Getting Out Of Dodge - Helena Bound

Took a little vacation recently to my home state of Montana for some much needed rest and relaxation as well as meeting up with and spending time with family. It was a fabulous time and like most vacation seemed to go way too fast but upon arriving back in the land of fast internets and uploading pictures I realized just how much stuff we crammed into a week and a half. Of course bikes were brought and rides were had, so the logical solution seemed to be to break the vacation into three separate blog posts, one for each ride since this is a blog about biking and not a vacation blog. Read along if you want, don't if it all bores you; the choice as always is up to you...

"You're off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting,

So... get on your way!”

~ Dr. Seuss ~

Oddly enough the planning for this vacation started months ago, which is unusual for me as I am not usually a planner and organizer when it comes to vacations. Sure I usually have a general idea of where I'm going and what activities are going to take place but never anything as specific as the planning I did this time. The first leg of the journey was Omaha to Helena, the capitol city of the great state of Montana and a place that I had only been to once, maybe twice in my life and that was as a young child no older than 10-12.


To be honest I didn't know much about Helena and probably never would have if it weren't for the awesome PR campaign that Bike Helena has been doing on both Facebook and their own website. Over the months leading up to vacation I started to learn about all of the trails that are accessible right at the end of the streets or via a free shuttle van, the way the community has embraced mountain biking and that Helena was recently awarded an IMBA bronze ride center designation. All good things and the guy I was talking to at Bike Helena was always very friendly, informative and quick to respond when I had questions via email plus I got a ton of free swag for expressing interest in coming out there and riding... in my experience mountain bikers love free stuff like "big boned" kids like donuts and Bike Helena just gets that.


We stayed at the Best Western Helena Great Northern Hotel, if you are up on your railroad knowledge you probably picked up on the fact that even though the Great Northern Railroad doesn't exist by that name anymore (it's currently part of BNSF railroad due to a series of mergers) but the hotel still carries the name. If you are a railroad buff, I recommend reading up on the Great Northern Railroad as it's history is pretty interesting, it was the only successful, privately funded  transcontinental railroad, it had a hand in the formation of Glacier National Park and was for awhile the only way to get to the park and provided service from Minnesota to Seattle in it's hay day; and for a time my Grandfather worked for them... so there's that as well. Montana still shows homage to all that the Great Northern Railroad did for the state, the name and goat symbol are still readily used throughout the state. The hotel was of course railroad themed, I was really liking the retro theme and feel to the hotel and would recommend it to anyone traveling through or staying in Helena.



One of the nicer things about the hotel was that it was located right in the middle of the Great Northern Towne Center, which is a collection of shops, bars, restaurants, fountains and even a large indoor carousel so once we parked the car there really wasn't a need to drive anywhere if you didn't want to and after driving 15 hours the thought of not driving for a day and a half sounded wonderful.


Timing of the trip worked out perfectly and we were able to meet up with a childhood friend of mine who was in town from Great Falls for work. Had a few beers and then a few more and threw in some food for good measure. Surprisingly to me was the fact that Montana has more than a few microbreweries that have popped up since the last time through the state, one of my favorite was Harvest Moon Brewery out of tiny little Belt Montana (population approx. 600 souls).


I also made a new friend while walking around the Great Northern Towne Center, not sure is he was the official mascot of the now defunct Great Northern Railroad but I can't say for sure that he wasn't either.


As I was getting ready to ride some of the great trails I'd been reading all about I realized that I had forgot to bring any water bottles, which is pretty ironic as I probably own at least 100 water bottles and have boxes of them that I may have only used once or might have never used. Trying to go without was not even an option as it was well into the 90s and I knew that the ride I had in mind involved plenty of climbing. Luckily I found these two great shops right next to each other, Great Divide Cyclery  is about what you would expect a bike shop to be but The Garage next door is gaining some notoriety for their custom bike builds. Not needing any custom work done it was just two water bottles for me and then out the door to hit the trails.


