Roger M 

Thanks for the kind words, Jeff. He was real excited to ride Cino this year(especially on his own bike).

One more photo. Day before Cino, on top of the Hungry Horse Dam.

majmt 

Mattias wasn’t the only rider to go off course

mountaindave 

Ha! I had to inject a little scofflaw into the ride. But I guess karma bit me in the butt with Mattias.

You forgot to add, “Here’s your water bottle, Matt!” Good thing you followed us!

majmt 

Question: If you saw Dave bike off a cliff, would you bike off a cliff?
Answer: Apparently so.

I’d like to hear more about the BMX Guy (Chris).

mountaindave 

There have been kids on Cino before (my oldest included), but never in the history of Cino have we had a youth like Thomas who rides and works on his own Cino bike - truly remarkable! Rare is the father whose son shares his passion. You’re a lucky man, Roger!

mountaindave 

One more anecdote:

Yesterday a friend of mine who moved to Helena (our state capital) a while back texted me at 8:23 AM to ask, “How was Cino? My friend Ben just left my office after expounding about it's virtues for 25 minutes.“

That was Ben who was in the final group to make it up 9-mile hill. It’s good to know the worst of it was only Type-2 fun for him. Everybody was a trooper in the heat this year!

People sometimes wonder if everybody knows everyone here in Montana. No, but the six degrees of separation gets reduced to about two here.

thinktubes 

What’s attached to the seat tube on the Falcon? Batteries? Tools? Nitrous oxide?

Roger M 

I noticed that also. I'm guessing tools or co2 cartridge?

BTW, this rider had my favorite quote of the weekend. As I was rolling out from day two lunch stop, beginning the grind up nine mile hill, he hopped in his Falcon and said to me

"Well, time to face the devil"

And that it was...

nlerner

Again many thanks to @mountaindave and his Kalispell Montessori colleagues for putting on a very memorable ride. I spent most of the two days chasing @SquireBlack and @VRJAKE, not very successfully. I was on a ‘98 Kona Explosif. Not quite within the preferred time line but I was running friction thumbies and all rigid suspension.



Yesterday, Andrew, @gugie, and I woke up before dawn to drive our car into Glacier National Park before car restrictions began at 6 am, went to the Avalanche parking area on the Road to the Sun, and proceeded to climb up 9 miles until a sign said we couldn’t go any higher, about 7 miles from Logan Pass. We were disappointed we couldn’t continue but really enjoyed the car-free ride, the amazing scenery, and the perfect riding weather. Some pics:

merziac

That bike looks like the exact tool for the job.

I can envision El Diablo with that tire track going straight up his face with the Falcon launching off the top of his head.

bironi

Thanks again Dave for a great weekend.
I did not take any pics, but there are always people much more talented with cameras.
I do hope that Mattias chimes in with his own account.
I overtook him on the final climb just before he took the errant left turn.
I wish I would have rode that final short stretch with him and chatted future gearing over a martini.
To my eye he was grinding a little too high of a gear, and packing more weight than necessary.
He had mentioned to me earlier in the ride that he suffers in heat and is susceptible to cramping.
My brain gets a bit foggy after do a climb like 9 mile, perhaps that came into play as well.
Matt Pendergast met me in that last quarter mile of the climb.
He was heading down hill in the opposite direction.
We stopped and chatted for a minute.
But my oxygen deprived brain misinterpreted what was going on.
I thought he was doing a sweep to make sure all the riders were making it up that final climb.
He was very encouraging to me, saying I was very close to the martini break.
It did not dawn on me that he was doing a sweep ride on his fully loaded touring bike.
What was really going on is that Matt was riding in the direction of Hot Springs on the first leg of his return ride home to North Bend.
I'm slow, but sometimes I'm really slow.
By

majmt 

We were thinking that as Mattias was topping off of 9-Mile Hill, he may have caught sight of Matt heading back to Hot Springs on the other road (which is visible at that point) and followed that way once he hit the junction. It would interesting to know what actually happened there.

bironi

That scenario came to mind as well.

Choke 

Thanks for the kind words all.

I had a great time and it was pleasure to meet some C&Vers for the first time and to see my Cino friends that I haven't seen for a few years.

After I turned on to the Day 1 route for the search mission, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that there was one set of fresh tire tracks in the dirt. I kept thinking that I would catch him before long but the further I went the more I started second guessing that thought. Eventually I did run into Mattias, who was now headed back towards 9 mile hill. He said that he had ridden all the way to the gravel road that the lunch stop is located on before he realized what he had done. The distance from where I found him back to where he had made the wrong turn was almost exactly 10 miles so he must have ridden about 20 miles (15 out + 5 back).

