The tour is back for a report from the dental floss capital of the world (according to Frank Zappa), Montana. Specifically Missoula, Montana on the west side of the state. Home of the University of Montana, picturesquely sitting at the base of a mountain in an area just a bit hillier than "Mount" Pleasant, it would have been a great place to study.
The mission for the trip, as always, was to hit the local mountain bike trails. As I have done previously, I rented from the local bicycle shop for a set of wheels. The rented bike is usually better than my home ride, the process of shipping your own seems to be more pain than pleasure and you get the bonus of trail information from the local shop. This rental was a bit different than the others as with the bike, I received the standard spare tube/pump (if necessary); however, I got an extra item for this rental, bear spray. The mascot for the city's university is the grizzly so yes, bear spray is a good item to have. There were portions of the pedal that cut through some very thick forest and I was waiting for smoky to jump out at any moment. No bear sightings to report but definitely had me on high alert.
The pedal, as with the potential for the additional wildlife, was a bear. There was a bit of 'hike-a-bike' involved as I was gasping pretty well walking up as a young-lung-er pedaled by me as I blurted out asking if the top was near. "Two more climbs" he replied as my internal large melon voice yelled "fu**" while I continued my climb. It was worth it as the trips down were a treat.
Besides the biking and meeting with some great local flavor, I took in a Missoula PaddleHead minor league baseball game. The team used to be affiliated with the Arizona pro team (formerly the 'Osprey') but the franchise was an unfortunate casualty of the recent minor league restructuring so are part of an independent league with other northwest towns. A beautiful backdrop with the mountains along with the above-and-beyond customer service experience of minor league baseball and you have an enjoyable evening.
No airport issues but an embarrassing moment by yours truly working my new wireless ear buds on the plane. I forgot to sync my music player so a few passengers got to hear “Join Together" by The Who blaring as I turned up the volume thinking me ear buds weren’t working. "Sir, you’ll need to turn that down…." My bad.
Attached are some views from the pedal.
Trail Head
cell phone users will need to go to the link below to view the attached
(put quality settings to 1080 for best picture quality)
