After leaving Butte, we drove a short distance and are now in the Anaconda/ Phillipsburg, MT area for a week. The day of our first ride here the weather forecast was for 90% chance of rain after noon but we took our chance and went for a ride anyway. We rode up to four alpine lakes on some deserted trails and enjoyed having everything to ourselves. 19.2 miles and 2229′ of climbing up to 8184′.
We started at the Twin Lakes Creek Flume which was amazing to see and read about. Built in the late 1950’s this nearly 3.5 miles continuous wooden contraption delivered 40,000 gallons of water from Twin Lakes Creek to Silver Lake. It isn’t still in service, these days the water runs through a buried pipeline but part of the original flume still stands there and you can see it in the pictures below.
After riding out a gravel road through the forest for a few miles we hit the singletrack. It’s a fairly gentle climb to the split where we decided to take the left fork first to check out Twin Lakes first. The sky was threatening rain and was a bit hazy but the views were still big. The trail isn’t very technical until the last mile or so when it gets steep, rooty and rocky by the lakes. We expected to see bears playing along the shores, but all we saw was a grouse.
After checking out the lakes we turned and rode back to the split and this time rode to the Fourmile Basin Lakes. This way switchbacks up to the ridge deep into the forest. The pitch wasn’t as steep to this first lake and again, we opted to go ahead and see the upper lake as well. It’s only another half mile to it, but it was very steep and rocky! The area reminded me a lot of the vegetation around Waldo Lake in Oregon. It’s a fast descent back down to the trailhead and then a cool down spin along the gravel road back to the start.
We are continuing with MT beer when we can find it and had a couple good ones after our ride. Pineapple Express was exactly how it sounds…a nice refreshing tropical IPA though at 7.2% it isn’t a light beer. Aloha Death is a 6.5% strong american ale that was delicious. The toasted coconut isn’t overpowering and the roasty, dark chocolate flavor made this really good. Solid finds! Oops, just realized Aloha Death is actually brewed in Ellensberg, WA! oh well, we well still drink it.
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