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I had plans for doing two larger tours this year. One was down to Montrose(and points beyond) and the other was for riding a loop of the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
My bikin bud, Brad, wanted to go on one with me, but was limited to the amount of time he could be away from his young and growingfamily.1st, he wanted to accompany me to Montrose. When I told him the route I was planning on taking, he said he had already been to most of the places on the West Coast I was planning on hitting. So, compromises were made on my part to try and accommodate him. Then he said he would meet me part way there and ride with me for a few days and then leave for home. I wasn't pleased with that part, so I said "Nope, I'll do that myself, thanks."
I told him if he wanted to tag along on a ride, I'd be doing the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone/Glacier run and that perked his interest.
Being the map/planning/research 'freak' thatI am, I set about planning a route for us to fit within his time limit and wouldn't consist of a lot of high mileage days. I also wanted to avoid the 'super slab', as much as possible, preferring the laid back county roads/byways.
A plan was drawn up, revised I don't know how many times and finally one was reached that would fit the bill to a 'T'
Bikes and gear were readied and when I checked the long range weather forecast for the selected camping areas, things did not look very promising. Brad is not one to ride in rain. In his own words - " I don't do rain. I check with the Doppler Radar first before any longer rides" Well, I told him, you can expect to ride in therain sometimes, even in the middle of summer and the forecast doesn't look promising. We both scoured an alternative route, considering doing the Columbia Gorge and down the Oregon Coast. Then I told him, what do the 'Weather Guessers' know. We both know that in mountainous terrain, if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes. It's always so changeable. I said the heck with it, we'll stick to our original plan.
Brad would be loading his bike and gear in the back of his pick up and be driving down to Spokane, early Monday. He had ordered a custom built ski platform for his boat and was going to pick it up from the manufacturer in east Spokane. Then he'd unload his bike/gear and leave the truck in the manufacturer's secure compound. Then he wouldmeet me at a roadside info center, along I90, just before Coeur D'Alene.
Overall, we had pretty fair weather. We did hit some dirty stuff(hail/heavy downpours, etc)at times, but most of it was short lived. We somehow managed to just skirt many a dirty looking storm, either by chance, or by timing. One notable one was when we were on the homeward leg of doing the Bighorns loop and we just skirted a large thunder cell moving in from the west that had to be over 100 miles long. Lots of entertainment watching all the Lightning with that one!
We weren't quite so lucky as we got caught in a downpour, complete with hail ,as we found out there were no campsites/hotel lodging available anywhere in the park.(Yellowatone) We made a run from Fly Bridge to a National Forest campground, which took us about 2 hours to get there, due to some Asshat with a large RV, pulling a car, that had 15 cars lined up behind him and he refused to pull over at a pull out, to let any ofus by. :baffled:When we got to a fairly level/straight stretch, I was gone and wassoon followed by Brad.
We also made a new friend, who tagged along with us in his cage, for 7 nights. He pulled into the same campground we had just arrived at, after leaving the guy in the huge RV in our water wake. There were no more available sites left, except for 2 that were for hard sided camping units only(Griz). I invited him to pitch his tent at our site and we all hit it off. He told us that he used to ride an old 650 BMW. Seeing as he was planning on going in our general direction, he decided to come along with us and split costs! I soon had a 'Handle' for him, calling him 'Inspector Gadget' for the amount of electronic gadgets he carried with/on him.The 3 of us had a lot of fun
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Before long, the trip was about to come to an end. I was wishing it were longer, but Brad was kind of anxious to see his wife and 3 young kids(16,12 and 6 yo)
No problems were encountered with either bike, except Brad had to replace a rear tire in Cody, WY, to the tune of $306 installed. I had a temperature controller for my heated Tourmaster Synergy Jacket Liner crap out on me, after the 2nd day of using it. I called the dealer and they(Wing World) will send me out a new one,oncewhen they receive my defective one back.
We both came very close to running out of fuel along one desolate stretch of road in MT. I had close to 1/2 gallon left, while Brad had just over a quart left. :shock:I had shut down all 'Life Support Systems'(MP3,/aux lights etc) and limped along doing 50mph until we hit the small town of White Sulphur Springs, which was a few miles out of our way, but was the most promising, closest town that looked like it would have fuel for 2 desperate bikers. :cooldevil:
The only 'disappointment on the whole trip was the fact that the Going To The Sun Road in Glacier wasn't fully open yet. We got to drive up past the midway point, but we had planned on doing the whole thing and circling back via US 2, to West Glacier.Brad and I had to agree that the roads just travelled where the best that the NW US has to offer motorcyclists. As Brad put it, "I doubt very much if I'll be able totop that ride in my lifetime"
Here's a (not so)little slide-show account of our adventure. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dusty-boots/sets/72157620571076170/show/
Dusty
I had plans for doing two larger tours this year. One was down to Montrose(and points beyond) and the other was for riding a loop of the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
My bikin bud, Brad, wanted to go on one with me, but was limited to the amount of time he could be away from his young and growingfamily.1st, he wanted to accompany me to Montrose. When I told him the route I was planning on taking, he said he had already been to most of the places on the West Coast I was planning on hitting. So, compromises were made on my part to try and accommodate him. Then he said he would meet me part way there and ride with me for a few days and then leave for home. I wasn't pleased with that part, so I said "Nope, I'll do that myself, thanks."
