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2200 miles of WY & MT

Started by ADV Piglet, July 28, 2018, 01:03:15 AM

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ADV Piglet

Last year I bought a V-Strom 650 Adventure motorcycle with dreams of taking motorcycle trips on it. Well, actually, I wanted a BMW GS because Ewan McGregor took a long shitty awesome trip on one. But that's another story.

So that brings us to the start of finally taking a "long trip" on my adventure bike.  I had never been on Beartooth Pass, neither had Pete, so Beartooth became the center piece of our trip planning. Where could we go from there? Turns out Beartooth is kinda out of the way of everything except Montana. So Montana it was, and besides, we had never been to Glacier National Park either which is home to one of those "must ride" roads! So Beartooth and Going to the Sun road/Glacier was the plan. I planned out our trip up until the point we got to Glacier on Day 4, which gave us 4-5 days of whatever and getting back home.

Day 1: Solo ride day
To make a long story short, we didn't ride together day 1. I left about 8am. Pete left sometime later in the afternoon ( I didn't want to wait around for him and decided to have a solo adventure). We would meet in Greybull that night. So I headed out down the Interstate towards Buffalo, WY.  Hot weather from the start, high 80s already coming by Sturgis. In the 90s when I got to Buffalo. Made a stop at the Occidental in Buffalo to take a quick peek inside for ghosts.



Had some lunch while I waited for something strange to happen. Left with no paranormal experience, again.

Last time I was in the Bighorns I missed out on Crazy Woman Creek Road, so headed out of Buffalo towards that for a little gravel.



Came out in Hwy 16 and continued on to old Hwy 16 for a little more gravel making a stop next to the creek for a little break and cool off (about 95+ degrees now)



On towards Tensleep which was a pleasant 102 degrees. The rest of the days ride to Greybull was in the 100s

I ended up stopping at the museum in Worland (which was only open for 20 more minutes) and paying the $8 to walk through just to get some relief in air conditioning. After my 20 minute cool-off I continued to Greybull to check into the historic hotel, and hopefully a night full of haunts

Walked over to Mexican restaurant to have a couple tacos and Coronas while I waited for Pete to arrive. And he did.

Day 2: Chief Joseph & Beartooth
Woke up from a ghost-free night. Packed up the bikes to head over to Cody, WY. Had breakfast and headed for Chief Joseph Scenic byway.  Cody in the 90s already. Not much for traffic which made for a nice ride.





Stopped along the way to take our Xmas card photo


On to Cooke City, MT





After some lunch in Cooke City headed out for the anticipated Beartooth ride. It did not disappoint! 







Despite the warnings that wildlife are dangerous and not to approach, I took my chances



Couldn't have asked for better weather this day. Coldest temp on Beartooth was 55 for a few minutes. Otherwise in 70s/80s/90s and plenty of sunshine.

After a great day on Beartooth headed towards Red Lodge to spend night at mountain resort. This was going to be the highlight of stays, so I thought. Website listed steakhouse restaurant & bar on site.  Awesome! We get off bike & check in - shower and go to find restaurant for a steak and beer.  Restaurant closed. Huh? It's 8pm. Go to front desk and ask what the deal is. They are closed on Sundays! WTF?! Ok - what about the bar? Well, the lobby serves drinks from 5-8 Tuesdays --saturdays!  So we have been on the motorcycles all day, hungry, and now 5 miles out of red lodge as it's getting dark, with no food or drink available. Best part - front desk girl tells us there is a family reunion going on in their conference room with cash bar if we wanted to go in there for something!!
We were able to order a pizza from Red Lodge for delivery. But, couldn't order from our room because wifi didn't reach our building. No cell service or Internet. No air conditioning, but did have a screen door on patio looking out over creek. Nice,  but screen door broken so wouldn't close and room would fill with bugs when open. To top off this nightmare of a "resort" the outlets were so old we couldn't plus anything in, all cords fell right out of the wall.  It looked nice from the outside anyway. If ever in Red Lodge I don't recommend Rock Creek Resort


Day 3:
Headed north out of Red Lodge towards Interstate (to a oid paying $25/bike to drive through Yellowstone) and towards Bozeman. 90+ degrees, again. Made the mistake of heading into Bozeman and right down Main Street. Stop, go 10 mph a few feet, stop, repeat for 30 minutes. It's now 95+ degrees.

Pete starts questioning even going to Glacier. Maybe we should head to Utah instead?  How far is that? Rocky mountain ATV is in Utah... How far is Mesa Verde?


After some time of trying to replan the rest of our trip, we decided to continue on to Glacier. We stopped in Helena for the night, after riding in 95+    heat all day.

Day 4: Helena to East Glacier.
Took off from Helena with temps already in the 90s. Had a plan taking back roads until we couldn't heading up the east side of glacier park. Ended up on a fantastic road full of twisties through the mountains. One of the best roads the entire trip. Ended up on it by accident. Hit about 5 minutes of rain. I've never loved riding in rain as much as I did right then. Wish it would have lasted longer. It didn't. After 5 minutes it was 95 again. And then 100. I was daydreaming about my love of riding in rain. Why do I always say I hate riding in the rain. I think riding in the rain sounds wonderful. Ran out of back roads that continued on so took a long boring never ending road through the prairie of Montana until we got to East Glacier Village Park where we had reservations for the night.

Checked in to our motel about 4 pm. Asked Pete if he was ready to go explore glacier!! He thought a nap sounded better, so I jumped back on the bike and headed into glacier for some sightseeing.



Then back to the hotel for the night



To be continued...

Not sure why this pic out of order? Anyway, snow on Beartooth.

ADV Piglet

#1
Day 5: Glacier
Beautiful morning in E Glacier.



Got Pete moving early this morning and in the bikes about 8am! Stopped for obligatory sign pic at east  going to the sun road entrance.



More from the road:


Since we couldn't pull over to take pics near the top I pulled a few images from my GoPro I had going. Those don't insert where I want, so see the end of the post for more glacier pics. I still need to go through video, so will share if I find anything good

So going to the road sun was cool and I'm glad I went, but it was a frustrating ride. To much traffic and then when you just want to get the hell out of there, there is only one road to follow and have to go the speed of traffic, etc. Pete got to this point when we did find pull off spots

So, end of picture taking/stops in Glacier.   $60 for the 2 if us to ride through for a couple hours! I'd like to go back (by myself) for a week of hiking, which is not his thing, because it is a magnificent place.

So we made it to West Glacier and stopped for lunch


From there we weren't really sure what to do. I wanted to see Flathead lake, Pete wanted to find somewhere that sold Klim Gear (he wanted a mesh jacket). Found out Missoula had a place, and they even had the jacket he wanted in his size... So he headed towards Missoula. I saw Flathead Lake along the way. Looked nice. Ride was miserable. No lake draft. 98-99 degrees. And why it's it always so sunny in Montana? Do they never get a cloud?

Got to Missoula about 3:45. Stopped to put in after for dealership. Cool, 20 minutes away. Head that way, right into rush hour
Who would have thought Missoula would have rush hour? 101 degrees and traffic at standstill. Our 20 minute destination took us 1 hour 15 minutes. We were melting! Got to dealership and they sold the jacket. Cherry on the melted Sunday.

Got the hell out of Missoula and started making our way back East. Ended up in Deer Lodge MT for the night, which is home if the old Montana State Prison! Checked into a lovely hotel


Day 6:
Next morning toured the prison




This was really cool! If ever by Deer Lodge MT stop in

Car museum too!


From there we made our way back to Red Lodge. Decided to take Beartooth on way home too. It was the Red Lodge motorcycle rally. Oh no, would we get a room!





We found room at Lupine inn for the night. Much better then first stay in red Lodge.

Day 7:
Back on Beartooth for round 2.

**Edit - this pic from first trip through Beartooth!*

Another HOT day, no clouds. At least cool towards the pass.

Over to Cody for some lunch at the Irma Hotel

Love this hotel, but again no ghosts to be seen. Why are the ghosts never out when I stop by?!

Spent a few hours walking around Cody, because the thought of riding again didn't sound great. Cody was 99 degrees,  by the way. Finally about 4 pm decided to get going and make our way into Death Valley. Or, whoops, Big Horn Basin. SO HOT again. 102 my bike was reading
Made it to Shell, and found a tree to park under for awhile.

Made our way through Big Horns on 14. Was a lovely evening ride as the temp cooled. We even stopped being cranky for a few minutes.



Stayed in Sheridan that night. Nothing to say about Sheridan, except that I don't like it.

Day 8: Home!
But first one more stop in Sturgis to check out the BMW GSs



1/2 hour after we got home it down poured rain! Guess we were lucky to not have to ride through anything like that, but, damn it was a hot trip. Next trip will be in the fall - when it's cooler!!

*Tapatalk quit on me a few times while writing this up! Had to do over a few times. Got smart and finally copied every few minutes, but not sure if pics will show up in copy. Will come back and edit later if not in here!

Edit 1 - glacier pics didn't attach. Coming soon!

Wacked

Nice write-up and pics!  Can't wait for the next chapter....

ADV Piglet

Few screenshots from my GoPro in Glacier.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


sandhillrider

Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it up.

greatbuffalo

Did I ever tell you: " I HATE MUD!" ?

locopny

Thanks for the write up and the reminder of why fall trips are awesome without the grueling heat. Good read on a snowy late Dec. while I wait for better riding days ahead.

dont think I've seen so many Chevys in a museum that wasn't Chevy specific.
87 XL600R 89 CBR600R
'17 CRF1000L
When can I go riding again? Crashing sucks!