Category: Blog Posts

So we are back home in Livingston. What is the first thing we do.

Right. Go for a walk in the morning. But after that?

Yep. You guessed it. We travel over the pass to Bear Canyon to go for a ride.

Which was very cool. See ya all on down the line …o/o

This little town is busy and really not a town for a liberal. Somehow I like it and find it frustrating at the same time. There is some beauty.

Then there is the artifacts of people overrunning the beauty.

But the animals fit in so why can’t I?

Maybe I can.

There is this ride. My favorite, I think. Because I have discovered that flat is fast. And easy. Wow, flat terrain. Who would have known it is so fun?

I THINK snuggles will agree. Because she is always smiling.

I have to be thankful that I have a partner to share these finds with me. At one stop I presented her with a flower. Yes, it is fall and there are still flowers on this ride.

Harriman State Park. Yes, that is the place. Around Swan Lake. It flows and rolls. But mostly flat. Which is fun and easy?

See you around the corner folks …o/o

My favorite lake loop in all the west is the one around Swan Lake. Sometimes it is hard for me to put a figure on what I like. I knew this place was special when I ran into it.

I was out ahead of snuggles and flowing the momentum trail when I stopped dead in my tracks. A pine martin stood upon my path, and I came to a stop. We stared at each other.

After a moment, it just walked down the trail. I waited impatiently for Snuggles to catch up. When she did, I told her to ride around the corner and look for a creature. I was sure it would be just walking down the trail.

She did just what I said, and I waited. After a few moments, I rode ahead to catch up.

“Well?”

“What I saw nothing.”

I took out my phone and scrolled to the photos I took. I handed it to her.

“Oh wow, your namesake”

Well, that’s it. It was good while it lasted. I need to wipe up some tears. Hold on …

Ok, where was I? This fall has been great. And it appeared we were getting along even better than ever.

But eventually we saw the signs of change. I kept putting it into the back of my mind. But we can no longer deny the issue.

One last ride. One last downhill adventure. It was time to come to terms with our biggest issue.

As beautiful as it seems, there is always change.

I am standing at the edge of a cliff, and for one moment I feel like jumping. I mean, can life go on?

When times are good and you are having fun, you never see the issues coming. Maybe we just don’t stop and wait, even investigate what is there.

“what are you doing?”

“Just savoring this moment, I do not want it to end.”

I walk away from the edge and follow her back down the path. One last run. This is it. The end of the bike park season.

Have you ever been torn? It must have been gross. I mean, to be torn apart. Yuk!

I can not exactly say I have been physically torn and am ashamed of the stupid joke I just made. What I mean is emotionally torn. Take something beautiful. As beautiful as it seems, there is a downside.

Take fall, the season fall. It’s beautiful, no? But it is fall folks. Moments from Winter. I mean, holy shit.

We cannot ignore fall colors. Everything sings out and puts their stamp on the season. Everything must die, sure. But before we switch seasons, we get to appreciate the good things before we move on.

Times are changing. Well, I hope they are. Anyway, I want to take a moment and appreciate what we had. Even in the bleakest of times. Which we are in … there are great things to appreciate. Like RGB, who left us with such beautiful hope.

So before I take that last lift into the sky. I appreciate the world. The one I found. The one that surprises me. The world that has given me so much.

2020 has been a year of disaster. One can not deny it has been the worst in recent memory. Everything feels fractured. It would be so easy to crack and fall apart.

There is one glimmer of hope. The season of change. Maybe things will come back together. Maybe we can all fix the things that separate us. As we jump in our van to move to the next adventure, it is this hope that keeps the wheels turning.

Just remember the beauty. When times were bleak. The things that kept you going.

Remember the beauty.

It took a while. Like … 3 hours sitting in a traffic jam while still stuck in “The Park”. Then a midnight emergency camping spot in Island Park. But the next day it finally happened.

We grabbed our spot in the parking lot and immediately headed out for a ride.

Inst life grand?

I was disgruntled when she came home.

I stayed instead of going for a ride and fixed supper.

While we were eating supper. I disclosed that I felt angry. I didn’t get to my bike ride today.

She recommended that we go riding together. And she recommended that she could get me into the park and we can go up old gardener road.

This turned out to be a great recommendation. And really, it was a godsend I waited to ride. We took off early evening. And the sun started to set.

The smoke in the air is so thick that it felt like we were on Mars.

As the sun sank behind the mountains, I took some extraordinary pictures.

And the ride was fantastic. I even ran into an elk. Then bombed down into Mammoth Hot Springs where I did a loop and then back up to a waiting snuggles.

That was a great ride? Thanks snuggles.

Mr. Bear, what are you doing? Oh yeah, that reality show where this guy gets people unstuck. I like that show too. But I’m working, so why don’t you beat make yourself useful?

Oh no mr. bear, what the hell? You can’t install new LED headlights. That’s my job. Oh boy, taking care of a stuffed bear has such hard work.

Smoky reflections. What were you doing on this day in the past?

2018 found me reflecting, again, in Yellowstone.

In 2016, we were doing big adventures to celebrate our anniversary.

2015 we seemed to biting off something big.

2010 living in Missoula … gosh, I miss Missoula. Now I wonder. IS life getting better. Or are we going smaller and moving away from the ones we love.