I told him if he wanted to tag along on a ride, I'd be doing the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone/Glacier run and that perked his interest.
Being the map/planning/research 'freak' thatI am, I set about planning a route for us to fit within his time limit and wouldn't consist of a lot of high mileage days. I also wanted to avoid the 'super slab', as much as possible, preferring the laid back county roads/byways.
A plan was drawn up, revised I don't know how many times and finally one was reached that would fit the bill to a 'T'
Bikes and gear were readied and when I checked the long range weather forecast for the selected camping areas, things did not look very promising. Brad is not one to ride in rain. In his own words - " I don't do rain. I check with the Doppler Radar first before any longer rides" Well, I told him, you can expect to ride in therain sometimes, even in the middle of summer and the forecast doesn't look promising. We both scoured an alternative route, considering doing the Columbia Gorge and down the Oregon Coast. Then I told him, what do the 'Weather Guessers' know. We both know that in mountainous terrain, if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes. It's always so changeable. I said the heck with it, we'll stick to our original plan.
Brad would be loading his bike and gear in the back of his pick up and be driving down to Spokane, early Monday. He had ordered a custom built ski platform for his boat and was going to pick it up from the manufacturer in east Spokane. Then he'd unload his bike/gear and leave the truck in the manufacturer's secure compound. Then he wouldmeet me at a roadside info center, along I90, just before Coeur D'Alene.
Overall, we had pretty fair weather. We did hit some dirty stuff(hail/heavy downpours, etc)at times, but most of it was short lived. We somehow managed to just skirt many a dirty looking storm, either by chance, or by timing. One notable one was when we were on the homeward leg of doing the Bighorns loop and we just skirted a large thunder cell moving in from the west that had to be over 100 miles long. Lots of entertainment watching all the Lightning with that one!
We weren't quite so lucky as we got caught in a downpour, complete with hail ,as we found out there were no campsites/hotel lodging available anywhere in the park.(Yellowatone) We made a run from Fly Bridge to a National Forest campground, which took us about 2 hours to get there, due to some Asshat with a large RV, pulling a car, that had 15 cars lined up behind him and he refused to pull over at a pull out, to let any ofus by. :baffled:When we got to a fairly level/straight stretch, I was gone and wassoon followed by Brad.We also made a new friend, who tagged along with us in his cage, for 7 nights. He pulled into the same campground we had just arrived at, after leaving the guy in the huge RV in our water wake. There were no more available sites left, except for 2 that were for hard sided camping units only(Griz). I invited him to pitch his tent at our site and we all hit it off. He told us that he used to ride an old 650 BMW. Seeing as he was planning on going in our general direction, he decided to come along with us and split costs! I soon had a 'Handle' for him, calling him 'Inspector Gadget' for the amount of electronic gadgets he carried with/on him.The 3 of us had a lot of fun
Before long, the trip was about to come to an end. I was wishing it were longer, but Brad was kind of anxious to see his wife and 3 young kids(16,12 and 6 yo)
No problems were encountered with either bike, except Brad had to replace a rear tire in Cody, WY, to the tune of $306 installed. I had a temperature controller for my heated Tourmaster Synergy Jacket Liner crap out on me, after the 2nd day of using it. I called the dealer and they(Wing World) will send me out a new one,oncewhen they receive my defective one back.
We both came very close to running out of fuel along one desolate stretch of road in MT. I had close to 1/2 gallon left, while Brad had just over a quart left. :shock:I had shut down all 'Life Support Systems'(MP3,/aux lights etc) and limped along doing 50mph until we hit the small town of White Sulphur Springs, which was a few miles out of our way, but was the most promising, closest town that looked like it would have fuel for 2 desperate bikers. :cooldevil:
The only 'disappointment on the whole trip was the fact that the Going To The Sun Road in Glacier wasn't fully open yet. We got to drive up past the midway point, but we had planned on doing the whole thing and circling back via US 2, to West Glacier.
Brad and I had to agree that the roads just travelled where the best that the NW US has to offer motorcyclists. As Brad put it, "I doubt very much if I'll be able totop that ride in my lifetime"Here's a (not so)little slide-show account of our adventure. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dusty-boots/sets/72157620571076170/show/
Dusty
