I will be up in Helena for a wedding next weekend and will have a couple hours in the morning to get out on a gravel ride. Looking at a map I think I am staying somewhere over by St. Peters Hospital. Looks like there might be some good roads to the south-west of where I will be. Does anyone have any good routes to go on? If there is a great road route I can bring the road wheels instead. Please let me know your recommendations.
Thanks.
I’ve never been, but strava’s new Route Explorer is awesome for exploring new places.
I put on a full series of gravel challenge races over this summer in Helena. 7 routes in total. From rides out of town to some short drive and start loops typically 35-40 miles. I have many thousands of gravel mile experience in the area and these routes are all very good options.
If you look up HUC on Strava you will find them listed as events and then you will easily find my profile since I am running them all.
That all said if there is a specific style of ride you want I can point you to the best fit for that. There are some road rides in the area that are nice too but presently the gravel ones are getting the well deserved attention.
Your on the Great Divide route in Helena so great ride out of both ends of town. I hear that you’re riding through the abandoned goldfields for a while which is interesting.
The route headed south out of Helena is in exceptionally bad shape… expect hikabike on parts of that… however if you instead take Basin Creek road towards Basin it is much better. There are loops on the northern and southern portions of the CDT that are great for gravel riding. From the East side of Helena you would probably be looking for an Elkhorns loop (3hours endurance pace) or maybe looping through Clancy and back towards Helena (2hrs endurance pace) or perhaps some of the shorter stuff closer to town such as Holmes Gulch, Davis and Grizzly Gulch loops.
Again, let me know how long and what amount of climbing or style (mountain roads vs valley flat stuff) and I can give you a few straight forward routes to think about.
bring your mtb instead- awesome trails there
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