Beartooth and Montana - getting caught up

Beartooth and Montana - getting caught up

Steamboat Springs - Grand Teton - Yellowstone - Red Lodge - Kalispell

1,168 miles / 1,879 km

I think I’m on Day Ten, or something like that. Not counting the 9 days in Denver. Want to try get this thing caught up tonight.

I haven’t been feeling great the last couple of days. Three days camping on the trot, and constant driving with a lot of concentration kind of takes its toll. I’ve found it’s really not that much fun unless you can stay at least two nights in each place – unless maybe you want to get to somewhere where you’ll be staying a few nights – then maybe you’ll just blow through overnight. Otherwise, you’re arriving, eating, writing this (f&*%ing) blog, and then going to bed. Then as soon as you wake up, you have to leave. And you have to leave early if you want to cover any distance.

Is this supposed to be fun? Why am I doing this? I do ask myself that question sometimes.

Anyway, I rode out of Cooke City and the fine establishment run by Chris, and I was off over the Beartooth Highway, mountain range, and pass. It is pretty dams spectacular. Reminded me a little bit of the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, but as usual the pictures do it no justice. It’s actually a more precarious ride than the Icefields, and there are less opportunities to pull over.

I also got to find out how heavy a fully loaded BMW R1200GS is to pick up if you drop it. It is very, very heavy, I can tell you that. The technical answer is about 490 lbs / 222 kg + all my stuff (tent, clothes, tools, laptop, guitar, you name it). At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it, then I said to myself, “Listen mate, imagine you’re in the middle of the bloody Atacama Desert in Chile, on your way to Argentina – you do want to do that someday, right? Pick the fucking bike up!” So, with a monumental effort, I did. It was weird…I felt a total elation after I’d done it. I started yelling “YOO HOO!” I was right at the “Top of the World” part of the mountain too – it kind of fit the moment.

It got a lot greener again as I went down, and finally made it to the beautiful town of Red Lodge, Montana. Montana seems to have a fair amount of wealth. I saw very little poverty compared to some other rural states. Everyone seemed happy, polite, and things were clean and well-maintained. Seems to be a very live and let live part of the world. A lot of fairly “hip” yet still “country friendly” folks. I got some food and checked into the “Yodeler,” a sort of Swiss-themed motel. The room had a steam bath in the shower – kind of like a Turkish bath. It was really good for my aching bones.

The next day (that’s today, Tuesday, July 24^th) I felt pretty crappy. I felt like I had a slight temptrature or a cold, and my body felt tired. I don’t remember it being this hard two years ago. Still, I had a room booked for tonight in Kalispell, near Glacier National Park. I decided I had to just “whore it out” (as we’d say in Ireland) and that’s what I did. I kind of cheated on my “back roads only” rule, and hammered out a lot of the day on Interstate 90. It was hard going and very windy a lot of the time, which on a motorcycle takes a lot of effort and concentration.

I finally got to the turn-off for US-93. That last 100 miles or so up to Kalispell is really beautiful. I didn’t take too many pictures unfortunately, because I just wanted to get here. In fact, Montana in a strange way reminds me of Maine. It is really a beautiful fertile place. I can see why so many people want to get away from it all here. Probably one of my favorite states I’ve visited.

I arrived in Kalispell and immediately decided to stay for another night – at least. I can spend the next day or two visiting Glacier – looking forward to that.

For a state that is so clean and wealthy, there must be a bit of a meth problem here and there. I saw a few signs – one even quite artistic – warning people of the dangers.

Another weird thing I noticed coming up the east side of Flathead Lake (which the stupid GPS sent me instead of staying on US-93) on the last 30 or so miles into Kalispell: Montana has this policy of putting a white cross on the side of the road at any place there has been a fatality. I must have counted twenty or thirty of these signs on that 30-mile stretch. Kind of focuses the mind. I was trying to figure out why? Maybe drunk people at night? Or people hitting deer? I heard the latter can cause a lot of damage and destruction.

Anyway, I’m at the “top” of Montana now. The world is my oyster, although I’m missing home and friends a bit too.

When you’re “on the road” though, the rule is always…onwards!