Welcome to Air Montana, please be sure to have your seat in the upright position, your table stowed, and your seat belt fastened… Â -by: Steven Haughelstine
Montana is one of my very favorite places to travel to and ride my dirt bike. Over the last couple of years of being a complete and total motocross/freeride bum, I have seen beautiful places, driven thousands of miles, rode my dirt bike at some of the most epic free ride spots, and met wonderful people along the way. This story is no different.
While out trail riding at one of the best Off Road/OHV areas in the United States (Pipestone MT), I came to a stop at Delmoe lake to take a little brake. While sitting on a park bench enjoying the scenery of the lake, two fellow trail riders rode up to me and we started to talk. They asked where I had been riding that day and what I was doing. I told them I am looking for good spots to film my next motocross video, “scouting” if you will. They said “follow us, we live at the bottom of the mountain, we can show you some cool trails on our way back to our house” I said “OK, lets do this” We rode some really fun dirt bike single track trails on the way back to their house. When we got to their house, there was big rolling hills everywhere in their yard. I was thinking to myself “holly crap, jackpot! I can build some big jumps here!” So I asked. They said “Yea we don’t care, do what you want, we don’t like sage brush anyway! haha” Within the next month, I had a dozer our there pushing dirt. When I say that I have met wonderful people along the way, I mean it. Thank you so much to Bob, Yvonne, Koda, and Dillon Donat!
This is how the massive dirt bike jumps we named the “Donat Hole” came to be. Since then, Keith Sayers has spent lots of time out there in the Dozer, and Skid Steer shaping and making the jumps just right for flight. This past week, Cinematographer Jay Schweitzer was passing through the wonderful state of Montana and got the boys together for some riding and filming for his next Motocross/FMX Â film “On the Pipe 6″ out at the Donat Hole. I cant wait to see the footage he got from here! Above is a little sample from Jay’s camera! Massive! He has been filming all year at the best locations with all the best riders. I see a movie review coming in the future, with behind the scenes stories, and photos, maybe even video from On the Pipe 6?
Also…The local crew from SCS unlimited made it out, including photographer and graphic designer Devin Karr. Check out some of these sweet pics Devin took:
To see more of Devins photos from this ride sesh, visit scsunlimited.com.
Since I was not there to partake in the riding festivities, I asked FMX Pro Keith Sayers to write a little something about the morning of epic riding and filming:
With normal MT weather making it hard to ride due to wind, rain, etc. this Tuesday morning we woke up a 6am to a beautiful morning. Brody Wilson, Ted Culbertson, and myself showed up shoveled some faces and started to shred. Â Needless to say Brody Wilson is amazing on a motorcycle. Proving he is not just a Ramp guy but an all around talented rider, doing no footed can, to one handed indy, to rocksolid over the 150′ jump. Huge thanks to the Donat’s for there hospitality and Steve Haugelstine for getting the ball rolling and making one of the sweetest spots I’ve ever been able to ride! Â -KEITH SAYERS
check out some high res photos below:
Till next time, happy riding…
Great post, Steven! I love that first picture.
Looks epic Steve! Thanks for sharing…
I grew up not too far from here. Mx was not nealy as big there in the 90′s. This looks like a sick spot and I’m glad to see mx getting popular in MT. great shoot guys.
Awesome as Usual!! Man I cant get enough of this site!
Keep it coming HOG!
-P Schooler