Tour Divide: Day 05
Ride time: 6:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m. (15.5 hours)
Miles ridden: 57 on-course + 8 off-course = 65
Total on-course miles covered: 447
From the Notebook
- Woke up late: ~6:20.
- Got lost and two miles off course; then six miles off route to buy food.
- Mostly off-road.
- There were so many fallen trees, and some piles were so tall I had to throw the bike over.
- Snow! Postholing six inches. Side of cliff was very exposed. Had to kick steps.
- Transferred the SPOT satellite-tracking device (that was uploading my position to the Internet for everyone to see in real time) to my body from my bike in case one of us (me or the bike) went off the cliff.
- Very slow going.
- Followed tire tracks in snow: good thing, because otherwise would have not known where to turn.
- Saw jacket and bottle on trail. Was it left by Matt as “emergency gear?” I left a note speculating such. Turned out (as I’d find out after the race) they were lost by Mike Dion!
- Camped by creek where I also got some water (treated with Portable Aqua chlorine dioxide tablets).
- Afraid of bears so left bike by tent with blinkers on.
