Grabbin' Those Miles...

This past weekend I was determined to get my thirty miles in and with two days & 14 miles left Reuben and I needed to cover some ground. The weather was pretty cold but there were nice spots of sun on Saturday and Sunday and since there was a fresh layer of powder, the trails were practically deserted as everyone else in town headed for the ski hills at Bridger Mountain & Big Sky. 

On Saturday we headed 10 minutes north of town to the Sypes Canyon Trailhead located in a rural neighborhood in the Bridger foothills. The Bridger Mountains flank Bozeman & the Gallatin Valley to the northeast and run about 20 miles north, being characterized by a sharp spine of rock dominating the skyline for miles. Sypes Canyon meanders through the forest gaining 1100 feet of elevation over 2 miles of trail, beginning with a nice climb along a rock escarpment following above Sypes Creek. The trail swings down and follows along the snow covered creek lined with large Ponderosa pines, crimson willow branches, and other unidentifiable dormant plants, sleepy after a long winter. Spring is an interesting time to be hiking in the northern Rockies and it reminds me of winter in the southeast; brown and dry with little patches of snow. Trees and cliff-side that were exposed to the sun during the day were snow-free and warm while the inner canyon was still coated in a two foot-deep layer of snow.

 
The trail continues along and crosses Sypes Creek then follows a series of three long switchbacks that crest at an overlook to the south with expansive views of Bozeman, the Gallatin Valley, the Madison mountains to the west & the Gallatin Mountains bordering Yellowstone National Park. There is a nice bench here and the trail continues along the ridge with a couple of superfluous switchbacks until you are hiking along the spine of the ridge bordering the south side of Sypes Canyon. The trail becomes more snowy here as most people make it no further than the overlook, especially in the winter when the ridge-line provides high exposure to wind. If there is fresh snow you also have the task of establishing the trail by trudging your way through the snow, but if you're lucky and someone has hiked ahead of you, then you have a relatively nice worn down surface for hiking in running shoes or boots. This particular day we happened to be following a long-distance runner who was looping up and down the trail so we were able to follow his tracks while re-enforcing the trail with our own boot-prints. As we hiked further up we were able to see our tracks back along the spine and after another mile or so we reached the junction with the Bridger Foothills Trail that continued 3 & a half miles to the south where it ties in with the College "M" Trail or 20 miles to the north along the spine of the range, ending at Fairy Lake. Cool!

The College "M" 

 

After having discovered the Bridger Foothills junction, we decided that for Sunday I would run a shuttle so that Reuben could start at the College "M" trail-head and I could drive over to the Sypes Trailhead, hike up to the junction and meet Reuben there. I dropped Reuben off and headed back to Sypes where I was the only car parked on a sunny Bozeman Sunday. I wanted to make quick time up the ridge so that I would be able to rendezvous with Reuben in time for me to make it all the way to the junction. He has a fast pace and was planning on running if possible, so I knew I had to cover my miles fast, and amazingly enough we arrived at the junction within 5 minutes of each-other. We ran most of the way back down, sliding through the snow and tramping down the clear sections of trail. Over the two days I now had my 15 miles and I went into work that night tired and well worn.

~Mary Lane~
Bozeman, MT 3.24.13