE
ak Great
R W YOMING
Lemhi Pass, where, on August 12, 1805, R
Sn
A
Divide N Lander
Captain Meriwether Lewis and a small Route TransAmerica Plat te R .
G
E
h
Trail
scouting party first crossed the Atlantic City
rt
No
Continental Divide, going from Lou- South
Pass
isiana Purchase lands into those still
Gr
e
Great Divide
en
claimed by European nations. A jubilant Basin
Rawlins
R.
Lewis wrote that he had finally reached
MARTHA BOST WICK
“the most distant fountain of the waters Great
of the mighty Missouri.” (He hadn’t,
Salt
Lake
although one can certainly understand
the mistake.) 0 100 miles UTAH COLOR ADO
Steamboat Springs
Bidding adieu to the tracks of the
Corps of Discovery, I turned south onto
the Big Sheep Creek Back Country than described in Cycling the Great ing wildland must appear pretty much
Byway. These Bureau of Land Man- Divide. (Who wrote that guidebook, any- as it did a century and a half ago. When
agement (BLM) lands seemed even way? Oh, that’s right, I did). I huffed and I closed my eyes, I could almost hear the
emptier and more remote than they’d puffed — and yes, even dismounted and horse-drawn freight wagons storming
seemed back in the route-research days, pushed — up much of the final steep through. When I opened them again, I
no doubt because I now sat aboard a mile to the watershed divide. could almost see the trail of settling dust
slow-going rig “powered” by a senior The historic route I followed was part reminding me of their passage.
citizen rather than in the red Jeep of the Corinne-Bannack wagon road The only, and I mean only, motorized
Cherokee I used to research the route. connecting the early Montana gold fields vehicles I encountered all day were two
And the ride to the Medicine Lodge–Big with the Union Pacific railhead in Utah. motorcycles heading north. Their riders
Sheep Creek Divide? Way tougher than It seemed to me that, even today, in the didn’t stop to chat, but I’m guessing
I remembered, and definitely harder age of constant connectivity, this sprawl- they, too, were riding the GDMBR; in
A surprisingly international affair. Ramsey Bentley (center) and Teri Lund (right) visit with Rolf, from Denmark, who camped next to us at A&M Reservoir.
14 ADVENTURE CYCLIST D EC EMB ER /JA N UA RY 2 01 3
recent years, the route has garnered a The chain on the Fargo kept jumping mid-1930s, primarily in an effort to help
following among dual-sport motorcycle off the chain ring and getting jammed. the trumpeter swan make a comeback.
enthusiasts. Several times I had to stop and turn Due largely to hunting of the bird and
I set up camp alongside Big Sheep the bike upside-down to get it back in the draining of wetlands, the Greater
Creek in the dark, having (1) gotten gear and running again. Something was Yellowstone Ecosystem population of
started later than intended, and (2) taken amiss, but with my shamefully basic trumpeters had plummeted to around
longer to cover the 50 miles than expect- mechanical knowledge, I couldn’t figure 200 birds by the early 1930s, and it was
ed. Truth be told, I was dead tired, and I out what. A couple of times, I feared the only viable population remaining
sensed some possible saddle-sore issues.
On to Swan Nirvana BEFORE I KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING, I WAS
Accepting the reality that I’d been ON MY HANDS AND KNEES WITH A PIERCING
undertrained and overoptimistic, I cov-
ered just 17 miles on Day Two — stand-
PAIN IN MY LOWER-RIGHT ABDOMEN.
ing out of the saddle almost the entire
way due to mitigate the saddle-sore would have to push for 20 or 30 miles. in the entire U.S. Today, more than 500
issue. That would’ve been a huge bummer. of the big, white trumpeters live full-
I grabbed a motel room in Lima, But I wasn’t forced to push, and after time in Greater Yellowstone, and some
Montana, then shopped in Ralph’s Exx- pedaling up to the Red Rock River, I 4,000 more come in from Canada to
on and Convenience Store for two days’ found it flowing well beyond its banks, winter on and around the region’s open
worth of provisions (think jerky, juices, another spin-off — make that runoff — waters. The prolific refuge is also home
and instant noodles). Just like when I’m of the deep mountain snowpack. to a veritable Noah’s Ark of other bird
driving past Lima on I-15 and see the Soon, the big empty gave way to species, as well as to big mammals like
rustic football field off to the east, I had the wonderful mosaic of mountains moose, elk, bear, and pronghorn.
this urge to do some touch-up work on and wetlands that is Red Rock Lakes After covering 57 hard-earned miles
the painted “Lima Bears” scoreboard National Wildlife Refuge. The federal from Lima, I reached the no-fee Upper
sign making it the “Lima Beans.” Soli- government created the refuge in the Lake Campground. The place is drop-
tude breeds self entertainment.
