Yellowstone River State Park/WMA

Court and I caught a rare day yesterday where neither of us had to work and Avery was also at pre-school. So we threw our bikes into the Nissan and headed about 30 miles east of Billings to the Yellowstone River State Park/WMA. This area is roughly about 10,000 acres of open grasslands, coulees and ponderosa pine draws. There is a five mile road not open to vehicle traffic that splits the middle of the property. 

So we decided to take our bikes to make the five mile ride and turn around and come back. Even though we recently had a good snow melt the road looked very dry and fairly smooth for an off road/dirt road.

This only lasted about 1/4 mile. Quickly the road got almost unrideable at times and the trip was mostly up hill, sometimes a slow grade and other times it was an extremely steep grade. Up hill nonetheless! Still we charged ahead, we made it about 2 1/2 miles before we were completely out of bike riding energy. (A few weeks of riding around the neighborhood might have been a better way to break in the bikes for 2009.)

We stashed the bikes and headed off on foot, after we walked a mile we veered off a side road another two miles that ended over looking the Yellowstone River. The view was worth it. 

After finding a spot out of the wind among the rocks we had a short snack picnic and headed back to where we had stashed the bikes, another 2 miles hike up the side road and 1 mile hike back to the bikes. The final 2 1/2 mile bike ride was rough, but at least it was down hill.

By the time we returned to the truck we were both completely exhausted and out of energy. Oh, I was ringing wet with sweat. We finished off our last drinks of water and loaded the bikes to head home. (Total miles traveled for a trip was 11, 5 miles on bike and 6 miles on foot.)

On the way home I stopped at the first gas station we passed and went inside to purchase a couple of bottles of water. I returned to the truck with 2 bottles of water, they were the 1 liter size. Court responded in her typical sarcastic tone, "we don't need that much water." I told her that the 1 liter bottle was only 10 cents more than a 20 ounce bottle. She responded to me with some sort of scoffing sound.

 

As we drove home I am pretty sure Court was going in and out of consciousness, but as we pulled into the driveway I realized something. Both my 1 liter bottle of water and her 1 liter bottle of water were completely gone. I asked her if there was a hole in her bottle, but she only scowled at me. 

All in all it was a great day, Montana truly has magnificent scenery. I don't know if we'll be using our bikes off road in the future. Our bodies may be to old for that, but I see many hikes through rugged terrain on the horizon.

Oh yea, small bonus, I did see some turkey tracts on the WMA portion of this public land. :) Of course, that had nothing to do with why I chose this spot for our day trip. Or did it?