Who needs a Fedex Pickup?

I made a trip to FedEx with 4 shipments - totalling 18 pair of shoes. The bags swallowed the smaller boxes, and the bigger boxes went on top without any shifting or swaying.No sweat. Well, a little sweat. Super stable load, although things get a little squirly if you stand up and pedal. I felt like I stuck out a bit until I saw three horses and a dog walking down Olive St.

Newest Addition

I experienced my first police auction today. It's strange the things that get left behind. How do 70 bikes just go unclaimed? I want to know the stories. I imagine that the previous owner of my new-to-me Ute is a fugitive, or in witness protection, or joined the circus - because why would you not claim this thing? I don't know, but it's mine now. I'm keeping a photocopy of the receipt with the bike in case I get accosted by some dude with black socks, a "cars r coffins" t-shirt, and large sideburns who thinks I swiped his bike. I know I stereotype a lot, but sometimes I can't resist. I won a fierce bidding war between a few other sandaled, bearded dudes and rolled away on my new Ute.

"Summer"

Ummm, there might still be snow on the ground when winter rolls around. It's a little silly. There is plenty of hiking to be had, but ran into 3 feet of snow in Hyalite in the middle of July.

Grassy Mountain

I was driving back from CO and got a message from my buddy Nick that he was passing through town. Perfect timing. He hung out for a couple of days and we headed up Bridger Canyon to ride in the Bangtails (the range on the opposite side of the canyon from the Bridgers). Great ride. We climbed a road for a long time, took some manky semi single track and topped out. Then hold on to your visors - descended for a very long distance on sickety-sick singletrack through BIG trees. The switch backs are built just-so and rocket you out the backside...you can actually lean and steer with your feet and flow through them. I found myself wanting to sit down just to give my calves a rest.

I find myself saying "well, in Colorado we"....fill in the blank..."can ride 100 miles of singletrack right from the doorstep, have sick flowy trails, have a better bike culture, more trail building organizations, etc etc etc". I must annoy everyone around me because I annoy myself. It's not fair to compare. It's just different. In MT you just get a different experience; you have to work much harder for it and sometimes the reward is amazing, flowing trails. Sometimes the reward is a good day with good people exploring a serious backcountry experience. Either way, it's good to be on a bike.

Coloradical

I know I promised more detail on the CO Trip. Life, work, and recreating have been taking precedence. The trip was awesome. Saw a lot of great people and missed a lot of great people. I came down from Idaho into the Flaming Gorge and Vernal. The plan was to ride Vernal but it was pouring rain. I came down CO139 over Douglas pass - which is a totally new place for me. I though I knew CO pretty well, but this was a surprise. Pretty awesome drive and scenery. Rode at Tabaguache, P-Towne secret trails (not really secret anymore after the Mountain Flyer article, but I still didn't see a soul in three hours), The Butte, Salida super secret trails, Buena Vista super secreter trails, and then busted home. It was a lot of single track for one week and I was thoroughly beat on returning to Bozeman. A worthy trip for sure.