Section 1 Rooseville Montana to Polaris MT - D7

06/16 Day 7, Montana  Lincoln, Marysville, Helena. Clancy, Basin  (102 Miles)

Hmmm.  My hand written notes say “Jesus Christ!” in the margin.  I am sure I did not meet anyone by that name ;)

I felt pretty sluggish this morning with dinner still sitting like a rock.  We found a cute art gallery/coffee shop for a quick cup o joe.  Never enough time.  As it was, I wish we’d left earlier. 

From Lincoln we take yet another snow detour – the Lincoln-Helena/Clancy-Basin MT detour. 

My recollection is that to lower the climbing weight, we did not take much water leaving Lincoln.  We had a CD crossing at Stemple Pass (6376’) and perhaps the store noted in the cues was closed.  For whatever reason, we needed water in the next “burg”.  

Marysville is a barely surviving 1870s ghost town with ramshackle structures, some abandoned, some not, in support of a nearby mine.  There was a bar, closed, and a promising looking house.  I knocked on the house door but no answer.  I had leaned my bike against the side of the house to transfer water from a bottle – my last, into my bladder for easier drinking.  STB was similarly fiddling near by.  Then a young girl came out of the bar, using her car remote control to set off her car alarm (that we were in no way close to).  She demanded to know why we had a bike leaning against her house.  I apologized and explained that we had stopped to ask for water while at the same time moving the bike.  She told us she could not help us and to get off her property. 

Nice.

Well, just around the corner, humanity is redeemed when a couple just out driving stopped and gave us 2 bottles of water. 

We soon hooked up with the S. Africans and had a fun, paved, down hill run. 

It was just STB and I when we hit Helena.  A guy named Mark stepped out into the road and flagged us down.  “Are you the Sheilas?”  No matter how many times we got called that, it was always a fun surprise.  Mark had been tracking us and just wanted to say hi.  What a cool welcome to town.  We were then tracked down by a local bike shop guy who wanted to make sure we knew he was available if we needed any work.  We headed for food and ended up at a nice sandwich shop downtown, the Green Iguana.  While there, a couple came in and said they were following the SPOTs, worked next door and saw our bikes so came in to say hi.  Really, how cool is that?

From Helena, the roads were a low grade consistent climb for about 15 miles to the Clancy/Comet detour.  There was nothing in the put-together-at-the-last-minute detour cues to indicate what was to come.  The cues only noted lefts, rights, road names and mileages.  

Ah, yes.  Now I remember.  Jesus Christ lives in the Comet Ghost Town and you have to climb over Hell and back to get there. 

Wickes Rd and High Ore Rd.  Some roads for the books for sure.  And we climbed.  With literally breath taking views, the “road” got steeper and steeper.  The folks from Austin will recognize the reference “The Hill of Life”, only several miles long.  For not the first time on the Tour Divide, I was reduced to tears.  Determined, I did manage to ride parts of a couple of the many crazy steep pitches but walked, pushed, carried for miles. 

Looking back on High Ore Rd.

Cresting High Ore looking back at the route climbed

The Comet Ghost Town is just over the crest of High Ore Road.  By now the sun is setting and taking any warmth with it.  The S Africans immediately stop and get out of the clothes drenched with sweat from the hours of effort and put on warmer layers.  STB and I follow suit.  The S Africans left first so it was just me and STB on the ride into Basin. 

The long cold descent from Comet eventually led to a dirt road along the Boulder River.  We made a quick stop to see if the phone would work and indeed it did.  We called a place with cabins and after asking the directions, the very nice people running the place said they would drive down to meet us and lead us back the complicated route to the lodging.  So we rode on.

Then we heard yelling.  Screaming really.  Louder as we continued along the river.  We eventually came across this young (20 something) girl in a tank top, jeans and flip flops just yelling her head off as she walked.  Of course we asked if she needed help or wanted to use the phone.  She just kept yelling.  We figured she was on something but it was way too cold for someone to be out like that.  We left her but told the couple from the lodging about her and that someone should call the police. 

Our lodging turned out to be a cluster of mobile homes; ours a 2-1.  Not fancy but had a shower, kitchen and heat.  Hot tea was never so good.  What a day.