Ah the Outdoorsman. Our first bike shop in many hundreds of miles and more than a month. The last true bike shop was in Winter Park, I believe. Our bikes needed some love. Rob runs a great show and is ever so kind to divide riders. Larry the mechanic got us going with new cables, housing and chains. We put our own bikes in the stands and refilled sealant levels, installed brake pads and cleaned / overhauled other parts. I finally got rid of my headset creak, I believe, after re-pressing the bottom cup.
All that work and a few other touches, like new gloves, meant we were super tuned and revamped. To celebrate, we stripped all the gear off our bikes and went to ride a local favorite.
We climbed Maud S trail out of town, steeply. Unlike our last day ride, which was all day and still had us carrying lots of food, rain gear, etc, this time we were truly riding light. It felt so, so good. I’m really looking forward to unloaded riding after the CDT.
Today was a ride to go see a Lady. The kid at the local restaurant said it’s a statue of the Mother Teresa. It’s not. It’s the ‘lady of the rockies’ sitting right on the Continental Divide. The Mother Mary, supposedly. 90 feet tall.
We climbed to a high point, now on the CDT proper, and found that nature made a few of its own ladies of the rockies. They remind me of the ‘Baby Jesus’ rock on the namesake trail in Tucson — looks like a cloaked Mary holding a little baby rock.
This is the 14 miles of trail that we could have followed from the current CDT route into Butte, but didn’t have the energy. It was a good call to save it for a day ride.
The climb hurt us, but once you gain the high point on the divide, it’s pure bliss. One of the best descents anywhere. I’m not sure if it was designed/built by mountain bikers, but the terrain is such that it would be impossible to create a trail that isn’t fun to ride. The undulations and rock plates lead to just the sort of riding I love. Eszter summed it up well, “I think you spent more time in the air than on the ground coming down that.”
Pop, pop, pop! Pop off everything you can! Especially with an unfettered bike and a clean cockpit, oh boy!
I was jumping for joy. The views of the open pit mine, the town of Butte and the Lady were impressive. What a jewel of a trail for Butte to call its own. It’s going to be a great addition to the CDT when it’s completed past the Lady.
We dropped back down the railroad tracks, through the tunnel and over the bridge, coasting and smiling all the way into Butte. An actual day ride — 4 hours and only 23 miles.
We’ll have to backtrack up the railroad tracks again, leaving town tomorrow, since that section isn’t finished yet. That’ll put us on some forest roads, then trails and standard CDT patchwork of trail/ATV/roads all the way to Lincoln.
Leave a Reply