Blackmore

Blackmore trail is clear up to the lake only. Then it's massive blow down and more then massive snow. Gonna be a while for the high stuff.

Bangtail Divide 6/29

I will declare the BDT 98% clean right now. There are a few snow drifts above the odd looking fence structure (?) that are DEEP. When you get into the trees in the darker forested areas, the trail gets muddy and snowy in spots, but is all ridable if you can hold a line.

Storm Castle Lime Creek Rat Lake Garnet Mountain

This ride had it all, the brutal 2,000' in 2 mile storm castle climb, a few miles of bike carrying over an old burn, blown out and fast 4 wheeler trail, a shooting range, a fire road climb and screaming fast singletrack. I wouldn't recommend the Lime creek trail as it doesn't seem to have seen any use in several years between garnet and the blown out quad trail at the end.

Denny insisted I take pictures, so here you go. Also included is a GPS profile, since I'm a geek like that. It was made with Topofusion, which is a sweet program made by a passionate mountain biker. The low section in the middle included drinking an Olympia by Squaw creek for lunch.

South Cottonwood.....it's real nice!

South Cottonwood is in good shape now. There are a few wet spots, the usual ones, but for the most part the trail is in fantastic shape up to the meadow. Past the meadow the creek is doing its usual thing by flowing down the trail(near the intersection w. Fox Creek trail). BE WARNED. Since Hyalite is currently closed it seems like every one from Bozeman is using this trail head as their alternative. Granted I rode it on Sunday afternoon but this is the first time I have ever seen cars parked on both sides of the road for 100yds before the parking lot! Until Hyalite opens I expect this trail is going to see a bit higher use than average.

/soapbox Please! dont give mtn bikers a bad name. Be curtious, I hate to have to say this but , Yeild the trail to uphill travelers(This means you Dude in the brown helmet riding an black Intense Uzzi who shouted "Two more!" as you crusied by! Next time, I wont move over!). \soapbox

That being said you wont see too many people past the second bridge, which is the usual case anyway. The trees are mostly cleared up to the meadow, thanks to the horse folk.

Help a local Represent!!

Bozeman local John Parker, co-founder of the Montana Mountain Bike Alliance has been accepted as a semi-finalist in Santa Cruz's annual Hellride. This is no mean feat and just to be picked as a semi finalist you need to prove to the Santa Cruz guys that you've got Moxie. Now John needs the help of his local scene to make it as one of four finalists that Santa Cruz will bring down to Cali to throw down in a 75 mile race involving 12000 feet of elevation change on a decked out Nomad.

Go here to vote. Help John represent Montana!!

Women's Mountain Bike Skills Clinic, Tonight

Ok, so I might have some details wrong here, so probably call Bohart to verify this, especially with the amount of snow.

Tonight, 6pm. Women's Mountain Bike clinic at Bohart XC ranch. 586-9070.

UPDATE: "...the skills clinic has been delayed until Wed July 9th and weekly rides begin July 2nd at Mystic lake. For more info check out,
http://www.lunachixmt.com/"

Truman

Truman is good to go all the way to the the meadow. It's in GREAT shape for riding too.

Grassy Mountain 6.15.08

A few of us headed out to Grassy yesterday. It's in pretty frikkin' good condition right now, until just shy of the top. There's a few wet spots on the trail but they are mostly avoidable. For the puddles going clear across the trail, please just go through them instead of going around, making the trail wider.
We did see someone riding the Olsen-Grassy loop, so I'm sure that much of the rest of the trail is ridable, you'll probably just have to walk through some snow.

-DNA

Trail Time Share Details

Starting today, there are a few trails subject to the new time-sharing restrictions, as per the latest iteration of the travel plan. Here's how it gets broken down:

• Middle Cottonwood #586
  
• Bridger Foothills south to the M#534

...will be closed to bikes on Sundays until September 5th.

• Sypes Canyon #531
• M #534

...will be closed to bikes on Saturdays until September 5th.

I know for some folks this will cause weeping and gnashing of teeth, but I have hopes this will work well.
And really, why would you want to ride Sypes on a busy Sunday? I was going to write some more about trail users getting along, but C-Note beat me to it. Thanks.

-DNA

Rules of Trail Etiquette

DNA and I were having a chat last night at the second annual Bozeman Meatloaf and Martini Challenge (I'm not sure if that's the official name, but there was a meatloaf competition and lots of martinis, you get the idea). One subject that came up was our responsibility to other trail users whilst out on a mountain bike ride. I'm not talking about IMBA's rules of the trail, although you should certainly obey those. I'm talking about rules of etiquette, which should govern your behavior towards the people you meet in your travels. This is both because we have obligations to treat our fellow man/woman with respect, and because I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen because of certain cyclists who scare the shit out of hikers and make us all look like speed crazed gravity junkies who spend all their time watching X-games and drinking Red Bull.

Be aware of the number of people that may be hiking or riding horses on a particular trail at a particular time, you may either have to check your speed in anticipation of meeting other trail users, or perhaps make some logical decisions about whether you should ride a particular trail at a particular time. Sypes canyon on a Saturday afternoon in June is a bad time to walk your downhill rig to the top and make a 20 mile/hour decent. Ride somewhere else at that time.

