Epic Great Divide - Day 9

Wednesday, July 15, 2026 – Day 9

Seven Timbers Campground, Seeley Lake, MT

0 miles/0 kilometers

0 feet/0 meters elevation gain

Camping around rented cabin for amenities. Flush toilet, showers, electricity, potable water. Laundry available in Seeley Lake at the Filling Station.

Elevation – 4019 feet

Today was a rest day. Felt very good to catch up on my blogs and not ride. I did wash the Cutthroat, though, and lubed the drive train. Very much needed! Also cleaned my muddy shoes and tightened my cleat screws. Had a couple precarious moments yesterday when I was unable to unclip.

This morning, the day began with our leader Richard making coffee for everyone at 6 am. I must confess that I felt a bit guilty . . . Myself and three other gals decided to rent a cabin with real beds at this site instead of set up our tents. We had our own kitchen and coffee maker but did I use it? Nope! I drank Richard’s brew. Everyone slept in and he was out there alone. It was actually very nice outside in the morning – I think the coffee tasted better out there!

After coffee, Richard made breakfast for everyone. It was great! He made bacon, eggs, hash browns and … wait for it … bear sausage! He got the ground bear from the guys at Camp Ponderosa. It was good! Not gamey at all. Some folks chose not to eat the bear sausage because of bad karma. Bwahahaha! I didn’t have any, but Jada also made some amazing looking biscuits from scratch and sausage gravy. Yum!

At 10 am, the van drove a handful of us into Seeley and we did laundry. Some of us also sent extra items home that we really didn’t need. I found one store that sold cheap rubber gloves (because I forgot to pack full-fingered gloves) and another store that sold readers (because I lost my prescription glasses in the rush to exit my tent for vomiting purposes in the middle of the night). I did pack an extra pair of subscription glasses but thought I better have some readers on hand for a backup, just in case. Saw a great poster advertising a Loon and Fish festival happening soon in Seeley.

In the afternoon, I mainly worked on my blogs. In addition to having electricity, we had very spotty wifi. It took FOREVER to load pics and publish Day 2 through Day 8 blogs to TWO sites, Substack and The Anglers Song website. That was not a good idea to commit to uploading my blog to two sites. Loading to one is difficult enough here, two is just plain frustrating! Oh well.

During a bit of chatting with other riders today, Steve Resnick told me how he made up a song to calm himself as he maneuvered the single-track yesterday along the edges of a ridiculously steep ravine. To Janis Joplin’s tune “Mercedes Benz” he sang:

Look ahead, look ahead, don’t you ever look down!

You’ll see many things that will make you frown.

Be cautious, my friend, whenever you can,

Look ahead, look ahead, don’t you ever look down!

Isn’t that great? Good advice, for sure!

Dinner tonight was prepared again by leader Richard. This time he was joined by our other new leader, Adrianne. Denny left to return to her veternarian practice for a bit so we’ll have Adrianne until she returns. Richard and Adrianne made cheeseburgers, a pasta salad, corn on the cob, and had a couple of pie options for dessert. Nice!

Now it is way past my bedtime. We have a 68-mile ride tomorrow with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It’s supposed to rain a bit. Better get some sleep to ward off any potential crankiness! Goodnght!