I was in Montana recently for a long weekend, where the bulk of my time was spent on a boat on a lake, which was glorious. But I did sneak in a bike ride. I snagged a rental and copped the short route of the Last Best Ride, which had been held the week prior.
The longer route looked much more interesting, but this was supposed to be a relaxing weekend and I didn’t want to blow through a whole day. This ended up being perfect, anyway—partially because it was about a 45 minute drive from the place I was staying, and partially because it turns out I’m terrified of grizzly bears. I didn’t see a grizzly, but being on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, not seeing other humans for 60-90 minute bursts of time… you get to thinking. I was mostly thinking about whether a bear would like, swat me off my bike, or kinda chase and leap at me to knock me over.
I had bear spray, and I even talked with the people at the bike shop I rented from about being solo (“just make noise,” they said). But that didn’t stop my dumb brain from fixating on it. During my most lonely minutes, furthest away from other people, I found myself loudly singing the theme song from The Addams Family. I do not know why. I haven’t heard that in decades. Perhaps it was just the perfect tempo. Either way, I didn’t get eaten by bear! And the roads and trails were fantastic.
They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family