Member Contributer SCguy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted August 28, 2015 Localized Glaucoma Arkansas treated me just fine, like usual. It was hard to leave, I could have stayed another day or even a week. As I headed up Hwy 60, I was greeted with the familiar sights; Branson, Hollister, Ozark, and Lambert's Cafe. On a side note, there's a lady suing the “home of throwed rolls” for throwing a roll at her and hitting her in the face because she didn't catch it. If only they had signage indicating the dangerous possibility of airborne gluten bombs! Oh, wait. It's on the billboard. Carry on. Honestly, I don't have a lot to share with you about this day. It was pretty uneventful, mostly just getting from the Ozarks to Nebraska which involved far too much Missouri. Nothing against Missouri, just that coming from the excitement that is the Ozarks, straight, flat roads can get a little boring. For this post, I'll let the pictures do the talking. I don't have many pictures during the day, because I got a late start and had a lot of miles to put on. I believe this next picture sums up all of Midwest small town America into one photo. When I was taking this photo, a guy pulled up on his bike and asked if I was okay. When I told him I was taking pictures of the town, he said “Taking pictures of Union, Nebraska? You must be out your mind, there's nothing pictureworthy here.” I beg to differ sir, I beg to differ. Wildfires elsewhere have left a haze of smoke in the sky, which isn't great for breathing, but is great for sunsets! I finally arrived in Seward, NE at late thirty. I had to trek back about 2.5 miles on a gravel road. I thought riding that far on gravel was bad. But things were about to get much worse... Takeaway of the day: Often, others can see beauty in things you cannot, because you are too familiar with said things. Sometimes it takes looking at the trees as a stranger to be able to see the forest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marriedman Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Damn man, these are stunning pictures man. You're going to have to make a coffee table book of this trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duccmann Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Yup, cherish these times and you deffinatley have a great way with words...excellent write up..was laughing out loud about the squirrel. Enjoy it when you can, glad I did the same at your age starting in 84....remember it like yesterday. ...me safe and LOTS of photos bro. That picture is awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted August 28, 2015 Take Time to Smell the Buffalo I stayed the night in Seward, NE. Refreshed after a good nights sleep, (which I needed after 495 miles the day before) I rode back on the gravel to pavedness. The air was a brisk 64 degrees, the birds were chirping, all the native wildlife was apparently hiding in the corn. Come to think of it, about all I could see was corn for the first 100 miles or so. I headed for Grand Island on I-80 and then took Nebraska 2 up through the Sandhills. I stopped in Broken Bow at the Sandhills Visitor Information Center and had a delightful chat with the two ladies running the place. They paused from their card game to give me a brief history of the area and we compared notes on water tables in SC and NE and various other things. They had some pretty neat exhibits, including over 200 variations of barbed wire. I never knew there were so many types! Allow me to get to the point (see what I did there? Point? Barbed wire? I've got that “just got up cleverness” surging through me). Nebraska is pretty cool. I never would have thought that I'd say it, the corn and farmland is okay I guess, but above Grand Island on Hwy 2, the Sandhills start and things get beautiful. Don't take my word for it, feast your eyes... http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/P1030305%202_zpsb2qy3x1l.jpg.html'>[/url] The one thing that fascinated me was how the road ran parallel to the train tracks pretty often. I don't see a whole lot of trains usually, so it was pretty cool passing a train every 10 minutes or so. Most of them I clocked at 1.25 miles long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN7O2rFzeDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udeaUe7Y7dc I stopped for lunch at the Arrow Cafe in Thedford, NE. Writing in the window boasted “Best Burgers in town.” I guess it was honest, it looked like the only burger serving place in town. I chose the Jumbo Cheeseburger with fries. [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/IMAG0612_zpsigy4wp7u.jpg.html][/url] The burger was pretty good, but the fries were straight out of the freezer into the fryer and left a bit to be desired. Turning north on US 83, I kept riding and marveling at the beauty of the Sandhills. I finally made it to Valentine, NE, a town I had been really looking forward to. I was kind of disappointed. I thought the name was cool and the hearts painted over town were neat, but it struck me as too touristy, so I got out of