GDR2- DAY 11 Togwotee Pass to Strawberry Creek
Friday Aug 17th, 2018
Start 9658
High pt 9750
Lo pt. 4700
End Elv.
Climbing ~3000'?
Miles 51.0
Total time 8:30
Ride time 6:45
Today I start the last 70+ mile section remaining to finish the US portion of The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
I had made it to Togwotee Pass in Wyoming 2 years ago on a smoke filled day with route being closed about 15 miles further on due to the Lava Mountain fire. Today I start at the top of Togwotee and of course get the obligatory top of the pass photo. But just couple of hundred yards further is another Togwotee Pass sign, with a little higher elevation, so I get a selfie there.
This pass feeds 3 great river systems; The Green/Colorado, the Snake/Columbia, and Wind River/Platte/Missouri.
I turn off the highway a quarter mile down the pass at a crowd of folks watching a grizzly foraging between the highway and my back road. Cool to see. It's downhill on rutted road so I take it easy, and also am scanning the opening below for wildlife; no more grizzlies, but do scout a deer.
The road winds around to the Brooks Lake basin, and the fantastic Pinnacles mountains. They are my company for 4 or 5 miles, getting see their many aspects. I will see them at a distance at many points during my climb up to Union Pass
Exit the forest and zip down Hwy 287 to the turn off and begin a 4 mile climb, the first of several on the way to Union Pass. I spy a sign that no biker want to see, fresh road work and grading. This often makes the surface very soft and pedaling harder.
Once summiting, the roller coaster road goes in and out of drainages, some pretty, others less so.
Anothe 4 mile climb to the high point, at 9700 feet, yet Union Pass and my final Continental Divide crossing is still miles away and lower at 9200 feet.
The downhill miles go quickly in vast and open country.
I rustle up a golden eagle who does not care for my passing as it wings to a higher perch.
I pass through Union pass, an uneventful place, and find a place to camp a few miles later.
Along the way, I meet Jasper from LA. He started at Calgary, and was riding a Salsa Fargo. While he had been on the route for some weeks, this was day 3 on the Salsa, as he basically broke the frame in his older trek full suspension bike, in the hopping burg of Lima Montana (never heard of it, I'm not surprised!). Trek was no help despite the claim of lifetime warranty. He got rescued by a friendly relative and scored the Salsa rig in Victor Idaho, which is a funky outdoorsy town (with 2 breweries) on the ID side of Teton Pass. Puts my rack bolt issues into perspective
