Last weekend was the coincidence of Adventure Cycling's Bike Travel Weekend and National Trails Day. I had decided that I would make a commitment to a bike trip in the spirit of participation early this spring. The idea was to spend an overnighter on a bike tour and there were over 8,000 participants. My plan was simple since I am just an old dog and I had a young dog to provide transportation for. The Bitterroot Valley is home to the Bitterroot Bike Trail that runs from Missoula, aka Zoola, to Hamilton, MT approximately 50 miles. So, I decided to use my bike to pull a dog trailer up to the Charles Waters campground, spend the night, and return home over the weekend.
However, since we love our forests and our campgrounds I knew I would need to get a campground on Friday morning and spend the night in order to have a shot at reserving a site. In addition, I had sold my touring bike, a Surly LHT, in order to fund building a Surly Disc Trucker with 2x11 gearing. Unfortunately, I didn't sell the LHT in time to complete the Disc Trucker (I lacked two tiny dérailleur parts for project completion). Lacking a touring bike, I decided to pull the dog trailer with my mountain bike and haul the camp gear up in my pickup and snag a campsite the day before. Of course, the accommodations were provided by the modified Hammocktent 90 degree and a HG tarp in case it started to rain again during the daytime. The trip was great, the weather was great, and much to my surprise the morel picking in the Bass Creek burn was phenomenal! I even had to make a return trip the next day to complete the five gallons personal use quota. I ate some, froze some, and dried some for future use this winter. Anybody else make it out and about for either AC bike travel day or National Trails Day?
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