Terrain Distance (approx): 11.6 miles
Climbing Distance: 2,070 feet
Highest Altitude: 5,360 feet
Trip Time: 3 hours


This ride I did with the Thursday Night MTB Ride Club. I must mention that this club is made up of great people who know how to ride a bike. Unless a person wants to ride the road back to Marco Flatts Parking one must use the shuttle system as we did and park some cars accross from the Truck Stop Plaza just outside of Mill Town / Bonner .

The ride starts with a swing. A swinging bridge at the trading post / pub to the right as you leave the parking area. If in a group a rider would want to be the first as the bridge begins to occulate and it can get a little scary. I started to weave back and forth but made it ok. Very exciting just to start it off.

Follow the roads back around and out of the gulch and past the sawmill that is across the river. When we came to a road junction we took a extreem right and up onto the climb. The climb is all logging road and is not technical. Imagine yourself in a tour in the alps and you will climb like a goat. Well, ok anyway climb to the saddle of Woody Mountain which one will notice as a bend in the road that goes into a right/left situation. At the elbow of the bend before the beformentioned there is singletrack. Get read for fun!

We followed the single track around the knob and onto an open knoll the overlooks East Missoula. This would be a tremendous spot for a sunset, but dont wait that long as I found out. The rest of the ride amy seem life threating at times but can be very fun with propper brake grabbing and weight shifting.

The first part of the downhill which goes down the face of the knoll and follows the ridge straight down. Extreemly straight down, one should check their brakes first. I did not clear the entire downhill. On the first DH I had a incident where I got too far back off the saddle and the back tire grabbed my shorts. Enough said! Then later on in the canyon I missed some techincal sections.

The downhill goes from steep extreem to lofting downwaards through the trees and fields. I gave it all a hundred yahoo"s. Before the last section there is a look out and cliff facing South West. One should gather their nerves at this point because the ride gets interesting.

The singletrack opens out into scree and a extreem gulch or canyon face. The first thing that came to my mind was that we went the wrong way and we would have to climb down. The rider in front of me disappeared down into the gulch. Nope, apparently we ride this part! All I can say is wow. The best advise is to not freek out and try to relax or the switchbacks will get you. This part of the ride is extreem but very cool. After about 10 minutes of extreem focus one can relax and ride across the streem to coast down the middle of the gulch to the base. The ride ends with a little reflection and a street ride to the shuttle cars.

I will say that this is my favorite ride to date and I definately give it 5 stars! I will be doing this one again definately.


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