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| Bill & Hardscrabble Peak |
We've been enjoying our last few weeks of summer in the mountains on the bikes. The first ride of the summer on Carrol Creek found a number of exposed rocks. It was a wet spring and numerous storms this summer so all that water washed the dirt off and since this trail has not been scrapped in ages it was a rock fest. Everywhere. Not the most pleasant of rides dodging the big ones and missing the muddy potholes. Oh, and yelling at the free-range cattle that seemed to be everywhere...well if the actual body wasn't there the cow pies were present. Guess it was a good thing we had found other rides this summer.
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| Hardscrabble Peak |
It was still a nice day to be in the mountains and we managed to get a 20-miler done with only 2 incidents. The first one started almost from the start of the ride. A couple of weeks earlier I decided to make an appointment for a professional 'bike fit' with my Physical Therapist. He changed a few things... my seat position, height, & grips. Since the changes I had done some road riding and everything felt good, but I hadn't taken the bike on a mountain trail. While riding I started noticing my hands and arms starting to hurt. Really thought it was the rocky trail creating some weird vibrations through my upper body. Bill thought the changes to the grips could be the problem. We changed them back to the original position. It did not improve. It wasn't until we were heading back towards the truck with just a few miles left that Bill noticed my front suspension wasn't moving...at all. I looked and wouldn't you know it...the darn thing was in the 'locked' position. No wonder I was hurting. Now we know the value of that front suspension...makes a huge difference on rocky terrain. I now check the position when I ride...lesson learned.
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| View toward Sedan, MT from Carrol Creek Trail |
For the 2nd incident I decided to see if I could stay on my bike while ride off the side of the trail at a greater than 45-degree angle. One cannot...at least this one cannot. The stumps off the road kind of made it impossible to ride it out so I laid the bike down with me under it. A few bruises...including to my ego, but nothing to keep me from continuing down the road back to the truck. The cows were off in the woods on the return trip...thank goodness. The way my luck was running I figured I would need to unleash bear spray on an irate cow.
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| Mill Creek |
Our last hurrah was to ride Mill Creek and then head to Chico Hot Springs for a soak and burger. As luck would have it a front end loaded had scrapped the upper road all the way to the closure gate. The road was pretty much free of the potholes & rocks from last month's ride. Another blue-sky day that started in the upper 40's, but the sun was warm enough on the ride up the mountain. No critter sighting except for some finches enjoying the thistle seeds and a flock of Northern Flickers racing downhill away from us.
The only thing that intruded upon the day was our 1st flat tire on a mountain trail. Yep, me again. We switched to tubeless tires last summer and we've had no issues...until today. Unfortunately, the goop used to fill the tire needs replacing every few months depending upon heat/humidity. The stuff evaporates over time...we thought we could get through the summer & replace it next season. Wrong. The teeny tiny hole let all the air escape & we had to remove the tire, unpack the inner tube, and put the tire back on and pump it up. Fun. A bit of a time to get it done & we were wondering if we'd still have time to soak before picking up Bridger at his daycare. Priorities...we managed to soak, eat & return to Bozeman to pick up his crazy self at his usual time.
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View of Mill Creek Road below us
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| Newly scrapped road uphill |
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Fireweed seeds floating in air
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