Dodge (I mean, Valentine). By the way, here's my Valentine... [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/P1030371%202_zpse1m7hbdp.jpg.html][/url] Entering South Dakota was a nice ride, I headed west on SD44, then north into the Badlands. My word, what amazing rugged country! [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/P1030426%202_zps3kcbwvrm.jpg.html][/url] [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/P1030412%202_zps9mqdi9sn.jpg.html][/url] Having a proper good time... [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/P1030423_zpshz2ckxx8.jpg.html][/url] After the Badlands, I headed to Wall for supper, ended up killing some time at Wall Drug. [url=http://s37.photobucket.com/user/SCbassboy/media/IMAG0616_BURST004_zpsl1giq6ug.jpg.html][/url] ATGATT! Wall Drug was too touristy, so I ended up eating at DQ. I didn't realize that the time had changed, so I had to leave in a hurry to ride to the Sage Creek Campground. I knew it was back on a gravel road, just not how far. It was 8.5 miles on loose gravel. Longest 8.5 miles of my life, until the next day. The Viffer did well, handling the washboard roads like a champ. Well, at least a champion sumo wrestler scrimmaging on marbles. Close to camp, I rode within 12 feet of a buffalo in the road. I cleared his personal space as soon as I could. I finally set up camp, wrote out a quick ride report for the previous day, but couldn't do anything about it because of no service. It was beautiful watching the lightning highlighting the mountains in the distance, but not so beautiful once it headed my way. It was a fairly serious thunderstorm, high winds that were trying to pick the tent up with me in it and heavy rain. Thankfully, there was no hail, as I spoke to someone who received nickel size hail about 10 miles away. Today's Takeaway: Like riding in loose gravel, some things in life are out of our control. We need to accept the fact that not everything is in our control, and like riding in gravel, we need to maintain a loose grip on the event, allowing things to right themselves. Sometimes, we can be so caught up in trying to solve all our problems on our own, we overcorrect and end up in the ditch. Is this a license to a loose approach on all of life? Absolutely not, but it does us well to realize when something is beyond us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer VFR Capt.Bob Posted August 28, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted August 28, 2015 Well i am a reverse 25 and plan on doing a similar trip some day. What is great is you are doing this in your prime. You will only regret not doing the things you really want to do. Believing people who tell you you can't or shouldn't is a bad habit of us married family men. Told my wife eventually she will tire of playing wack a mole with my moto plans and join me or enjoy my absence. Fantastic that your wife is going along with you. I imagine it is hard to be a passenger for so long. Crank that rear spring pre load up man. Front too. Carrying near max load with 2 riders and gear. Also keep the tire pressure up around 38 42 psi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted August 28, 2015 Nah, man. I'm doing this solo. I'm single, hence being able to do this trip. Vanessa is my bike's name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-Ticket Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Solo is quite a bit cheaper. The Flying Ant and I did 6 week, 7,000 mile "Grand Loop" a couple of years ago. Twas' wonderful. :^) Was feeling kind of smug about getting 40+ mpg on our mo-mo's. That is, until math raised it's ugly head and reminded us to "divide by two." Oh, well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voiceoffire Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Watch for the fires as you head into Glacier NP, still a few going on. However, at last check, the Going to the Sun Road is open and is one of the top site and sights to see. http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gttsrfaq.htm Shoot me a PM if you make it north of the border towards Banff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highsider989 Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 If you do make it north to Banff send me a PM. I'll come ride with you for the day and take you out to lunch in Canmore. Better get your move on. Our weather has been wacky this year and we've already had snow in the mountains two days ago (pretty unusual). The weather will probably be okay for riding (warm enough) until the end of September. I saw your post on Advrider, too. I rented a bike in Banff years ago, great ride, loved the scenery, wanted ore twistys but themoose and the heard of mountain goats was shomething I'll never forget. Love this thread can't wait to read more SC guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted August 29, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted August 29, 2015 Highlight Reel After a pathetic night's sleep thanks to the big storm rolling in, I awoke and got out of my tent to see this: http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e94/SCbassboy/P1030443%202_zpscjdgedne.jpg[/img] That was the one bright spot in a not so hot morning. After I was all packed up, I checked the map again, and I was faced with a decision. Drive back the 8.5 miles of gravel I came down on the night before and then loop around 40 miles, or drive 13.5 miles of gravel and only be 15 miles out of the way. I chose the 13.5 miles of gravel. Whether that was the best choice or not, I don't know. In fact, I don't remember a whole lot of riding out on the gravel, probably because my subconscious has repressed that terrible hour. The rain really softened up the roads and the gravel was looser than ever. Finally, finally, finally I made it to pavement. I almost kissed that road. I made a promise right then and there to Vanessa not to take her down any more gravel on this trip. I intended on keeping it, I really did. Finally back on pavement, I had a spot to park so that I could put my rain gear on, as it was drizzling the entire time I was on the gravel, but the road was too soft to park. When I was putting my overpants on, I brushed against the right side fairing and it moved several inches more than it should have. After closer inspection, both large fairing bolts on the right side were missing. I ended up just pulling one from the other side and just having one per side till I can find a Honda dealer that stocks the bolts and won't take 5-7 business days to get them. Gotta love being in Harley Country! I decided then that if at least one thing was going to go right today, it'd have to be lunch. I rode to Rapid City in search of the mythical Pizza Ranch. I had visited once before and had a great time, and now I was going back. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e94/SCbassboy/IMAG0620_zpssreiuorl.jpg[/img] Just as good as I remembered. The radar showed the rain coming in from the northwest, so I decided to ride down to the Mount Rushmore area and ride around to dodge the rain. Best decision ever. I had planned to ride the Black Hills, but they were not what I was expecting. They were so much more... After a quick dash down to Hermosa, I grabbed 36 to Custer State Park, from there hopping onto 16 Alt. I know it's a worn out expression, but do you remember being a child at Christmas? The sheer delight that came with Yuletide faded as I grew older, morphing into having more fun giving presents to others. Riding Hwy 16A, that supreme happiness overcame me once again. I'm man enough to admit catching myself giggling in my helmet like a group of 12 year old girls that stayed up a bit too late. I have a video I'll upload later. (of the road, not the giggling) The best part of the road had to be the one lane tunnels. Running north as I was, it was simply awe inspiring to see Mt Rushmore perfectly framed while coming through the tunnels. The V4 howled through the tunnels, although these roads are definitely scenic roads, not exactly twisties to be pushing hard on. After 16A was finished, I rode Needles Highway back down towards Custer. No slouch of it's own, Needles is a fantastic road. The tunnel was simply spectacular. From there through Custer and up US 385 to Lead and 14 Alt. This was a most spectacular route, winding through Spearfish Canyon with plenty of smooth 30 mph corners and wide shoulders with fantastic scenery and a lower temperature to boot. I stopped when I saw a sign for Roughlock Falls. The catch? It was back a gravel road. Vanessa reminded me of the promise I made earlier in the day about no more gravel, but I told her that I have no place in my driveway for a bike that can't handle a tiny bit of gravel so that I can pursue my dreams and passions and go see a little waterfall, for crying out loud. I won, what can I say, I'm a sucker for waterfalls. I was a little pressed for time and I didn't have time to set up a tripod, so I'm disappointed in the waterfall photo, but here it is anyways. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e94/SCbassboy/P1030470%202_zpsvwmdlzkm.jpg[/img] The view on the way back to civilization was much more worth it. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e94/SCbassboy/P1030478%202_zps35mv7tyo.jpg[/img] I stayed at Bell's Motor Lounge in Spearfish, SD. I highly recommend it. It was the only reasonably priced place in the area, plus the guy there turned me onto a place in town where I got a great supper, the Bay Leaf Cafe. