A brief respite

But is it a respite, really?  Respite implies a break from something unpleasant. Let's just say that I'm back at my sister and brother-in-law's for a few days. Returned to Issaquah yesterday evening around 7:00. This followed three days of riding in Eastern Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia in the Selkirk Loop. Stops included Nelson for the auto show, Nakusp for the hot springs, and Osoyoos for one last night on a Canadian lake (my photos seem to follow that theme). 

Riding alone and riding with others both have their appeal. I can't say that I prefer one over the other. While the camaraderie and company is very pleasant, so is the freedom that riding alone brings. Stopping whenever I want without concern for slowing the others down or causing concern that I've met with some mishap. Or not stopping. 

It was a great ride, 15 days on the road and just over 3800 miles. There were a couple of rest days and a couple more of shorter loop rides. The bike performed flawlessly, the tires made it, no tickets, and no bike drops. My only close call was trying to change into a lane simultaneously with a Ford Transit about five miles from my sister and brother- in-law's house. How would that have been for tragic irony?

Autumn starts in less than two weeks. In these more northern latitudes, the leaves have started to change and even with warm sunny days, the air quickly cools as the sun lowers in the sky. It's a beautiful time of year but it signals the short, dark, rainy days to come.  I have got to solidify some plans to get myself south for the middle term. 

I'm in town for a few days, doing laundry, seeing my mother, and hoping to connect with a prospective buyer for my RV. That could be a whole other blog but I'll pass for now.  Within the next week I'll be back on the bike heading circuitously to Northern California and Sonoma. More to come. 

A few more images:

Manito Park, Spokane 

Fauquier to Needles, BC Ferry

Arrow Lake, Nakusp

Lake Osoyoos

Rain/rest day, Great Falls, MT

Nelson, BC

Back to the Palouse

I took a relatively short ride today, south from Spokane to Colfax, east to the town of Palouse and back north to Spokane. Met up with John, Kjell, and Eric for fine pizza at the Flying Goat and beers at Pints Pub. 

From today's ride:

And Manito Park in Spokane, an Olmstead design.  If I believed in heaven, I think parts of it might look like this. 

Down Time

The Tiger got its badly needed new tires at Empire Cycles in Spokane Valley. In addition to wearing down the tread, a motorcycle tire's surface that contacts the road widens with use, resulting in poorer performance, particularly on the curves.  My rear tire looked like something on a minivan. But all is well, new Michelin Pilot Road/Trails in place.

Motorcycle tires are quite costly, but not something you should skimp on. 

This was parked outside the shop. Looks like something Dale Evans would ride:

I looked at a couple rent houses in Spokane, thinking that I'll move here when it's time to settle back down. But I have more traveling to do. 

My brother-in-law John, Kjell, and Eric arrive this afternoon. We ride to Nelson, BC then to Nakusp for a long weekend ride. Then it's back to Issaquah for a few days to regroup. After that I'll ride down to California to see friends In Cottonwood and Sonoma. 

Spokane has its share of craft breweries. I'd been wanting to visit No-Li. It's only 1.5 miles from my hotel so I decided to walk. You know, get a little exercise. Google Maps sent me on the Most Likely to Get Mugged route. I had a couple of well-deserved IPAs then took an Uber back to the hotel. 

Cold, Cold, Cold

The ride from Great Falls to Missoula was gorgeous, but, yes, cold. I don't mean to go on and on about problem weather. To state the obvious, on a motorcycle the weather has a huge effect on the rider's experience. It was probably in the low to mid 40s. I had on all my gear but at 70 mph, that wind is bitingly cold.  My heated jacket liner is getting an undeserved rest back in Issaquah. It wouldn't be a Carlos motorcycle trip without forgetting something. I didn't forget it so much as it didn't occur to me that I might need it. Montana...mountains...any other hints?

I stopped for lunch in Missoula at the Tamarack Brewing Company. I tend to eat unhealthily on my motorcycle trips so I was in the mood for a salad. Got the baked brie on spinach salad. With bacon and candied walnuts. It probably wasn't much more healthy than a cheeseburger. It was delicious, though. As was the stout that accompanied it. 

