August 18th, Divide Ride, 4 days in the trail

Here's a quick update as it's 11:45pm and we're very tired.

Today's highlights:
Mike looses his main detailed map, Michele gets map in the face at 80mph on I-15, we do lots of pavement in the morning and the road racers would love it, lunch at a ghost real ghost town called Banack where there were lots of hangings and most buildings are still in place as they were 100 year ago, we ran 150km of mountain highlands gravel roads without passing one driveway, saw lots of Antelope (yes, were the deer and the antelope range), ended up in Elk Lake Lodge - a wonderful spot in the middle of seemingly nowhere.  Lots of great people here, dinner, beers, bonfire and a real cowboy to sing us sad and depressing western songs... we love it.  What a spectacular day!  494km! Wow.

 We had a great stay and hot breakfast at the Super 8 in Helena, and packed up the bikes among 6 other bikers packing up and heading the a BMW rally somewhere near by.  They were all busy polishing and wiping down their bikes while one look at ours tells you it’s a lost cause…..the bugs and dust is getting pretty thick.

We did a bit of highway first thing in the morning to by pass a few areas we were told was going to be really rough going and instead got on the dirt to ride some of the best dirt roads yet.

We stopped in to check out a Ghost Town….this was not a relocated town but a town where people actually lived in until the 70’s.  It was a great old town and a few of the characters working there gave us access to a few of the locked buildings and told us some of the stories…….This was the first court house in Montana, the first place to have an actual gallows (This was still standing, 2 vertical poles with a horizontal hanging pole between them), but probably not the first place to have an outlaw as the Sheriff.   Oh by the way…he was hung on the gallows he had built after being convicted of murder (this was his 4^th kill).

With the sun shining from high in the sky and the temperature in the high 20’s we left the Ghost Town to it’s ghosts and took off eh….

We rode these great gravel roads through a spectatular valley of low scrub vegetation and thousands of cows…..I was thinking just how many domestic animals live in the USA….when a pack of antelope ran out in front of me moving fast.  Mike was quick with the camera and managed to get some footage of them we think.

End of the day…now just after 6:00 and we see a sign of a guest ranch with fine dining….wow ok let’s go there!  This is where I have my goof move while turning around I get my front tire in talcum powder dirt and drop the bike….no speed to this crash and that’s probably why I fell over.  As the bikes are so heavy it takes the 2 of us to right the bike.   Ok no problem, nothing broken or bruised.

Half an hour later we are pulling into the ranch and i get distracted and drop in the driveway....Mike is up parking the bike so he doesn't see or hear me yet..... i get help from a couple just pulling out to watch the sun set and Mike who runs over.  A great way to make my entrance and we laugh about this all night..which one of you fell over? started a few conversations that night.

We had dinner and drinks with the couple who helped pick up the bike then went over to the campfire to listen to the cowboy sing....it must be something about the setting and the hat that makes every song sad....