Canget - Red Lodge, Montana

DESTINATION RED LODGE | TRAILSor take. And the Morrison switchbacks,per some quick, back-of-the-envelopecalculations, are about a 25% grade. Andsome of them are only 500 feet long.And you’re on a 1200-foot dropoff.According to Mark Kary, member ofBillings’ Magic City 4Wheelers Club,going down the switchbacks rather thanup means “you end up poking your noseout over the precipice, especially if youhave to back up to make the turn. Goingup, you poke your butt over. That’spsychologically a huge difference.”The Magic City 4Wheelers Club has along history of taking care of the trail.As it happens, their first ride proved asunforgettable as any. “It was 1998, and afew of us had been talking about it, butmany had never been on it. So we droveout to the trailhead at the bottom andran into some Forest Service rangerswho were—right then—discussingwhether it was worth keeping the trailopen. It needed a lot of work; the watererosion on that hillside can be really bad,and they weren’t sure anyone was usingit. So Ed Melcher, our ConservationOfficer at the time, said ‘What do youneed?’ And he put together a grantwhere we received $24,000 to makethe trail sustainable. That summer, wespent practically every weekend upthere, putting in water bars and signage,clearing felled trees, and doing otherthings to try to keep water off the trail.”These days the Magic City club goes upevery summer with Shoshone Forest staffto open the trail. “It’s always fun, becausewe’re the only ones there. I try to impressupon people to walk off the trail, evena quarter of a mile. The views are justtremendous. There’s one big meadow,about 10-11 miles in, where if you walksouth you’ll get to a cliff and you can seethe Pryors, Heart Mountain, over theClarks Fork canyon you just came out of,all the way to Sunlight Basin. It alwaysgives me the chills to be there.”“It’s just a kick-in-the-pants kind ofadventure,” Mark says. “I’ve got an oldJeep, and every time I take it up there,something breaks. One year I broke aspring on the rear axle.” He says theyused everything they could find—including a block of wood—to hold thething together to finish out the trip. “Butit’s still just a blast. It’s my favorite ride.”The trail opens mid-July (after springrun-off) and closes with the earlysnowfall. It’s also open to bicycles andhorses as well as foot traffic, but pleasebe aware that the tundra is fragile.Tundra foliage is the biggest deterrentto erosion on the Plateau, and it’seasily destroyed by repeated footsteps.Recovery can take hundreds of years.Both the Magic City 4Wheelers Cluband Team Rubberhead’s Epic Ride crewwelcome anyone who wants to join themin their trips this summer. Check out theMagic City club’s website at www.mc4w.com or call 446-3199 for Jerrett Millerfor more details on how to make thissummer in Red Lodge literally the Best.Thing. Ever.WWW.REDLODGE.COM 5