I know, it’s like I wrote one thing and now the floodgates are open and I can’t stop and maybe last summer wasn’t as much of a flop as I thought. Here’s another highlight of the year, a wild bike ride with barely any reviews on Trailforks that was easily, hands down, the best bike ride I’ve ever done and probably ever will do. I spent the few days before being SO anxious because I had never ridden anything of this caliber, especially after chickening out on some banked turns on a blue run the day prior. I’m happy to say I only walked like 10ft on the way down. Which probably means this should be a green trail if it weren’t for the distance and elevation gain but you know. Let me enjoy the moment okay?

• Distance: 20mi for the whole lollipop loop
• Elevation: ~4,000ft gain, ~9,500 highest point
• Weather: 70’s and sunny
• Commute from Seattle: Long, it’s outside of Big Sky MT
• Did I Trip: Actually, genuinely, no

This loop is utterly spectacular. Ride it counterclockwise/backwards (climb 2nd yellow mule first, then go down 1st yellow mule). Go when the flowers are out. Bring a ton of water. Ok here we go.

It starts on a super popular hiking trail that’s basically paved. I was so worried about the distance and duration of this ride I went straight to the granny gear when we started climbing, ready to sandbag. In fact I titled my Strava record “bears hear my granny gear coming.” The trail cris-crosses some actual roads in the first few miles, reassuring me if I totally died (or, bears) there’d be an easy escape. Those soon disappeared though, and the trail started started feeling like true wilderness despite glimpses across valleys of construction for ski resorts and whatever the Yellowstone Club does with their land that us plebs will never see. And as usual my body started to perk up after the first mile or so.

The climbing is pretty consistent on the way up (second yellow mule) but the views get better and better as you do. We stopped for a snack around an hour in, I was feeling great but Max not so much. I even caught him walking his bike, a sight never before seen to our usual biking crew. The trail was through sparse forests and mini meadows full of wildflowers, and as we got further out and higher up the trees gave way to more and more wildflowers.

I. Love. Wildflowers. Like, on par with prime larches and waist deep powder and smooth clean warm waves and a really good hand crack and a tickly 4-3 suspension in a song I’ve been enjoying. So the pace slows as the photos ramp up, which is good because suddenly Max is getting sick on the side of the trail.

Our experiences diverged as he trended towards miserable and I was in my personal heaven surrounded by rainbows and color and full of endorphins. We took a few breaks as he pushed through whatever was going on with his body, electrolytes/elevation/exhaustion we’ll never know. At this point it made more sense to get to the top ridge and bike the easier downhill rather than bike down what we had climbed up, so we carried on. And the meadows were getting more and more spectacular so not to sound like an unsympathetic sociopath or anything but I was flipping back and forth between being concerned and unadulterated bliss drinking in our surroundings. I will never complain about flopping down for a break in a meadow that looks like something out of a fantasy animation. I’m honestly not sure what I’d have done in his situation. I wouldn’t want to call SAR but not sure I’d have the guts to get through it either. You never know til you’re faced with it I guess, fortunately Max is a tough one. Suffering is a skill.

We reached the ATV trail at the top of the ridge and took a break near a post (needed some landmark) where Max ran out of water. We hadn’t really passed any streams on the way up, and assumed there wouldn’t be any on the way down, and there certainly wasn’t any on the top of this massive mellow rolling ridge. I had already given him most of mine since I am a camel living in a perpetual state of dehydration, so at this point I grabbed both our camelbacks and took off cross country.

I figured there had to be some tiny snow patches lingering from winter on the northern slopes that would have some runoff at best or snow I could melt at worst. I apologized to every wildflower I trampled and suddenly came across our oasis, a 15×15′ snow patch with a tiny river trickling off its foot. I dug out a bit of a river and waited for the silt to settle and filled the bladders as best I could, jogging back up to Max through the disorienting featureless rolling grassy hills. Max is a crusher on the downhill sections so we knew as soon as we were done with the climbing he’d be fine getting back to the car and I’d be the one we had to worry about.

Water scouting mission successful, We hung out for a few minutes before biking the ridge to our turn off onto First Yellow Mule, where I immediately got off my bike and walked the first switchback downhill through a flood of “ah shit fun’s over” and “what have I gotten myself into” anxiety. I am not a strong downhill biker. I’m great at climbing, I got the endurance game down pat, but I’m a chicken going downhill especially after going OTB last year (did not inspire confidence). Max, on the other hand, was probably like “thank god” “fuck yeah” “fun’s just beginning.” Fortunately for both of us, the rest of the downhill was insane blissful cruising. Max had to wait but not THAT long since I was surprisingly comfortable on everything, probably because there were no drops or tight switchbacks. Again, maybe it’s a green trail if not for the distance and elevation. Shh.

The main difficulty is that trail is extremely narrow and rutted, so it made sense to hop out of it and just bike raw ground for much of the descent. Which is terrible, there really should be some trail maintenance to prevent that, but the deep rut is nearly unbikeable. It’s extremely jarring trying to control a bike in a several-inch-deep single rut at speed. I will happily volunteer to help if someone tells me who to talk to. But ignoring that part, wow. Single track flowy downhill with barely any turns through ridiculous seas of wildflowers. I barely took photos because it was just too fast and fun. I have never biked anything like it and couldn’t believe it wasn’t more popular, but maybe Big Sky attracts more park type mountain bikers than cross country. I was legitimately disappointed when we got back to the intersection that would put us back on the popular/maintained hiker trail. I had lived a lifetime up on those mule trails and wasn’t ready for civilization yet.

I still look back on this ride like it’s a dream I didn’t actually experience in real life. Did it really happen if you didn’t suffer at all? No type ii fun? And it didn’t even take us that long, under five hours so it was pretty much a half day trip given how quickly we were able to bike down despite all the breaks on the way up

. If it wasn’t for the pics I’d be thinking I glorified it in my head, I can’t believe there are barely any reviews on trailforks.. It was one of those trips where everything lines up too perfectly for a 10/10 experience. I know Max probably downgraded that to like 6/10 but I was on top of the world, ready to quit my job and just bike the wildflower-riddled west for a few weeks. Of course that didn’t happen, instead I worked from a dark hotel room all day the next day and had my recently re-discovered soul sucked back out of my body again immediately. But wow did that trip set the bar high for biking. And a huge thanks to Max for powering through the distress, I’m not sure I’d have been able to do that myself. Glad we were able to redeem some of the day on the way down!