Summer Reduction: Anchorage, AK; Silver City, NM; Las Vegas, NV

Local fishermen and families looking for fish in Ship Creek during the seasonal salmon run, Anchorage, AK.

I spent a full summer in Anchorage, Alaska, working.  Returning from Israel in May I arrived at The Bicycle Shop the next morning to build Lael’s Tour Divide bike.  I started work the next day, rode Lael out of town at the end of the week and then worked every single day until she returned from her ride from Alaska to Antelope Wells, about 50 days later.  Lael spent less than three weeks in town before turning back south toward Bellingham, Banff, and Antelope Wells for her second Divide ride of the summer, the LW ITT.  I worked during most of that ride as well, finally earning a few days away from work as the season slowed.

Less than a month before planing to leave Anchorage for the season, I flew down to New Mexico to meet Lael at the finish of the Divide, at the border of Mexico.  It was nearly– not entirely– a surprise.  

We both returned to Anchorage so that I could finish work for the season.  We sold her race bike, tidied up our affairs, and packed our bags for Interbike and adventure.  I gave the Krampus away to a friend.  Lael is riding a 2×8 drivetrain and platform pedals again, on a rusty bike with a half-dead Reba.  Still she claims it is “a good bike”.  We’ll spend the week in Vegas at Interbike with Revelate Designs, spreading our love for bicycle based adventure.  Thereafter, we plan to pack our bikes and ride into Arizona.  Ok, we might try to hitch a ride after Interbike to St. George, UT.  Anyone from Interbike headed back that way this weekend?  To SLC, Denver, etc.?

Aside from work– and I could write volumes about working in a busy bike shop in Midtown Anchorage– Alaskan summers aren’t bad, even if I didn’t always make the most of the long days and dry trails.

Anchorage, AK

Riding along the Ship Creek slough during salmon season.

Life at the bike shop included lots of late night personal projects, including Lael’s two Divide bike edits, and this custom wheelset for Joe Cruz’s Surly Pugsley, which travelled to Norway this summer for a backcountry ramble.  He finally gave up the fight and moved from doublewall DH Large Marge rims to these feathery polished Marge Light rims.  Thanks to Fatbikes.com for providing the polished Surly rims and lightweight front hub.  I finished the build with butted DT Swiss spokes, gold alloy nipples, and a cheap sealed cartridge bearing Redline hub.  I failed the total lightweight build when I couldn’t find any high-quality 32h hubs in Anchorage, given our short time-frame for the build.

Also from The Bicycle Shop, the analog Tour Divide Trackleaders page, exclusively dedicated to following the LW and LW ITT dots and promoting water cooler discussion about ultra-endurance racing.  This Michelin map of the American West provides a surprising amount of detail.

Strawberries, not nearly as common as raspberries, blueberries, and rhubarb, abundant while we house-sat for Dan Bailey.

I also hosted two cyclists during the summer, this rider from Japan and another rider from France.  I do my best to help some of the hundreds of touring cyclists who pass through Anchorage in a summer.  Recently, I enjoyed the company of Adela and Kris, two Polish riders slowly making their ways round the world.  Check out their travels at biketheworld.pl.

Salmon, even more common than berries in the summer.

Working in a bike shops keeps me close to the “industry” for a minute, as a wave of mid-fat bikes arrive to market.  This Trek Stache+ and the Specialized Stumpjumper 6Fattie FSR are widely lauded, and look like a fun and useful extension of fatbikes.  As fatbike sales eventually stagnate, we will continue to see the influence of large volume rubber elsewhere in the industry.

Long nights leave ample opportunity to play in the city.  This beach is accessed from the end of the paved Coastal Trail at Kincaid Park, or by connecting a series of singletrack mountain bike trails.  This beach is often rideable through the winter.

Salmon over the fire.

Bike rides of various kinds filled my summer, although I only left Anchorage city limits twice.  

Riding to check in with Nate and the family.  It is always cool to see the evolution of his family bike circus.  Elin is riding a Yepp seat on the Big Dummy. 

Her Revelate Designs Feedbag is stocked with Cheerios.

Bill, co-owner of the 9zero7 fatbike brand is training for the Iditarod Trail Invitational, the full 1000 mile distance.  Christina tries to defeat Bill, unsuccessfully.

