Nellie's ride

The Alberton Papers, Vol. VI, # XIII
By Dick Darne 7-7-08
Special newsflash: Nellie the Wonder Dog finishes her first big bike trip. Nellie and me, along with two more adventurers, Mike Darne and David Roberts, rode down from Lookout Pass to Henderson last Sunday. In keeping with the explorer tradition, just like they did back in the golden years of adventure when hardy souls went out and looked for stuff, we just forged ahead, in spite of danger and hardship.
The danger was mostly the ride to the pass through a typical Montana road maintenance construction area, although we did encounter a moose who obviously was scared away by Nellie. The hardship had it’s seeds in the very beginning of the trip and there are two distinct viewpoints.
"Are you going to download that google map?" I was asked, goes version #1, to which I allegedly replied: "Nah, we don’t need no stinkin’ map, nobody ever saw John Wayne read a map, did they?"
Or version #2: "If you guys’ll wait a minute I’ll download this map." to which the reply was: "Just hurry up, we gotta get on the road."
When we got to the pass, we unloaded the bikes and started the quest. From memory, it seemed that we should take a left and we would be on the old railroad grade. We did so and we were sailing down on an old mostly paved road. It seemed too good to be true. It was. According to my GPS, we had travelled 2.4 miles and dropped 1200 feet in elevation when we encountered the deadest end you could imagine. A fellow camped there confirmed our worst suspicions; we were on the wrong trail, which wouldn’t have happened if I had been allowed to get the map. I tried to tell them but they just wouldn’t listen. Pedaling 1200 feet up in two and a half miles qualifies as a hardship of sorts.
Since their minds were now poisoned against my pathfinding skills, I was outvoted and they went to the ski lodge and got directions and a map. It was a left alright, just a little further down a different road. We were now on the old NP grade which brought us to Saltese, where we had cold drinks and ice cream at the hotel. Nice folks, who gave us more directions, which took us up and across the old trestle and eastbound on the Old Milwaukee. Along about Haugan we encountered a little refreshment stand right on the trail, where they sold the one thing a cyclist really appreciates; snow cones. Nellie appreciated hers, she was starting to flag a little, the temperature at 100 degrees now. Some more helpful directions got us to the other car at Henderson, a shuttle back to the pass, a ride to Alberton and the adventure was over. Other than the opening fiasco, the other problems were minor; loose gravel and ruts required full time and attention to the riding and a washout mandated a short backtrack, which had I put fresh batteries in the GPS I could have noted.
I’ll be doing this again with the goal of mapping out the route and noting obstacles to smooth biking. I’d like to have a route from Alberton to the pass without riding on the Interstate. Like minded cyclists keep in touch. dd