Since I knew I would only have time for one ride in Helena I did a little research on MTB Project and decided that the Mt. Ascension trail up and the Entertainment Trail on the way down would provide the most bang for my buck and they also formed a loop. Being a born again flat lander, I knew that there would be more climbing than I was accustomed to but I also knew that the view of the city would be worth it from the top. The Stava layout shows just what I expected, I was climbing a mountain on my mountain bike.


This trail did not disappoint, when most people think "mountain biking" these are types of trails most conjure up in the imagination, pine trees, rocks, roots and lots of climbing. As you can see from the previous picture the first 3 miles was pretty much a nonstop climb.


While not as high in elevation as some places in Colorado, although the top of the climb is higher than Denver, it was still some 3,000 feet higher than I was used to riding and my lungs let me know it. Amazingly I only had to stop one time on my way up, which I considered good considering the heat, the hold gravity has on me and the fact I had no idea how much farther I had to climb... took this picture while drinking some water and munching on a granola bar and chatted with the guy in the previous picture when he caught up. Being a regular he was much more familiar with the trail, he informed me that I had already climbed 5/6ths of the way to the top; despite his odd fractional representation I felt a second wind knowing that I was close to the top and the spectacular views that lie ahead.


A guy could get used to looking at this during his ride for sure!


As they say what goes up, must come down and this trail was no exception to that rule. The way down was far less rocky or rooty and had unbelievable flow, even being unfamiliar with the trail I barely had to touch the brakes on the way down. It was so much fun as a matter of fact that I didn't stop a single time for a picture until I got to this plateau about half way down and snapped a shot of Farley in a field of flowers.


Once back down it was time to head back to the hotel and clean up, I was hot, sweaty and covered with some good Montana dust. I reevaluated my level of cleanliness after spotting this car but still opted for a nice shower back at the hotel.


As I said earlier my only other experiences with Helena were as a kid and one of those was a field trip to the capitol building for elementary school, so I am by no means an expert on Helena but from what I did see it wouldn't be a bad place to call home if one could snag a decent job. In addition to riding we hit up the walking mall and a few other local businesses, all of it reminded me of my childhood and reiterated the feeling that people just don't seem to be in as much of a rush in Montana as they are in other places I've been. Helena and Montana as a whole has a bit more of a laid back vibe to it that I really miss sometimes.

I'd definitely do it all again, only this time I'd make sure I had more time to sting together multiple days of riding. While Helena may not be on the hot list of all that many mountain bikers, maybe it should be, I'd recommend it for sure after riding just the one trail, here is a link to a few videos from Bike Helena of the trails Helena has to offer. I have a few videos on my Flickr site that are worth checking out from Helena, nothing bike related but one crazy squirrel and a unique fountain that is a tribute to the mining days of Helena... unfortunately Flickr still hasn't fixed their video sharing issue so you'll have to go there to see them.

That's it for part one, part two will be a fun little ride in Glacier National Park that is the only legal single track in the entire 1,583 square miles that is GNP. Something about that just seems wrong but that's an issue for another day.

The Quest for Crank

Was surfing the interwebs the other night and came upon a post in one of the Facebook pages where someone is selling mountain biking stuff they don't want anymore. Since I have been known to ride a bicycle from time to time I frequent read these pages, problem is it seems that most people want to sell their "gently" used stuff for almost as much as you can get the same thing for new so I don't often buy much. Anyway, it just so happened that there was a SRAM crank set for sale at a reasonable price. We talked a bit and came upon a price and I thought we had even come up with a plan to meet. Kid selling the cranks lived in Seward and wasn't old enough to drive, so I figured I'd ride the cross bike out to pick up the crank and make a nice little ride out of it.


Managed to find a partner in crime for the ride out to Seward, so we meet up and Sunken Gardens and headed out into the wind.


Must be hunting season for one type of bird or another, unless it's some sort of new hiviz/camo riding kit.


In true Nebraska fashion it was more overcast than forecast, more windy than forecast and colder than forecast but man do those conditions make for some great photos.


