When You’re Riding Through Hell, Just Keep Riding

When we set out on the GDMBR we envisioned ourselves cruising down remote trails and roads, through beautiful pristine forests and past cool mountain springs. Today’s ride was admittingly the exact opposite. Leaving our newest favorite town of Fernie, our route took us along the familiar Elk River and back 40 years to the town of Elko, where we were powered by Beaver Buzz. We enjoyed lunch at Elko’s only restaurant, a Dairy Queen wannabe creatively named Dairy Bar and conversed with some Canadian riders who were finishing up their ride through Glacier, Waterton and Banff National Parks. From there we descended into hell itself for the next 47.9 miles as we spun our way along busy highways and desolate roadways in temperatures pushing 100°. Our spirits low, we rolled into the one-building town of Grasmere, BC and were able to treat ourselves to slushies, screamers (a slushy mixed with ice cream) and other tasty treats. Not wanting to prolong our stay in this…, we pressed on to the U.S. border at the port of Roosville (named after the Roo family who originally settled here), but only after having our camera searched. If you don’t want people taking pictures of the border station, don’t mount enormous bolders on poles, problem solved! Despite our weary legs we decided to finally put hell behind us and cruised the remaining few miles into Eureka, MT where we had a delicious, Terex Titan-sized dinner at Cafe Jax and camped under the stars in the city park.