Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Start: 0930 (0720 wake-up)
Finish: 2100
Travel Time: 11.5 hrs
Distance: 287 miles
Total Distance Covered: 2251 miles
Nothing like waking up in a sleeping bag, that's in a tent, that's on a field, that looks into the Rockies, with your best bud, on an adventure of a lifetime. We had good night's rest in the Nemo and started up the XGK to boil water for some oatmeal and tea. We rigged up the solar charger for a quick charge of some of our electronics, packed up. As we loaded up the bikes, Yobo noticed a HUUUGE spider just above his swing-arm that had started spinning the faintest of webs.
What goes up must come down. In order to get back to the trail, we had to navigate back down that gnarly little trail. My feet came off a few times just to stay upright. Soon enough we were back on the dirt road that got us here and worked our way down the other side of the pass. As we got closer to the bottom, the road got cozier and we had our first encounter with the larger wildlife common to the trail. Yup...cattle. A handful were lazily grazing on the side of the road. Once again we started snapping photos and shooting video like they were two-headed golden unicorns.
Once our amazement fizzled out, we started up again. The next 40 miles put into perspective the uncertainty associated with this route. Up to this point we'd made pretty good time and were probably averaging 40 miles an hour or so on the trail. Well, the next 40 miles ended up taking 2.5 hrs. That's right, a 16 mph average. The logging roads were twisty and rutted and just plain fun. Yobo seemed more comfortable on the terrain and I was happy to bring up the rear and play follow the leader. The road was equally technical going up and down. I spent a good amount of time outside of the saddle and my hands got pretty tense from holding the handlebars too tightly. Our huge weighted Touratech cases also made things a little trickier to maneuver. We ran into a northbound cyclist who was riding a portion of the trail. We managed to sneak up on him while he was taking a whiz and trotting around in his birthday suit. We chatted for a bit and were by no means envious of what he was up against for his next 40 miles. We managed and we managed well and really had no idea how the rest of the day would go.
So we're making good time when all of a sudden the road turns into mud and there appears to be a huge construction project up ahead. We stop and chat with the poor gal stuck directing traffic. Apparently there was a huge environmental reclamation project at a mine up ahead and we were not allowed to continue as planned. We tried using the Yobogoda charm, but with no luck. She agreed to put us in touch with the big guy in charge, so we waited and spent some time identifying possible reroutes and watching huge truck after huge truck pass by. Definitely not what we wanted after the slow travels this morning, but this trip is all about dealing with the unexpected. Not too long after we got to talk to the man in charge and explained our situation. He was definitely accommodating and agreed to lead us through the construction zone. He noted that if anyone stopped and asked us what we were doing, he didn't know us.
So we made it through the construction, over the pass and down into the tiny tiny town of Basin, MT. You know a town is tiny when there are just as many quads parked outside the stores as cars. There was even a shirtless local fixing an old dirt bike in the middle of Main Street. But, maybe our luck was now starting to turn, because the road we were on left us intersecting Main Street staring right smack at the Silver Saddle Restaurant with the self-proclaimed "Best bread putting in MT." Lunchtime!!! I ordered the meatloaf platter and Yobo had the burger and fries. We thoroughly enjoyed the lunch and one of our biggest differences became quite apparent. I eat food faster than Yobo eats food. Yobo eats his fries before his hamburger. Yobo is weird. I don't even know why I decided to go on this trip with him. Oh...the bread pudding. It was pretty damn good. I can't speak for all of MT, but I'll trust the owner on this one.
Basin was close to the highway and we made some good time to Butte where we stocked up on fuel and water. It was late afternoon and we were pretty far from our destination. We talked about stopping earlier than planned but agreed to see how the rest of the road went. We were actually putting in some good miles as the route stayed on highways for a bit. And then we ended up on a little gem of a road...Rt 73. It was like a twisty roller coaster. SO SO SO fun and a great way to complement the morning's adventures. We made some good time on the next section of dirt roads and got an extra boost of energy. After traveling at 50-60 mph on dirt roads we agreed to commit to the next stretch of dirt and try to reach Lima tonight. It's funny because just this morning, we were amazed at riding along a handful of cattle. Now we were encountering herd after herd as we rolled through MT cattle country. Again we were absolutely amazed by the terrain and found ourselves riding along with the setting sun. As we approached the end of this section we looked around us and we might as well have been in Canyon straight out of a Star Wars movie.
It was now coming up on 9 PM and we were back on the Tarmac and on our way to Lima. We found a little motel adjacent to a diner and hopped on it. Yobo went to the office and when he came out he said the owner told him another biker just like us checked in a few minutes earlier. We saw a KLR parked in one of the spots and based on the gear he was surely on the same mission as us. There's definitely a sense of comradery on the trail and we were looking forward to meeting the owner. We walked over to Jan's diner for a nightcap. It was complete with that typical diner server who's from...get this...Compton!!! She was covered in grease and close to finishing a long shift. We devoured a the classic combination of pork chops and apples (in the form of dutch apple crumb pie). A northbound hiker stopped over at our table to chat about our individual adventures. It's definitely a special breed that wants to do what we're doing on foot. We'll stick to the moto's.
As we made our way back to the room, we decided to try and meet the owner of the other KLR. This would end up being THE friendship of the trip. Kyle Cairns was from Canada and basically on the same schedule as us. He was super down to earth and genuinely seemed like a good guy. We agreed to meet up for breakfast and hit the road together. Today will be a tough one to top.
/s/ Goda
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