Misery loves company as they say. Made it out to Seward in fairly decent time despite the wind and the constant rollers between here and there... that's where the trouble started. It seems we had some wires crossed because I sent the seller a text with my location and they said they would be there in 15 minutes, seemed about right for Seward. Moments later I get a second text "Lincoln right?" Somehow he was under the assumption we were meeting in Lincoln and I was under the assumption we were meeting in Seward, ruh-roh Raggy. So I turned around and high tailed it back to Lincoln, luckily they had some shopping and other things to do so we were able to connect at the new Fallbrook Super Saver.

In the end it all worked out though, I got a gently used crank to replace the one on the Monocog and I got in a fairly decent ride to boot. First crank I ever rode almost 60 miles for but it should be a nice upgrade from the stock crank that came on the Cog.

Circles in the dirt...

Been pretty lazy lately, no gym to speak of, not much riding either, somethings gotta change and soon. Lazy has a way of creeping in and taking hold, problem is it's a hard housemate to evict once he unpacks his shit. In a slight effort to start the change I decided to get out and cruise through the park tonight before it got dark, lights out is coming way too quick lately.


Love this time of year, when the temps start to drop but before the leaves fall and everything turns to a dull gray. Best time to ride out in the woods by far.


Water crossings are almost bone dry right now, first one is but the second one still has a little trickle running through it. I was actually a bit surprised how dry it was considering the rain we've gotten lately.


Switched out the flat Salsa Pro Moto 2 that came on the Mariachi for an Easton Monkey Bar, not sure what it is about flat bars but they always seem to make my hands numb. I gave them a try I really did but they were getting so bad that I could barely feel the brake levers on longer rides, the junky Giant grips probably don't help, zilch for padding on them. They might be the next thing to go here soon.


Some new urban art out on the biker side.

Saw this sweet ride in Van Dorn park on the way home, always get curious when I see a bike and nobody around... bikes tend not to ride themselves. Scanned the park for a bit before spotting the old guy who owned it, he was walking the park with a metal detector looking for anything of value. Chatted him up for a minute or two before completing the journey home. Need to figure out how to do more riding and less working myself, might be time to play that Powerball.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

Temps were pretty good for the ride today, kept getting spit on but never did really rain on me although it had off and on during the night and early morning. Forecast has lots of nice temps for the next 10 days, come on fall lets have a few weeks of decent weather before it gets colder.


Dreary day in the LNK but the clouds make for some decent pictures.


The boys of summer are long gone, nothing now but empty fields.


Normally not a huge fan of spandex per se because it is usually worn by the wrong type of people but sometimes you just have to revel in the beauty that spandex can provide when worn properly.

The Golden Ticket

Last night Cycle Works hosted Bikers Love Beer at the shop and a whole lot of awesome followed after that. The concept was to get a bunch of home-brewers who like to brew and ride bikes together in one spot and have a friendly little competition to see who could brew the crowd favorite IPA. Luckily finding volunteers to judge such and event amongst the cycling community wasn't all that difficult, something about beers and bikes just go together... even more lucky for me, I managed to get my hands on one of the tickets to get in.

If you didn't have one of these...


...you couldn't get in here and believe me in there was where you wanted to be last night.


I think the unofficial count for the night was somewhere around 150 people, most of whom biked, we showed up about 5 minutes before the event and were greeted to a full bike parking area. It was pretty rad to see that many bikes outside the shop at one time that weren't for sale, if there hadn't been beer and burgers a person could have spent hours looking at all the different bikes but who in their right minds is going to do that when there is cold beer and hot grass fed hamburgers to be had.


Those that chose not to ride were almost the lucky ones as far as parking was concerned, on this night it might have been easier to find a place to park your car than your bike.

Once inside you were treated to 12 different home-brewers with their own take on an IPA, all you had to do was grab a Hoegaarden sample glass (which was free to take home... like a drunken door prize) a score sheet and then just sample each of the 12 beers and rate them. Krampus and Mukluk from TNNDDR fame,  unbeknownst to me until now, are also home-brewers as well as dirt shredders, of course they weren't at the booth when I snapped this picture but they brewed a very tasty IPA.


Nathan, the man who brought it all together, giving out instructions. It was loud in there and just got louder as the night and the drinking progressed, I am guessing Nate's voice is gone today but that's a small price to pay for pulling off such a hugely successful event.


