Rain, rain, RAIN! Cold, too. Miserable day to do ANYTHING, so we didn’t do much. Laundry, empty the tanks on the trailer, and fuel up the truck. We’re off to an early start tomorrow, as it’s a long drive. McCall, ID is probably less than 150 miles away, but you can’t just drive over. You have to either go up, over and down, or down, over, then up. Driving? 275 miles. Going up first adds another 100 miles! I think we’ll take the Southern route!

No riding today – weather! It’s cold, and supposed to rain on and off all day, so we’ll just hang around town and check some things out. For lunch, we decided to go back to Bergtram’s Brewery, downtown, to try their burgers. We already had some of their beer, and it was good! So The Bear had their Jalapeño Cheddar Burger, and I had their ‘Shroom Bacon Swiss Burger, and a pint of their Brown Ale:

No, that’s tea in the glass – the Ale came a bit later. Good stuff. And a HUGE lunch. You get a lot of food, but then, they’re $11 burgers, so I would hope so!

We sat in a table right at the front window, which was fortuitous, because while we were sitting there:

A parade! Yes! The rodeo is in town, and so they had a parade! And we had front row seats! Kinda cool.

After lunch, we went by the local Forest Service Ranger Station to get some maps – we always get maps of the areas we’re going to be riding in. Must have over a hundred different ones by now. You need info, by golly, we’ve got it!

Never did rain today, but it sure looked like it was about to, all day long. Tomorrow? Laundry day, because tomorrow IS bad weather day – I can see it coming in on the radar. Oh, well, our last day here doing domestic chores. It has to get done sometime!

Alright – Ride day! It rained last night, but we’re going to try it anyway! Today we are returning to a ride we did last year – it’s gonna hurt! We are not in as good a shape, but we’re gonna do it anyway! Discovery Hill Trail System.

It’s supposed to rain, but not until about 17:00, so we should be good. Remembered to eat breakfast, which was good, but that set us back, which is bad. It’s a little warm out, but not bad – supposed to be cloudy, so I think we’ll be good!

Cloudy? Not so much. Sun beating down is more like it, but the trail looks great, so we’re off. First, Owl Canyon Loop, then follow it up with Slump Gulch Loop. Same route we did last year, same exact way. Be interesting to compare. Here’s a map of the trail system:

Not sure you can see them, but we’re doing the green loop, then the dark blue loop. There’s some overlap, and sadly, it’s the one part of the green loop that has TWO massive uphills, within just over half a mile, which means we get to climb them twice – Woohoo! Somewhere out there I got some scenics:

Clouds look a bit ominous, and it’s raining on those hills on the left. Hopefully the wind is blowing it away from us. It’s not. Toward the end of the second loop, I took a pano:

Just about that time, it started to rain on us … very lightly, and then it stopped … until it started again. We never got really wet, because mostly it just pittered, and it did not even get to the point of being annoying. On the last mile of the ride, however, THAT part of the trail had got some very heavy rain, and it was muddy in spots, but what were we to do? Had to get back! Hate riding wet trails. We were off the trail by three, so the rain was EARLY. Shame on you, rain!

After that, we needed a brewski, so headed into town – Dang it, the pizza place doesn’t open until five! Ok, home for leftovers, and we’ll come back later.

A bit after five, we went back out and got a beer – had the Oatis Oatmeal Stout – VERY good. Not a threat to Guinness, but still quite good. Still stormy:

And it was to pitter most of the evening. Oh, well.

Got some supplies at the grocery store and headed home.

Blue Mountain! We went by there last time we were in Missoula, and this time, we’re here to ride! It should be fairly easy, but you never know about this stuff.

Got up kind of late, as usual, but at least today we had breakfast! Big mistake yesterday, not having breakfast. So, we got there around 11:30. It was not cool, but it was not HOT either, so a good day to ride. The climb was only about two miles, so it made for an easier day, and the climb was also not as steep as yesterday. The scenery, though, was spectacular:

Then, when we got back to the truck, someone had added a little something to a fence post:

That summed it up! Happy ride!

After that it was Safeway for food and fuel, and it was there that I saw this:

Looked interesting, so I got a couple of bags of them, since I’d never seen them. Put some on a pizza we baked later, and they were GOOD!

Tomorrow – Salmon, ID!

Ok, we’re back! Got settled in yesterday, and today, we go back to Rattlesnake. We’ll be doing a different route today than we did the last time here. THIS time, We’ll go the right direction!

