Depression Reservoir Lives up to its Name
I went to Depression Reservoir, SE of Bridger MT, between the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone valley and the Pryor Mountains. The ride is supposed to be an early season mecca, basically a desert. That was the plan. In reality, not so much. . . . .
About one hundred meters into the ride my bike wouldn't even roll anymore; it was so clogged up with mud it was like an eighty pound anchor. As someone well versed in mud, this was some of the nastiest, least-workable stuff I've ever seen. Rapelje mud is like stucco. Absarokee mud is like cement. This stuff was like modeling clay. It was so thick and sticky, it wouldn't wash off in a creek that was running with some serious pressure. I had to take out the tool meant to clean between cogs and scrape off the mud.
Without Kip, I'd have called it a day right there. It was freezing cold, a bitter wind blowing snow, and I'd driven 1 1/2 hours to ride 200 meters, thrash my bike, and spend twenty minutes cleaning it. I spent a few minutes cleaning Kip's paws too, and he was ready to go, so I couldn't let him down.
We left Wolf (our car) at Depression Reservoir turnoff, and headed up a hill on Pryor Mt Rd.
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| Halfway up the hill, looking back towards Bridger & Depression Reservoir |
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| I wanted to go up the creek, past the reservoir (really just a stock pond) & use one of the ATV trails up over the pass towards Edgar, maybe even all the way to Weatherman Draw. Maybe another time. . . .. |
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| The pass crested out at a cool area great for fat bike playing around. |
Bipolar
Towards the top of the pass the ride took a turn from Depression to Elation; there was a cattletrack that was too tempting to pass up- lo & behold the dirt here was nice and dry! I scampered around on top of the plateau for a while before rejoining the road. |
| Down the other side was a long smooth roll across the valley floor. |
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| About the only people in the whole valley were this 3 legged dog and a rancher homeschooling his son. Go homeschoolers! |
Pryor Approach
There are three tracks laced down the slope, each one as enticing as the next. On the map, there's some private land, but the rancher gave me the green light, and there wasn't a sign or closed gate in the area. I chose the middle approach, straight up the reddish trail in the center of the ridge.
Chilly
The ride up was great! Classic jeep road rocky mountain style, straight up a really cool ridge, next to a dark, tight little canyon. I wanted to get to the snowline, but the further up I went, the colder and windier it got. I had already kind of bonked once, and I put on all my clothes and ate an Epic Turkey bar. That made all the difference. But I hit another wall on the way up. I hunkered down on the rim of the canyon and ate one more Epic bar, the lamb one. Super good. I just couldn't warm up though, so I decided to turn back, and go play around on the solitary butte atop the hilly pass on the way home.The downhill was insane. Then the butte was mostly closed off, but I found a corner open and the terrain was really cool for fatbiking.
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| It was great on the butte, the riding at least. Temp wise, the crazy fierce spring weather continued to coat us in hail / snow. |
After chasing some deer across the hills, we ended up back at Pryor Mt Road. On the way down the steep hill, I got up to 39mph on the fatbike, and I left Kip so far behind, when I went to check on him, there were literally vultures circling him:
