MTB: Bangtail Divide

On the menu for the ride agenda for Saturday was a trip over to Bozeman to ride the much talked about Bangtail Divide trail.  It is a 31 mile loop (or 23 miles if you do it as a shuttle).  I opted for the loop since the return was around 7-8 miles on a paved road...once you got done with a little climb, it was mostly downhill back to the car.

The excitement of the day was seeing a bear barreling through the brush as I was bombing downhill and apparently spooked him/her.  I decided to keep the foot on the gas as it was on the uphill side of me and trying to run away.   As it turned out it was running sorta' parallel to me and going uphill at the same time to get away.  It stayed with me for a good few seconds and I kept watching as it hauled booty up the hill.  I was probably going close to 20 mph at that downhill section so he must have been going slightly faster to be busting off at an angle going uphill while more or less keeping pace.  Pretty damn cool!  I figured it was a good idea not to linger because I had no idea how big it was and whether it was young and mama bear was lurking somewhere....don't think I could have outridden a pissed off mama bear!

The Bangtail Divide trail parallels the Bridger range so once you gain the crest, it opens up into amazing views of the Bridgiers, with views of the Crazy's in the background too.

Looking West at the Bridgers

 looking South and capturing the Sotuh end of the Bridgers:

 Looking North and capturing the North end of the Bridgers:

 Obligatory bike portrait with the North end of the Bridgers:

Details of the ride:

I decided to do the route from south to north (or counter-clockwise) as this seem to be the way everyone recommended.  The ride starts with a 2000 ft climb up to the ridge where you roll along the ridgeline for a while and then get a really fun and fast downhill.  The uphill had many switchies but the trail was not all that steep or technical so it made the climbing plesant.  

Rumor has it that this was built as a bike specific trail but unfortunately, you can tell that moto's have been on it and have trashed sections of the trail with deep craters where they throttle it through the mud when conditions are still wet.  You had to pay particular attention to the downhills because you would scream around a corner and have to dodge pot-holes that would toss you off your bike in a NY minute.

 As can be seen from the topo below, there are killer views of the Bridgers (range snaking from bottom left to top left - or north to south in this case).