So named because Danni Coffman is both a lawyer and a roller derby chick, and because this past weekend was burliness at its best.  Big adventures, emphatic weather, and outstanding companionship.  Both Danni and Jill already wrote about these things.  Jill’s record is already complete, because she’s a compulsive blognerd who, even after an epic day of moderate nature biking in some rather cold weather and driving 2.5 hours home (while I fell asleep) and having to work the next morning, still stays up late typing away into the darkness.

Friday we drove up to Kalispell and hung out in Ted and Danni’s gorgeous, century old house.  Saturday we did a big alpine ridge traverse in Glacier National Park, which was one of the best hikes I’ve ever done, anywhere.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/14778962?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff

We did 11.5k of gain and 12k of loss in 22-25 miles, with less than half of those miles on trail, and no bushwacking what so ever.  The brief 4th class chimney wasn’t too loose, and while there was some loose scree and exposed ledges, and amazing percentage of the ridge was on solid tundra, with embedded granite rocks and an impressive profusion of lichen.  Most of the scree was even downhill.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/14760014?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff

We had dinner at Serrano’s in East Glacier, the first real mex I’ve had in Montana that gets a passing grade.  The Chile Rellenos paled in comparison with Tacos Los Altos, but then again most do.

Sunday we were tired, though my legs felt amazingly freshish given the amount of recent gain and loss.  We did a 8-9 mile spin up in Jewel Basin, celebrating the end of summer.

I live in Montana to have four seasons.  May winter be generous this year.

Monday we were up early to bike a stretch of the Swan Crest south of Jewel.  Brad advertised it as 23 miles and 6 hours. 

We were not riding cycling trails until the last descent.  Borderline rideable ups with plenty of wet roots and waterbars, muddy and overgrown descents with more wet roots and many hidden rocks, berry bushes, fog, snow, big views.  It was awesome.

As Jill pointed out, even the best granny grinding and descending skills would be hard pressed to beat a runner on this course.  True, but once you reach the final 9 mile descent, irrelevent.  One massive sidehilling romp, with plenty of talus sections, downed trees, and steep off-camber sections, it is one of the best descents I’ve ever ridden (pattern, here?).  Even better, after 7-8 hours near and on the bike I entered the zone of human-machine intimacy in a way that has occured but rarely in Montana, and not at all since the series of crashes last spring.  I was riding like the cyclist I was back in 2008, descending in a category I haven’t been a part of in the intervening 27 months.  I unclipped twice, rode everything else, made saves at speed with unruffled effortlessness, and inadvertatly left Jill and Brad far behind as I enjoyed the hell out of myself.

A good weekend.

Some addenda to dispense with:
-I wrote a summary of a hiking and packrafting trip I’d like to do on Isle Royale.
-This evening or tomorrow M and I leave for Seattle, where we’ll fly out to Ohio and New York to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday.  We hope to do a bit of sight seeing along the way.  The amount of connectivity I’ll care to cultivate during the week is uncertain.
-The answer to the trivia contest (which no one got) is John Quincy Adams.  He was a member of the House after his presidency, and while notoriously old and occasionally inattentive, he was also notoriously effective.  Anthony Hopkins gives a wonderfully accurate portrayal of this in Amistad.  A new contest will appear in the near future, with the same prize up for grabs.