Riding with Tamra, Lael’s local adventuring partner, and James, Lael’s brother.  They each bought their first mountain bikes this summer.  Bright colors are popular in the industry right now.

Riding to rub shoulders with the after-hours crowd at Speedway Cycles, home of the Fatback.  Greg Matyas is good at keeping the shop stocked with beer.  Greg bought a special bottle to celebrate Lael’s first Divide ride.

 Riding to visit family.

And riding until finally, after midnight, the sun sets in the north.

 

Silver City, NM

On a whim, I bought a plane ticket to Tucson to meet Lael at the finish of her second Divide ride.  I spent the weekend with friends, Lucas and Monica, who recently moved away from Anchorage.

Lucas had just received a Lenz Mammoth, one of several 29+ full-suspension bikes made by Devin Lenz for Mike Curiak.  Two models have been dubbed the Fatmoth and the Fatillac.

We spent the day building the bike and following Lael’s SPOT tracker through the Gila, anticipating storms and her late night passage through town.  While we went riding in the evening on the new bike. a severe thunderstorm rolled in, dropping just less than 3 inches of rain at the Silver City airport.  Only later did I learn that Lael hardly got wet, although there were many signs of flash flooding.

That’s one Fatass rear end.

Gomez Peak Trail System, looking north into the Gila and into a night of thunderstorms.

Silver City is a great old western mining town, still supported in part by several local mines, Western New Mexico University, and a healthy population of local business.

Lucas leads the way around town.  Gotta love a town with a proper main street, this one called Bullard St.

Old buildings.

Local beer.

Gila Hike and Bike stocks Adventure Cycling maps for the Great Divide and Southern Tier routes, and supports a vibrant local cycling community.

Local music, including friends Tim and Chloe, formerly of the Bike Haus in Silver City, also one-time residents of Albuquerque when we lived there a few years ago.

The Bike Haus is locally famous as an informal guesthouse and cultural center for cyclists.  Jamie, who owns the house, rents rooms to a rotating cast of interesting people and on occasion, touring cyclists are invited to stay.  The property is full of bikes and puppets; a Seussian garden encircles the house.  I stayed here back in 2011 on my first ride down the Divide.

I welded a welcome sign at the local Bike Works community bike shop back in 2011, which still hangs from the porch.  That was my first time ever using such a machine, some kind of wire-feed welder.

 

I drove down to Antelope Wells to catch Lael at the finish, arriving a few hours early.  I passed her on the final paved stretch to the border.

Waiting at the end, at the least used border crossing between the US and Mexico.

Helmet hair, round two.  

 

Anchorage, AK

Back in Anchorage we prepare for our next micro-adventure, a trip to Las Vegas for Interbike and a ride on the Arizona Trail.  While Texas was the intended target after the Divide, it was cheaper for Lael to return to Anchorage for a few weeks than to kick around the SW, especially as we intended to go to Interbike.  The Texas situation is somewhat tenuous, thinking about Tucson for the winter.

Lost Lake, Seward, AK

Oh, and carbon frames don’t resist abrasion very well.  Steel and titanium win this division, followed by aluminum.  Carbon comes in last.  But the ride is nice, and light.  

That is a pinky-sized hole in the seatstay of Lael’s Stumpjummper.  I suspect she rode it that way from Lime, MT to the finish.

The chainstay has much more material and for some reason, also features more generous tire clearance than the seatstay.  The frame has been replaced, the complete bike sold to some awesome folks in Anchorage.  Mary walked away with a 22lb gravel shredder, complete with custom framebag and dynamo lighting system.

Mary, the woman who bought the bike, lived in Crested Butte, CO from the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s, and told stories of housing some of the great names in mountain biking on her couch or floor.  Wes Willams of Willets fame– strapped for cash– once paid his rent in the form of a custom titanium frame.  She claims that was frame #3.  Mary painted that frame with flowers.   

 

Las Vegas, NV

This is a familiar task, building bikes and riding away from the airport.  Conveniently this airport is in the middle of the city, although I only packed a pile of bike parts.  My new custom Meriwether frame was shipped to Las Vegas.

To prepare for the show, Eric asked that we make custom Revelate t-shirts.  Lael rebranded her two cotton race jerseys from this past year.  The Alaska Grown tee was a gift from her grandmother, and accompanied her on her second Divide ride.  The Keeping It Real shirt was purchased at a t-shirt shop in Israel and is now locally famous for crushing the HLC route across that country.