Dave, that brings up something that I didn't think about when talked afterwards on Sun. He said that he saw the markers from Day 1 so he thought that he was on course. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have different colored markers for each day in the future.

Many thanks to Dave for all of his hard work and for letting some of us crash at the school.

From some snippets of conversation that I heard, I think there's a good chance that Cino will continue on.

Since Mattias made the wrong turn, Ben was the last rider up 9 mile hill. He was also the last rider up to the Bacon stop on Sat - other than the guy (whose name escapes me) who lost his phone and went back to find it. I know that he was hurting both days but he certainly had a good time. I'm definitely not making fun of him, I have been the last person up 9 mile hill before.

C0UG4R

I had a blast, and I'd like to thank squirtdad for giving me the wheels that were held for auction on Saturday night. I'm eager to learn the 'art' of tubulars.

mountaindave 

I thought the exact same thing as I was riding Day 2 - there should be unique colors for each day. We should also more heavily mark major intersections. We did that for Day 1 at the Crossover road and the lunch stop.

Feedback is much appreciated!

etherhuffer 

What she didn't like the black corroding faucets and greasy water?!

etherhuffer 

Alas, the peril of summer vs post Labor Day. Its worth a return trip in Sept, noting though that its a fine line between summer and winter up there

mountaindave 

The sun road stays closed at a certain point during the work day so pedestrians don’t interfere with construction. But they kept it partially closed after hours all the way to last Saturday. Then they opened it to cars on Wednesday. That is the shortest window I have ever seen for a full ride to the top after work hours on weekends (one weekend this year).

Weather was unusual this year, but it’s a very disturbing trend to keep the upper portion closed later. Here’s hoping that next year is better

davester

Thor and I finally arrived home in California so I now have time to post a travelogue. Here are my better-late-than-never Cino pix:

Fresh and enthusiastic, Thor and I prepare for the start...


...and so do they:


Andrew (Squire Black) and Thor drink in the scenery...


Very green scenery that is.


Hey, how did all those guys get so far ahead of me? It must be because I was drinking in too much scenery.


The world famous bacon lady. I paid my dues with a joke.





Team Sloth. Note that very vintage freewheeling crankset on that bike.


The spread at pranza, being sampled here by one of the winners of the "most stylish" award.


The waterfall at pranza

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davester

After lunch...

...or maybe this was before lunch


Near the high point of Day 1


Thor in the rearview mirror


Our fearless leader, mountaindave


northbend , who rode to Cino, rode Cino, then rode home


A test of bike handling skills


Thor heading off into the distance



mountaindave , SquireBlack and nlerner heading for Hot Springs


My faithful steed. It was definitely getting a bit tiresome riding those skinny 28mm tires towards the end of the first day. Might have felt easier if most everyone else wasn't riding mountain bikes, but at least I felt heroic.

davester

Day 2:

A long highly rutted road with occasional sand traps.


Thor finishing up the sand trap stint


Funny, I neglected to take any photographs of the interminable Nine Mile Hill. Probably because I was busy trying to get my pedals to spin fast enough to maintain any headway. This was the best part of that hill, martinis served up by Choke



Following martinis, we had nothing but gentle downhill and a bit more green scenery on the way back to Kila. Most importantly, I finished the ride this year without breaking any more bones. Thor suffered a spectacular crash on a particularly rutted section but managed to escape with just a bit of road rash, a flesh wound so to speak.

davester

The day after...
Amazingly, the Going To The Sun Road in Glacier NP opened the day before Cino to bikes and hikers only (upper part only available after 4 pm each day), and stayed that way for only 6 days.before opening to cars. We threaded the needle and rode up the whole way with no car traffic whatsoever. It was blissful and beautiful. The smooth pavement was also a welcome respite following two days of Cino gravel.

Drillium Dude 

I'll say! The third rider is riding out a pretty respectable slide for that particular point in the route

Thanks for the great photos! Especially those of the pranza spread/location, and the on-the-fly pics of other riders. The early reports/pics were great, but missing those couple items. And, it goes without saying, I'm glad you stayed upright and got to the finish in one piece this year!

Edit: Great shots from the following day, too!

DD

Spaghetti Legs 

Glad to see Thor got the Olmo back on the road after the Eroica mayhem. Good pics Dave and thanks for posting!