whitefish to ovando

Well it was a rather big day today ! We had set ourselves the goal of Whitefish through to Holland lake- 180kms away. There wasn’t much between the two places and there seemed to be a reasonable amount of tar seal and flatish riding at the start (70km)

We headed out of whitefish at 6.40am and had an easy ride through to Columbia Falls. There we had our 1st highlight of the day - a micro bakery- it was devine! I could have quite happily stayed there for the day ! After a very yum hot fresh from the oven pastry cinnamon and sugar scroll we headed on our way again, along with a couple of other goodies to keep us going for the day . 

We biked through a lot of populated countryside with huge houses and were all struggling a bit with motivation after such an awesome ride the day before. 

The next stop of the day was at a cafe on the corner of the road we were biking down near Big Fork. A bowl of French fries later and we were on our way again, 50kms down- 120 to go!!

Another 20kms on and we headed off the seal and into the forestry roads which would be our home for the next 95kms! There were few highlights and we all had to work really hard to keep moving forward - it wasn’t the terrain that was difficult just the mind today !

Three highlights from our ride through the forest were a man cutting up the huge tree that covered the track after the “climb” for the day 

All the TD riders before us would have had to lift their bike over this plus several others but we had been fortunate that he’d cleared the others and this was his last big one, he very kindly cut a ring out so we could push our bikes through!! 

The next highlight was a small snake ( you know the long red licorise twists you can get from dairies at home?) about 30cm long , I gave a scream as I cycled past and it jumped in fight! No photo sorry but we did stop so everyone else could have a look. The third highlight was a turtle on the track randomly - and I didn’t manage a photo of this either as it crawled too quickly into the long grass to hide. The rest of the trip was filled with monotony and a bit of music to try and help things along ! We arrived at Holland Lake about 10pm exhausted and glad to be done for the day - here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow!!

Friday morning brought excitement for me as we were headed for Ovando! I have read and heard some many great stories about this place that I was super excited to get there. 

We headed out of camp and started climbing almost straight away which was good as it was still a bit chilly at 7am. We were headed for the top of the Richmond pass at approx 2000m, and rumour had it there was snow at the top. It was a steady climb but not too steep and the view just got better and better ! 

And surprise surprise there was snow at the top ! It started off gradually and then got thicker as we moved around the side of the pass. Once we had pushed through the snow we were treated to some fun single track riding which was even fun on a heavily laden touring bike! Was a nice mostly down hill for 20kms to Seeley Lake for lunch and resupply. 

We found a great spot for lunch on the lake edge with a food caravan making fresh burgers - yum!! 

After a quick lunch and stock up of food to go we headed back into the hills and towards Ovando. It was a nice ride over rolling country forestry trails with a couple of wee lakes mixed in and then we dropped out of the forest and finally there was a break from the constant pines trees and we had grass!! Very exciting moment

When we got to Ovando there was a party getting started and it was awesome!!! The whole town (pop 50) plus more had turned out to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the GDMBR.  There was a guy riding the TD this yr with his guitar and playing in spots along the way and we timed it by perfect accident that he was playing in Ovando! Was a great night and really reinvigorated us all after a few hard days. 

Looking forward to the next few days !