Set up for the show.  Friday is the last day of Interbike.  We will be at the Revelate Designs booth 21186 for most of the day.  Otherwise, we’ll be walking around the show jamming our pockets full of tubeless sealant and nutrition bars.  

In an exciting twist, it sounds like Skyler and Panthea will be meeting us this weekend for an extended AZ jaunt.  We’ll all going in the same direction at the same, although we’ve never met and we don’t have any real travel plans.  With little more than a few Facebook messages, we’ll roll out of Vegas this weekend, headed for southern Utah and the northern terminus of the AZT.  The new pink frame is going to get a workout.  Back on the road in 3, 2, 1…  

 

Lael Wilcox completes Tour Divide ITT in 15:10:59

Lael takes her helmet off at the finish.  She arrived in Antelope Wells at 4:59 PM MT, for a time of 15:10:59.  Below, pushing to Antelope Wells.

Lael Wilcox raced the Tour Divide in June.  Arriving home in May from an extended period of bicycle travel, she prepared a bike for the race and rode from her home in Alaska to the start in Banff, over 2100 miles away.  She finished the Tour Divide in 17:01:51, setting a new women’s record despite battling bronchitis for the first week, with lingering symptoms to the finish.  The previous women’s record of 19:03:35 was set by Eszter Horanyi in 2012.

Returning home to Alaska in July, Lael decided that she had the time, energy, and equipment for another fast ride down the Divide, in the same summer.  Again, she prepared her bike and body and left Anchorage for Banff, taking a ferry from Whittier, AK to Bellingham, WA to shorten the distance to the start, this time only about 850 miles of riding.

Following a few days of rest and preparation in Banff, Lael departed on an individual time trial (ITT) of the 2015 Tour Divide route on the morning of August 8, at 6AM.  She finished in Antelope Wells, NM on August 23 at 4:59PM for a total time of 15:10:59.  This establishes a new female course record and the fifth fastest time down the Great Divide Route (Mike Hall’s asterisked 2013 ride notwithstanding). To provide some context, this is five hours faster than Jay Petervary’s 2012 record time of 15:16:04, which stood for three years until the latest record-breaking rides earlier this summer by Josh Kato (14:11:37), Jay Petervary (14:12:03), Neil Beltchenko (14:12:23), Dylan Taylor (15:03:01), and Alex Harris (15:12:09). The six fastest times on the Divide were all recorded this summer.

Naturally, for a race which takes two weeks and covers over 2700 miles of mountainous terrain, comparing rides which happened at different times is not easy, or fair.  But records are kept, and the spirit of an ITT is to achieve a personal goal on the route, and if desired, to record a time which relates to other riders or an overall record. 

Lael reports the biggest challenges of the most recent ride were wheel-clogging mud north of Lima, MT, regular rain showers and thunderstorms all along the route, longer nights, and staying motivated while out on the course alone.

For both rides this summer Lael rode a Specialized Stumpjumper Expert Carbon World Cup with carbon Chisel fork, with Revelate Designs luggage, SRAM XX1/XO1 gearing with 36T chainring, and an SP PD-8X dynamo hub with Supernova lighting.

The details of her ride are recorded on the 2015 Tour Divide Trackleaders page, or link to her personal ride history on the LW ITT page. 

LW ITT Update: Silver City, NM

  
Pushing out of the Gila back in July, under clear skies.  Photo courtesy of Mitchell Clinton, a local Silver City photographer.

Lael pushed hard yesterday to get to Pie Town early, to get through the Gila, over the 8 mile section of the CDT, and into Silver City.  But the weather had a different plan when a day with barely a 10% chance of rain  turned dark and stormy late in the day, sounded the public warning system via cell networks, television, and radio.  I received an automated message to my phone– the first ever– warning of heavy rain and hail, flash floods, winds up to 60 mph, and lightning.  The warning area reached up into the Gila and south toward the border.  The storm arrived to obscure a classic NM sunset, continuing until about 11PM and turning local roadways into rivers.

I watched Lael continue through the Gila roller coaster at night, knowing that most of those roads through the pines are underlain with granite, rocky and sandy, and generally well drained.  Lael reached the pavement and turned up the CDT about midnight, presumably in continuing rain showers.  Her progress was predictably slow, she camped late, woke early and descended the pavement from Pinos Altos to Silver City at about 6AM.  

