Thursday Night Ride - Butter Cup

Butter Cup is a ridge line ride which starts right after a 6 mile climb up forest roads. The views of the Bitterroots was fantastic from the tops of the peaks we were on. Very dramatic.

Here's the abrupt start of the ride where things get interesting.

A nice descent, not as technical as some, though.

With all the rain this spring/summer, the wild flowers were amazing. Normally, by this time of year, they've already wilted.

The final descent into Little Sleeping Child was sketchy due to a combination of loose rocks, overgrown grasses (so you couldn't see the trail), and some very steep sections.

A warm Tuesday eve ride

Finally, we have a day in the 80's. Last week I discovered someone up the road from us growing hops. He said this was his first attempt. Hopefully, we will see the lines full of flowering vines by the end of summer.

This is a shot looking up Mill Creek. There is still plenty of snow on the summits, and more back in the valleys, but it is melting fast. The peak on the left is about 8300 feet.

Thursday Night Ride - Lost Horse Lookout

Normally small creeks are still flowing quite heavily. This was on the 8 mile climb up to the lookout.

The descent is only three miles, but extremely steep in sections. The first mile drops almost exactly 1000 feet. This part isn't bad, but you are on the brakes the entire time down. I had to stop and warm my fingers on my rims, it was in the 40's, in June.
There was fresh snow falling and a freezing wind blowing at the top.

Tuesday eve ride and some high water.

High water due to the rain and extended snow fall at higher elevations on top of the 150% snow pack. We've had high flow rates for the past month and lots of flooding around the state. Here, the flooding hasn't affected too many roads or houses, but further downstream and other rivers have been more damaging.

I had a feeling the bike path would be close to impassible, but these guys showed me that it was drivable. Notice I wrote "bike" path.... This was their second pass before they decided they might get in trouble. I didn't try to ride it.

Thursday night ride; Calf Creek

Road Calf Creek with the intention of finding some new trails. Thanks to the mud and the exploration, our ride went from a nominal 1.25 hours to 2.5 hours. For sure, it was worth it.

Fording a spring creek near the top. We had to turn around right after this picture because the snow got deep fast. Interesting, though, it seems to be a very wet rainforest like area.

A new to me trail just below the snow line.

Plenty of mud thanks to the heavy rains in the morning.

Spring at the lower elevations, but fresh snow above.

First morning in the new place.

Wow, it really is beautiful here.

The sunrise lighting up the Bitterroots.

Sent by a Dorkus Incredibleus

Thursday Night RIde - Back to Larry Creek

Started off cold, then got colder and started to snow, then near the end, it warmed up and we went for another loop. One of the easier rides in the Bitterroots where you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Other rides can take up to twice as long to cover the same distance. Unlike most places, Larry Creek trails are not the most technically challenging. A nice break from all the rocks most trails have. But, like almost every other trail here, there are plenty of long steep ascents. Two weeks ago, the upper trails had about a foot of snow on them, almost all of it was gone.

You can't see it here, but it was snowing quite heavily.