TD Days 4&5

A good start from Whitefish with a breakfast at Loula’s cafe then back on track. The morning started fine, and I stopped briefly at Columbia Falls for some re supplies. Then came the rain. I stopped briefly at a cafe near Echo Lake, but avoided the cafe with the same name as it looked busy and decided to push on to A Bar slightly off route in Ferndale. I made slow going of a meal of chicken tenders and fries. I’m making the rookie mistake of getting my fueling strategy wrong. The nuts and trail mix isn’t going down too well, and I found myself craving, but being without, real food. The distance between resupply points is feeling much longer than I’d expected. Possible also I’ve pushed too hard in the first few days and started to pay the penalty. While I’d hoped to get to Holland Lake, I ran out of steam at 9:30pm and ended camping with an ITT rider from Hachita. Deep in bear country!! 163km for the day.

After a very very cold night in which I survived the night without any bear encounters, I made a start at 6:30am, now deeply in calorie deficit. I knew it was going to be a short day to Ovando, but it still took me an age, with the body not responding at all. I struggled over the pass that day, with more wet snow, rain and a very cold descent. I couldn’t eat and really felt awful. I eventually made it to Ovando at close to 4:30pm, and tucked into two ice cream sandwiches (huckleberry flavour) and a cold coke. I’d planned to call it a day early, and took the advantage of the hospitality of a local church. Showered and clean I got a great meal at the local bar, Trixies. 118km for the day.

Day 5 was full of negative thoughts, so I’m going to need to pull back the mileage, or take a rest day (in Helena maybe?) if I’m going to keep going.