The airport in Silver City reported just under 3 inches of rain on Saturday evening.  Regular lightning strikes persisted for hours.

I passed Lael on the paved road south of Silver City on my way to I-10 and the border, slowing to take a photo out of the window of my rented Hyundai.  She was riding a series of rollers in the aero position, the back of her black t-shirt faded to a dirty blonde.

I have a cooler full of drinks, a big sandwich, two gallons of water, a bag of grapes, bananas, nectarines, and a box of cookies from the grocery store in Silver City.  I will meet Lael at Antelope Wells later today.  She will finish in less than 16 days, as long as the Separ Road– the final stretch of dirt– doesn’t hold any surprises from the monsoon.

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Pie Town, NM

Lael stopped at the Toaster House this morning in Pie Town.  I spent a night there with three CDT hikers back in 2011. 

Lael camped on the climb out of Abiquiu two nights ago, reporting that as she pushed up the steep technical climb in the dark she fell a few times, once landing on he rib without injury.  Shaken, she stopped for the night and resumed at a faster pace in the AM.  Once descending to Cuba, she hammered the pavement for the rest of the day, covering a total of 220 miles to camp just before midnight.  She began riding at 4AM today along a wide gravel road to Pie Town.  

Daytime temperatures are warm in southern New Mexico, and nights are warm.  Seasonal monsoons– manifest as afternoon thunderstorms– are still in force, although they ebb and flow on a daily and weekly basis.  There may be several clear days followed by several stormy afternoons.  Lael reported minor precipitation on the last few days in NM.  In fact, I think she has seen some precipitation on more than half of her riding days since Banff.  There continues to be a low risk of thunderstorms today, Saturday, while the threat of afternoon rain returns in force on Sunday and Monday.  Lael mentioned several freezing nights in Colorado, including one night when her water froze outside Doyleville and she shivered through several hours of sleep.  That morning she began riding before 4AM to warm up.  I suspect last night was more pleasant, with forecast low temperatures around 50F now that she has left the high mountains.  Daytime temperatures are forecast in the mid-80’s today.

Lael just checked out of Pie Town, arriving 32 hours ahead of the pink LW bubble, and over and hour faster than the male record set by Jay Petervary in 2012.  She has been behind this pace since stuck in the mud before Lima.  If she pushes hard to the border she may stay on pace with this time, finishing sometime on Sunday night.  If she pushes hard, she may be into the Gila by this afternoon if and when any rain falls.  The roads around Pie Town present a high risk of clogging when wet due to the nature of the soils.  The Gila is rocky and sandy, underlain by granite.  If she pushes hard to the border she may stay ahead of Sunday thunderstorms as well.  There is one final section of dirt south of Silver City that could get messy when wet.  From Pie Town, Lael is just over 300 miles to the border.

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Jemez Mountains, NM

Lost in a burn on the south side of the Jemez Mountains with Joe and Cass, October 2012.  

Lael pushed 3000 ft up from Abiquiu last night, climbing fast to catch the final light of day. She continued on the increasingly technical track in the dark, recording similar speeds to many less technical climbs from days past.  She camped early around 11PM after a long day which began at 4:30AM.  Rising at 3:45AM, she finished the climb even faster than she had been moving the night before– still in the dark– eventually connecting to higher quality Forest Service roads on the north side of the Valles Caldera towards NM 126, and Cuba.  Over a hundred miles of pavement extend beyond Cuba toward Grants, an authorized paved alternate to the official Great Divide Route and the de facto Tour Divide route for many years.  From Cuba, there are only 500 miles left to the border.

The climb out of Abiquiu is the tallest single ascent on the entire Great Divide Route, and marks the final major mountain section on the way to the border.  The Gila and a brief section of CDT singletrack near Silver City are notable challenges in the remaining miles.

Lael called very briefly while riding into Abiquiu, the rushing wind of 20mph obscuring most of our conversation.  She said she was feeling good, ready to be finished, and still carrying enough food from Del Norte to get to Cuba, augmented with a few bags of Cheetos from the snack shack in Vallecitos (notably, not much of a town in the middle of nowhere).  Buying cheese flavored puffed corn from tiny roadside shops will always remind me of Lesotho and South Africa.

I’m in Salt Lake City en route to Tucson and Silver City.  I’ll be at the border when Lael finishes.

