Epic Great Divide - Day 5

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Whitefish Lake State Park, MT to Wayfarer State Park, Big Fork, MT

47 miles/75.7 kilometers

1552 feet/473 meters elevation gain

Full-service campground. Flush toilets, showers, electricity at RV site, potable water, covered picnic table, fire ring, lake.

Elevation – 2923 feet

Today’s ride was pretty easy, very enjoyable. I passed a small lake that was the most beautiful aqua color ever! Although there was a fair amount of blacktop, the gravel roads we took wove all through cow farms and bright green canola fields.

Along the route, I began to see riders with ACA triangle flags on the back of their bikes that I did not recognize. Turns out that there are 40 of them and they are on a five-day trip that ends in Nebraska, MT. Many of the riders look a little less than athletic so this is probably a really big accomplishment for many of them. Theirs is a fully supported ride which means that a van meets them for water refills, a lunch crew sets up a lunch for them along the route, and they sleep in covered structures likes schools, churches, community centers, etc. They do not have to hall tents and the like. All and all, they are a very nice group of folks.

Once we arrived at Big Fork, we had a pretty nice setup for our tents. We did have to drag our duffles a fair distance but it was okay. I slept very, very well!

For dinner we had burrito bowls – was pretty good! In our tent sites, there was a single guy who had already set his tent up. He told us he was riding our route by himself so we let him stay and invited him to dinner. He told us his name was John, that he was a retired military helicopter pilot, and that he and his wife had recently settled in Fort Collins, CO. Once everyone started talking, it was discovered that John’s wife served on the board of ACA with Steve who is doing the whole ride with us. Small world!

After dinner, I tried to catch up on blogging but the sun had worn me out! I was able to get a shower but I forgot to take a towel with me. Guh! Have you ever dried off with scratchy paper towels before? Ha! Actually, I was grateful for the paper towels. It was a bit embarrassing, however, when I bolted buck birthday suit mode from the shower to the sink area and a mom and four girls walked into the bathroom! Oops! At least everyone laughed!

So, once clean, into the tent I went! Yes, I do realize that I’m writing in past tense in this blog but that’s because I just haven’t had time to write every day as I had hoped. I will now go back one more day and try to remember what happened the day before last! Yikes. I thought it might be challenging to do this but I didn’t realize quite how challenging when the priority becomes just keeping the phone and bike computer charged each day. I brought three battery packs – two solar, but still it’s been difficult to gauge how much juice Ride With GPS navigation takes!

Oh, I just remembered something! Near the very end of our ride, I was with Stephanie from the UK. We both wanted ice cream and we did indeed find some in a quirky little town called Eureka. I had three very large scoops for just $7! In Phoenix, you can barely find a place that will give you one scoop for that! Was very grateful – for sure, there will be no ice cream along the route again for a very long while, if ever.