New Local Ride
On Monday I said goodbye to the best of the local loops I've found around Absarokee, but a new version of a map quadrant gave me hope: improved public access to Bad Canyon & Beehive Rock, on the Stillwater River between Absarokee and Nye. |
| Stillwater river crossing just upstream from Cliff Swallow, on the approach. |
 |
| Great Sign: where a corner of BLM land hits CR 420, there's a mysterious little gate & footpath up a cool, misty valley. |
 |
| Bad Canyon Beehive Rock |
The ride starts with a brutal up that was like a super G course going down. The ATV / Doubletrack goes straight up the canyon wall with aggressive switchbacks. It was 15 minutes of unrelenting granny gear.
 |
| Beehive Rock, Stillwater Valley, The Beartooth Front Bad Canyon / Beehive climb goes right up the dark drainage in the middle. |
The trail tops out in terrain that reminded me of a low altitude version of Line Creek Plateau, sort of a foothill tundra environment. Since it's BLM land & I was on my fatbike I could explore the top.
 |
| First Snow Ride!!!! OK, so it was only ten meters or so, but I got my first taste of snowpack on the fatbike. Result: let's just say I'm working on a Cooke City mission ASAP. |
 |
| Going Down. . . . . . |
I hit the corners of the public land up top of the plateau, but according to the map there is a thin ribbon of public land to allow access up into the backside of Limestone Butte, where the headwaters of Bad Canyon Creek and Trout Creek converge in an area with springs, caves, a natural arch, and a peninsula of public land that's really tough to access.
I'm going back with a GPS unit, a better map, & some time to poke around, to see if I can link up FT 29 with the BLM access pt at Beehive Rock.
Anybody coming?