More rain between Missoula and Spokane, but not nearly as bad as Sunday. Made good time on I-90. Had a comfort stop at some tourist trap, the 50,000 Silver $ just east of the Montana-Idaho line. As I was getting off the bike a fellow in shorts and short-sleeved shirt said "Dude, you are hardcore." My response: "That's one thing you could call me."

New tires tomorrow. I'm so thankful to have made it. Let's hope the rear tire doesn't blow up on the way to the shop tomorrow. 

Who's the Nimrod who thought the rain would clean his bike?

Today was rough. The last 160 of the 350 miles between Glendive and Great Falls were in a steady rain. Cold, too. In the high 40s. While the insect viscera is gone, I picked up a lot of mud riding through road construction in Lewistown, MT. By the time I arrived in Great Falls, where the photo was taken, about 75% of the mud was gone. 

Sad fact: my Olympia riding gear offers crap rain protection. Same is true of my cheap ass gloves, though that's no surprise. I was wet to the skin on forearms and lower torso. Hard to feel warm when that's happening. My very nice room at the Hampton Inn has got  drying motorcycle gear and clothing all over. 

I've used the jacket and pants for eight seasons, but I'm done with them. I had Aerostich gear on order last spring but they had problems with their GoreTex. So I canceled the order. Time to revisit that. If I'm going to travel this way, in areas with unpredictable weather, I've got to have gear that works. 

On a positive note, my feet stayed nice and dry, thanks to my Sidi Canyon boots. Oh, and the rear tire didn't blow. 

Staying over in Great Falls, as more crap weather is in store for tomorrow.  Then it's on to Spokane on Tuesday when it will be partly cloudy and in the low 70s. Tomorrow I'll avail myself to the Hampton's amenities.  Ooh, guest laundry. And well, maybe the hot tub. 

Kicked by the Wind

This is the last whining I'll do about the wind. Because tonight the rain starts. When I left Rapid City this morning it was practically still. I was feeling pretty good about things for the first 45 minutes. Then the wind kicked up again.  I rode up into western North Dakota, my first visit to the Peace Garden State.  (That leaves only four more: Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the big one, Alaska.)

There's not a lot to stop the wind in western ND. 

I've seen a couple of bicycle tourists out on these windy roads. That certainly puts things in perspective. Imagine riding a fully loaded touring bicycle down this road with a 25 mph head or side wind. 

One good thing about the rain, or at least this is what I tell myself, it will wash off 2000 miles of smashed insects and road grime. Maybe. That stuff is pretty baked-on. 

Back to North Dakota, I always pictured to look like those exterior scenes from Fargo. In the western part of the state, there are the Badlands. 

You won't have to try very hard to guess which Springsteen song ran through my head for a good part of the day. 

I'm staying at the Yellowstone River Inn in Glendive, MT.  At $54.50, it's less than half of what I paid at the Sleep Inn in Rapid. It looks scary on the outside but the room is nice enough.   Thank you, TripAdvisor. 

I'm concerned about my rear tire. Though the tires had 7000 miles on them when I left, the tread was good and the wear bars were still fairly deep. After another 2000 miles, not any more. I've got new tires waiting for me in Spokane, but that's another 700+ miles. 

For you non-motorcyclists, getting 10,000 miles on a set of motorcycle tires is almost unheard of. 

Tomorrow, to Havre, MT. 

More Black Hills

My last full day in South Dakota and yet more excellent riding. Today I rode out of Rapid City on Nemo Road towards and through the hamlet of the same name. Sweeping curves, up and down, what I picture when daydreaming about motorcycle riding. The terrain changes so quickly. Rapid City is in a bowl of sorts, rolling prairie surrounded by hills. Dry and not a lot of trees. As you climb there are many more trees, mostly conifers, and green fields. And how do those trees grow and how does that grass stay green? Rain, which threatened on and off today. The forecast called for a chance of thunderstorms, which always worries me.  I don't like the idea of being out on some open plain when lightning strikes. But it was fine, only saw one bolt and had just a few sprinkles. Tomorrow may be a different story.  