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e94/SCbassboy/IMAG0626_zps2brszd3w.jpg[/img] Monterey Jack chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries which would make you slap a squirell (no, wait...) Todays Takeaway: There is darkness before dawn, gravel and rain before dry and giggle inducing roads. Bonus car I saw in Lead: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted August 31, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted August 31, 2015 Wyomin(gore) This is going to be a two for one report, from Spearfish, SD to Powell, WY and from Powell to Columbus, MT. After leaving Bell's Motor Inn, I made tracks for Devil's Tower in Wyoming. The first thing I noticed is how much wildfire smoke hung in the air, hiding the mountains from sight. From my rough calculations, I would say that visibility was right at a mile and a half, basically really bad out West. Once I got into the mountains, the smoke persisted and visibility worsened. To help you understand this, picture a mountain. Now picture that mountain half hidden in smoke. Did that clear things up? No? Well, neither did the smoke. Devil's Tower was pretty neat, but it really was one of those things that can be admired from the parking lot, so that's what I did. I had a conversation with a guy parked next to me that was waiting on family to come back from a hike. This seemed to spark a chain of events down the road, but more on that later. I stopped to watch the prairie dogs for a while, and when I was about to leave, the vehicle in front of me ran over one of the prairie dogs. They didn't notice, but when they walked back to their car, that dog must have went and hidden underneath. As its spleen was receiving a little more sunlight than it was used to, it lay gasping for breath and dying shortly. It kind of made me think that sometimes the actions we take to avoid something we fear can become more detrimental to us than just facing the fear itself. I stopped for lunch about an hour down the road from Devil's Tower at Donna's Diner. As I was eating, Donna (I presume) and another customer were talking. The other woman mentioned that her brother was in trouble because he mowed down 18 cows with his semi because he wasn't paying attention. I didn't put too much stock into it, chalking it up to idle gossip and small town exaggeration, when who through the front door should walk, but the guy I had been talking to at Devil's Tower. Small world. Back on the road, I-90, I was almost to Gillette when I passed two very distinctive vehicles; a black Chevy conversion van with green airbrushing and a Toyota Highlander pulling a neat little homemade travel trailer. Oh, the wonders of Interstate travel From I90, I peeled off onto 14W and then onto 14A through the Bighorn National Forest. A simply wonderful ride. It cooled down from 93F to about 62F at the top. It was quite refreshing. Vanessa wanted to see, too... All sorts of wildlife were out, unfortunately all of them were insects. What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits a VFR? It's butt. My parents were both teachers, so I developed the habit of picking out typos in signs at 70 MPH. Exhibit 1: Keep it classy, Wyoming Coming down the mountain was equally thrilling. I arrived in Powell and set up my tent, and then in a risky maneuver, left it there and went into Cody to see what was up. Again, it seemed a bit too touristy and I headed back to Powell. What's crazy is that I saw those two exact vehicles that I had noticed earlier in Cody. I wouldn't have even seen the one, but I happened to go by right as they were pulling out of a lodge. A little coincidental? The city of Powell, WY has a very cool park arrangement. It is a combination rest stop, RV dumping station, city park and pool, has a designated free tent camping area, and to top it all off, WiFi. The tent camping area was spotless and had a picnic table and grill. Second Day. I packed up camp and headed for some breakfast. I had spotted the Skyline Cafe the night before and it looked just down my alley. I walk inside, typical small town diner. I perused the menu, noting all the typical breakfast fare, when something out of the ordinary for this South Carolinian caught my eye. Under the Omelet section, they had an Apple and Sausage omelet smothered with cheddar cheese. I waffled a bit, not sure if that was what I was looking for, but then decided, I'm on a trip, I'll take the risk. When it came out, I bit into it hesistantly, but it was not bad at all. I would have used a bit more cinnamon in the apples and maybe a different kind of sausage, but overall, not bad at all. What I love the most about small town diners is just sitting back and people watching, both the tourists and the regulars. Partway through my unusually fruit laden omelet, a man walked that could have summed up small town America. Blue jeans, boots, button down shirt, trucker hat. He was greeted with a chorus of “Hey, Glen” from the wait staff and sat down at his usual spot as they fixed him the regular. He and another local started talking and my ears perked up when I heard that the topic involved cattle being mowed down by a semi. The other guy talking to Glen was saying that he was second on the scene of a semi mowing down a whole herd of cows and hitting the car of one of those “terrist” girls. The woman at Donna's Diner, hundreds of miles away was right, and here I was listening to these locals talk about the incident when me, some random guy from out of many states, had just happened to meet the guilty party's sister the day before. Crazy stuff. It turned out to be 16 cattle dead at the time of writing, and they had to bring the plowtrucks out to scrape off the cow guts and feces enough to open one