The ride started out pretty well, though a bit late, and it was slow going. we took the split we SHOULD have taken last time, and it got kinda steep. We were NOT expecting that. I wanted to go all the way to the top and then come down the way we did last year, but we were both kind of out of it, so we changed plans, and came back down what they call “Ewok”, which is a trail that parallels the road all the way down to the parking lot – about a mile and a half run or so. Well, “all the way down” from where the road is, the trail actually came down from a lot higher up. Anyway, I was expecting a lot of wiggly, through the trees stuff, and it WAS, but what I did NOT expect, and it took a lot away from it, is that the trail was full of stutter bumps. Like divots, or holes, in the trail, that seriously disrupt enjoyment! For one, your tires lose contact with the ground, so turning or braking becomes a lot more iffy. So I slowed down, and that did take a lot of the fun out of it – that, and it’s a two-way trail, and I DID meet someone coming the other way, so that adds a little excitement as well. Here’s a photo just before going into “Ewok”:

That photo is of where we came from – we’d been flying down that road about half a mile or so, just after a pretty good downhill section. We came from over on the right side of those trees. The rest of the ride could have been a lot better, but for the stutter bumps.

Anyway – lunch! Found the Iron Horse Bar & Grill, so off we go to get something to eat. And here is where I got a bad taste of Missoula. Oh, no, not from the restaurant, but from the city itself. We park on the street, and there are meters. 30 minutes for a quarter. I put in four (4) quarters, so I can get two hours. Do I get two hours? NO!!! I get 1 hour and 54 minutes! Here’s a photo:

NOT HAPPY! Bad enough you cannot park for more than two hours, THEY RIP YOU OFF!

Lunch, however, was quite good – we both had the Nachos, and boy, do you get a pile of them!

I had a Guinness with them, The Bear had a Cold Smoke Porter. Which reminds me – that’s what we drank day before yesterday at Mooses Saloon, except at Mooses, THEY WATER IT DOWN. Both of them. Both brews felt very watery, and today cinched it. I’m going to find out where I can file a complaint.

Oh, yeah – today’s ride, elevation profile:

No wonder I hurt! Look at the last quarter mile of climbing, just before we crest! Yeah, I walked that.

Rain. HEAVY rain. Ok, off to Kalispell again, and this time, we remembered the lights, so we can show those guys what they’re going to get from Grady at TrailLED. They were impressed! Grady is sending them 10 lights to rent out or lend out during the race. I hope it gets him some orders!

After that, lunch at Mooses Saloon. Nope, I spelled it right. Weird place – looks like a biker bar, sawdust and peanut shells on the floor (bars in Austin used to do that, then the city council decided that was a “fire hazard”, so no more!), but screaming kids everywhere. What the hell is it with people bringing their screaming brats into bars? REALLY? Take the little bastards to McDonald’s folks, really!

After that, off to look for more trails – even if we can’t ride ’em, we can find ’em! That way when we return, we know where they are!

No photos today because I forgot my phone!

All done looking, we headed back to the trailer, gotta pack up, as we’re moving tomorrow. Back to Missoula!

Rain. Again. HARD rain. I guess we drive to Glacier NP!

The drive was pretty good. We took the main road that goes across to St. Mary’s. though we did not go all the way. We went just past Logan Pass, then turned around. St. Mary’s is on a Reservation, and I try very hard not to do those any more. Native Americans (who aren’t really, their ancestors came over from Asia) are doing a lot of things that I don’t agree with, so I figure I’ll just vote with my wallet. ‘Nuff said.

The rain started after we were almost all the way we were going to go, so I got some decent shots on the way out:

And a pano of that middle one:

I love the clouds in the mountaintops, or rather, the mountaintops in the clouds – Cool!

Ok … we have time. Why? What is our true nemesis? RAIN. And it rained last night, a long time, and it’s supposed to rain most of today. Oh, well. So, we’ll just go places!

First place is just outside opt the KoA – the town of Hungry Horse. And they have a mascot:

I’d be tempted to call that guy “Horny Horse” instead!

OH! That’s his TAIL. Ok. Hungry it is.

We went to check out a place called Herron Park – it’s going to be used for the 24-hour race:

And here’s a pano from the trailhead:

Then, we tried to go to some other trails, but it was a no-go. Literally! We tried to take highway 93 North out of town, but there was construction, and it was NOT moving (traffic was backed up all the way to downtown!), so we bailed, and went to look at the ski resort trails. Well, those sucked – they really want you to rent their downhill bikes and gets lift ticket, and that’s just not us. We’re not THAT lazy just yet, we still like to earn our downhills. On the return, traffic was backed up A MILE south of town! Evidently it had not moved AT ALL since we bailed on it. That’s just all kinds of wrong, right there.

Anyway, back to Glacier NP, for a presentation on wolves, which was VERY interesting, and in the process, I got some nice scenic shots:

Beautiful place!

Tomorrow? Depends on the weather! Ride or drive.