MTB: Bitteroot Lost Medley

As the Fall closes in on us, the mad scramble to squeeze every ounce of good weather and daylight is on! We loaded up the Airstream on Friday and busted out to the Bitterroot Valley to explore some riding in the area.  I had been looking at maps and talking to to folks to get beta and there seem to be a lot of great riding to be had.

Shortly after the wifer got home, we were on the road and like the Blues Brothers, we were on a mission, albeit a different one than theirs.  Fortunately, the camping area was really quiet and we were able to find a site all to ourselves with no neighbors around so it gave the dogs plenty of space to run around and tree squirrels all weekend.  I think the change in weather has deterred people from going out because the campsites were not busy and the trails even less so.  We did talk to some equestrians and one other biker but if felt like we had to the trails to ourselves once again.

It worked out well because it was cool enough that we were able to leave the dogs in the airstream while we rode and when we got done the weather and recent frosts had pretty much eliminated all signs of mosquitoes.

We headed out on Saturday with the intention of going on a ride for about 16-20 miles....We missed a couple of trail markers (that were not exactly well placed - as in, under some branches after a critical junction - as opposed to at a junction) and the ride turned into a 34 mile jaunt through most of the trails in the immediate area.  The benefit was that we got to see a tick off a bunch of awesome riding!  I call it the Lost Medley due to all the back-tracking we did but it was worth all the epicness that ensued!

The views were just spectacular.  The low point of the ride was around 4,400 ft while the high point took us to about 7,700 ft.  There was a lot of climbing on the day (around 5,300 ft) and some of it was of the steep butt kicking type! 

We started along a creek-bed for a few miles...rocky and a little tekkie in places - snaked up the valley

 ran into this USFS cabin about 6 miles in

 continued up the valley

 back into the trees - that slope must stay really wet based on the lichen on the trees

 gained the summit saddle (where we missed our turn for our original laid out ride)

 rode through some burn areas:

 then eventually back-tracked over to where we were supposed to go

 and the descent was ON

 great Fall colors through the burn - amazing how lush the undergrowth was in the burn areas!

 Gotta' love a trail that you can see winding below you...WOOHOO

All in all, it was a long, but very good day...enough to want to go back and explore some more.  We got a lot of riding in but there is TONS more to be had...