A cold ride after a warm welcome

A drenched Ben Weaver and Keenan Deplanks made their way down Beaver Creek Road during Saturday afternoon's downpour as they continue toward Helena on the Tour Divide.

Weaver and Deplanks made the trip over Huckleberry Pass Saturday after Weaver performed a live concert in Ovando Friday night as part of his "Music for Free" project in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route Trail.

Unlike the ride into Lincoln, the concert caught a break in the weather and went off really well, and earned a figurative thumbs up from the crowd, according to Kathy Shoendoerfer, Ovando's most vocal Tour Divide cheerleader.

"(We) had a great turnout," a chilled Weaver said through chattering teeth during his stop in Lincoln. "It's been great. We're about 500, 600 miles into it. "

Weaver, a self-described folk singer who plays the guitar and banjo, found the crowd at Ovando to be an interesting mix.

"It was pretty cool to see the older rancher community come together with the younger community, and everyone just kind of co-existing together. A lot of touring cyclists and seems like a lot of different people with different backgrounds sharing that little intersection in town. It was pretty cool," he said.

Despite riding with a guitar and a banjo strapped to his bike, Weaver is an experienced cyclist known for travelling with his instruments and said the weather doesn't present a problem for them "I've been doing it for a long enough time now, they're in dry bags inside of the bags," he said.

For Deplanks, a filmmaker who is documenting Weaver's journey and the people they meet along the way, the rain presented a bit more of a challenge.

"Today was a little difficult with the cameras. I took 'em out once and now they're very wet and I'm excited to finally dry them off," he said. "Today was definitely the wettest so far."

With rain coming down in sheets, Deplanks said it felt more like they were swimming as they came down off Huckleberry Pass. "It's like closing your eyes and just feeling the water all over your body."

After Ovando, Weaver had ten more performances lined up, with the final concert at the border at Antelope Wells, NM scheduled for July 9.