At Jan’s Café, I devoured a delicious
bacon cheeseburger and an order of
fries, and struck up a lip-smacking
conversation with a Tour Divide racer
from Switzerland. 16 days into his ride,
he had covered about one third of the
route to Antelope Wells, New Mexico.
He talked mostly about the detours he
and the other riders had been forced
to make due to the deep snowpack that
remained from a hard-hitting winter.
“The route it is very spectacular,” he
said. “I regret that I have to ride some-
times in the dark.”
I would think so.
It wasn’t dark when I set out in the
morning, but it hadn’t been light for
more than 10 or 15 minutes. The route to
Lima Reservoir, 14 miles from town, ran
first through an area of ranch hayfields
and pastures, where the magic light of
the rising sun illuminated both cattle
and cowpokes. Beyond those, I returned
to an empty landscape devoid of human
activity, over a surface of hard-packed
clay that made me doubly appreciate the
plentiful sunshine and absence of rain.
During the day’s first 35 miles, I encoun-
tered two fewer motorized vehicles than
I’d met the day before.
ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 15
dead gorgeous and the spring water
gushing from a pipe there tastes four
times as good as any bottled water I’ve
ever paid money for. For that matter,
my dinner of jerky and instant noodles
tasted pretty good, too.
Awakened by a pre-dawn harmon-
ic dissonance of calls, honks, songs,
tweets, hoots, howls, yips, and squeals,
I found it easy get on the road at first
light. And I wasn’t the only early-bird.
After only two or three miles, I spotted
a couple riding toward me on a fat-tire
tandem. Upon meeting, we all stopped,
and as we chatted about this and that,
a nagging sense of familiarity gnawed
at me. One thing led to another, and we
NUTS & BOLTS McCoy’s Great Divide
finally concluded that we were long-lost
THE ROUTE Lander: Gannett Peak Sports, gannettpeak acquaintances. They were Dr. Greg and
The stretch from southwest Montana to sports.com/Home.html Susie Rice from Libby, Montana, a cou-
northern Colorado is one of my favorite Steamboat Springs: Orange Peel Bicycle ple Nancy and I knew from when we
segments of the Great Divide route. (My two Service, orangepeelbikes.com. lived in nearby Troy in the early 1980s.
other favorite segments are from southwest
They had been linking together the
Montana to Canada, and northern Colorado WHEN TO GO
to southern New Mexico.) The guidebook I Because of the clay surfaces along several
Montana portions of the GDMBR over
wrote, Cycling the Great Divide, first pub- stretches of this part of the Great Divide, hot the course of several summers, and
lished by The Mountaineers in 2000, finally is better than wet. July through September is with their daughter driving a support
went into its second edition just last fall. It best, June and October chancier. truck, they were headed for Lima over
and the seven map sections detailing the
the final segment of the route they had
route are available through Cyclosource. And, GEAR
although I’d hoped to stick to the Great Divide left to tackle in Big Sky Country.
I don’t particularly like to cook when camp-
all the way, the snowpack prevented me from ing. No-fuss food items I carried during the The sky indeed loomed very large
doing so. As it turned out, I really enjoyed self-supported part of my journey (though on this particular day, and appeared
my paved interludes on the TransAmerica not all at the same time) included Starbucks exceptionally beautiful. With the high,
Bicycle Trail. The maps for it, the granddaddy Via Ready Brew coffee packets, buffalo jerky, snow-topped Centennial Mountains
of cross-country routes, are of course also instant noodles in a cup, Snickers bars, ba-
available through Cyclosource (adventure standing against the spread of blue
gels, packaged roast beef, M&Ms, chocolate
cycling.org/cyclosource-store). bars, salami, parmesan and cheddar cheeses, heaven on my right and the refuge
apples, oranges, carrots, mixed nuts, torti- wetlands stretching to my left, I soon
LOGISTICS AND WATER llas, peanut butter, Goldfish, Fritos, pretzels, crossed Hellroaring Creek, the elusive
On a route that is remote and unpopulated Twizzlers, tuna (in bags), dried fruit, trail mix, “most distant fountain” of the Mis-
by design, the Big Sheep Creek Back Country granola, and milk powder.
