PEANUT BUTTER MUD

DAY 3 - WHITEFISH MONTANA - Waking under a train bridge. 



Never mind ascending three mountain passes and putting in 210  in one day and night, the peanut butter mud was the challenge of the day yesterday. Everything on their bikes starts to shut down. Tires won't turn, derailleurs seize and your shoes gum up. But they made it to Whitefish, Montana and managed four hours sleep. Seems to be their average amount of sleep they are going with. There are some forerunners going with much less, and one they think hasn’t slept yet— he’s going for a record. 


Tim’s shifter wire snapped so that was the quick stop in Fernie for repair. I asked him what’s their waypoint was for today? He laughs saying he doesn't know yet because that they both lost their manual cheat sheets that they had attached to their bars out front. They didn’t even notice when they fell off. I’m told some of the descents were epic, high speed rocky and muddy, and they were whaling down them. But have no fear because Dave has the electronics dialled with the online mapping.



The scenery is said to be beautiful. No bears, just lots of grouse and they saw a moose. They're really enjoying the social. Places they pass through people come out and cheer them on. One place after the mud had sign boards out saying “free bike wash”. 

Tim says they’ve likely established their group that they are in pace with now. He’s enjoying meeting people from all over the world and they all jive in pace back and forth so he figures these will be the people they’ll end with, if they do?  They slatted 21 days as their target but at times are wondering if that’s going to be a reality or not, but they continue to give it their best shot, be in the running and tag the Mexican border fence by the end of June,  


Tim said his only weakness may be his bike. He’ll just keep rebuilding as needed and hope for the best. He laughs again telling me people are all over the trails fixing flats and tearing down their bikes to fix them so it's all part of the list of challenges. 


Pushing for 200 today. I think I'm confused when Tim is talking to me. I guess I need to do the map math or dial in on Dave's tracker side panel detailing info online. It has a wealth of information on it. Their tools are in Standard but Tim may be speaking Metric and I have no time right now... being kicked out of my campsite. Blogging on the roll. 



TRACKER FOR FOLLOWING - Dave and Tim - Look for DR

:http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide23i.php?name=Dave_Rutledge


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Comments

  1. copperland@hotmail.comJune 12, 2023 at 1:42 PM

    Great stories! Thanks for updating us Becky. I've ridden in that muck, luckily for only an hour and i was able to walk out and clean up. Can't imagine what Tim is going through!

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