Day 15 — Over the Continental Divide from Helmville to Helena

I got up at 3:30 am and started riding as soon as it was light in order to get to MacDonald Pass and over the Continental Divide. I didn’t want to get stuck on the climb in the heat of the afternoon.

But twenty minutes in I saw the greatest little diner outside of Avon, called the Avon Family Cafe. I had to stop and get the Rancher Scramble, with an extra egg. I should have got a pasty to go for the pass.

From there is was uphill for 15 miles, gently at first, but with the last 5 miles a real grunt. My average speed for the last 5 miles was 2.9 mph! It was getting close to noon and the day was getting hotter. On top of that the shoulder wasn’t as fat and friendly as it was down lower. But overall the traffic gave me a wide berth, with one group of river rafters even stopping to cheer me on.

At the pass I met two folks in a Ford Mustang convertible, who came up to the pass to enjoy the relatively cool temps, pick alpine flowers, and fill up on water from a spring near the summit. The gal, Julie (Saatzer) Quinn grew up in St. Cloud, MN. Learning the connection, she offered to put me up for a day or two while I rested and got organized for the Missouri River. She gave me her phone number and address and said to come on over when I got to town.

From MacDonald Pass it was a screaming 15 mile downhill all the way to Helena. I road the breaks pretty hard to keep my speed down and stopped a few times to make sure my brakes weren’t overheating. I then had to climb a couple steep hills from downtown to Julie’s house, a cute little place with a cool shady backyard. She even had room in the garage for me to store my canoe and bike.

It turns out that Julie’s dad was Larry Saatzer, a local St. Cloud artist and graphic designer who designed the logos for Cold Spring Beer and Stearns, the lifejacket company. But he is probably most famous around St. Cloud as the guy on the Clearwater Road who during the winter built snow sculptures in his front yard for all to enjoy. It was great reminiscing over dinner. I called my mom and told her, and she said, “Oh, I knew the Saatzers, they had twins in their family” Sure enough I asked Julie and she said her dad had a twin brother, and a couple of her uncles and aunts were also twins.

Julie’s friend with the Mustang, John Zavalney, came over for a visit and invited me to his place down the street for breakfast. Overall a tough but really great day!