Entry by guest blogger Erik...Well, I finally made it out west with Howie and Kevin. I have wanted to join one of these adventures for years and this year my beautiful wife MaryJo urged me to do it. She is the planner in the family and if she hadn't pushed me to go another summer might have passed. Don't get me wrong - I love the riding in State College but the stuff that Howie and Kevin do out here always sounded and looked awesome. I was set up to meet my hosts on the last leg of this years journey in Bozeman, MT. I arrived yesterday and got situated and talked with the guys about the first ride - Bangtail Divide. It had rained all night so we all were a little worried about the trail conditions. We set up our bikes, including my Stumpjumper full suspension 26er loaned by Howie, and headed out to the trail head. We were surrounded by tall pines and a mix of green and rocky peaks all around. We started up the trail and a beautiful switchback climb with 2200 ft vertical gain. I had to adjust some to the thin air at this elevation- about 5000 ft.
The trail was well built bench cut with 20 or so switchbacks before the first summit. I could only imagine the amount of time it took to build this. We stopped at some point and munched on our fluffernutter sandwiches. After getting to the top we rode lots of fast rollers mixed with switchback with a backdrop like some of the pictures you see here. The riding here is fast and twisty with rocky sections but not like back east. After about 20 miles we started looking for the beginning of the descent which would elude us for a while - every turn would bring another climb. Finally, the big switchback downhill back to the car. You had to really control your speed on the switches since a mistake might mean a fast trip down the mountain. We all arrived back at the car in one piece muddy and happy. The first ride out here with these guys was a blast and I really have to thank them for making this so easy.
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