Mud Season Wisdom

Who decides to mountain bike in Missoula during mud season? (Yep, me.) The trail looked like a chocolate milkshake. Local wisdom? Completely ignored.

“It’ll be fine,” I muttered, settling onto my flat pedals. Spoiler: not fine.

Melting snows turned the road into a river. Nothing like those crisp summer days at Pipestone, where the trail was a ribbon of dust and promise. This? Just wet misery. My bike groaned, remembering drier times.

Work’s been messy. Good messy, if that’s a thing. Projects piling up, emails multiplying like rabbits. Collapsing into bed with that weird mix of satisfaction and exhaustion.

Mo’s situation? A different battlefield. She’s a federal worker caught in DOGE’s crosshairs. Mass layoffs, constant uncertainty. Her agency’s been hit hard. Some days she comes home shell-shocked, talking about colleagues getting walked out the door. Over dinner, I listen, trying to keep my own work avalanche from burying us both.

We do this sometimes, right? Make choices that make zero sense. Ride into the mud when every rational thought says “stay home.” Take on more work when we’re already maxed out. Carry everyone’s burdens. And somehow? We keep pedaling forward.

The ride devolved into a slush nightmare on the Kim Williams Trail. Snake-like skids, total loss of control. One moment moving, the next sliding sideways, fighting just to stay upright.

Bike-washing became an epic event. Water running brown, then clear. Something clicked.

I need one of these rides annually. The completely unreasonable choice you somehow survive. The kind that leaves you filthy, laughing, and weirdly? Makes every other challenge seem manageable.

Meanwhile, Mo had stayed in Pattee Canyon, skate skiing through the slush. I left her to her own adventure and rode back home. She was waiting when I arrived, both of us with our own messy stories from the day.

Life’s messiest moments have this weird magic. They wash you clean, but only if you’re willing to get thoroughly, gloriously dirty first.

This post benefited from the use of Claude for research and story development. The author remains solely responsible for the final content and its accuracy.