A week's ADVenture around Western Montana! Arrive at WestFest site (place as yet to be determined) anytime Saturday, July 17 2010. Leave at dawn July 18 2010. Ride for a total of 1000+ miles over six days to finish at WestFest about 4PM-5PM Friday Return home Sunday, July 25 2010. All ADVriders welcome! This will be a mostly dirt ride, easy route will be mostly public and forest service dirt roads. Alternate "hard" routes will be possible on "big" ADV bikes. Single track may be included, but should be possible on big bikes. No porta potties, no band, no posing, just a big ride with GPS coords as meeting places every night at a new location, and scouted routes w/alternates for riders of different levels between. I will produce t-shirts and stickers for the ride, people will have to pre-order a coupla months in advance when the time comes. Here is the sign up thread, please use it for chatter, this one is for planning. How you can help. This thread is for local MT riders to plan the route. MoonDogMT has created a MT1000 route information site. Right now we need folks to sign up to ride segments of the route to capture GPS tracks, to check for closures, and to make a final selection and waymark the nightly camping spots. If we break this up among enough people we should be able to get it done easily and quickly, which is good because some of the roads won't be open til just before the rally. Please let me know in this thread, or by PM if you can and which parts of the route you'll be able to run. Day 1) Darby - Garnet Day 2) Garnet - Maysville Day 3) Marysville - Pipestone Day 4) Pipestone - Gravellys NorthPutts Bozomoto MoonDogMT Day 5) Gravellys North - Sheep CreekPutts Bozomoto MoonDogMT Day 6) Sheep Creek - DarbyMoonDogMT
A lot of the good high country stuff doesn't even open up by then, Gravelly Range Rd for one, but out Red Rocks to Continental Divide road down to Ruby Resevoir and Alder Gulch is an easy but great scenic ride.
Sadly, I realize that, but unfortunately that was the window of opportunity we had at the first "official" meeting. I worry about later dates as many Colorado riders have events in July and Aug. We can certainly plan the next one for later in the year. I reckon it'll make for a good ADVenture, but it does mean we'll have to plan carefully. Hope you can make it, mate.
I'm IN!! Well, as far as work will allow since that is the middle of fire season down south, but can certainly help with planning and route scouting out here. Tyll, might be able to offer my land as an overnight stop.
Sweet! Thanks Dennis. I reckon the first leg from Boz should end up somewhere south of Jackson. Maybe down the Gravelly Range (if open), across Red Rocks reserve to Lima, Sheep Creek, and stop somewhere --- similar to the "Hanks That Guy Tour" route. Next day up and over into the Bitterroot and maybe to your place. We'll have to spend some time next Bozeman Uprising to do some figuring. Good to know there's a potential bivouack at your place near Missoula. Praying for no fires is sorta like praying for a long winter, hopefully we can throw the ball down the middle and you can make it.
Thanks Putts. I will try to be there. Here is a good route section. Sorry no GPS Here The Skalkaho road From Hamilton to Philipsburg. Then North to I-90 West to Bearmounth. North through Garnet Ghost town continue North to Greenough/ Clearwater. Up the Swan to Placid Lake and over Jocko Pass to Arlee, .
If you want a mostly dirt road route from Bozo to Jackson, might suggest Alder Gulch to ruby Resevoir, Cont. Divide Road past the eureka basin Rd. to Centennial rd. West of lake View. Nice camp on Red Rocks if you want to stop short. Red Rock pass to Island park, Down the Mesa Falls rd to Warm river Idaho. Reclamation Rd past the Bechler to Flagg ranch Camp on the Snake North of jackson. If you want to attract out of state riders, Yellowstone would be a shame too pass up.
I'm in, but the Garnet Ghost Town ride is a bit iffy in mid-May. The Beartooth Pass/Chief Joseph Highway with camping at Top of the World, or at the base of the Pass along Rock Creek is something I'd be willing to put together. Bring your fly rod! Top of the World in May:
The top of Hoodoo Pass in mid-June '07. Zillions of miles of good riding. Unless I'm off the continent, I'm there.
we'll see. Nothing like a bit of ADVenture. I tend to think we'll not make it that far west. I'm also going to aviod Yellowstone. People can visit there coming and going. And sproutj works there so I bet it would feel like work to him. People should bring a fly rod if their into it, though. I'm bringin' mine. Sweet! Even if you're off the continent, but it would be great to see you. I'll add you to the list.
I live near Libby and can help the routing up north. I will consult my maps and send you a few suggestions.
