Day two of the GDMBR and our first crossing of the Continental Divide!

After ending Day 1 at 7 pm at an impromptu camping location, with a “No Camping” sign, we awoke the next morning at about 7 am and departed camp around 945 am. The campsite was located about 200 yds off a sometimes busy, and always dusty road.

Just as we got to the road, a Park Ranger came by —- busted. She asked where we camped for the night, and we explained that while we intended to camp in a designated, area, we ran out of time and energy (JD!) and just couldn’t go on. She was sympathetic and gave us some friendly advice and sent us on our way.

After quite few miles on that dusty road, with cars speeding by at 40 to 50 mph, we then started a strenuous climb to our first Continental divide crossing. The climb was sometimes too steep to ride – in fact too steep for even unloaded mountain bikes, let alone our heavily loaded rigs.

But eventually we crested the ridge and then began a long mostly- downhill descent to a beautiful primitive campground along a great stream, which was our source for replenishing our water (using our water filters) as well as a location for getting cleaned up!!

The sun sets up here at about 9:30 pm and the glow in the sky lasts past 10:30 pm but we got to bed about 10 pm and enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

Totals for day 2: 37 miles and 3,000′ climbing

Our first crossing: Elk Creek Pass:

A VERY dusty road:

Beautiful scenery!

Great trails: