The Great Divide - Shelter In Grizzly Country

Oh, a storm is threat'ning

My very life today

If I don't get some shelter

Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

Gimme Shelter, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (1969)

Inside the Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter looking over maps for tomorrow's ride.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

I like bears, including grizzlies. I just prefer not to sleep in their pantry.

For the 20 nights in grizzly country on my Great Divide ride, I slept inside a hard structure 7 times, a tent at a developed site 12 times, and a tent dispersed in the forest just once. In contrast, my next 30 nights, I camped at a dispersed site 12 times.

Those numbers directly result from our approach to overnight shelter in grizzly country. Where possible, we are determined to sleep inside a structure or at a developed campground, even if it requires a shorter or a longer day than we might otherwise prefer. It works for us.

We slept inside in variety of structures, including a private man-cave garage, the Ovando Jail, the Alpaca Inn at the Lost Llama Ranch, the Basin Community Hall, the Big Hole Community Church in Wise River, the Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter near Union Pass, and one motel, Jan's Cafe & Cabins in Lima. In addition to bear bins, many of the developed sites for tent camping offered other nice features like potable water, power, and picnic tables. As an unexpected bonus, the people we meet while staying at these places add greatly to our Great Divide experience. That alone is worth it to us and it keeps me looking for similar opportunities later.

Here's a summary of all seven of our nights inside a structure in grizzly country.

4. The garage is pure Trail Magic. I had to post about that experience. see Trail Angels Marlene & Paul. 

6/7. The Ovando Jail and Lost Llama Ranch are scheduled in ink on my pre-ride plans and we just make those happen. I had to post about two of my must-stop overnights. see Small Town Stoke and Five Acres Of Kindness. 

9. I know in advance of the Basin Community Hall, which we hit at the end of a long, hot day of climbing that culminated with infamous Lava Mountain. Exhausted, we burst into the Silver Saddle Bar & Cafe just 10 minutes before their grill closed at 8:00 pm and they happily prepare some big burgers and fries for us. They also manage the Community Hall, which they open for us with a $5 donation. We follow their recommendation to sleep on the padded benches lining the long walls of the Hall. 

11. We learn of the Big Hole Community Church from a remarkable group of three young North Bound Great Divide riders that Paul calls Boyz-to-Men. I did not write down their names, but their ages were 23, 22, and 16. Notwithstanding their youth, here they are in the middle of Montana, nearing the completion of their Great Divide ride. Based on the Boyz-to-Men intel, Paul knocks on the door of the parsonage next to the church and the pastor's husband simply tells him to let yourself in and make yourself at home. It's great to be indoors that night, screened from the heavy smoke from large forest fires raging nearby.

14. Cold, driving rain dogs us to Jan's Cafe & Cabins in Lima, although it takes some persistence and patience from Paul to get that room. Like many small businesses along the way, Jan's is operating very short staffed, is scrambling to close the cafe and prepare for breakfast, and had told others they had no vacancies. In reality, they had not cleaned the one room that's unoccupied and they aren't really wanting to. Paul somehow discovers that and offers to wait. Then Paul plays Trail Angel by offering our extra bed to Tobias, a young solo South Bound rider we met earlier in the day who was huddled in his tent nearby in the rain. Paying it forward.

20. Paul spots the Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter right off Union Pass Road, talks with a few passing locals about it, and just can not pass it up, especially with reports of recent grizzly activity in the area. We must ride an extra half a mile down to a creek to filter water, but it's more than worth it. The dispersed sites identified further down the route that we were planning to hit turn out to poor campsites, with water difficult to access or non-existent. And there's a reason for the name Mosquito Lakes, which is temptingly marked on the ACA maps. For our last night in grizzly county high up a mountain pass, the Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter is warm, dry, and secure. Perfect.

Setting up camp in Paul Fifield's luxurious garage.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Getting booked into the Ovando Jail.

The Lost Llama Ranch with its row of shelters and llama/alpaca shed.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Basin Community Hall offers padded benches for beds.

Carpeted sanctuary of the Big Hole Community Church in Wise River.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Jan's Cafe & Cabins in Lima. Heavy rain and wind drove us there the night before.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter near Union Pass, our last night in grizzly country.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Here's a list of our nightly accommodations in grizzly country. Bold = indoors. Italics = dispersed.

Note that the mileage is NOT the ACA map mileage, but rather is my actual mileage from my cyclocomputer, which includes off-route excursions such as re-supply stops and missed turns.

