For once in one of these communal sleeping arrangements I was the early riser so went over to the cafe for breakfast to avoid making too much noise as I packed everything up. Spoke to a couple who were doing the ride with their three year old, pulling him in a trailer. Pretty amazing stuff, although I don’t envy them on some of the sections they have to come. 

 

Rolled out of town and quickly into the forest. Although this is an active logging forest so doesn’t make for the prettiest ride - especially with other sections burnt out, presumably from forest fires. I took a slight detour to Seeley Lake for some lunch, the usual gas station rubbish. I’d managed to lose a bolt on one of my panniers on the roughness of Lava Mountain so was pleased to see a proper hardware store attached to the gas station. Found a bolt and nut that seemed to fit and then had a slightly surreal experience. When presenting my items to the cashier I was met with ‘You want to buy these? How much are they?’ I resisted the temptation to suggest that it was her job to tell me that and instead we stood and stared at each other rather blankly. I eventually suggested I’d go and find out - which required asking another member of staff to decipher some code. All this for a grand total of 20 cents. I appreciate most people are probably not buying single items but it doesn’t seem beyond the rounds of possibility that her confusion seemed to display. 

 

Back into the safety of the forest away from other humans and the route turned into the first extended section of single track. Although I was initially cursing the number of fallen trees I had to lift the bike over, it became a pretty cool track hugging the side of the mountain with a steep drop on one side. There were also lots of blind corners so I had my phone playing music at full volume, accompanied by my terrible singing, to warn any bears of my arrival. Thankfully no bears, or, more embarrassingly, other cyclists. The final section towards Holland Lake was through some beautiful, diverse forest - much nicer than the regimented and sterile plantation forest of the morning. 

 

Opted to stay at Owl Creek campsite, which is another horse orientated site but was free and had water and toilets so was a pretty nice spot. Was joined by a German guy called Mario who was on quite an adventure of his own. He’d ridden from Seattle to San Diego before flying back up north to head down the Divide trail. Whilst in SD he’d also had his bike stolen only to use a GPS tracker to run after the thieves and retrieve it himself from a homeless person’s tent. After setting up he proceeded to pull out a full camping stove and make himself a steak and fried potato dinner. So many people on this route have near-identical equipment set ups and are following very similar schedules, so it was refreshing to meet somebody just doing things their own way! 

 

Legs were pretty tired today so it was good to have a bit of an easier one to try and recover.