Today was a big day for me. Today I climbed the Continental Divide on a bicycle with over 60 pounds of gear as I continue my push into the mountains of Montana and into the Pacific Northwest. I have done some pretty intense things in my lifetime such as hiking the Grand Canyon, backpacking in locations where a Western man has never been seen, delivering a large scale fantasy soccer application and even put up with the city of Los Angeles for a few years. But this my friends was hands down one of the most memorable for me. Climbing over the divide with nothing to fuel my efforts other than will power and my own two legs is one of the greatest senses of accomplishment I have felt in a very long time.

Having spent a few years working from home in my underwear and living in Colorado in high elevations I am no stranger to the shear volume and magnitude of this mountain cathedral out west. I have seen hard sun, thunderstorms develop in seconds, hail that comes from nowhere, snow in August and some of the most relentless winds I have seen outside of those crazy storm catcher videos. As you could imagine heading west into the mountains has me both excited and slightly nervous. My goal is to simply make sure I am prepared.

When I woke up in Helena it was a very brisk 40 degrees and it was pretty clear that summer is over in Montana and I am now in for some much cooler weather. My host Josh (who rocks) and I enjoyed some coffee and conversation and to be honest I was sad to leave Helena. I thought to myself "if these people are this kind to a perfect stranger... I can only imagine how friends support one another". And to be honest Helena is a great town. I saw it as a place where "old Montana" and "new Montana" mesh together. In a nutshell it was a great place and I put it high on my list.

I hit the road and there was virtually no winds and as you could imagine this was a great relief from me. Right now the only thing that stands in my way of a great day on the bike is the wind. As the sun grew a bit warmer and the sky as blue as it can be I stared long and hard at the mountain peaks I was about to climb and pushed hard. For 3 hours I pedaled in 1st gear and hammered it home. It kinda reminded me of that one ridiculous spinning class my ex girlfriend insisted I attended. Only this wasn't over in 60 minutes and I wasn't forced to listen to horrible techno music with a bunch of Santa Monica soccer moms. This was heaven. When I reached the pinnacle and crossed the divide I was greeted with some of the freshest and coldest water you could imagine right from the mountains. I looked around, smiled and laughed... OK maybe I did a little yodel as well. But man this was a precious moment!

After my small celebration and personal reflection on what I had accomplished I realized I still needed to pedal on to Avon, MT where I still had no place to sleep. Although this wouldn't matter anymore due to Josh's generosity back in Helena and the sleeping bag and gear I had acquired I could now sleep anywhere out and in the wild which is how I envisioned my trek out West. And as I bolted down the mountain and hit the basin towards Avon the winds picked up. It was almost as if Mother Nature was winking at me and letting me know she was still around. I thanked her for waiting a few hours and allowing me to enjoy my climb over the divide and pedaled into Avon.

Avon is a neat little town here in Montana and everyone agreed that I should simply sleep in the church as it is empty and I would be free of the elements. I sit here now watching the train roll by, connected via wifi and staring at Jesus Christ on the wall and I must admit that today was a very adventurous and interesting endeavor.Stay tuned as I have more mountains to climb and more stories to tell.

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