Primarily because they ran Big Dorthy out of Helena in 1973.  Now the former brothel is home to The Windbag Saloon, which is the best restaurant we encountered on the ride.  Also because I think Montana means “crazy white man roads” in the Blackfeet language.  I really looked forward to Montana, but have to admit it was not my favorite riding.  I think the road engineers spent a little too much time at Big

Dorthy’s, or the commissioner of roads holds the statewide franchise for the sale of tires and shocks.

It didn’t help that the first half of the ride was shrouded in smoke, but these roads are ludicrous.  We pedaled up one road on the side of a mountain for quite some time and suddenly it just stopped.  Someone must have decided it was too expensive to maintain, so they dropped some boulders across it and declared it a trail for non-motorized vehicles.  I’m sure that justified the expense of building it in the first place.  After that I started seeing roads all over the place also cutoff by boulders.  Now you have to realize these boulders are immovable and there is no way around them, so the roads are inaccessible unless you happen to be on a mountain bike doing the GD.

For a little side-trip we rode to Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park.  It is a crazy road too, since it is covered by snow most of the year.  Basically it was built during the depression to keep people busy.  Much to Chuck’s chagrin I had problems with Glacier since it is not very bicycle friendly.  After riding to Logan Pass we had to stop half way down, because bikes are not allowed on the lower section (the only way out!) from 11AM to 4PM.  Luckily we flagged down a nice couple in a pick-up truck who shuttled our bikes to the bottom.

The road that took the cake though was up Fleecer’s ridge, or as the locals call it – John’s Road.  As local legend has it, to avoid the police some guy named John needed a route home after a night of drinking , so he built his own short cut.  There is not a lot I can say about it, but the man was a bit nutty and must have had good four wheel drive.  Willy pushing the bike and empty BOB A picture paints a thousand words.  (Note that my bob trailer is empty in the picture.  Luckily it only required two trips up the mile long nightmare.)

Sorry about the lack of information and pictures, but we just arrived in Banff and are more concerned with celebrating than posting.  We will post more as soon as possible …