Today we rode from Eureka, Montana, US to Red Meadow Campground, Montana, US. Very sunny weather with little clouds and 10 drops of rain. Road conditions included paved roads, gravel roads, and gravel road with sharp edgy rocks. Highlights of the day climbing Whitefish pass and Red Meadow Pass, camping at Red Meadow Campground.
Riding statistics: on Saturday August 6, 2022, the 6th day on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route route, it took 09:36h (07:59h moving time), between 08:27 and 18:03, to cover 99 km (62 miles), including 1615 m (5299 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 12 km/h (8 mph). During today's ride the average temperature was 24 °C (78 °F) with a minimum of 15 °C (60 °F) and a maximum of 46 °C (122 °F).
Totals: So far, it took 1 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes and 51 seconds of cycling time to cover 549 km (341 miles), including 6428 m (21090 ft) elevation gain, with an average speed of 14 km/h (8.7 mph).
Leaving Eureka
We got up way before our alarm clocks, and prepared for today’s ride. We also visited the Montana Market, a grocery store so we could buy some proper food for the next two days. When walking to the groceries store, all buildings in the main street where hanging quilts in front of their buildings. It apparently was a special day in Eureka. When we started our route for today we immediately got to climb. First on paved roads, later on gravel roads, which at certain moments became jeep tracks. So far we had normal gravel, or gravel with larger and large pebbles, all with smooth edges. Only concerns were the rims. Today we had those rocks that have been split into sharp pieces. That was the road surface for quite a long time, especially in a large steep climb of several kilometers. Not only was damaging the rim a concern, this now even more applied to the tires with these sharp rocks. The scenery however was stunning. Just after noon we had passed Whitefish pass and started a decent. Today relatively slow because of the sharp rocks.
Lunch at Tuchuck Campground
We targeted to have lunch at the Tuchuck Campground, some kilometers after the Pass we just climbed. This campground is a location where some other were met in Eureka planned to stay the next night. However, that would not happen, there was a sign that there was an angry bear active in the area. We only ate lunch there, met some other from the earlier night in Eureka, and cycled on.
Red Meadow Campground
Climb to Red Meadow , 12 difficult miles, where we had to climb over 250m in the last 3 kilometer. It was nice to see we ended up with a group of 7 cyclists of which 5 knew each other from previous days. We cleaned ourselves in the Red Meadow Lake, ate dinner together, and went into our tents. The mosquitoes were horrible, and once the sun was behind one of the mountains, the temperature dropped significantly.