A few summers ago, John and I made a promise to visit a new mountain town every year. Whether it was in North GA or somewhere out West, this trip would “force” us to plan a trip, try out the latest and greatest gear, and also check out other shops around the country!

This year we were torn between Whitefish, MT or road tripping around the East Coast so wecould bring our shop pup, Berkeley. Ultimately, after binge watching the Netflix special, “Yellowstone”, we found ourselves very stoked on MT (sorry, Berk!). One of John’s best friends is a raft guide on the Middlefork of the Flathead River just outside of Glacier NP and it had everything we wanted in a week-long adventure: epic mountain biking, fly fishing, rafting and camping.

Our main considerations when planning a trip is what gear to bring, how to travel with it, and what we consider to be “crucial” activities while we’re there - to ensure we both do what makes us happy. We used Turo for the 1 st time on this trip to rent a truck and it ended up being absolutely perfect! Having a truck bed allowed us to get to trails with our bikes without a shuttle, and although kinda tacky, the lifted tires (with camo wheels) gave us awesome views when driving down the Going to the Sun road thru Glacier NP.

Our river trip down the Middlefork was the absolute highlight of our time in Montana. Yes, having a guide we knew in advance was a big plus, but there is something so special about getting out of the car and off the grid while traveling: you lose cell service and it’s just you, your companions, and the great outdoors. Despite packing 5+ cute “mountain babe” outfits (not John…), you end up wearing the same thing and after 24 hrs there’s this magical point where being dirty is the new norm and being clean just doesn’t make sense anymore. In that moment, you are in Montana.