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Sue Butler
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November 2002 --
This past September, my husband, Don, and I had the opportunity
to ride with BCI Member Clint McDonald in Idaho. If you’ve
never been to Idaho, let me tell you that it is absolutely
beautiful! We were in Island Park, just outside of West Yellowstone.
Clint had just bought a new mountain bike and was anxious
to break it in. After pouring over maps of the area, we decided
to ride to “Two Tops.” It was quite a grind! About
a third of the way up, a pick-up truck coming down the road
stopped to visit. The hunters told us to be careful as they
had seen a grizzly bear just up the road about a mile. We
said goodbye and Clint continued to climb up. I said “Wait!”
“Why are we going up if there is a grizzly bear? Am
I the only one who thinks this is crazy?” Clint explained
to me that he thought the hunters were just trying to scare
us out of their hunting grounds. I said, “What if they
are right?” Clint said not to worry as he has pepper
spray. His bear pepper spray was about as big as a small fire
extinguisher. While it made me feel a little safer, I still
felt that we should not go any further up the road. The guys
were up for continuing but I just couldn’t take the
chance. So, we turned around and decided to ride around Island
Park and to visit some of Clint’s old “haunts”
from his childhood. This little “tooling around”
trip turned into a 30-mile ride day.
While riding, I saw a cute little cabin with pink flamingos
in the front yard and mentioned them to Clint. He said “that’s
Maxine’s house. Let’s go say ‘HI’.”
So, off we went. Maxine is nearly 85 years old. She was quite
surprised to see three people in Lycra outfits with helmets
appear on her back porch. After a short visit, Clint invited
her to join us as we were heading up to the old lodge for
lunch. She said “sure, I’ll just jump on my ATV
and follow you up.” And she did! She put on her scarf,
went to the garage and got out her 4-wheeler (her “Popsicle”
as she called it). She followed us for five-miles up the back
roads to the lodge. At one point, she started to pass me on
a hill. She hollered at me “tie on and I’ll pull
you up!” So I did. I think it was actually harder hanging
on with one hand to the ATV than it |
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have been to just cycle up the hill, but it was kind of fun
and we beat the guys to the top.
At lunch, we chatted with the locals who love to tell bear
stories. I tried not to get stressed out about the bears.
Everywhere we rode, I was conscientious that we were in bear
country so I rang the bell on my bike from time to time. As
we met up with other people on the road, we often heard stories
that a certain area was closed due to grizzly activity.
A couple of days later, we were back on the bikes heading
down a 24 mile “rails to trails” road. It was
a pretty easy, slightly downhill trail that passed lazy creeks,
large lily ponds and free range cattle. The cattle were funny
as the bikes seemed to spook them. The cattle would jump onto
the bike trail and run in front of us. We felt like we were
herding cattle. We had to be careful to avoid the “land
mines.”
We passed through some gorgeous country on this trail. At
one point we rode on a high ridge and were able to look down
onto a beautiful snaking river, full of jumping fish.
With just five miles left on our ride, we came upon some
bear scat in the middle of the road. We soon came upon another
pile of scat and then again. After about the fifth pile, Clint
stopped and got out the bear spray. We were all a little nervous!
Up ahead on the trail, we saw a big lump in the road. As we
approached the lump, we discovered it was a partially eaten
moose or elk. That spooked us. We rode as fast as we could
and I rang my bike bell about every 15 seconds. We knew that
you absolutely don’t want to be between a bear and its
meal. We never did see that bear and I was never so happy
to see the car.
While riding in Idaho was a great adventure, I think I’ll
stick to riding in Orange County!
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| Updated on Sunday, 08-Jan-2006 17:27:52 EST |