Byway in Montana and the Great Divide Basin
souri River that Captain Lewis never
As far as clothing goes, I loved my Ad-
in Wyoming are two of the Great Divide’s venture Cycling long-sleeved jersey and my did lay eyes on. I paused to inhale the
most isolated and least populated sections. I Ibex wind vest. I packed along my fly rod and fragrance of pine wafting on the cool
tackled the Big Sheep Creek section solo, but tackle, but high water precluded good fishing. morning breeze and to meditate on the
it is not necessarily something I recommend A Katadyn Hiker water filter came in handy soft sound of mountain water gurgling
doing; for instance, I could have been in deep twice when I was forced to drink question-
doo-doo if my kidney-stone episode had
over rock and sand.
able water. My canister of UDAP Pepper
happened out there rather than in the town of Power bear spray was never deployed, but it Either I was getting in shape or the
Dubois. Surface water is generally available served as a nice security blanket. Perhaps my climb to 7,120-foot Red Rock Pass and
on the Big Sheep Creek Back Country Byway, most treasured piece of equipment was my the Continental Divide was easy. (I’m
but not so much in the Great Divide Basin. MSR headlamp — I don’t know how I ever got thinking the latter.) Leaving Montana
Read the information about water availability along without one when camping all those
on the route maps carefully in advance of
and entering Idaho, I spied the distinc-
years. My BOB Ibex trailer tracked faultlessly,
heading out. Same goes with camping: except in one particularly strong crosswind. tive profile of 9,866-foot, tower-topped
although you can overnight virtually And what can I say about my Salsa Fargo Sawtell Peak, a lonesome remnant of
anywhere on BLM lands, certain spots are 29er? I wish it were still in my garage and the rim of the Island Park caldera. Like
far superior to others as far as camping that I hadn’t had to return it to the company. several other natural and man-made
conditions go. You can read my reviews of the Fargo and the
features in the area, the mountain is a
BOB Ibex at bikeovernights.org, under “Gear
BIKE SHOPS Reviews.” namesake of Gilman Sawtell, the first
Jackson: Hoback Sports, hobacksports.com/ Anglo who settled here. In 1868, he set
articles/bicycle-tuning-repair-pg64.htm. up home and shop on Henrys Lake,
where he raised cattle and took fish
16 ADVENTURE CYCLIST D EC EMB ER /JA N UA RY 2 01 3
from the lake, including monster lake trout that he caught by spearing. Sawtell shipped much of his bounty north by horse-drawn wagon to the Montana gold camps of Alder Gulch (Virginia City) and Last Chance Gulch (Helena). Having received reports that snow lay deep across the Grassy Lake Road at the north end of the Tetons, as well as on Union Pass west of Dubois, I turned left to leave the GDMBR and circle around Henrys Lake. My alternate route would take me to West Yellowstone, where I’d jump onto the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail and follow it through Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, and onward to Lander. Back on the GDMBR route at South Pass, not far from Lander, I would meet my friends Ramsey and Teri from Laramie, and we would press on as a sagged mini-group. More Les and the Accidental Hitchhiker In West Yellowstone, Les McBirnie at Yellowstone Bicycles fixed what turned out to be a bent derailer hanger on my Fargo. I found this to be amazing. Not the bent hanger part, but the Les McBirnie part. That’s because 37 years earlier, in 1974, he came to the rescue when Nancy and I passed through West Yellowstone on our cycle tour from Seattle to northeast Wisconsin. That time, a faulty freewheel on Nancy’s Peugeot UO8 needed to be replaced. The ride through Yellowstone and Grand Teton was more enjoyable than I’d anticipated, with the only really nasty stretch (narrow shoulder and heavy traffic) being the 20 miles from Yellowstone’s Grant Village to the South Entrance. (One day, the National Park Service will improve the cycling in all of Yellowstone. I can feel it coming.) Not surprisingly, I met quite a few other riders along this stretch of the TransAm Trail. I noticed that with the Fargo’s big tires and the heavy trailer in tow, I rode quite a bit slower than those outfitted with skinnier tires and panniers, but that was okay. It gave me more time to savor the scenery, and, unlike the others, I could return to the gravel any time I pleased. A couple of TransAm riders had told me not to miss the pizza at Leek’s Marina on Jackson Lake, so miss it I ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 17
