• Day 2: We woke up on our own, without use of an alarm.
• We had a dry night with good solid sleep and a good breakfast.
• We may never know if we had camped on Private Property or NF Property.
• Almost immediately, we started climbing the hill for Huckleberry Pass and we missed our one and only one opportunity to top off our water at a creek.
• As it would turn out, there was no more water at all before the pass.
• All creek beds were dry. We ran out of water.
• We only saw two vehicles all day. We saw one vehicle early on, a couple in a sedan; they reported the closed bridge to us. They had been out picking Huckleberries but the crop was weak this year. The second vehicle was a truck and we stopped them near the pass to ask for water. They obliged with three bottles of water (details inside) - Thank You Truck Guys!
• As soon as we crossed Huckleberry Pass, there was spring water and we topped off our water bottles. There was plenty of water in the lakes, ponds, and creeks on the Leeward/eastside of Huckleberry Mountain (but not on the windward side, very strange).
• Closer to Lincoln, in Helena NF, we did cross over a creek with a closed bridge under repair. Some Dutch Riders stopped to help us. Thank You Netherlanders!

Day 2 - Night Camp near Helena NF, Huckleberry Pass, to Lincoln,
Montana; August, 2015

Above Left: We woke up dry, refreshed, and without an alarm. It was chilly. Dennis packed the interior tent items (2 sleeping bags, a Thermarest Twin Mattress Pad, 2 pillows and cases) into the green waterproof bag. Terry is making coffee and breakfast, in that order.

Above Right: Terry is making coffee and breakfast, in that order. Terry does not drink coffee..

Above Left: The tent is struck (pun).

Above Right: Packing the bike, all morning activities are completed (breakfast, medication, cleanup, packing).

Above Left: Ta da.

Above Right: No trace.

Above Left: Our one and only warning that the Road is Closed Ahead. We were to follow NF-4106 most of the day (it's on the sign).

Above Right: Open Range ahead, we cross the open cattle guard. The gate is closed, which usually means that Cattle are in that field.

Above Left: Huckleberry Pass, 8 Miles, Turn Right. 23 miles to Lincoln, our destination for today.

Above Right: The road performed some turns that are not indicated on the map.

Above Left: We've turned north again.

Above Right: Happy Campers!

Above Left: Rainbow.

Above Right: We're back in the woods again.

Above Left: At last, we had found NF-4106, Montana; we would be on it all day.

Above Right: This bridge crossed the only water that we will saw until we went over Huckleberry Pass.

Above Left: We did not know it but this would be our one and only chance to obtain water until we went over Huckleberry Pass. We will almost run out of water before cresting Huckleberry Pass.

Above Right: Confirmation that we are still on the correct road.

Above: We were climbing NF-4106 for Huckleberry Pass.

Above: We were still climbing NF-4106 for the initial assent.

Above: That valley floor is the same area that we pedaled through last evening. We are at the high point of our zigzag initial climb up of the switchbacks on the west side of the Huckleberry extrusion.

Above Left: We took our morning snack break and applied sunscreen.

Above Right: We finally got over the initial mountain side climb and we can see Huckleberry Pass in the far mountain gap.

Above: This is an unusual deciduous tree; it is dropping root branches like a swamp tree. We are at about 5,500' altitude on a mountain side (hardly in swamp country).

Above Left: We still had 4-5 miles to go before the pass.

Above Right: We were on NF-4106, heading eastward, looking toward Huckleberry pass but we would not cross for two more hours.

Above: Our side view, looking northeast to northwest (near Huckleberry Pass, Montana).

Above Left: Still climbing. We were looking for water and saw none. We were running low on water.

Above Right: Here, we had crossed to the north side of the east-west valley and we are looking back at the valley road that we just cycled. We had really expected to find water in that area but all creeks and ponds were bone dry.

Above Left: Our back-trail.

Above Right: Our fore-trail. We had one cup of water remaining between the two of us and we had been rationing the water since we were down to one bottle. We have always found water on mountain sides, until now.

Above Left: One last peek at the west side valley before crossing over Huckleberry Pass.

Above Right: We saw a truck returning from the other side of Huckleberry Pass and we stopped the truck to ask for water. They had no reservations at all and the driver reached back into a cooler and the driver pulled out 2 bottles of water for us. We drank it almost immediately and they asked if we wanted more, I think that we accepted one more bottle. We thanked them profusely.

The two men were out camping with their wives over the weekend and they had decided to go Huckleberry picking. Apparently this area usually has a lot of big Huckleberries but this was a dry year, the pickings were slim, and the berries were small. We thanked them for the water again.

As it turned out, we were about 1/2 mile from cresting the pass and there was an active spring about 1/2 mile over the pass.