1.  USFS Tuchuck Campground - Whitefish Divide (mile 43.6)

2.  Whitefish Lake State Park Hiker/Biker Campground - Whitefish (mile 108.3)

3.  Wayfarer's State Park Hiker/Biker Campground - Big Fork (mile 163.7)

4.  Marlene & Paul Fifield garage - near Condon (mile 218.3)

5.  Dispersed Site - Clearwater Lake (mile 257.1)

6.  Ovando Jail - Ovando (mile 308.8)

7.  Alpaca Inn - Lost Llama Ranch (mile 383.0)

8.  MTB City Bike Hostel - Helena (mile 430.4)

9.  Basin Community Hall - Basin (mile 473.0)

10. USFS Thompson Park Day Use Area - South of Butte (mile 523.3) 

11. Big Hole Community Church - Wise River (mile 568.5)

12. Elk Horn Springs Resort - near Polaris (mile 602.5)

13. Hansen Livestock Ranch - near nothing (mile 649.6)

14. Jan's Cafe & Cabins - Lima (mile 712.8)

15. Upper Red Rock Lakes Campground - Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (mile 772.0)

16. USFS Warm River Campground - south of Island Park (mile 843.4)

17. Grand Teton National Park Hiker/Biker Campground (mile 909.5)

18. Grand Teton National Park Hiker/Biker Campground (mile 909.5)

19. Lava Mountain Lodge - downhill side of Togwotee Pass (mile 962.1)

20. Strawberry Creek Safety Shelter - downhill side of Union Pass (mile 1,000.3)

Gimme Shelter, Rolling Stones (1969)

Gimme Shelter, Rolling Stones (2003)

Live, 30+ years after releasing the original.

They just keep on rocking.

The Great Divide - Hey, Bear!

Look for the bare necessities

The simple bare necessities

Forget about your worries and your strife

I mean the bare necessities

Old Mother Nature's recipes

That bring the bare necessities of life

The Bare Necessities, Terry Gilkyson (1967)

Many ask if I encountered any grizzly bears during my ride of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. No, I did not face a growling grizzly. In fact, I did not see any bear anywhere. But I sure saw bear habitat, bear bins, warning signs of bear activity, bear scat, and an endless array of bear related souvenirs in most every store throughout all five states. Just no live bears.

Not encountering a fearsome bear doesn't mean that I don't have a grizzly tale to tell.

Fresh grizzly bear scat on the single track through Grizzly Basin.

The most likely day for us to encounter a grizzly bear was Day 6 from our remote campsite beside Clearwater Lake, in the heart of Montana grizzly bear country. That was our first night camping dispersed in a national forest and our first night hanging food and other items in bear bags. We see and hear plenty of wildlife there, but no bears.

The next morning, we hike-a-bike 20 minutes up single track and then ride about 8 miles steadily up a good forest service road. Locals confirm our research that this area supports the highest concentration of grizzly bears in Montana. And just ahead lies the aptly named Grizzly Basin, where wildlife authorities relocate problem bears from other areas. Time to get that Timber Bell dinging.

First bear bag hang on our 2021 GDMBR ride.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

We top a ridge and abruptly turn onto single track. Oh, my. It's about 4 miles of gentle downhill, smooth, flowing single track along the shoulders of Richmond Peak. Steep slopes reach upward right toward a  ridgeline and downward left toward a roaring river. Hugging the narrow path, lush vegetation gives way to towering pine trees framing both sides. The surrounding mountains soar above it all. Wow.

We so want to rip down this stretch, but we also don't want it to end. We ride fast for a bit, stop, look around, take pictures, go slow, stop, go fast again but not for long, stop again, and go a bit slower. The views are simply stunning.

Dropping down sweet single track through Grizzly Basin on the Great Divide.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Then Paul stops again. This time it's not for the big views, but for the big pile of grizzly bear scat plopped down in the middle of the trail. The pile is so big that I veer off the trail to get around it. That gets our attention.

Now, the nearly continuous Timber Bell just doesn't seem enough. We ride on, regularly yelling, "Hey, Bear! Hey, Bear!" and fully expect to see a mammoth grizzly rising up to greet us around every turn. Instead, we get a "Hey, Bear!" right back at us. It's northbound GDMBR rider Michael Himes who is 4 1/2 years into a world-wide cycling tour. He shares some stories for a spell and then quietly pedals on his way.

Paul and I stop to chat with Michael Himes as we pass through Grizzly Basin.

The sight of that grizzly scat did not vanish from our thoughts, however. It couldn't. Over the next mile or so, we saw at least 15 more piles of bear scat right on the trail, a few of which were still steaming. Now, we're on full alert to our immediate surroundings. Hey, Bear! Hey, Bear!

So, what happened here? I conjure an image of one sociable grizzly finding a juicy huckleberry patch, calling all his friends, and throwing a big huckleberry party all night. Staggering home, the bears marked their trail on the only flat ground around. We're just riding through downtown after the parade.

Negotiating a slide area through Grizzly Basin.
(photo by Paul Brasby)

Too soon, we pop out of the single track and fly down a hard gravel road toward Seeley Lake. We find no bear scat on this wide, relatively well developed gravel road. With bear spray at hand, we refill water bottles and eat lunch along Blind Canyon Creek. Then we roll another 26 miles on good forest service and county roads to Ovando for the night. 

Of course, we're not out of grizzly country. Not for over 700 more miles. But we're through the steaming bear scat of Grizzly Basin. And that's something.

Enjoy those roadside wild raspberries, Paul.
Just know that you're raiding a grizzly's pantry.

Addendum. Others have encountered bears on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, including two cyclists that I met in Montana. While filtering water from a stream in Montana, John watched a young grizzly eat beef jerky right off his bike before sauntering away. And Ron Kennedy scared off a black bear at night in a campground in southern Colorado. He wrote about it here. Ron's Black Bear Encounter. So, there you go. You have something besides poop for your effort in reading this.

The Bare Necessities, The Jungle Book (1967)