Brother Ride 2010

Mild afternoons leading up to the Labor Day weekend gave us little reason to expect a rare encounter with thundersnow.^¹ Lightning flashed brilliant red and blue (its spectrum cut apart in the reflection of falling snow) and thunder roared around us like muzzle blasts from a cosmic cop, hot on our trail.

More than the usual planning was invested in our third annual brother ride. We were interested in seeing some new country and tried to find a practical route into Mallard-Larkins,^² a rugged expanse of high lakes isolated among rock-faced mountains that has been on our wishlist for a couple years. When I calculated that Joel and Jesse would need a full tank of gas just getting to Mallard-Larkins and back, it was time to consider alternatives. It wasn’t enough just to get there. We needed to continue mountain riding for four days!

So the plan shifted somewhat south where gas is marginally more available, we could follow the historic Lolo Motorway,^³ visit the Great Burn,^⁴ a rugged area to rival Mallard-Larkins, and all in fewer miles.

1. Wikipedia, “Thundersnow”: http://en.wikipedia.org/…/Thundersnow
2. SummitPost, “Mallard-Larkins Pioneer area”: http://summitpost.org/…/288752
3. Outdoor Idaho, “Lolo Motorway”: http://idptv.state.id.us/…/lolo.cfm
4. Maughan, Ralph, “The Great Burn and Kelly Creek”: http://forwolves.org/…/the-great-burn-roadless.htm