Sweet! Are you "In"? Be on the lookout for particularly cool places to see, we'll have quite a few folks from out of state and sightseeing should be high on our list. Ghost towns, mines, really cool Western type places for lunch, etc. Also! I my be having a bout of commitment panic, but I'm worried about having to deal with too much rain and hail and such. I'm going to have a "planning" <s>party</s> meeting soon, and I think we should consider finding some big barns or something for sheltered nighs, if need be. And ... I think our first task is to find the six relatively equally spaced bivouac spots. Routs between shouldn't be to hard, but finding the right places to overnight with 100 plus riders is not going to be easy. I think my map shows us farther west than we really should go on the return leg. I'm very interested for the Helena folks to suggest routes east of the divide back to BZN that remain in the mountains somewhat. Open to all ideas in these regards.
I would love to say "IN" but that is WAY too far out for me to commit - my job dictates when I can get time off based on project load. I will definitely try though.
I am IN pending vacation time and work schedule. Even if something comes up, I'm still game to help plan. I have routes galore in the Big Belt mountains east of Helena. On your tentative route (between Belt and White Sulpher Springs), I can come up with a nice route in, through, or around the Big Belts. Also, on your tentative route, between Great Falls and Browning, if we are going to hang to the tarmac for that stretch, Hwy 89 would be a lot better than Interstate 15. A lot more twisty (thought Hwy 287 between Wolf Creek and Choteau is even better). 89 also has great views of the Rockies to the east. But then, there are probably a lot of gravel road routes heading that way that I don't know about, and those would be preferred. There are some great routes over west of Helena, too (Stemple Pass, Mullan Pass, Gravelly Range road, etc.) with main routes (gravel roads) to accomodate heavy/mid weights and alternates routes for flyweights/aggressive mids. Not sure if the route will head through this area, but if so, there are a bunch of us to suggest routes. If not, that works, too, because that means all new routes for me to enjoy! Subscribed...
Good to see you here, Chad. (Is it Chad?) Okay, you're the official Helena Area Coordinator. (I hope you can do without a stinking badge.) taidea, would you be willing to help with the NW quadrant? Dennis, You're the official Misssoula Area Coord. You didn't offer, but I'm betting (knowing you a little) that you'd be happy to. (Lemme know if you don't feel like doing it.) Would you guys PM me your phone numbers? I'd like to kick some things off with a phone call, and maybe drill into this a little quicker. Also, all Montanans, please try to contact as many ADVers here a you can to tell them about the ride, and to ask them for help by thinking of cool places and stuff even if they don't come on the ride. I'll add that I really don't have any problem at all with folks joining up for just partial sections of the ride. The big 100 hard limit is mostly for the start finish at my house. I'm sure local folks will have no problem figuring out where to bed down for a night when we stop. I don't see us having any problems finding routes from BZN up to the NW corner. The thing I'm worried about now is whether to try to cross the divide and come south on the east side, or to stay on the west side coming back south. Just don't know the area well enough. Another thought that comes to mind is that we could use moderately remote state and fed campgrounds in the evenings possibly. We'll be slightly early in the season and I think some of the remote campgrounds are going to be pretty empty at that point. Locals will have a better feel for which ones might work. (I do like a nice ergonomically correct crapper in the morning.) Also, as mentioned, I'd really like to get a good list of "Things Not to Miss" that covers Western Montana so we can put dots on the map and see what we can hit. I'd prefer "out of the way" stuff like ghost towns and cool old bridges, as opposed to things like: the Berkely Pit in Butte or ... well you get the idea. I'd really like the Flatlanders who come here to get the eperience of being out in the middle of nowhere and seeing cool shit, rather then being on a tour of Montana. That said Virginia City is fun and I think Bannack is a must. Just thinking out loud here, really, just to try to develop a tone for the ride. Also, we should try to be on dirt as much as possible, but I bet I didn't even need to say that. Hmmm .... well, if you've got ideas, anybody, spill 'em.
I think Skalkaho Pass via the Pintler scenic loop would be a neat passage into the southern Bitterroot Valley...then maybe up to lake Como http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/northern/bitrcmp.htm there's a group site there, but not sure how many it will hold. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Bannack,+Montana&daddr=wisdom+mt+topportunity+mt+to:MT-1%2FMT+Hwy+1+to:MT-38%2FSkalkaho+Hwy+to:46.068233,-114.238933&geocode=%3B%3B%3BFTKowQIdpq8--Q%3BFZUNwQIdEyEy-Q%3B&gl=us&hl=en&mra=mi&mrcr=4&mrsp=5&sz=16&sll=46.066606,-114.233243&sspn=0.010779,0.02547&ie=UTF8&ll=45.85176,-113.510742&spn=2.770101,6.520386&z=8
