2100 foot climb in 6 miles, 75 miles total
Going north of Seeley Lake we were in the Lolo National Forest that was ravaged by forest fires in 2017. It was kind of eerie to see the large, burned pines standing in front of the hazy mountains. The green of the forest floor and the pink fireweed helped cheer up the scene. It was a quiet morning and we were in bear country so we wanted to make some noise. I thought I should sing since that is an irritating sound to humans and I started with “Roll out the Barrel” in honor of my Dad. I didn’t remember much so I moved on to “Nikolina” a Norwegian song that is a favorite of Ron, my father-in-law. Joel hummed a few bars but neither of us remembered the lyrics. Then I was in to saying words that start with the letter B. We quickly went through Bear, Bug, Bag, Berries, Bikini, etc and after 1/2 hour or so Joel won with Boston Baked Beans.
Fortunately we didn’t see or hear a bear but a new challenge was upon me. Singletrack, uphill, with an exposed ridge. It was not a pleasant section for me but I made it through the “Chasm of Death”and later we had two really nice sections of singletrack through the wildflowers that were very enjoyable.
