Movin' to Montana

Whitefish, Montana, the Gateway to Glacier National Park. I was stoked to check out this part of the country. It was a 10.5 hour drive from home in Bend, so we broke it into two days, staying in Spokane both inbound and outbound.

Wildfire smoke cloaked the the Kalispell valley and obscured most views of the big Rocky Mountain peaks, but we definitely did get a feel for the wilderness of the area. We saw a momma bear and her three cubs, as well as a moose in Idaho on our return. We drove into Glacier National Park, but not very far as the main road, the Going-to-the-Sun Road required an advance reservation. Seeing that we were near the Canadian border, we took a drive 30 miles up a dirt road until we hit it. Despite the persistent smoke, we managed to enjoy the area on our time off from the track.

We arrived at Whitefish, Round 4 of the 2021 NW Cup, much earlier than past races. We got in on Thursday, and with the race on Sunday, practice was much less rushed. We did a track walk for the first time ever! On Friday, I got a bunch of laps in, then hit bike park. It’s always great when races are held at bike parks.

The race track was pretty cool. The top half was fast and flowy, while the bottom section was rooty and technical. It wasn’t a difficult course, but the roots and loose dirt/dust tripped up many riders. My buddy Brodie from Bend was racing in Cat 2 with me and we did a bunch of practice laps together, it was great to ride with someone.

By race day, I had done 10 or 11 laps and was feeling good and fast. Unfortunately, on my race run I washed out in one of the dusty corners and went down. I didn’t get hurt and the bike was fine, but times are so tight in this Cat 2 this year that it put me way back in the results. I’m really happy with my riding and speed and am confident that I could have been top 8 without the crash. I’ll try again in September.

On the way out to Spokane, we stopped at Silver Mountain Bike Park. It’s a little quirky, but the riding was great. You take a gondola that gains 3,000 vertical feet and seems to go for miles before reaching the top. We ran some laps in the peak zone (though half the trails were closed due to the moose) and rode all the way back to base twice, which was really cool.