The Adventures of Aaron

Teton national park.

2008-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

The grand tetom

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2008-08-10T10:06:00.001-07:00

The bar where we had a free meal last night.

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2008-08-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's our camp spot in lima.

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We are in dell, mt.

2008-08-09T12:58:00.001-07:00

We are in dell, mt. It's been very stormy. The last few days will make a good story. More details soon.

down the divide to helena

2008-07-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I hope your summer is going well.

Noah and i have made it to Helena intact and in increasingly in better shape.
we departed Glacier np a few days ago and made our way south in the
tobacco valley towards bigfork at the north end of Flathead lake. We
rolled out of glacier late in the day, finally arriving in bigfork
around 11pm. We rolled around town looking for a gorecery store with
little luck.. i rolled up to a group of folks on a street corner of
all things. lighting fireworks, and asked if a gorcery store was open.
no luck, everything in bigfork closes early... crap, noah and i were
ravinously hungry. We ate nothing but a milkshake, fries and energy
drink on the ride down. oops.

before i know it, one of the fellows hands me a firework and lights
it. hmmmmmm....
i suppose i should probably drop this thing before it blows my hand
off... I think, so i did and it turned out to be one of those
fireworks that blasts colorful balls into the air. Instead they
blasted across the street and into a house.. luckily no harm done, but
it made for an interesting introduction to Ryan (the guy who handed me
the firework) he then offered us food that he had in his camper near
by that he bought on ebay and was touring around the country in. i
think he had a few too many drinks.

A kind woman in the group offered to put us up in her shwanky house on
the lake next to the marina. ahhh how i appreciate a bed, stove and a
washer.
The next day we hung out in bigfork and enjoyed a swim under the
sunset on flathead lake.

We made it to holland lake a day later and camped on a small vista on
the shore away from the main campground. in every direction, huge
mountains. there was only one way to go tomorrow... up. So we stayed
at the lake for a long while swimming and enjoying the scenery. We
started out in the afternoon on rolling gravel roads and began a 6.5
mile grunt up to grizzly basin on the otherside of the pass. this
section was fantastic with over four miles of singletrack!

the last few days really tested our fitness levels. we crossed 3
divide crossings and covered about 120 miles. We rolled into Helena
yesterday tired but feeling strong and ready to take a shower or jump
in a stream. we treated ourselves to some pizza, moose drool and way
way too much ice cream. After dinner we contimplated where we may
sleep and fortunately ran across a pickup game of ultimate. we joined
in and made some new friends who offered some fine grassy real estate
to sleep on.

Today we have spent most of the day at the Archie Bray foundation just
outside of Helena which, i have learned, is a world famous destination
for ceramics artists. The whole place full of skulptures and
brickwork. the area used to be a brick production facility in the
fifties but now is a place for creativity. Aww the life of an artist
and a bike tourist for that matter!

well i must be off, there is a presentation here soon.

peace and love,

Aaron

2008-07-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Helena, mt

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2008-07-28T13:36:00.001-07:00

Top of the climb and full of food.

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Crossing 1

2008-07-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Fixing a chain at the top on our first divide crossing.

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We are just outside of

2008-07-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

We are just outside of lincoln, headed over the divide for the first time today. Shooting for helena 60 miles and 3 passes away.

Holland lake mt.

2008-07-26T14:40:00.001-07:00

It doesn't get much better than this.

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We saw two grisly cubs

2008-07-19T14:12:00.001-07:00

We saw two grisly cubs yesterday. Luckily the mom wasn't around.

2008-07-19T12:25:00.001-07:00

Freshly shaven at Glacier national park.

Eureka, MT

2008-07-15T22:10:00.001-07:00

Eureka, MT

The adventure begins

2008-07-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

The adventure begins!

Siskiyou Mtns

2008-07-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an epic 2 day bike tour into the Siskiyou mountains with Tim. oh my god i have not ridden that hard or long in a long long time. We left yesterday at 11 and covered about 46 miles with 6800 ft of climbing! much of it quite gnarly, it was so pretty.. we could just barely see Shasta to to south in a veil of smoke, mcgloughlin to the west and much of the siskiyou range! thankfully we were not in the smoke. Our plan was to go to two small lakes that I've driven out to in the applegate valley called Squaw Lakes via a small trail that was on the map but we had not been down.

It was getting late... at about 7 we headed our way down a rolling 7 mile section of rolling dirt road. my legs were burning so bad during the last section! we finally got to where the trail was supposed to be around 8. Needless to say we didn't find it, there happened to be a stream just up the road and a flat spot to camp. we scrambled to set up camp and eat dinner before dark. mmm mmm mac n cheese and tuna never tasted so good!!

The next day we rode back on the same 7 mile section that we got to camp on and made bombed down to the Applegate valley with one detour... we rode up an incredibly steep side road trying to find a connecting road across the mountains back to talent (where my dad lives). It turned out to be a dead end and thanks to a friendly fellow doing bird surveys and his far superiro map, we didn;t ride to the end of it. It was steep as shit!!

We bombed the rest of the way down to the valley and got some snacks mmmm salty chips..... it was but ass hot for the rest of the day! we climbed out of the valley in 100 degree heat! argg. We opted to take the easier more gradual climb back to the Rogue valley that would spit us out in medford rather than talent. Tim showed me some roads that he used for a time trial race he used to put on. Ah what a couple days... overall we covered about 105 miles and 10,000 ft of elevation gain! i think it will be a good intro for the next few months ahead.