Huckleberry Pass, Montana
NF-4106

Above Left: Dennis and Terry Struck at Huckleberry Pass, Montana, on NF-4106; August, 2015. That sign is the only signage there. We ate lunch here.
Bad News and Learning Lesson: I lost the gorilla pod (camera tripod). I seem to recall that I set it on top of a pannier, meaning to put it away after lunch. Apparently I forgot about it and probably lost it riding down the trail.

Above Right: Huckleberry Pass, Montana, 5,996'/1728m - The big picture.

Above Left: Our view to the northeast from near Huckleberry Pass.

Above Right: Heading down NF-4106 from Huckleberry Pass.

Above Left: Another glimpse looking northeast on NF-4106.

Above Right: Heading down NF-4106.

Above: Looking northeast from NF-4106 on Huckleberry Mountain. By-the-way, there are a few Huckleberry Mountains in Montana.

Above Left: NF-4106 turned north (it is a mile long switchback).

Above Right - WATER: We came across a cold mountain spring and stopped immediately to tank-up our water supply. Had we not met the Truck Drivers and asked for water we would have been OK, but that was a very smart thing to do. I did not know it but Terry had a Dehydration Headache. We did make the right call to ask for water.

Above Left: It is a cold water spring that runs for about 30 feet (10 m).

Above Right: Terry is putting away the last filled water bottle. We filled up our water bottles using a MSR Water Filter and Chlorine Dioxide drops (kills viruses).

Above Left: We stayed in place, had a small snack, and we enjoyed the view.

Above Right: This Dutch Couple, riding the complete GDMBR, stopped to chat with us. We had a pleasant conversation. They went on ahead, but we would meet again at the Bridge that was under construction.

Above Left: Arrastra Creek (it is not on our GDMBR Map).

Above Right: We were at the big turn. Down inside the curve, we heard a large animal moving away from us. We did not bother to investigate.

Above Left: It was not all downhill on NF-4106 but a lot of it was.

Above Right: NF-4106 (Montana).

Above Left: It is called Reservoir Lake.

Above Right: Advancing down NF-4106.

Above Left: Dennis and Terry Struck, enjoying their Tandem Tour on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, near Reservoir Lake, Montana, on Helena's National Forest Road #4106.

Above Right: Cycle On.

Road Closed, Bridge Out, Bridge Under Construction,
Barriers to Bicycles and the Dutch Come to Help!

Above Left: We were pedaling down (east) NF-4106, Montana.

Above Right: We had found the Closed Road for the Bridge Construction (NF-4106, Montana).

Above: The Old Bridge was Totally Missing. Down below were Channel Guards to control and direct the Creek Water Flow. We did have to go through that muck. The contractors had spray painted a suggested pathway, we took it.

Nearly as we could figure with no signs, this was likely Yukon Creek.

Above Left: Well, we knew the drill - Take everything off the bike.

Above Right: Our Dutch acquaintances helped us move our bike components. They had just gone through this process and they were about to depart when we showed up. They remained to help us.

Notice: On the ground, behind the Dutch Lady, there is remnant florescent orange spray paint arrows that are recommended trail directions (which we used).

Above Left: Dennis walked the unloaded bike. It was difficult moving the bike down and up the slopes.

Above Right: Terry is holding the bike for the picture. This is the terrain that we had to maneuver through.

Above Left: This is another picture of the Dutch Couple that helped us re-locate or bike and its tour load.

Above Right: This is a picture of us re-loading our bike. We still made another mistake, there was one more log barrier to get across, we did not realize there was another barrier because there was no log barrier on the other side.

Above Left: We still had to carry our long tandem bike across this barrier log.

Above Right: We finally cleared all of the obstacles. We were now ready for GDMBR Touring!

Above Left: Here we are, pedaling down NF-4106 towards Lincoln, Montana.

Above Right: We crossed a creek.

Above Left: The Road Closed Sign for the other side.

Above Right: Heading southeast on NF-4106.

Above Left: The trees are starting to get sparse.

Above Right: We arrived in the low lands; we're seeing fewer trees and more cattle.

Above Left: More cattle.

Above Right: NF-4106 continues.

Above Left: This is the end of the forest on southbound NF-4106.

Above Right: We're on the grasslands of NF-4106, now also called Beaver Creek Road.

Above: We had arrived at Montana State Highway 200, a left turn (east) will lead to Lincoln (our destination for this travel leg).

Above Left: Cycling east on Hwy 200, Montana.

Above Right: Entering the City Limits of Lincoln, Montana.

Above Left: Eagle Art in front of Bushwhackers.

Above Right: Terry is in front of the Eagle Art at Bushwhackers (bar and restaurant).

Above Left: Bushwhackers extends an invitation to 'Bikers'. I don't think that they had us in mind but we were welcome there.

Above Right: The only picture of an empty bar. Within an hour the place was full.

Overall we had a Grand Adventure and we completed another leg of the GDMBR.

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