Bridger Ridge

During our last night on the road, while we were lounging in our Bozeman, Montana hotel room, I started browsing nearby trails in the All Trails app on a whim. I happened across a popular trail that was only a twelve minute drive from our hotel. Twelve minutes to a gorgeous mountainous trail? At home I drive at least two hours to get to the good trails! The riches of such proximity were too tempting to pass up. After a brief conference with Jeff, I committed. The next morning (Wednesday, July 15th), after Jeff finished his run (on firm even sidewalks to coddle his poor ankle problem), I drove that brief one dozen minutes across Bozeman to the College M and Bridger Ridge trailhead. 

It was a surprisingly chilly morning, and the trail was still in the shadow of the mountain when I started running. First I followed signs towards the College M, symbol of Bozeman's Montana State University. It was high altitude and a steep incline, but after a mile and a half, I arrived at a clear section of mountainside with white rocks in the shape of a giant M. I could only tell it was an M because I knew it was supposed to be one. I tried going down below the base of the M and then scrambling up the ever-steepening trail up above the M, but never found a good viewpoint far enough away to actually see the M. 

Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to backtrack down the trail to the fork and pick up Bridger Ridge trail instead. I didn't have much time left, but the minute I turned onto Bridger Ridge Trail, I wished I had spent all of my self-allotted hour of trail time on Bridger Ridge. The trail was well-groomed and more gradual than the agonizing steep climb up to the M. The sun peeked out from behind the behemoth mountain as I ran and lit the grass and trees with a magical clear morning light. I wanted an extra hour or two to keep floating through that fairyland of a trail, but we still had nearly nine hours to drive home that day. Exercising incredible and uncharacteristic trail-self-control, I turned back at the appropriate time and returned to the car.

It was probably a good thing I didn't have more time to spend on this particular trail run because my knees were still sore, scabbed, and painfully bruised from my fall during my last trail run in Denver, a scant four days earlier. My legs were also still tired from that previous run. The combination of knee-paranoia and tired muscles did sap a certain amount of enjoyment out of the run. In fact, I ran with ridiculous high knees for nearly half of the run, in order to avoid catching my toe on a rock and adding another layer of injury to my already tender knees. I was simultaneously sad and relieved when I arrived back at the car. 

Over my short 4.5 mile run, I climbed 1400 feet in elevation. After a brief shower and pack-up-a-thon at the hotel, we grabbed second breakfast to-go from the lobby, we hit the road for the final leg of our journey. Side note: Holiday Inn Express still had its usual full yummy breakfast, but they had employees serving it in to-go containers. The kids were well fed enough not to start asking for snacks during the first hour of our drive that day, which made the whole journey easier. 

The hardest part of the drive was watching the temperature outside climb steadily as we drove west and descended into our valley. The farther we got from the mountains, the browner, yellower, and crispier the landscape became, and the stronger the sun blazed. It was in the upper 90s when we pulled into our driveway at 5:30pm that evening. At last we were home sweet home with the comfort of our very own beds.

Pictures from my Montana morning mountain M run:

Standing at the base of the college M.

The top of the M, with the view.

Self-photography is always interesting.

Not the most helpful series of signs. Only a college trail would advertise a shortcut, haha.

Sun-tipped grass

Mountain magic.

Another amusing sign for college hikers, pointing out the "strenuous hiker route" as well as the "most popular way to M."

Conclusion: I really like Montana.