I rode the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. I couldn't ask for a better road.  Scenery, sweeping curves, low traffic, and smooth road surface.  And a pretty creek running alongside the road. 

So green it almost looks like Cascadia. 

While traffic was low, there were plenty of other motorcycles. Harleys, of course, and Goldwings. There's a big Goldwing rally in Billings. I've seen scores of them throughout the trip. And most of them pulling trailers. I've benefitted on trips with friends who pull trailers behind their bikes. Who's going to turn their nose up at a cooler full of iced down beers? But I can't see doing it myself. 

There's a Mustang rally in Sturgis this weekend. Lots of pretty ponies exploring the area. 

I stopped for fuel in Deadwood, kept picturing Al Swearingen surveying from the balcony of The Gem. Or Calamity Jane spewing invective at any and all. Yes, my image of Deadwood is the HBO version. I thought about stopping there for lunch but was turned off by not just the touristy nature of the place but the preponderance of gambling halls. I'm no bluenose, but gaming has never appealed to me. 

Just up the road is less assuming but very charming town of Lead. I stopped for lunch at a place housed in an1890s building that was one of the few to survive the moving of downtown Lead. There had been so many mines dug in and near the town that the earth no longer supported the buildings. There's also a huge pit mine right off the main street. For something so large it is remarkably un-apparent. I was struck by the dozens of names on the miners memorial, people who have died working in the mines since the 1870s. 

Since I was in the area, I had to stop in Sturgis. I briefly attended last year's rally, for a few hours on a Monday morning. That was more than enough. I wanted to see what the place was like when there weren't tens of thousands of grizzled Caucasian males on American made cruisers milling about. (As a grizzled Caucasian male, I can say that.)  It was pretty quiet.  This streets had thousands of bikes parked on it when I was last in Sturgis. 

Plenty of parking. 

It started to rain, there weren't many Mustangs to be seen (and I didn't feel like looking for them) so I headed back to Rapid City via Vanocker Canyon Road.  More superb riding. 

Small Craft Warning

The wind has really kicked up the past couple of days. It started on my ride yesterday from Sheridan, WY to Rapid City, SD. Between Sheridan and Gillette the terrain really opens up, meaning that there aren't a lot of trees, hills, or other barriers to block the wind. The gusts have gotten up to about 35 mph. A couple of times it felt like the wind would pop the helmet right off my head. 

I mis-remembered a major detail from my ride in this region last year. One of the highlights was riding from Great Falls, MT to Sheridan through the Little Belt Mountains. I thought that lovely bit of natural splendor was between Sheridan and Gillette. Nope. I kept expecting a woodsy canyon with sweeping curves but what I got was the aforementioned open country. I wondered if I'd taken a wrong turn or if my memory was just crap. Turns out it was the latter. 

My guess is that most people who live in Gillette, WY are happy there and proud of their city. But it is not a pleasant place, neither the city nor the geography.  I was glad to get it behind me and into the Black Hills. 

Basing myself in Rapid City for a few days, riding the Black Hills and seeing the requisite tourist attraction. 

Needles Highway, Custer State Park

The speed limit on Needles Highway can be as low as 25 mph. But with as many hairpin turns as it has, that really wasn't a problem for me. Traffic was low for the most part, which made for a pleasant ride. And it didn't hurt to be out of the wind. 

So, Mount Rushmore. I wasn't going to ride all this way and not see it up close. As I'd read and heard, it's much smaller than one would expect. When I was a kid, looking at photos of the monument in textbooks and encyclopedias, I thought the Presidents' heads would fill one's view. Not so, but still worth seeing if for nothing else, for the people watching. 

These three ladies rode in on their Harleys at the same time as me. I love seeing women riding their own bikes, no matter what they are. And they were on big Harleys. Road Kings, I think. While waiting to pay our parking fees I noticed that one of them had a water bottle mounted on her handle bars. It was translucent so I could see the water sloshing around from the idling engine's vibration. They could have mixed margaritas with it.

