Riding the Great Divide Trail. Day 7

Riding the Great Divide Trail. Day 7. Lincoln to Helena.

In the two-day section from Lincoln to Helena, we were aiming to camp in the public lands of the Helena National Forest.

This day would be our first crossing from the west to the east slope of the Rockies.

We bought pasta for our dinner and filled Jamie’s various bags with other food, like bagels and cheese slices. Jamie’s supply of trail food and Power bars was getting low.  We supplemented that with Fig Newtons to eat on the ride.

I carry my trail food in a ziplock bag in the back pocket of my jersey

Someone had said this could be a difficult section to track. We should be careful to match the odometer to the waypoints in the guides and in the gpx files downloaded from the Adventure Cycling website.

We reached the divide at sixteen and a half miles after some difficult terrain up so-called Poorman’s Creek. The open desert-like slopes told us we were over the watershed.

Our guide book had said there was a spring just over the divide. We found it and we filled our bottles, using the purifier that Jamie had recommended as a precaution against the cold water parasite called Giardia, which is carried in the feces of wild animals.

Then it was an easy ride downhill to the public parts of the forest where we camped in open ground off Lost Horse Creek Road.

I cooked this time.

Jamie said he wanted to listen to some music for a while and he sat for an hour or so on a log just up where the trees started.