Friday, June 20, 2014

Biking with bear spray.

Now everyone's got a fancy bike.

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They just don't always ride it.

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Basecamp: Holland Lake.

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Phew! There's rocks and sticks.

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We section biked about 40 miles of the Great Divide mountain bike trail though the Swan Valley. The trail starts in Banff and ends at the Mexican border and generally follows dirt roads and trails; through the Swan it's a mix of single track, double track, dirt roads, and a few miles of pavement.

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The trail was put together by Adventure Cycling, which sells maps and offers support. The maps are inspirational and the directions are not bad, but I found that through the Swan there are so many intersecting trails and roads, some open some closed, that continuously looking at the maps and calculating distances made for slow and often imprecise riding. I think if you're serious about doing the route it's better to download waypoints to a GPS and navigate that way.

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The trail took us on either side of the Swan, down by the river and up to the edge of the mountains. It's another good year for beargrass.

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Since Sunday was Father's Day, I woke up at 5 and went skiing.

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Red Butte -- unsettled conditions and a sloppy inch of new. Not the best skiing, but good enough.

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