Disappointingly, my Tour Divide attempt ended with Covid. After testing positive in Polaris, Montana, I isolated for five days at the wonderful Grasshopper Inn and B&B, run by Sherri and Justin. Then on Sunday, June 26, I went to Butte for my flight back to Minnesota. But first I had to box my bike.
There are two bike shops in Butte: Bad Beaver and Derailed. I had used Bad Beaver in 2016 to box my bike, but after a quick call I found out they were closed until July 5. Another TD rider, David Schultz, had told me the gal who runs Derailed had bike boxes. Unfortunately, most bike shops are not open on Mondays and I had a flight booked for early Wednesday morning. I had to get my bike boxed before then.
So I made plans to ride my bike from the Days Inn where I was staying to Derailed on Tuesday at noon when they opened. The three mile ride uphill in Butte to the bike shop was uneventful and I already felt much better, with more energy, from my time resting and recovering from Covid.
When I arrived there was a gal with a mountain bike also waiting for the bike shop to open. When noon came and went with no sign of any activity, she said that she was texting with her husband and they figured out Derailed wasn’t, in fact, going to be open today. Well, that put a big wrench into my plans. What was I going to do? I had to be at the airport at 5:30 tomorrow morning to fly out, hopefully with my bike.
I told her my predicament and to my great surprise she said that she had a bike box at her house and if I waited for her, she would run home and get it. Wow! Talk about trail magic. I thanked her and she said she and her husband traveled with their bikes often and were helped by others so she felt she was just paying it back by helping me. She picked up the box and drove to the Days Inn to drop it off for me while I rode back on my bike.
I had never boxed a bike before but I had put my Fargo back together three times after it was boxed by someone else and felt like I kind of knew how to do it. A quick internet search for how to box a bike filled in the details and after a trip across the street to a hardware store for packing supplies and tape, I proceeded to take my bike apart in the lobby of the Days Inn and pack it in the box.
Back in Northfield I continued my recovery for the prescribed 10-day period. Out of an abundance of caution and because I had the time to do it, I decided to wait until I tested negative before I stopped masking in the house or elsewhere. Since my first Covid symptoms were on Monday, June 20, the ten day recovery period would end about June 30. I took an antigen test each day from June 29 to July 2. I could literally see the virus being fought off by my body as the test line diminished each day until I tested negative on the 2nd. Yay!
For the last couple of years Myrna and I had worried about getting Covid, especially since I have underlying conditions that potentially made me higher risk. I am happy to say my symptoms were mild, not unlike a cold. In hindsight, it was the fatigue brought on by Covid that was the worst. Trying to ride the first Monday and Tuesday when I had the strongest symptoms, I couldn’t sleep at night (from the congestion), my legs felt like lead and I was totally exhausted during the day. Now I know why I took frequent breaks and napped once or twice during the day.
I’m so thankful I have recovered from Covid. Tomorrow is the regular Northfield Tuesday Night Gravel ride and I’ll be there. It will be good to be back in the saddle again.
Owen's Epic Rides 