Today we found all sorts of goodness on the trail. Rideable climbs. Bench cut trail. Fresh raspberries. A picnic table to cook and eat dinner at. A bald eagle and hawks watching over us. Bubbling brooks.
We also *didn’t* find bubbling brooks. An off trail and on foot excursion to a possible water source yielded only a couple of brown ponds. That and a brief break from pedaling and being bounced around. I say it was an off trail excursion, but since there wasn’t a trail next to the CDT signs when we left it, it’s hard to call it off trail.
We warmed up on 10 or so miles of pavement from the Lakeside Lodge to Keg Springs road. Climbing back to the divide completed our wilderness study detour. We saw a thru-hiker in the distance, proceeding up the faint trail to some shade. Brother Bear soon reached us and wins the award for quickest grasp of CDTbike. “You guys are probably the first ones to ride the whole trail, huh?” As far as we know….
He climbed in front of us until the trail gained the divide again at a spectacular view of the tilted crags just below and in the Centennial Valley. I wasn’t expecting such an incredible sight. 1000 feet up on mega flowery trail. Rideable, if a lot of work. Awesome.
The CDT in Montana so far has been quite impressive. Brother Bear had high praise for the Lionshead section (where we were after West Yellowstone), calling it the perfect trail routing. Not too few switchbacks, not too many. Seems like thru hikers like bike friendly trail too! Wanted to give a shout out to Terry, the trails tech responsible for that section. It’s his birthday this week, so Happy Birthday and thanks for the great trail!
Along Taylor Mountain the trail followed a wide old mining road that has been reclaimed by grass, flowers, thistles and bumps. Lots of bumps. Still a good way to travel.
Partway down and after some steep climbs, we were running low on water. We should have just kept rolling the 5 miles to the confirmed stream. Getting water when we needed it would have been nice, though! No storms built this afternoon, which we were very happy about. It also meant lots of warm climbing in 20×36 super granny.
We didn’t actually run out, but we were rationing my last bottle, and crossing our fingers the next stream was real.
It was. Oasis! Shade and all-you-can-drink water. Wahoo.
Good trail continued to the Aldous Lake trailhead, where we were able to check on our friends by way of a trail register. The trail needs more trail registers — they are fun to check.
While descending Eszter stopped, “are those raspberries?!”
“Yes! Dessert! Bonus calories!”
Yum yum. I hope we find more berry patches down the trail.
Climbing to Aldous Lake was on regular old MTB trail.
“I like it that we get to do some mountain biking in the middle of our 3000 mile trip.” 🙂 You know, mountain biking that everyone would enjoy…
Great fun climbing, well used trail. At the lake we debated about camping next to the picnic tables, but instead decided to use them to cook and eat. What a civilized dinner, sitting down and all. We tried to coax the bald eagle that landed on a tree by the lake to ‘do something cool’, but it seemed pretty content just to sit and watch the fish jump.
We continued up the trail a bit to a nice camp on a knoll. Getting our food into a tree turned into an embarrassing comedy routine, but we did eventually get it hung. Tomorrow we climb up high in the Centennials again!
Scott, I found a bike pump in carrot canyon just west of keg springs. Your one of a handful of cyclists that have been in there.
Let me know if you lost one there. Travis
Don’t think we lost a pump anywhere on the CDT, but thanks for asking! I don’t even remember where Keg Spgs is, but sounds like a place I need to go back to.