July 6, Day 11

Lincoln, MT to Deadman's Creek (roadside camp off FR 774): 31 miles, avg speed: 6.7mph

It’s a cold start, 40 degrees F so a latish breakfast at 8am in Lincoln, at Lambkins. For some strange reason, Lincoln seems to have a dearth of waitresses. Well, we assume that is the reason service in restaurants here is so sssslllloooooowww. We are lucky to be out by 9.30am. Another quick stop at the espresso hut where we discover second hand espresso machines cost $5,000 and you need to be open every day at the hours you say you are open. Interesting.

A right at the blinking lights in Lincoln, and off we go, up for our first crossing of the Continental Divide (one of 24).

The first 12 miles are deceptively easy to climb and we figure the guide book must have it totally wrong when it says the last 4.4 miles are very steep. How wrong can we be? We turn off the main forestry road to Stemple Pass and immediately the road turns into a rocky 15% grade beast which requires us to dismount and push.

A little further on, we can get back on and then the route becomes a water obstacle course, requiring us to navigate puddles that cross the entire way and also streams. The puddles muddy up the bikes but then crossing the streams acts like a bike wash. After the fun of stream crossings, it begins to rain again but this time we are wise enough to put on our rain gear immediately rather than waiting until we are saturated like yesterday. The route becomes steeper and steeper, so that we have to get off and push, push, push up, being able to cycle a few hundred yards from time to time.

Finally, we meet up with the Stemple Pass road at 2pm hungry and exhausted, to be greeted by a guy giving us a message that our support crew had just passed through 10 minutes ago. We gobble up turkey and cheese sandwiches and have a quick brew of Starbucks coffee, Amazing how this simple act can revive limbs that were completely dead to the world just minutes ago.

We are now virtually at the top of the first Continental Divide crossing on our route.  Just a side jaunt off our route on FR 485 D1, and we find the Continental Divid Crossing sign.  Of the 24 crossings we will do on our route to Mexico, we have been told some signs are missing, but we are very happy to see the first marker right in place.

After a quick hello to the cows gaurding the CD crossing, and a photo stop, we are swooping down a great descent, 10 miles to Little Prickly Pear Road, then a left turn to Lost Horse Creek Road. There is a dark cloud following us and finally it catches up with us. Raincoats on again. At 4.30, we come across 2 cyclists who are cycling the Great Divide north from Mexico to Canada. They are heading to Lincoln for the night, the same place it just had taken us 6.5 hours to get from! Let’s hope they are good climbers!

We take a quick map check to see where the campground is which should be a right turn off route on FR774 coming up soon, but bike brain gets to us and the only thing the three of us can remember is a left.  It didn't help that the FR774 had no forest signage posted. 

We went a mile or so down the road and no sign of the support crew so we flag down a pick up truck coming towards us. The truck doesn’t seem to want to stop, but does eventually halt. When it does, we can see why. A eight year old boy is driving the truck, albeit assisted by dad in the driving seat, who hurriedly makes sure the parking gear is selected. We suppress the urge to giggle or comment why an eight year old is driving and simply ask where Deadmans Creek Campsite is. Dad replies it is in the direction we have just come from but there is no designated campsite there. About turn, we reverse and finally figure out where the campsite is, thankfully signposted by Debbie's hibachi grill. Apart from a few choice cow patties, it is a great campsite, right next to a creek and a good supply of wood for a campfire. Deb & Judy cook up a storm of BBQ chicken, baked potato and fried squash and zucchini, followed by Lincoln cookies.

PS For those trying to find Deadmans Creek campsite in future, the Support Crew have kindly marked up the FR774 correctly - thanks Deb!