lane. I'm including the article here: Glen and I talked a while, then I headed off towards Cody where I hit up a Tractor Supply and found some bolts and washers to temporarily replace the ones that were taken by the South Dakota gravel road tax. Leaving Cody, I headed up Chief Joseph Highway. Man, what an incredible ride up! At the top, I met two gentlemen travelling from Georgia. We left within a day of eachother and have some similar destinations, so who knows, we might meet again. They were riding an unusual coupling of a Victory bagger and a Kawi C14. Coming down Chief Joseph was another story. Soooo much loose gravel. I've never seen a road that bad. I was descending at under 20 MPH and still had quite a few times when the front wheel slipped out quite a bit more than I would have preferred it to. Thankfully, halfway down, it cleared up and things were all downhill (which is good) from there. Cuttting right onto 212, or Beartooth Highway, I gained some serious elevation in a short amount of time, topping out at 10,974 ft and a temperature drop from 91F to 51F. The wind was pretty crazy at the top, and I parked and went climbing on some rock piles for a good picture. 15 minutes of making my way through and up the rocks, I pulled out my camera only to see the low battery light come on, and it immediately going comatose. Luckily, I had my phone on me, but the picture quality just isn't justice. The smoke from the day before had pretty much been driven away with northerly winds and I could see for miles. There's still some ice up there in the mountains, but I didn't plan on getting closer to ice than I absolutely had to. I rode down in a hurry since it was beginning to rain and with the high winds, the rain felt much worse. One really cool thing is that I got behind a camper from Switzerland. It was like a Toyota Prado, a manual diesel Land Cruiser sort of deal with a snorkel, just like the ones in Nicaragua. Color me jealous. After a quick bite to eat in Red Lodge. I headed north, but didn't make it very far before the rain hit. With the rain, came the wind. I was having to hold my bike from coming off the kickstand, the wind was so heavy. When I finally got all suited up, the rain quit a quarter mile down the road, as rain is a fickle thing and only takes pleasure in making riders suffer. Or something like that. I'm now staying at Itch-kep-pe Park in Columbus, Montana. Heading for Glacier tomorrow. Todays Takeaway: You really should look out for cows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted September 3, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted September 3, 2015 Mon(ton'a) Problems It all started so innocent, so bright, such an unassuming day. The wind rustled through the trees, Yellowstone River a stone's throw away (if you can throw 900 ft) was gurgling contentedly and fellow campers dropping by to shoot the breeze. My mood had lifted from the windy, tiring day before and things were looking good. I warmed up some breakfast (Campbell's chicken and dumplings if you must know) and went down to the river just to sit, think, and take a few photos. Leaving Columbus, I90 was pretty much the only thing on the schedule that day. My rear tire was getting pretty worn down, so I figured Missoula was my best option for finding a replacement for said tire. Around the time I hit Bozeman, I too was hit. Hit with the realization that I didn't remember pulling the keys out of the side case when I left Columbus. I searched everything on the bike and myself. No dice. Which was a bummer, because now I can't play Yahtzee. Also, I found no keys. Luckily I had one spare key for my clothing case, so the only case I couldn't get into was the one holding all my bedding stuff; air mattress, pillow, sleeping bag, stack of reading material and so on. In other words, I needed in there, but as I was getting a motel in Missoula, it wasn't critically urgent. More about that motel later. I stopped for lunch in Bozeman at Clark's Fork. Pretty neat place, its a cafe decorated with excerpts from Lewis and Clark's journals taken out of context to advertise their menu items. Novel idea. I had the Southwest breakfast burrito (yes, breakfast for lunch. I love breakfast. I will not apologize for that. If I ever decide to run for President, my platform will be on breakfast menus being served all day long). The burrito was good, the freshly fried chips were even better. Grinding down I90 once again, things were going well. Well, until Butte, that is. After riding through Butte, the wind got crazy. If you've never ridden in high winds, especially crosswinds, allow me to give you an example. Say you're sitting in an office chair. Now imagine a midget standing behind you, or a regular height person crouching if you'd rather. Now whichever person you chose grabs your head and shakes it up and down, side to side with varying force and intensity for 3 hours. Got that? Good, now imagine that your office chair suddenly gets jerked 4 feet to the side randomly. That is how high winds do. There were several times I was blown a lane over, despite