Damon's idea of a modern day two wheeled station wagon, I have to talk him into giving me a ride on this one of these days, those bells are calling my name and really what would be cooler than sitting on the back of this constantly ringing those bells while people stare at you in disbelief.


Those of us who decided to ride our bikes to the event were also eligible to win one of these sweet door prizes provided by the awesome sponsors of the event if you were lucky enough to have your number called.


If riding your bike on a Sunday night, free beer and door prizes weren't reason enough to come out, they also had grass fed beef hamburgers for sale at a minimal charge supplied by the great people at Open Harvest. And I do mean minimal charge at $3 a burger I'm guessing they just broke even.


The event was so big they even had staff photographers on scene to capture it all, I guess the budget was blown by this point and all they could afford was Joel... he looks a bit perplexed by all those buttons and knobs. Kidding of course, good dude right there but of course that can be said of any of the staff at Cycle Works.


Once the competition was done, Corey was hard at work tabulating the votes while the rest of us went back for seconds, thirds and perhaps even fourths of our favorite brews. Even though there had to be a winner, none of the brewers that came out and competed had anything to hang their heads about as all of the beers were top notch, I opted for a pencil while voting as I often changed my vote as I made my rounds of the booths. It seemed like each one just kept getting better than the one before, the fact that I was getting a good buzz on probably also helped those at the end of the voting string but everyone has their own method, that's just mine.


The winners of the door prize raffle with all their swag.


And the winning brewers... If I'm not mistaken I think Black shirt took first, White shirt second and Gray shirt third but as I said all of the beers were really good.



Even the ride home was an awesome experience, albeit a much slower ride with a belly full of beer and burger than the ride there, I didn't win any of the swag (except the Hoegaarden glass) but the GF walked away with a t-shirt. I guess if you want to look at it from a different angle everyone who came out was a winner, great beer, tasty burgers, a chance to socialize with people who love bikes and beer in a great venue... if you rode away that night somehow feeling cheated because your number didn't come up for the raffle you missed the whole experience of the night and the purpose of the event. I can't even imagine the amount of time, planning and prepping that Nate and the rest of the crew at Cycle Works put in for the event but I sure hope they do it again. I'll be first in line to sign up for that.

Some Like it Hot

There is a saying that it's not the heat it's the humidity, I am not sure if they are right or not because we have been getting plenty of both around here lately. The trend I'm not liking is the wind, seems like by this time most summers the wind almost completely disappears but not this year for whatever reason. Because of the wind I've been spending a lot of time in Wilderness Park hiding in the trees where the wind isn't as much of a factor; today was no exception. Tried getting up early to beat the heat but the heat was up just a little bit before I was.




Was a bad day to be a car, it's good once an awhile to remind the automobile driver that they are not the apex predator out there.



No room for error...



Are you looking at me... judging from the large gaping crack on his back this little guys seen better days.

Trails are in really good condition right now, I hate to say it but they could almost use a little moisture to make them even better. Lots of dirt getting kicked up on sweaty legs but I guess if that's all I've got to complain about I'll take it.

M.I.A

Been missing in action as far as posting any blogs go but that's only because I've been outside in the great weather we've been having getting in some riding.

Been spending a lot of time in The Park (Wilderness Park) lately, trails are in premiere condition which makes them hard to resist. 

 

In addition to my usual solo riding I've been partaking in the Wednesday night group rides hosted by Cycle Works. It's great to get out and ride with a group of people who share a common interest and having someone to ride with isn't bad either, these guys are fast also which means I get to push myself much more than I would riding alone. 

 

 

 

In addition to the group rides I managed to get up to Tranquility Park  in Omaha for some riding as well, I have't ridden there in years... lots has changed. 

 

 

 

Of course even managed some solo paved ride with the trusty Monocog as well, best bike purchase ever! So far...

 

 As you can see it's been a busy spring, I'd like to apologize to my one reader and promise to try to post more often. The trip to NY state is coming up soon so there will be new places and new faces if nothing else.