One of the most unique mountain bike rides in North America has to be Line Creek Plateau in the Beartooth mountains of south central Montana. The ride starts on the Wyoming border along the scenic beartooth highway. Charles Kuralt called this road the most beautiful drive in America. The ride starts out a little deceptively as you begin with a beautiful drop down to an alpine gem of a lake above timberline (the trailhead is at about 10,000 ft.) After a little traverse and a climb you are dropped off on an enormous tundra plateau. Now it's you and the map for the next ten or so miles as you pick your way along the plateau around little nobs and rock piles. The route is now relatively well marked although there is no trail for most of the plateau. The Big Sky views are enough to steal your breath if the high altitude isn't allready. The bighorn basin desert stretches away to the east all the way to the mighty Bighorn mountains. To the south and west lie the tallest peaks by far in the state. If you look at a list of the highest peaks in Montana by altitude, the beartooths capture #'s 1-57. After what seems like an eternity of bumping your way across the lumpy, rocky tundra, you will find yourself at a trail (Maurice creek) that will drop you 3000' in 6 miles. This is the point where you will thank yourself for leaving cold, dark beer in your shuttle rig. Being on the top of a range for so long leaves you totally at the mercy of the weather. It can snow any day of the year up here and temperatures can drop 40 degrees in a flash. One of my most memorable rides ever was when me and a friend from Red Lodge went to do this ride on a sunny August day and several hours into it noticed a black wall of clouds approaching from the rear. The preceeding wind helped us blast along the tundra to the top of the downhill in no time. Just after entering the trees though, it started to rain, and very quickly turned into large hail. Feeling fortunate that we had just escaped the vulnerability of timberline we ditched the bikes and dove under a tree as hail foun it's way through the vents in our helmets and pounded our skulls. We sat, sheltered and watched helplessly as the trail filled up with icy marbles. After a while it stopped as suddenly as it started and we crawled from our shelter feeling more than a little trepidatious about the state of the trail. But as we started to ride the ice filled trail the hail crunched like styrofoam under our tires an seemed quite grippy. The hail had settled under the plants next to the trail so in front of us was a trail glowing white amidst dark, verdant forest. What a surreal ride down! Toward the bottom it got a bit sloppy, but most of it was fast, firm fun. Bliss- If ever in the area, this is a must do ride. The plateau was up for wilderness study, but instead got a special protection that will preserve but still allows mountain bikes. Be sure and buy a map and pack plenty of food and clothes. You DON"T want to get lost up there, you may never be found. It wouldn't hurt to talk to a local in one of the shops in Billings or Red Lodge, and don't even consider it before mid-july. Timothy |
