Freeways are never fun no matter where you are, but I have to admit that I-90 from Coeur d'Alene through western Montana is at least some of the prettiest country to ride through and it's not boringly straight. We got to the KOA around 5pm got to our cabin and settled in (timezone change to Central causes us to lose an hour). For fun, we ordered pizza delivered so we didn't have to unpack our cooking gear either. Then we called our wives and just hung out chatting through the evening. Today's distance was 376 miles. For Dave and I on our KTMs we noticed something we were more or less prepared for: the bikes are a little "twitchy" at 70+ mph. Tim reported no such feeling with his Kawasaki. But for Dave and I, this would be something we continued to deal with.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
We got up pretty early this morning and because we didn't have much to pack, we got out of there by 7am. We went to a place near the freeway for breakfast that had been recommended, but it was essentially a sandwich type of place and we didn't really want to do that. Our trusty phones showed a potentially good place in Three Forks, called (appropriately enough) the "Three Forks Café" which turned out to be a great place for breakfast. About an hour later (8:30am) we got back on the slab and continued east. Not much to say about riding the freeway. It's boring and too fast for our little bikes in my opinion.
We stopped in Bozeman for fuel, then got blasted by crosswinds near Livingstone. It wasn't for very long - maybe twenty minutes. Little did we know our trip had more of that in store for us. We took a break at a rest stop and then continued on, finally getting off the freeway at Columbus and taking state route 421 as a short cut to US 212. We took a short break in Red Lodge when we stopped for fuel around noon. We bought some snacks and stretched our legs for about a half hour before heading south to Beartooth Pass.
The last time we were here was in June of 2014. There was still a LOT of snow on top and it was raining. Visibility was zip and aside from giant snow drifts that were carved out for the road, there wasn’t much to see. This time was different. It was still cold – for good reason: it tops out just shy of 11,000 feet (3,352 meters) – but the skies were clear and you get to see the beautiful barreness of the high country.
There was traffic, but we didn’t really mind since we were rubbernecking the entire time. In case I didn’t mention it, we all had Sena bluetooth headsets so we’re gabbing the entire time. Not only is it more fun that way, it’s also safer which you’ll see as we go along. We talked about stopping, but we all had cameras going and well, dang, it was cold! So we just kept going. There was also some construction on the way down the other side. Can't seem to get away from it!
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