steering into the wind. You have to stay alert, looking for trees bent over, etc to point out the really windy spots so that you can take early action. After about 3 hours of this, I was sick and tired of the wind. What could make things better? How about some rain? How about the bike sputters, coughs and shuts off? How about all of the above? Out of gas. At 180 miles, I usually have between .75 to 1 gal of gas remaining. Fighting the winds must really have sucked some fuel down. The fuel gauge that had been showing 3 bars jumped straight to empty. I called my insurance company for roadside assistance, and I figured it'd take a while, being Montana. Boy, was I right. The initial text said an ETA of 75 minutes. The closest available truck was in Ronan, while I was 11 miles east of Missoula. I was 11 miles away. 11 miles away from my warm, dry motel, that long hot shower I longed for, and the laundry service that I also direly needed. It ended up being over 2 hours of sitting in the rain, 50 degree temps and high winds before help arrived. And then came the cops. Apparently as I sat propped up against the mile marker sign, trying to stay dry and eating beef jerky, someone phoned 911 and said I was slumped over my bike, so a Missoula County Sheriff came out to check on me. When he realized that I was fine and that the truck had just shown up to bring me fuel, we talked for a while, he wished me luck on my trip and left. One of the flyest cops I've ever met. It turns out that the service truck had been in Polson when he got dispatched to me. That explained the longer wait, but I was glad to be finally going again, thanking myself for paying that $5 a year for roadside coverage. When I pulled into my motel, I had two things on my mind. Bed and a hot shower. But first, I needed to get my laundry going. I had selected this particular establishment based on their advertisal of having a 24hr coin op laundry. Well, in keeping with the day, it was out of order despite the LED billboard out front loudly boasting it's existence. I rode around town trying to find a 24 hour laundromat, but all the laundromats closed at 9PM. Ridiculous. I ate McDonalds out of spite and went to bed in my nonsmoking room that reeked of smoke. So goes it. Today's Takeaway: That light at the end of the tunnel? It's a train. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LookingHard Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 SCguy, 'Today's Takeaway: That light at the end of the tunnel? It's a train.' LookingHard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Ultimatevfr Posted September 3, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted September 3, 2015 Look on the bright side...... The train might have a laundry car......;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer hotshoerob Posted September 3, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted September 3, 2015 Too bad about the gravel on the Chief Joseph highway. I was there 3 weeks ago and it was perfect. Were they doing chip sealing? I came across bits of that on my trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Yokel Posted September 3, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted September 3, 2015 This is fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suitcase Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I had to snicker and sympathize with your comments about VFR versus gravel roads ...I got lots of streaks in my shorts a few years ago when I rode my 6thgen to Alaska through the Yukon and northern BC....for typical 20 or 30 mile ride segments of that trip on rocks..pebbles loose dirt and wet clay ...front goes left/back goes right...then front goes right/back goes left ...repeat ... all in good fun ...but I decided that my riding goals and destinations required a different bike...thus the 2015 WeeStrom650AXEXPL ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted September 3, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted September 3, 2015 Just a quick teaser from Glacier. https://youtu.be/CFpZa1FBGng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-Ticket Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 The Flying Ant I stopped at Devil's Tower coming back from SumSum II. Locked up the bikes/gear in the parking lot ... put on the hiking stuff and hoofed on around the trail that circles the base. HIGHLY WORTH IT !!!! From watching all the rock climbers on the back side to checking out the bus-sized pillars of fallen rock .. it was a trip. We highly recommend doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marriedman Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Just a quick teaser from Glacier. https://youtu.be/CFpZa1FBGng That was awesome! Man I envy your trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer SCguy Posted September 4, 2015 Author Member Contributer Share Posted September 4, 2015 In Which I Spend Much Money Upon regaining consciousness from a (not long enough) night's sleep, I spent most of the morning calling all the motorcycle shops and dealers in the Missoula area