• Day 0: When we had pedaled into Helena (from Lincoln, Montana, on the GDMBR), we had a short list of things to fix or adjust on the tandem. One item was that one or more of the Captain's Sealed Crank Bearings sounded like it needed replacing. The Front Brake Cable had too much slack before engaging (Right Side handle grip on this bike, it was setup like a motorcycle), and the Left Stoker Crank Arm had come loose on the day that we rode into Helena from Priest's Pass. We did tighten the crank bolt (8mm hex) but the small bicycle tool did not have the long torque arm of a shop tool, it still needed tightening and/or replacing.
• We took the bike into a Bike Shop in Helena but they did not have the time to fix the bike that day (I never had a chance to mention the crank bearing issue). So we just negotiated to have the front brake issue remedied. We find no good reason to mention the bike shop's name.


• Day 1: The cycling day started pleasant and sunny but it ended in a horrible rain storm.
• As the day progressed we noticed the telling sign of increased haze from forest fire smoke. Each of the next three days would have worse visibility than the previous day.
• By the time that we reached Butte, Montana, the smoke was so thick that it had reduced visibility to two to three miles (from 100 miles visibility just days previous). The smoke had started causing Terry's Asthma issues to flair (Breathing Issues). We had to depart Montana because of the poor air quality (too much smoke), so we transported our bike and equipment to Wyoming. Visibility was in the 10 to 15 mile range in Wyoming (Flagg Ranch, see next adventure) but we could breathe OK in Wyoming so we decided to resume the GDMBR there.
• We had problems with our 15 year old Water Filter; it had started ejecting more water as it was pumping through the filter. We took it to an REI and found the store's Water Filter Specialist and determineed that replacing the filter cartridge probably was not going to fix our problem; the specialist felt that our O-Rings had worn out over time and that we either needed a new system or we could mail in the old system and maybe get the Rubber O-Ring seals replaced in 2-3 months. Since we were actually on a bike tour we could not wait for the O-Rings to be replaced, we bought a new filter system at REI right then. We hope that the new water filter system lasts as long as the old system.
• Sometime around mid-day, we caught up to our new Friends (Luca and Paola, Italy). We shared greetings and discovered that they had seen our bike in the same shop that they had visited for some minor adjustments. They too had needed some bike adjustments. We made a loose agreement to try to meet at the same camp on that night. We did make an effort to find them at Park Lake, Montana, we rode completely around the campsite road looking for them or their bikes but we never saw either (they arrived before we did). We kind of wish we had found their camp because we spent another 2 hours on the road (one hour of wasted time) and we found ourselves caught in a terrible Thunder Storm (which never came near the Park Lake location).
• We lost an hour of travel time just looking for the correct trail road out of Park Lake. We had stopped a guy in a pickup truck on the trail road and he told us that the road that we were on (which was correct) was a forest road that dead ended in a few miles. What he should have said was that he and his truck could not continue, while hikers and cyclists could continue. That little misinformation cost us our evening camp setup time and placed us into the peril of a Thunderstorm that we would have missed had we NOT spent time back tracking to find the correct road to Basin, Montana. Oh well, Karma...

Day 1 - Riding from Helena to a Roadside Camp just south of Park Lake, Montana

- Departing Helena -

Above Left: This was our Hotel Room in Helena; it allowed us to dry out the tent and ground cloth and to re-supply.

Above Right: Upon riding out of Helena, southward, we saw what at first looked like a Mosque but it was the Helena Community Center.

Above Left: Famous Helena Monument, an Old Fire Watch Tower.

Above Right: Old homes from the original Helena Mining Era.

Above: History about Chinese Merchants in the West and a picture of the Yee Wau Brother's Establishment.

Above Left: The white sign on the lamp post is displayed on the next picture. I so wanted to go up to the sign and add a Right Arrow (it sits centered between two road choices).

Above Right: The only sign for the Great divide Mountain Bike Route that we have ever seen (at least so far, 70% complete on the GDMBR).

Above Left: Grizzly Gulch Lime Kilns Story.

Above Right: Grizzly Gulch Lime Kiln remnant.

Above Left: Lime Kiln Structure - No explanation.

Above Right: We were starting to leave Helena Proper (southward in Grizzly Gulch).

Southbound in Grizzly Gulch, Montana

Above Left: We ran out of Tarmac quickly (unintentional selfie).

Above Right: For bike touring, this was a super highway. Most of this day's road was in very good shape for bicycle touring.

Above Left: A nice home with a brook crossing.

Above Right: Polished Stainless Steel (homemade) Mail Box.

Above Left: We were still southbound on Grizzly Gulch Road.

Above Right: Our course was validated. We wanted to camp at or just beyond Park Lake (this day's destination, 16+ miles).

Above: We took our morning Snack Break here.

Above Left: We stopped for a little water break and this little dog came up to visit with us. There seems to be a home every now and again.

Above Right: Southbound on Grizzly Gulch Road.

Above Left: Southbound on Grizzly Gulch Road.

Above Right: Sun Flower variant.

First Pass
(Between Helena and Basin, Montana; Un-Named)

Above: This unassuming hill top became our First Pass crossing of the day (un-named). We stopped and ate Lunch here. We would also enter the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest around here.

Above: That's the 'Bee', a da Vinci Tandem, fully loaded and self contained for touring the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route at an un-named pass entering the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (Montana) from the north.

Above: The view downhill and the looks of a typical outback Montana sign (if left standing).

Above Left: This is Mountain Lion and Bear Country; they eat Deer and Elk when they can.

Above Right: The view downhill.

Above: Montana.

Above: We were navigating south toward Park Lake, Montana.

Above: We had ridden out of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest into an un-named mountain community.

Above Left: That was an old shelter or mine entrance which is now used as a maintenance shed.

Above Right: NF-4000 Road.

Above Left: Cat Peeper Rocks.

Above Right: We're stopping for a snack. We had just passed by our Italian Friends who we last saw about 3 days ago (while we were riding downhill). We greeted each other and made arrangements to possibly meetup at Park Lake. They had already passed us going uphill by the time of this picture.

Above Left: The Timber Industry was working and they drove Kenworth's.

Above Right: We're climbing again on NF-4009.

Above Left: We're still climbing but here we were in the shade.

Above Right: A Kenworth pulling freight.

Above Left: We're still climbing again on NF-4009.

Above Right: We had to stop, forwhatever reason Terry's left-side crank-arm came loose. We tightened it but all we had was a short multi-tool 8mm key and even though I stood on the end of tool to tighten the bolt, it would come loose one more time.

Above Left: We're re-entering the National Forest. We are at GDMBR Mileage Marker 143.8 (miles from Seeley Lake).

Above Right: Riding uphill in Montana.

Above Left: Climbing on NF-4009.

Above Right: Side view.

Above: Park Lake, left 2 Miles (our route), NF-299 right.

Above: We think this was where we went left and NF 1879-A1 went right.

Above: Climbing up to the turn-off for Park Lake.

Park Lake, Montana

Above, Several things going on here:
1. We went to the lake to look for our Italian Friends and we could not find them, their bikes, or even other tent campers. The campground was full with motor vehicle campers, usually there is a 'tent only' campsite but we did not see it. We did see tent campers but none of them had bikes.
2. We never found our Italian Friends.
3. We were also low on water and we had planned to resupply our water here or in the neighboring area, so we did resupply our water at an old fashioned manual pump. We had not operated a pump in at least 20 years, it took a while to get the pump going, in fact it took long enough that we got worried wondering if it was actually operable.
4. The time was about 3pm and we had another 6 hours of sunlight remaining.
5. Given all of the factors, we decided to pedal on.

Above Left: This was the beginning of where things went to heck. All of the road signs were missing or removed. We took a left turn out of Park Lake on a road that matched our map. The photo was from the high road above Park Lake. It turned out to be the correct road but we would bike this segment twice.

Above Right: NF-1879-D1, maybe.

Bad Advice, We Turned Around, The Big MISTAKE

Above Left: Park Lake overview. We met a rock hound hammering on a rock. Those guys usually know there way around the back-ways. We asked if he knew if this road went to Basin? He said the road ended in another mile or so. So we turned around.

The BIG MISTAKE: The road did end for him in his truck BUT the road continued for bicycles, motorcycles, and snow mobiles. The road was, in fact, the back-way to the Town of Basin, Montana

Above Right: We had heard road construction activity just above our location, so we pedaled a mile or so on our back trail to discover if that was the proper road for us to take (given that all of the signs had been removed). Terry went up to a Construction Crewman and asked him about the roads, I stayed with the bike. Terry discovered that we had been on the correct road at the beginning and the Construction Crewman explained everything to Terry. We had wasted about 2 hours of time during this process.

Above Left: It started sprinkling It was difficult to determine if we were on the edge of a storm or it we were going to be in a storm. We wanted to get onto the proper GDMBR course, so we suited up and began to return to the proper route.

Above Right: See, it looked like we were going to ride out of the storm - WRONG!

We Successfully Returned to the Proper Route, the GDMBR

Above Left: It was still Sprinkling and we were mentally ready to pull off the road if it got worse or we could keep pedaling if it remained the same.

Above Right: It was officially raining!

Above Left: We were looking for a tree to hide under.

Above Right: We found a tree, and then the lightning started.

Above Left: The pine tree kept the majority of the rain off of us. The storm had turned into a Cataract.

The NEXT PROBLEM was that we cooled down from our own exercise and the outside temperature had dropped to the low 50s (10-11c). Terry broke out a Space Blanket and we wrapped ourselves in it; it seemed to help, if nothing else it kept the wind off us

Above Right: Terry was putting away the Space Blanket. The exterior of the bike was soaked but the interior goods remained dry. We keep our clothing in waterproof dry bags.

By this Time, We Were Only Looking for a Place to Camp

Above Left: The road was wet, it had new run-off trenches, and it had major puddles (even more tomorrow). We would be riding on wet roads for the next half day, even though the sun came out. Well at least the Fire Danger was Zero around here. We were looking for a place to camp and could not find the slightest pull-off to pitch a tent.

Above Right: We were running out of day light, so we stopped and pitched the tent on the roadside.

Above Left: We finally rode into the sun and it felt good. We decided to deliberately camp on the road side and take advantage of the sun's warmth and drying power.

Above Right: Terry started the Dinner Process, I pitched the Tent and filled it, and we hung out clothing to dry.

Above Left: Drying the Space Blanket.

Above Right: The Kitchen.

Above Left: Our camp picture, just before turning in.

Above Right: The last picture of the day, a Sun Worshiper appeared - It was a good sign!
We made sure that our food was secure.

The day went well until we departed Park Lake toward Basin, Montana. We were given some bad advice which cost us time but more importantly we would have completely missed that evening's Cataract. Never the less, we were prepared and we actually fared well given all of the travel that we had completed without road signage. Tomorrow will even be more technically challenging.