Ride again today – maybe twice!

First, Pattee Canyon Road Trailhead (pronounced “Patty”), where we want to do the Sam Braxton National Recreation Trail. Kind of like the Northshore of this area. Here’s the map:

We decided not to start at this main trailhead, because it was up a ways from the bottom – we preferred to start close to the bottom so the return would be easier. Unfortunately, that Canyon Trailhead does not have a map kiosk. Started our ride at the Canyon Trailhead, and headed up … and up … and UP. Finally, we got to the start of the actual Sam Braxton, about  mile up:

A bit overgrown, but we’ll see how it goes! And it goes up … and up … and UP:

Look at that up-slope! It was hard to ride, but ride it I did, all the way up! Had to stop a few times and catch my breath, but always got back on the bike and rode on. Hard to start on such a steep hill, but I managed to do it each time. I feel good about that! At the top of that steepest part, we realized that The Bear had a passenger:

Lazy butterfly! At least on this ride, we got great payback – the downhills were not so steep that we couldn’t enjoy them. Also close to the top, I took a pano:

And a still a bit down from there:

And of course, just to prove it really is a NRT:

Nice ride down! A short ride, but as I said, we’re going for two today. Next up? Blue Mountain! Here’s a map from the trailhead:

Lots of trails, and pretty flat, so it should go well! Here’s a pano of the parking area:

And here’s one of the trail area itself, from that same vantage point:

As I said – relatively flat! But … see those clouds? Yeah. Rain. Blue Mountain will have to wait for another trip.

On the way home, stopped by the grocery store to fuel up and get a couple of food items. Wandering the aisles, I saw this, which is just ALL KINDS of wrong:

I like chili – really do! I bet I’d even like “Cowboy Chili” … sounds manly! BUT – no way in HELL a cowboy is going to put Quinoa … well, ok, maybe the new-age cowboys MIGHT … but CINNAMON? Nah – don’t see it!

Ride day! And hopefully, a good ride – not long, maybe, but lots of climbing. We HAVE to get our riding ability back!

So, we’re going to go back to Rattlesnake Recreation Area and try to find the trail we couldn’t find last time. We’ll see how it goes.

So, how did it go. Not so well. I looked at the map and came up with a plan – a good one! Forgot one little detail – always, ALWAYS verify on the map that you are going the right way when you get to an intersection. Did I say ALWAYS? Yeah, I meant that. So, I missed a turn. Took us back half-way up the trail we took up last time – you know, the one from HELL. At least we knew not to go THERE. Well, we DID go up a little bit, to get to the Wallman Trail. I thought I read that that one was not TOO tough – not a lot of climbing. Yeah, well, I might have been confused about that as well. It WAS a very beautiful ride, extremely scenic on the way down – here’s a shot of that:

See? Beautiful! The first half-mile was flat, as was the last (since it was the same trail!), but that was all. If I thought the climb was steep, the downhill on the other side was even worse! Ok, very glad we did not ride it the other direction, because it would not have happened – we were not about to take our bikes on a two to three mile hike up a hill – did that last year, thank-you-very-much. And the bad part is, it was SO steep, it was not any fun to ride, as you were always worried about slipping on the rocks, or the brakes giving out, or overheating, or … constant worry. What do I mean? Here’s the elevation profile:

Click on it to get a close look at the numbers! Now, once the REALLY steep part ended, THAT last part was fun, but way too short. Almost 1,700 feet of climbing, all told. Whew! And only nine miles! Great ride, though! Oh, and a steady, STEADY climb – that little dip at the 3.5 mile mark? That’s where I rode back to check on The Bear. There was no respite, ’cause I just had to do it again!

Ok, ride done, BEER! Went to the KettleHouse in the South part of town, and they had a pretty good Bongwater Hemp Porter. A little on the bitter side, but otherwise very good.

After that, GSD – stuff for the trailer, skull caps to see if they work better than the sweat bands, and food. Can’t wait for tomorrow – maybe TWO rides!

Well, today WAS supposed to be a ride day, but the trail is closed for a race. Bummer.

Ok, so we go out to look at the end of the race, see some folks come in, and see what the trail looks like. Pretty nice looking, I guess we’ll have to come back if we want to ride it. Bummer.

Lunch was at the Celtic Cowboy. Irish pub, in case you were wondering. I tried a Murphy’s, since they had it on tap. My good friend Richard White says he prefers it over Guinness:

Well, it was good, but a little too light for my tastes. I’ll stick to my Guinness. For lunch, I had the Irish Breakfast:

And The Bear had a grilled cheese sandwich with Tomato Soup:

Yes, these are half-eaten. Sorry. We were hungry! But here’s a shot of their bar, and all the beers on tap – that’s what that white row of dots is:

We also checked out some of the town, picked up some parts for the trailer, and late afternoon, returned to Bowser Brewing. Here’s their logo:

And here’s some good advice they had posted in the men’s bathroom:

Sage advice indeed. I had a pint of the Vanilla Bourbon Stout, and The Bear had the Black Bison Coffee Stout. We also took a growler of the Jalapeño Hefeweizen to have with dinner – gonna make Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and fried okra – YUM! (with white gravy, of course!)

Tomorrow – off to Missoula!

Well, no riding today – weather’s looking nasty, so we won’t chance it. Instead – we’ll wash the trailer! This is the first chance we’ve had since the blown fuel line, so it’ll be nice to get all that diesel off the outside.

Well, it didn’t all come off, but most of it did, and the trailer looks much better. Oh, yeah, here’s our site:

Next was grocery shopping, where I saw something … interesting:

Yes, “Kale Caesar! Kale Caesar!”. Never say food companies don’t have a sense of humor!

Now just pack up and move tomorrow – Great Falls, MT, here we come!

Today, we ride! No, really! Well, it ended up being a really short ride, but it was pretty grueling for what it was, especially considering we haven’t really ridden our bikes in over a week.

We went exploring, not sure where we would ride, and headed out some Forest Service roads. Ended up at the trailhead for the trail that goes to Emerald Lake. The road was really rough, and I did not want to come back, so I asked if we should do it. The reply I got was not what I hoped for – “It’s a bit less than five miles, but it’s climbing all the way there”. Hmmm … not the best first-ride-in-a-week ride, but we’re here! We hiked a bit of it, the start was steep, but then it leveled out. Sure! Let’s do it!

Well, it turns out it got steeper again. Rats! We got almost halfway up, when it started to rain. Don’t know about you, but me? Not riding up a mountain on a lightning rod when it threatens to strike! Back down we went! In all, a bit less than four miles round trip, but we did climb almost 700 feet! Good workout!