Nothing new with Buttons and this weekend confirming that we can travel with a third bike, although very pain-in-the-ass.

The wildfire smoke is creeping into our area so van camping is kind of blah situation.

Well, see you at the next camp.

It’s so easy to get out and ride in Gardiner, Montana. I am not saying it is a nice place to live. Lots of eccentric folks that would rather shoot you then talk. My point is coming from my perspective now that I have been back in Livingston for two days. I haven’t ridden since I left Gardiner. Sure, there is great gravel riding in Livingston, but I can bring myself to get out. I don’t know what it is, but Livingston is definitely not a cycling destination. I came here to go visit someone in need … but … I can’t do it. I need to go for a ride. I am going back to the mountains. Sorry, selfish wins out.

We pulled in and found a spot we liked.

Then we walked back to the office. We wanted d4. Upon entering the counter person asked if we had reservations. No, not really, because we always found the parking lot to be empty. Well, not this weekend, it’s booked up solid. They only had a space on a Friday night, then another spot on Sunday.

We asked for a moment to discuss the situation.

Okay if we find a camping spot. And that’s a big if. Then we have to drive up here, spend the night, and then drive back down for another camping spot. And there is no way we’re going to find a camping spot on Labor Day Weekend. So we reserved a spot for Sunday night and bolted back down the pass in hopes to find a place to spend the night.

As we started down the dirt road at the bottom of the pass, we noticed the first dispersed camping area packed, my heart sank, there’s no way we’re going to find a camping spot on Labor Day weekend.

To the left, Mo spotted a pullout. No, I said, this is probably going to be dusty. Later on we would find out that was true. Then we found another spot on the left and it was off the road, no dust, but this was just a clearing with weeds.

I didn’t like it. Snuggles suggested that we have to take it because there are probably no more spots. Well, if we don’t go check, we could miss out on a cool spot. We drove up the road. We saw what looked like a campground at the bottom of a hill, so we drove down. There were bear bins but no pit toilets. It was a free dispersed camping spot. And it seemed like there were some spots available.

We pulled into the first one we found. We walked around the campground. Suddenly, through the trees, we heard, “… would you like our spot we are going to leave in about 10 minutes”.

Wow, it was bordering the creek and had ample room. We had a room for a shower, a bike stand area, a campfire, a hammock. Wow, what a spot. Yeah, we’ll take it.

They left. And we settled in. Wow, how things happen for a reason. Should we cancel reservations? Let’s just stay here.

We got out earlier than ever. Get off work and jump in the van. We are out of here. 6 hours later we make it 60 miles and look for a camping spot. “look, the moon is out”

Not so fast. With some roads closed in the park, there are only a couple ways to enter and leave. Thus in the evenings there are thousands trying to leave. Mix that with people that just stop on the road and leave their cars. What you get is 1, 2, 3, hour long jams. With cars stacked up for ten miles.

Why do people just stop dead in the road and leave their cars? Animals, I guess. Something weird is going on in the park. “What’s going on out there?”

“Nothing, just taking photos of the moon.”

This week I have been to two places on Orca (adventure bike). The Beatiee Gulch Climb and the Eagle Creek Climb.

I still haven’t nailed the Eagle Creek Climb. I want to do one lap, from river to top and back down. Then another on the enduro bike to see which one is fastest or easier. Then maybe do an Everesting Challenge. That would be cool.

I was just looking for that quick ride. A gravel grinder would do the trick. I knew the perfect ticket. The Old Yellowstone Trail. And off I went.

I felt so good cruising the gravel that when presented with the option to turn up Beatie Gulch Road, I took it on. Besides, I needed to get off the main road to do some exercises.

I could smell death. I rode through a graveyard of carcases. The air fell silent and the heaviness of dead was upon me. I rode with intention and cleared the first riser.

Soon the air cleared up, and I stopped to test out a pine tree to see if it would support my weight for pull-ups. Nope! I rode on.

And up. Until, it was obvious I needed to get home before dark. First, I had to check out this old cabin. Crazy lines for photographs. Crazy, wicked, scenery. I could imagine myself living here back in the day.

Thes signs, I kept ignoring them. So many signs in this area. I read the one plastered to the cabin. Grizzly Bear loves this place.

What a great place to drop off carcases. Speaking of which, I needed to get past the graveyard before dark. I could end up as one of the rib cages sticking up out of the ground. I turned and bolted down the hill.

I was going moc 100 when I passed by the death. Every grunt, scrape, and rustle sound made me go faster. Could a grizzly catch me going 40. Intercept for sure. But I was going fast. Hopefully, my bike skills would shine today. I mean if … you know? What a peaceful place.

When we met. Our second and significant Meetup was a bike-pack. It is where we fell in love.

Since then we have pedaled past many an alpine lake.

And I am sure there will be many more. Thank you for the many travels and here is looking ahead down the singletrack into the future.

May we find a new adventure and share them together? The essence of happiness. At least for me.

Bike packing to van camping. We have it all.

The view from US is beautiful, and one that I hope that everyone gets to experience.

I love the fact that when I stop riding and turn around you are right there. And just as many times in front leading the exploration. Finding fresh adventures.

Cheers my love. I raise a IPA to you.