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Got home Sunday afternoon, incident free, with 2,708 km/1,638 miles on the trip clock. Thanks to Mike for another great Kootenay meet! It was fun meeting up with Randy and Al for the ride up to Nelson (despite the rain), and riding with Arman, Al, Kevin and Mark (in Reno) around the lake on Saturday. I carried on from the Hootenanny down to Missoula, MT on Sunday where I spent six days off the bike hiking and touring the area. Interesting continent we live on: Temps in B.C. with our July-uary weather were in the 60-70 F range, a few hundred miles to the southeast, mid-80s to 100 F (last Friday) in Missoula. There are some nice two-lane highways in northern Washington state (crossed at Nelway) and Idaho on the way down to Missoula--little traffic, nice scenery, small towns and a few twisties. On Saturday I decided to take the long way home and ride Lolo Pass since several of you (Arman and Paul among them) said: "If you're that close you have to do it." With no GPS and a cursory glance at my AAA map, I headed south on 93 from Missoula. Of course, I turned too early and wound up on a nice two-lane highway through farm fields that eventually spat me on to I-90 W. Not ready to give up on Lolo, I pulled over, consulted the map and found a road that connected to Hwy. 12 just before Alberton, MT. The road had no name on the map, and after about a third of the way, was indicated as two parallel lines instead of a solid line. I chose to interpret that as multilane expressway. A couple of hundred yards down the road a sign read: "Primitive road 12 miles." I figured I could always turn around if it got too bad. After 12 miles of nice, two-lane paved road through woods and fields with friendly farmers waving at me from their pickup trucks, the pavement ended. It was dry and the gravel was smooth, wide, and firmly packed so I carried on. It turned out that the beginning and end of the gravel section (which was about a third of the distance), were fine. There was just a bit in the middle where the road switchbacked up one side of a big hill (small mountain?) and down the other where the road narrowed, crowned (with rocks) in the centre, and had potholes and washboard for good measure. There was no sand, however, and I was able to find a hard-packed path that was at least as wide as the tires. So I off-roaded the VFR and lived to tell about it. Lolo was good, sweepers on the east approach and some tight turns on the west, but there was a fair bit of camper and motorhome traffic, so I didn't get to take many of them at speed. I saw the "Winding road for 99 miles" sign, but I've seen that shot so many times I didn't bother to stop and take it again. It was a nice day, but my offroad adventuring and Lolo diversion made it a long one: 12 hours and 549 miles by the time I checked in at the Quality Inn in Okanogan, WA. I had a nice leisurely day riding home on Hwys. 20 and 9 Sunday. Again, lots of slow campers and Hardleys, but beautiful weather and cooler temps. Some pics: Gathering before the pic with the 'Nelson Welcomes You' sign. Missed it by this much ... one sailing wait at the Balfour-Kootenay Bay ferry. Arman, Mark (in Reno), Kevin and Al on the ferry across Kootenay Lake. Not riding, but the veefer got me there ... Blodgett Creek in the Bitterroot Wilderness, MT. Water looks really inviting when it's 90F outside. Met some nice ladies riding horses on this trail. Two were packing. One more from the Bitterroot Wilderness in Montana. Missoula, MT from Mount Sentinel. University of Montana in the foreground. Lots of good microbreweries and restaurants. Interesting historic downtown. The 'M' about a third of the way up Mount Sentinel behind the university. It looks a lot closer than it is! You can see a bit of the switchback trail that leads up to it. Think Grouse Grind on a very hot day with no tree cover. Historic Missoula Court House. Made it! My "primitive road" excursion has a happy ending. This part looks easy. Who needs a steenkin' BMW GS? The intersection with Hwy. 12. I'm not a smoker, but if I were this is where I'd light up. Instead I drank some water, ate a Clif bar and took a few pics. I found a shady spot to pull over beside the Lochsa River in Lowell, ID after riding the pass. It was good seeing so many folks from the last meet and/or Montrose (Jeff, Rob, Kawasaki--now 'VFR'--Craig, Gary, Mike, Ian, David, Christian, Derek & Tammy, Terry, Tony, Quennel & Erin) and meeting a few new people too. Thanks again, happy summer and safe riding to all!