Bo-Zone Overflow

Saturday treated us to yet another surprisingly warm day in southwest Montana.  The mercury climbed to around the mid 60's and we took full advantage by taking the dogs for a long walk up around Blacktail trails and then hitting the CDT trail for a couple hrs of singletrack riding.

We went up to Homestake Pass and got on the CDT and rode over to the next pass over (Pipestone Pass) and back.  It is about a 17 mile loop with ridiculously good riding.  We pulled into the parking lot and we wifer and I both commented about the number of cars in the parking area.  There were probably around 15 cars parked there and the vast majority of them were from Bozeman.  I have never seen that many cars or bikes on that trail. It was great to see people riding (it is usually an anomaly to run into people, let alone multiple groups), but it also made me a little protective of the trails hoping they don't get 'too discovered'.  In some ways, it felt like spring fever in reverse where everyone was trying to get in a ride before the weather turns (which it is supposed to do on Monday).

The recent snow and rains had packed the trails down really well and all the areas that were loose a month ago, were packed down again.  Most of the trails here are decomposed granite so they have a tendency to get a little sandy as the season progresses and they see more traffic.  Fortunately, mother nature gets back to work in the winter and packs everything back down again for spring/summer riding.

There is about 2,600 ft of elevation gain over the 17 miles of out and back trail.  Here be the profile:

It was a big bonus to get a great ride in on one of my favorite local trails this late in the season.  Big thumbs up and smiley face!