did not. I could still taste the pepperoni and onions as I made the turn at Moran Junction to commence the long pull up Togwotee Pass — and the subsequent long descent into Dubois, where I opted for another motel room. It was the Sat- urday of Fourth-of-July weekend, and it was hot, noisy, and busy in town. And I really needed a shower. Late that evening, I watched Frasier reruns in the motel room while worry- ing over what promised to be a swel- tering 75 miles to Lander the next day. As it turned out, my trepidation was for naught: I rode to Lander in the cool of the night … in an ambulance. Before I knew what was happening, I was on my hands and knees with a piercing pain in my lower-right abdo- Load it up. The Great Divide support vehicle with everything needed to smooth out the bumps. men that felt like I’d been stabbed with a Bowie knife. Next thing I knew, I was head, as so often she does. I remem- ter hitting the Safeway for some grub, we in the bathroom hugging the porcelain bered that my friend and Adventure headed out to a nice BLM campground throne. My appendix? I hoped not. But Cycling life member Ray Hanson and near South Pass and Atlantic City. regardless, I understood that it was a his wife Mary lived in Lander, so I good thing I was in a town. Okay, a town figured I would have a place to stay and Into the Great Divide lacking nighttime medical facilities, but recuperate for a couple of days. (Ray, The Great Divide Basin was as still a better place to be than out wild now retired from the BLM, served as spacious as I remembered, and riding camping like I had been the previous an invaluable resource when we were through it as special as I knew it would few nights. Soon after a quick 911 call on mapping the GDMBR route through be. It even greeted us with a relatively my cell phone, I began the long, bumpy Wyoming’s Great Divide Basin). And rare central Wyoming gift: still air. ride to the Lander hospital, where I Nancy would be driving from our place Early on, we detoured to the Willie spent the night in the emergency room. in southeast Idaho to Denver the next Handcart Company site, where, in 1856 (Having tried it, spending the night in day, so it would be easy for her to go via more than 50 Mormon emigrants died the emergency room in Lander, Dubois, grab my bike and gear at the after being trapped by a severe October Wyoming, on Fourth of July weekend motel, and swing through Lander to get snowstorm, and where Elder Gardner, is not something I would recommend. the gear back into my possession. the missionary on site, let us try our Absolute insanity.) After cheering on Ray and Mary in own hands at pushing a handcart. It seems I’d passed a kidney stone, the annual Lander half marathon on July These backwaters of the West pro- and it wasn’t my appendix at all. First 4, and then riding out with Ray to visit vided a surprisingly cosmopolitan travel one ever. Too much hard work right out an Adventure Cycling TransAm group experience. After camping our first of the gate, and too much dehydration? camped south of town, I felt ready to night along an actual running stream “Probably,” said the doctor. ride again. The next afternoon, Ramsey (another Great Divide Basin rarity), we Serendipity then raised her lovely and Teri swung by to pick me up and, af- ran into a couple from Scotland early 18 ADVENTURE CYCLIST D EC EMB ER /JA N UA RY 2 01 3
the next day. Their south-to-north ride LOOKING BACK
along the GDMBR was capping a very
GREAT DIVIDE:
long journey begun months ago in South
America. That evening, at A&M
Reservoir, we camped near Rolf, where
THE ORIGIN STORY
we met a Great Divide thru-rider from
Denmark; and the next day, we encoun-
tered a hardy Dutch rider outside
Rawlins. It sure seems as though Euro- In the July 1994 issue of do the research for our new moun-
peans have discovered the GDMBR. Adventure Cyclist, we ran a two- tain-biking route.