looking for a rear tire. The same story everywhere, “That's not a Harley size, we don't have anything like that.” Even the Honda dealer would have had to order the tire at a ridiculous price and it would have meant staying in Missoula for several more days which was NOT on the top, middle, or bottom of my list. I was growing a strong dislike for Missoula, and in fact, only one thing keeps it from being right up there with New Jersey on the “actively avoid” list. That one thing being the breakfast I had at a small local diner. I had the Ham Scramble and it was pretty good. Looking around the diner, I noticed that the diner sponsored a local high school trap shooting team. My kinda place. I finally found a place that had a tire and for a reasonable price, but I had to ride 50 miles south to Hamilton, MT to get it. Thankfully, there was a laundromat there and I dropped off my clothes prior to tearing down the bike at the dealer. Strangely enough, it ended up being a Yamaha dealer, Al's Cycles that had the correct size and the tire I wanted (Michelin Pilot Road 4) and were able to balance a single sided swingarm wheel. Finally, at 3:30 PM, the tire was on, I picked up my now clean laundry and things were looking up. I had to ride right through Missoula on the way to my campsite, ugh. Riding up to Polson, MT was pretty uneventful. Nice view of Flathead Lake I've been using freecampsites.net for locating free or cheap camp sites. It's worked great so far. Until today. I rode around Lake Flathead to Finley Point, a long peninsula out into the lake. Riding back in on the (terrible) pavement, I came across several deer. They were completely fearless, I even had to wait for one to mosy it's way across the road with me honking my (feeble) horn to spur it on. When I rounded one corner, there was a fawn that was either really spooked or stupid as a bag of rocks. He was facing a high fence, backing up several feet and then charging the fence head first and every time, he only made it up to his neck then got flung back by the fence. I stopped and shut the bike off to make sure that I wasn't spooking him into doing it, but he persisted. I made a wide berth around him and continued down the road looking for this mythical free campground. After a complete loop of the land, I came across Finley Point State Park, but they wanted to charge $28 for one tent site. Ridiculous! The site had said there was a free campground. I rode around looking for it for another 15 minutes or so and finally stopped to ask a local where it was. Apparently, it had been taken over by the state park. I was faced with the choice of riding back to Polson and paying $80 for a motel room, riding 80 plus miles to the nearest free campground at dusk already, or suck it up and pay $28 for camping in a 10 acre state park. I chose to stay at the state park, but they couldn't make me be happy about it. I can see spending that kind of money to camp at a popular or majestic park like Glacier, but a 10 acre state park? Crazy. At least I saw a decent sunset over Lake Flathead. Today's Takeaway: Sometimes, a lack of options leads to a lack of wallet thickness, but you don't have to like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-Ticket Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 On our "Grand Tour" .... picked up a nail somewhere after Beartooth Pass. Luckily, it was a slow leaker and I could just pump it up once in while. But where to get it fixed? Called my riding buddy on the phone and he was able to locate me the tire I wanted/needed, we figured out that Billings, MT was the next big city on our path, and then he arranged shipment to the local Hondoo dealer. Yah. He's a good friend. :^) Long story shorter ... the tire was late in arriving and we were faced with spending a couple days in Billings waiting for it. Arghhh! Then we discovered they had a great water park. Had a blast. Spent some time at some museums, did laundry, had all our pics put on CD-ROMs and mailed home. More time. Then the wife noticed that the "Great American Challenge Hill Climb" .... aka, the "Bentonite Monster" was happening that weekend -- and insisted that we had to stay until the weekend and go see it! Hey, who am I to argue with irrefutable logic? :^) All told we were *stuck* in Billings, MT for four days ... and had an absolutely wonderful time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highsider989 Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Hell I'd pay 28 bucks for that view for an evening. Keep the posts coming and safe travels to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted September 4, 2015 Member Contributer Share Posted September 4, 2015 Hell I'd pay 28 bucks for that view for an evening. Keep the posts coming and safe travels to you. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridered Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 Hope you aren't coming to CA where the crappy 10 acre campground without the great view is 55/ night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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