Acknowledge other trail users. Say hi. Be friendly. Don't just shoulder past a family of four and be on your way. We're supposed to be having fun out there, share a good vibe with the people that you meet. Leaving people with a good impression of cyclists is probably going to more than anything else to change the sometimes negative light in which we are seen.

Don't intentionally skid on the trail, and especially don't skid up behind hikers. It does trail damage and it frightens people. Again, sometimes you have the responsibility of preemptively slowing down in anticipation of meeting another trail user. There are downhill specific trails for your eight inch rig. Part of riding on a multi-use trail is being aware that other people will be present and adjusting your speed accordingly when you can't see far enough ahead to pass people safely and humanely.

I'm sure there are several other specifics that one could codify, but in general we simply need to apply some Golden Rules to our riding. It is our responsibility as mountain bikers to treat other trail users with respect. Part of the fuel for trail closures is the fact that cyclists appear as a threatening presence to others, we owe it to our sport and our fellows to change that.

Cheers,
C-Note

Primal Quest Thoughts.

At the shop I work at we've been getting a few calls a week on the mountain biking here and what kind of equipment they should be riding for the Primal Quest Adventure Race.
So the race is in a couple weeks, right? Ah. June 21st through July 2nd.
Well, if you're planning on coming here, here's a rough and incomplete description of the terrain you'll probably encounter:

• Soil ranges from slightly loamy to sandy-ish to clay. Popular tires around here are Kenda Nevegals; Specialized Fasttracks and Resolutions; and WTB Wierwolfs, MutanoRaptors, and Nano Raptors. Moisture and location will have a tremendous effect on what tire works best. If your route takes you over clay and it's wet (which it most likely will be) then no tread pattern will work- narrow tires will be the least worst. If things dry out a wide (2.3+) tire with small knobs will handle the dusty hardpack we get here. So- it depends.
• Weather. We've been having an unseasonably wet "spring". I wouldn't be surprised if you get snowed on at moderate to high altitudes (6000+ ft.). Or it could be 100 degrees.
  
• Terrain. We don't have the elevation that Colorado has, but most trails follow creeks and rivers, meaning that you're going to be climbing the path of most resistance if you're on a trail. There's more than a few mountain bikers who run 20 tooth granny gears, made by ActionTec. They're available in 64mm bolt circle for modern mountain cranks and are about $65. They do require a bit of crank modification though, but that's really easy. A few shops here carry them. Otherwise, most trails are fairly smooth and non-technical; ridgetop trails excepted. Lower elevation trails are generally smooth and fast, getting looser and rockier as you get higher up. Generally.

And that's about all I can think of now. Feel free to leave a comment if you've got other questions or you feel like berating me on anything I've written here. And good luck if yer racin'.

-DNA

Mystic Lake 6-7-8

The ride up Bozeman Creek was fine, although rocky in a lot of spots - the road getting to the Bozeman Creek trailhead is worse than anything on the trail. Once you turn onto the Mystic lake trail, mind the mud! There is a lot of it before you start climbing, so get off and walk.

The climby spots are mostly OK with the exception of one area that is just a slippery muddy uphill slope of FAIL. With the water levels being where they are, the creek crossing at the Mystic dam is sketchy at best. There are some 5-6" logs draped across the top of the first dramatic drop, meaning you would be going for a rough ride if you fell in. I shouldered my bike and scooted across the logs on my arse, first making sure nobody was around to see it.

From there my goal was to get to Leverich then back to town. If you plan on doing this, bring your full suspension bike. The "road" has seen it's fair share of water lately making it a back breaker. It resembles two creek beds separated by a solid line of meadow muffins for most of the way to Moser. Quite a bit of "quicksand" too.

Leverich was great. All of the creeks are ridable.

Triple Tree 6/7/`08

Sweet Cheeks and I rode the Xtracycles out to Triple Tree tonight after work. We then ran, well I walked a bit of it, to the top. I'd give the trail a week or two, given the moisture we've had lately. You could ride it, but in the interest of trail stewardship, and given the fact that the creek and the trail have merged at several points, we really shouldn't ride a bike out there right now. Find some south facing stuff in the Bridgers, or hit the road bike for a week or so.

Leverich is clear

Leverich is in good shape, only a small patch of snow at the top and all the rest is nice and tacky. The creek is a lot more reasonable then the ones in the Bridgers too.

Also, Muskrat creek in the Elkhorns is dry for 4 miles or so too.

Bangtail Divide

It's clear all the way through the 8 YEARS of switchbacks. After backing the switches there are only 4-5 snowy spots that require the rider to get off and trudge through 10 foot long 2 foot deep snow drifts. The snowy sections are accented by 20 feet of muddy trail prior to hitting the mounds.

When you reach the big bald hill with the two fences that's pretty much it. The north facing slope beyond that resembles a glacier right now. If the weather stays in the high 60's it might be clear in about 3 weeks (!).

It's a fun climb, but descending those damned switchbacks is FAR from ideal bombing. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, stop, turn. Go go go, stop, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn. Go go go, brake, turn.

This is where I turned around:

Grassy Mountain

Seth and Dallas and I did Grassy today. It is almost completely dry up to the first saddle at the top where you get a view of the Crazys. Not much else to say other than get your butt up there and ride your bike.

C-Note