South of Rawlins, we inched our page spread, written by yours truly, Before this could happen, he’d
way up out of the desert and back into under the headline “Ready for the had to convince his bosses — the
a mountain landscape replete with Longest Mountain Bike Trail in the Adventure Cycling board of direc-
streams, aspen stands, and vast spreads World?” tors — that it was something worth
of beautiful Colorado columbine. The It began, “Imagine mountain funding. Consider these words from
riding on these almost traffic-free gravel biking from Canada to Mexico, longtime board member Matthew
byways was incredibly enjoyable. through some of the most stunning Cohn of Helena, Montana, written
Our final day of riding took us landscapes on earth along dirt roads to me in June 2010:
through a gorgeous rural area near and two-tracks reserved for the “Mac, the board of directors at
Steamboat Lake, before hitting the occasional fisherman’s rig, Forest the time went out on the limb to
Clark store for ice cream and pavement Service pickup truck … and Adven- approve the use of Adventure
for the quick zip into Ski Town USA. ture Cycling mountain bikers.” Cycling’s meager resources to de-
Teri drove ahead as Ramsey and I ped- In the story, I explained the ori- velop this trail. It took two or three
aled on. Oddly, we soon saw her riding gin of our dream of an off-pavement meetings to get everyone on board
back toward us, but it wasn’t Teri — it route paralleling the Continental and take the leap of faith in you,
was my wife Nancy dressed like Teri, Divide and why we wanted to make Gary, and the staff. To focus our ef-
appearing out of nowhere. Nancy led us it happen: “Historically, cycling forts on a non-road trail ‘back in the
into a parking area off the road where enthusiasts have done one or the day’ was taking quite a chance.”
we were flagged down by the Bag People other — either loaded up with pan- We set out with the grand notion
— family members of mine from Texas niers and camping gear, that is, and of creating a route for promoting
and Denver, including my 94-year-old lit out on the open road, or headed off-road touring, hoping to attract
mother, all there to surprise me and help into the hills on a mountain bike for both mountain bikers and road rid-
celebrate my 60th birthday. (The paper a day’s ride on dirt. Very few have ers, because we thought it sounded
bags over their heads is an old family toured off-pavement carrying a full like a good idea. A known market
joke too obtuse to try to explain here.) complement of gear. We want to for a bikepacking route simply
I pumped into Steamboat Springs change that.” didn’t exist in 1994.
feeling stronger, faster, and fresher than The dedicated mountain bike But then I thought, “What if
I had in years. “There’s nothing to whip wasn’t created until the late 1970s, it turns out nobody wants to ride
you into shape like being on the road but the concept and application of the thing?” What if dirtlubbers
for 17 days,” I yelled at Ramsey, “even if “mountain biking” goes back much ask, “Where’s the singletrack?”
it includes a detour to the emergency farther. It was, in fact, the original and roadies wonder, “Where’s the
room.” style of bicycle travel. pavement?”
That night, the 16 of us partied at the The Great Divide, a culmination Build it and they will come. No,
condominiums Nancy and my mother of these factors and many more, it’s already built; the roads and
had rented. There was plenty of fun and was simply something destined tracks are all there. We just need to
feasting, from cherry pie (my favorite) to happen: a natural step in the tell riders where they are and make
to HOSS Rye Lager (my second favorite) evolution of bicycle touring. Call it them relatively easy to find.
out of Denver’s Great Divide Brewing atavistic progress, or progressive Okay then. Connect the dots,
Company. Not a bad way at all to enter atavism. map it, promote the dickens out of
the realm of senior citizenship. But it wouldn’t be an easy sell. it, and they will come.
I had talked my boss, Executive Maybe. And they have.
Director Gary MacFadden (who For a full account of the process
Michael “Mac” McCoy was the driving force behind helped come up with the idea of the of creating the Great Divide Moun-
Adventure Cycling’s Great Divide Mountain Bike
Route. His contributions to Adventure Cycling
Great Divide in the first place) into tain Bike Route, go here:
Association and Adventure Cyclist over the years cutting me loose from the office and adventurecycling.org/mccoydivide.
are incalculable. He is also the author of Cycling the my position as Adventure Cycling – Mac McCoy
Great Divide from Mountaineers Books. Association’s Assistant Director to
ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 19You can also read
