Bears and Gears

Wrapping Up the First Great Divide Brewery Trail by Bicycle Adventure

By Bill Schneider, 6-03-10

	First time I've seen anything like this on my bike computer, but hopefully, not the last. Photo by Bill Schneider

Before you jump to the comment section to complain about my poor proofreading skills, “bears and gears” is not a typo.

We actually saw a bear on our last day of the Beers & Gears tour--a beautiful cinnamon-colored black beer launched out of a chokecherry thicket along Little Prickly Pear Creek which follows the recreation road just north of Helena and crossed behind us and then climbed up a steep slope in plain sight. It was a fitting finale to an amazing ten-day adventure.

I’m back in Helena now, trying to wrap it up and put it all in perspective for you.

Bill and Will still standing at the end of the trail. Photo by Larry Petty.

First, the numbers. We did all the breweries, all 13 of them, but we didn’t do all the miles. We’re wimps, I suppose, but we took “rain days” and drove instead of pedaled three sections of the trip. This turned a 12-day, 740-mile trip into a 10-day, 531-mile trip, but only eight days in the saddle. 

(At the brewery last night, a friend asked me how many miles per beer we did we average, but I don’t have a mpb reading on my bike computer, but I can say, we certainly feel we earned every drop of it.)

Enjoying our last beers at the Lewis & Clark taproom. Photo by Dick Blodnick.

Our last day was spectacular, even without seeing that gorgeous bear. We left Craig early in the morning, and the first 17 miles goes along the frontage road (dubbed “recreation road” by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department). It follows the Missouri and then Little Prickly Pear Creek and is about as scenic and low-traffic as you can get. Plus, the weather was perfect. 

So weather-wise, we started with about as bad as it can get, snow and freezing rain, but finished with the best weather a cyclist can have. 

Bill on the recreation road. Photo by Will Selser

We rolled into Helena about noon and were greeted by Chuck and our friend Larry Petty. They had Lewis & Clark Amber Ale on ice and brats on the grill. Finish lines don’t get any better than that.

We finished up our tour (after a couple of hours in the shower, of course) with visits to the Lewis & Clark Brewery, which is opening a big, new production facility and taproom in September, and then our last stop at Blackfoot River Brewing, which just opened a big, new production facility and taproom last year, locally referred to as the “Temple of Malt” because it looks sort of cathedralistic. 

Blackfoot River Brewing’s spiffy new facility in Helena. We call it the Temple of Malt.

Both Helena breweries, like every other brewery we visited, are also doing well in a tough economy. That’s great, I know, but I also confess to missing the old, hot, cramped taproom at the Blackfoot, and I’ll also miss the cozy little taproom at the Lewis & Clark. Well, anyway, that’s progress, I hope.

Now, to respond to a few questions and inquiries we’ve received along the way.

Not many people get to Harvest Moon’s taproom to see the brewery’s mascot, so here it is. Photo by Bill Schneider.

What’s our favorite brewery? That’s too tough of question. They’re all great, and I look forward to visiting them all again and again.

What’s our favorite beer? Another too-tough question. As near as I can figure, we all prefer some types of beer. I’m an IPA and ESB guy; Will is a porter and scotch ale guy. Everybody else has his or her own favorites, but the point is, neither of us had a beer along the Great Divide Brewery trail we didn’t like. All of these brewers are making great beer. Almost makes me feel sorry for Anheiser-Busch. The giant is still in denial about the Budweiser Age coming to a timely end.

What did we enjoy more, the cycling or the beer? That’s an easy one. During the day, we enjoyed the cycling more. During the evening, we enjoyed the beer more. The beer makes the cycling easier because you know you have a well-deserved reward waiting for you at the end of a hard day in the saddle--and in an interesting, friendly environment always found in brewery tasting rooms.

How many miles per day? I’ll actually answer that one. We actually rode eight days and averaged 66 miles per day. If we were going to be pure, and it’s so hard to be pure, and ride the entire route, it would actually be about 818 miles. We’d planned to skip a couple of short sections, so we would have, weather permitting, ridden 740. If you want to do the entire route, here are the daily mileages; Helena-Butte (66 miles), Butte-Wisdom (77 miles), Wisdom-Hamilton (76 miles), Hamilton-Missoula (47 miles), Missoula-Polson (80 miles, with Dixon/Moiese option), Polson-Lakeside-Woods Bay (58 miles), Woods Bay-Whitefish (42 miles), Whitefish-East Glacier (82 miles), East Glacier-Choteau (89 miles), Choteau-Belt (81 miles), Belt-Craig (75 miles), Craig-Helena (45 miles)

Will enjoying his early morning ride on the recreation road, just before we saw the bear.

What was our favorite section? I can answer that. Both days in the Big Hole Valley were fantastic, but I liked the ride from Browning to Choteau most--hard to beat that Rocky Mountain Front for scenic grandeur. Also, the last two days on the recreation road running between Great Falls and Helena are hard to beat.

What was the least favorite section? The last ten miles before Belt (no shoulder, heavy truck traffic) and first six miles out of Butte where we had to ride a freeway with constant on and off ramps. 

Something you don’t see every day. See for yourself at Belt Valley Grocery. Photo by Bill Schneider.

Will we do it again? Another easy question. The answer is absolutely. But next time, we’ll do it in August or September and with a few route changes. Plus, next year, we’ll have two more brewery stops.

What would we change? Lots, to be sure, but the main thing would be moving to a drier month. I know Montana needs the rain badly, but it just makes life too tough for we fair-weather cyclists. One great thing about May, though, that we’ll miss is the greenness. All along the trip, and especially those days on the Rocky Mountain Front, it was so greened up that we could’ve been cycling Ireland.

We’d also some route changes. In summer, we’d take the ride over Going-to-the-Sun road instead of Marias Pass. Also, we might take the route from Belt over Kings Hill to White Sulphur Springs and then over to Helena, just to do something different. It’d be tough to give up the scenic Big Hole Valley, but our original plan, foiled by a late snow, was to go from Butte to Georgetown Lake and then over Skalkaho Pass to Hamilton. 

Now, a few editorial comments. 

Definitely for the faint-hearted. I suppose riding 500 miles on a bike seems like a lot, but the truth is, this trip wasn’t that hard. Will and I are both 63 and not exactly super-athletes (Well, perhaps in our dreams, but that’s the only place). Granted, we’ve been avid cyclists for many years, and we had some decent base miles in this year to prepare for this trip but my point is, most people could do a trip like this--and they’d be glad they did.

Brewers rock. Without exception, Montana brewers are a friendly bunch and anxious to give you a tour and chat it up. It’s great to talk to the person who made the beer and hear about how he (no female brewers in Montana, yet) did it--and hear their success stories. One reason is most of us look forward to talking to a real person instead of a voice mail menu or automated voice recognition systems (which should be illegal).

8 p.m. and 10,000 barrel BS (and that doesn’t stand for Bill Schneider). The Montana Legislature really needs to do two things to keep the brewing industry going strong. 

First, get rid of the 10,000 barrel limit that victimizes the successful and prevents one brewery so far (Big Sky) from selling beer in its taproom and might soon limit expansion and job creation at five more breweries that getting close to putting out 10,000 barrels per year--Bayern, Great Northern, Harvest Moon Kettle House and Madison River. 

Second, breweries need to be able to stay open until 10 p.m. so people finishing up a long bike ride or a long day on the river or a long hike can enjoy a tasty microbrew after they finish. 

And that’s all I have to say about that. If anybody has any questions, I’ll try to answer them (unless they’re hard ones, of course), so feel free to email me at bill@newwest.net

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