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Brazos Ridge, NM

Cruising through the Land of Enchantment, circa October 2011 on the Great Divide Route in El Rito, NM.  Lael was riding a Surly Long Haul Trucker at the time, recently converted from drop bars to an On-One Mary handlebar in Santa Fe at The Broken Spoke.  

Lael camped just short of the NM border yesterday, reaching up and over Indiana Pass from Del Norte as daylight faded, and descending to Platoro and beyond into the night.  She woke early this morning to begin riding up Cumbres Pass, then onto dirt and into NM.  We spent a winter living in Albuquerque and like everyone who has heard the jokes about the “Land of Entrapment”, we love New Mexico.  As the miles pile up, I know that Lael is reaching deeper and deeper to find the physical energy and motivation to continue.  Crossing into New Mexico is a homecoming, and also the begging of the end of this ride.  I watched her crawl up to Brazos Ridge this morning on Trackleaders, knowing the kind of chunky New Mexico roads she was riding, and knowing that she was still warming up for the day, in a sense.  But she has found her stride this morning as she descends from the second to last big mountain on the route.  The last big climb and the tallest total ascent on the route is south of Abiquiu en route to Cuba.

I leave tonight at midnight to arrive in Tucson on Friday morning and Silver City by Friday evening.  Lael should be passing through Silver City on Sunday, most likely.  Any ABQ or Santa Fe people want to visit Silver City for the weekend?  My friends Tim and Chloe are playing music in town on Saturday afternoon, I should have a bike to ride, and we can sleep outside.  John, Jeremy, Nancy, Cass, Rusty, Melissa, Wyatt?

 Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Cochetopa Pass, CO

Crazy Larry Melnick is the ultimate Tour Divide fan and SpotTracker, hailing from Banff, AB.  He stalks Lael down to street level to discover that she’s ducked into a bar in Salida, CO.  Or has she entered a nearby shop in search of a headlamp to the replace the one she’d lost the previous night?  Image courtesy of Crazy Larry via Bikepacking.net.

Over Boreas Pass, across the grassy high park of Como and Hartsel, a blazing fast three thousand feet down to the Arkansas River in Salida, and then almost 4000ft up to Marshall Pass to the Continental Divide.  Descending the pass in the dark, Lael camped early as she turned off Highway 50 east of Gunnison.  She awoke at 4:30AM to begin riding over a series of passes toward Del Norte, CO, followed by the famed Indiana Pass, the highest point on the entire route at 11,920ft.  

Lael stopped in Salida to replace a headlamp she lost the night before.  She uses the headlamp to see what she is doing on and around the bike during late nights and early mornings.  In August, compared to the peak daylight of June, nights are much longer.

Lael may cross into New Mexico by the end of the day.

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Steamboat Springs, CO

Lael passes Brush Mountain Lodge in the night, takes food to go.  Photo courtesy Brush Mountain Lodge via Bikepacking.net.

Lael rolled into Steamboat Springs this morning just in time for the bike shop to open.  Orange Peel is one of the most notable shops in Colorado, in part due to its association with Kent Erickson who founded Moots in this space.  Kent has since sold Moots, which is now housed in a larger facility just out of town, and after several years out of the business he is back to building custom titanium bikes in a small work space adjacent to Orange Peel.  The bike shop resides in an aging structure which resembles a tea pot.  

Orange Peel provides expert service to Divide riders and racers annually.  As Lael was walking out the door, one of the employees asked is she wanted any Orange Peel schwag, if she would support the shop on her ride.  She peeled off the hardened wool Patqgonia socks I sent her in Canmore, and replaced them with a fresh pair or black Orange Peel threads, with smiling orange faces on the back side.

The mechanics replaced Lael’s chain and brake pads, and checked the bottom bracket for wear, which is still spinning smoothly since being replaced in Canmore just over a week ago.  I’ve come to learn that the SRAM PF30 bottom brackets housed in plastic casings are not the best choice for a long, demanding ride.  If dealing with a PF30 bottom bracket in the future, I would make an effort to order a Wheels Manufacturing or Problem Solvers unit in a machined aluminum casing.  Assuming the aluminum fits tightly into the frame it should reduce the risk of creaking, and should resist warping the bearings if the BB shell is a little out of round, the most common issue when speaking about “manufacturing tolerances” and press fit bearings.  It isn’t good when you install a fresh cartridge bearings and it feels rough, yet it felt buttery smooth outside of the bike.  That bearing will not have a full life.

Lael rolled past Brush Mountain Lodge last night.  Kirsten was there to talk and prepare some food to go.  A few minutes later, a smiling photo of Lael appeared on the Bikepacking,net forums as she hurried up the mountain.  Brush Mountain is one of a few backcountry lodges along the Divide that provides exceptional support to Divide riders and racers.  

I bought a $400 round trip ticket from Anchorage to Tucson, to arrive in Arizona on Friday and return on Wednesday.  It is hard to spend my hard-earned dollars on a quick round trip flight to the SW– without a bike!– but Lael has earned it and I’m happy to be there to meet her.  If you want to see Lael laugh and cry at the same time, come see us in Antelope Wells.  I’ll be in Silver City for a few days, not sure if ABQ is in the cards, although we may be back through the area in another month of two.

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page. 

LW ITT Update: Wamsutter, WY

Pink dot gains a few hours after her meds kick in, but yellow dot kicks back and races to the border.  Thanks again to GW Neal for his digital artistry.  GW is a friend through the bike community in Anchorage, and the sole employee at Fatbikes.com, which is responsible for 9zero7 fatbike sales over the internet.  GW recently underwent a kidney transplant.  This week, he is cranking out a solo bike tour in Maine to coincide with a friend’s wedding.  GW is a huge inspiration to both Lael and I, and to the Anchorage bike community.  

Lael called in from Wamsutter, reporting light rain.  She rode quickly from Pinedale to Atlantic City.  She recorded one of the fastest times of any rider on that section earlier in the summer as she had wasted two hours at the outdoor store in Pinefale updating her GPX track to include the Wamsutter reroute.  Following a quick stop in Atlantic City yesterday she continued to fight headwinds from the south through the late afternoon and evening, camping early, well before midnight.  She rose early to take advantage of the still, morning air.

Compared to the times of this year’s Tour Divide race, Lael is pacing between the fastest male finishers and the pink dot version of herself, the energetic wheezing version.  She lost almost a half day in the mud before Lima, which is a quantifiable setback but also greatly reduced her excitement as she had been pressing close to record pace until then.  Another few days of lingering rain hasn’t helped morale, although roads have been passable.  This morning, she sounded good and was looking forward to sunny skies in CO and NM.  She was looking forward to finishing.

I haven’t told her yet, but cheap flights to Tucson might enable me to meet her at the border next weekend.  It would be a little out of character, but I would rent a car to meet her, spend a day or two in Silver City with friends, then we’d both fly back to AK before leaving a little later in the season.  I am obligated to work for a few more weeks.  I have never owner a car or rented a car, although I did drive for a few years in high school.  Lael only has a driver’s license so that she could legally operate a pedicab in Key West, FL back in 2008.  Don’t ever let her drive your car– not that she will want to– she’s a terrible driver. 

Hoping for clear skies and dry roads through CO and NM.  

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.

LW ITT Update: Pinedale, WY

All images from Tents and teepees; the Great Divide Basin from my ride from Alaska to New Mexico, 2012.

Lael arrived at Flagg Ranch yesterday in pouring rain.  She continued through the afternoon over Togwotee Pass and up Union Pass, and mostly, the rain stayed away, returning as a series of showers through the night.  As she rode in the dark in the forests and meadows atop Union Pass, adjacent to the tall peaks of the Wind River Range, she was surrounded by lighting.  At about 2AM, she had descended off the pass and into the valley, and bivvied under a sign, which provided some additional protection from the weather.  She stopped in Pinedale to resupply at a real grocery store, and slammed a kombucha and a bottle of kefir on the spot.  Today she rides along the western edge of the Winds, around the south end of the range to South Pass City and Atlantic City, and into the wide open Great Basin.  She should be in Colorado tomorrow.

Lael describes a “career server’ at the Togwotee Mountain Lodge yesterday.  She walked in, browsed a tidy display of candy and chips, and asked the bartender if they had any quick food.  “How fast? 10 minutes, 15, 5, 2?” 

2 to 5?

French dip, pork sandwich, and quesadilla.

I’ll take the pork sandwich and the quesadilla.  And can you wrap that in foil?

Follow the yellow LW bubble on the Tour Divide 2015 Trackleaders page.