Helena, Montana’s Shuttlefest began with the most backcountry trail that they routinely shuttle to: the MacDonald Pass portion of the Continental Divide Trail.
We have a popular CDT shuttle route near my home of Salida, Colorado. It’s called the Monarch Crest… perhaps you’ve heard of it? I wasn’t sure what to expect from MacDonald Pass, but based on my previous year and a half of living in Montana, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be quite like the Monarch Crest. And I was right.
Instead of a relatively mellow pedal along the top of an alpine ridge, followed by a technical descent, MacDonald Pass flipped the formula on its head. The “traverse” along the ridge top actually consisted of a series of steep, highly-technical climbs and descents. Indeed, the CDT portion of the route was the most technical, with large, bouldery rock gardens, and a couple of tricky sections I had to try twice to nail.
Now, that’s not to say I rode the whole trail: with temps hovering around 90, humidity higher than my pansy Colorado ass was used to, and steep, treed, technical climbs, I did a fair bit of pushing before I hit the descent. But in classic Montana style, once it was time to go descend, the singletrack went down—and FAST!
Since it was a shuttle, I was half-expecting bermed corners, well-worn singletrack, and a ripping descent. The descent was ripping alright, because it was steep, fast, and old school! However, that old school singletrack can be tricky to ride: with a narrow trail tread, the singletrack would drop straight as an arrow, allowing you to hit mach 10, then take an off camber turn hard to the right or left—I flew off the trail once or twice before reining it in, and began expecting an awkward turn when I least expected it.