Smoke on the Water and Scenic Byways

It started off as a smoky, cool ride. Enough so that I almost changed my plan to ride south from Livingston into Yellowstone National Park. I drove north on that road in 2002 when I traveled from Atlanta to Olympia to start my job as a CDC field assignee with the Washington Immunization Program. The mountains on the east side of that valley seemed to jut straight up from the valley floor. It was a sunny morning in May and some of the most beautiful scenery I'd seen. 

It was not to be this time around. The mountains appeared spectral through the smoke. And the air quality wasn't so great either. But that's life. I was still on my motorcycle enjoying some of the best of what the world has to offer. I rode through Yellowstone on July 4, 2015. I didn't think I'd be back in the Park so soon, but what was I going to do, ride Interstate 90 to avoid it? Wasn't going to happen. 

Smoky day on the Yellowstone 

Being late summer and not a major holiday, there was far less traffic on Park roads. That didn't mean drivers weren't stopping in the middle of the road because they saw other vehicles pulled over, perhaps trying to get a view of a bison, or an an antelope, or a marmot, 500 yards away. Still, it was a lovely ride.

After exiting the Park, I made my way to Wyoming Highway 296, also known as the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. Again, some of the finest scenery and motorcycling I've experienced. 

Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, Wyoming 

After a late, fast food lunch stop, I continued south. By now it was in the mid-90s and I was starting to feel like a slab of carne seca (or beef jerky if you prefer).  I continued on US Highway 14 and was pleasantly surprised to find myself on the Bighorn Scenic Byway. It starts off through Shell Canyon and climbs to a 9000 foot pass. Not only was the scenery and riding wondrous, the temperature must have dropped 30 degrees. I was having too good of a time to pull over for photos. So we'll have to settle for what I've lifted from the web. 

Bighorn Scenic Byway, Wyoming 

I made it to my tiny, kinda scary motel room in Sheridan and enjoyed a couple of beers at the Black Tooth Brewery downtown. It was an almost 400 mile day and I deserved them. 

Through Idaho, into Montana

A pretty big day, miles wise. Four hundred right on the nose. Not bad for a 61 year old on an 800 cc bike. The taller windscreen and the custom built seat did their part to make it happen. 

The first couple of hundred miles, still on US 12 were spectacular. Beautiful scenery, low traffic, and sweeping curves along the Clearwater River. Comfortably cool which helped with the 90+ temps in Montana after lunch (Taqueria del Sol in Missoula, sadly not operated by an earnest Mexican family, but by white boys with a skateboarder theme. Still, better than the school cafeteria Thai I had in Lewiston). 

Lolo Pass into Montana and Priest Pass west of Helena were splendid. 

This looks a bit gloomy and West-of-the-Cascades-like. But it was a very nice sunny day, offset by the smoke that I rode through for 20 miles or so. 

Clearwater River, Idaho 

And lest you think it will be all purty pitchers, there's this from my stopping place tonight, Three Forks, MT. 

Different year, different ride

Back again.  I'm on a relatively shorter ride. I left Issaquah this morning, heading for the Black Hills. I was there last year for the Sturgis Rally. A few hours on a Monday morning was more than enough. But the region's scenery and roads were spectacular. I told myself I'd return when there weren't tens of thousands of (mostly) Harleys clogging up the roads. 

I'm on my Triumph Tiger 800. This is the second long, multi-day ride I've taken on it.  It doesn't have the creature comforts that my departed Goldwing had, but it's much more my type of bike. I rode about 340 miles today, south through Mount Rainier National Park (kicking myself for not taking photos) east through Yakima, the Tri Cities, and through the Palouse. The last is one of my favorite areas anywhere, not just in Washington State. I love riding through Eastern Washington's wide open spaces in low traffic roads.  

Though it was in the mid 50s when I left, it was in the 90s by the time I got to Richland. Tomorrow promises more of the same. I'll have to get an early start. 

Lesson learned: Just because there's a Thai restaurant within walking distance from my Lewiston, ID motel doesn't mean it's a good idea to eat there. 

The Palouse

Highway 12, Garfield County, Washington