Eureka to Seely's Lake Montana

Tuesday 367km – Eureka! Montana

Today’s Highlights.

Unbelievable forest / mountain roads, Mike sees a bear and crashes, Michele sees a Deer and has a mechanical failure, awesome people, trails and camping.

Up at 6am to start loading the bikes….I thought we were the early risers, but we were not the first ones up,  I stuck my head out the window to check on the bikes and these guys who just completed the ride were packed up and ready to go.  Quite cool this morning so there was a lot of moisture to wipe off the bikes.  Breakfast was fruit and cereal in a pre-packaged bowl that I have never seen in Canada but they worked great.

We took Tobacco Road south out of Eureka to a great piece of asphalt to ride before we turned off onto a one lane freshly paved road camp access.  Beautiful.  The mist was burning off the asphalt, and grasses at the side of the road and everything were lush green and twinkling in the early morning sun.  The temperature dropped to 1.5 C as we rose up in elevation…wow we were both cold.

We got onto the divide trail, which was packed gravel, and due to the moisture…no dust!  We stopped for a hot drink and a snack at a great bakery in the middle of no where we thought at first but it turned out to be a destination for locals and tourists alike and the place was soon swarming with a ton a friendly people (Polebridge).  As I opened the old fashioned door to enter the bakery I was hit with a wave of warmth and the most amazing smells of home baking….I got in there and just stood with my mouth open until the guy at the counter asked me if I was ok.  One coffee, one tea and 2 huge buns later we sat out front and talked with a fellow biker and others.

Back to the trail where the moisture was almost all burned off and the dust was just starting to kick up.  Mike spotted bear number 2 around now….   Mike was so excited to film the bear that he crashed his bike trying to turn around too quickly.  Funny thing was, after 100 mile of gravel he turned around on the one lone patch of asphalt we saw (over a bridge) and sure enough……  PLOP!  That’s the sound of a Kawasaki hitting the pavement – Mike figures it’s all ok because he got some cool on board footage and some good pictures … of the bike on it’s side not the bear – the bear escaped down the river laughing all the way.

We also spotted a juvenile deer standing in the middle of the road and stopped to watch him and take a rest....as we went to take off my bike started but would not move…I tried the same thing a few times and realized that my brakes were on…I got off the bike and noticed that the brake light was on (later I would learn that this was just the really bright running light) so I determined that it was something with the brakes…and I quickly noticed it was the back brake as I could see liquid dripping….now spurting onto my hot disk brake and SMOKING badly…….I got a bottle of grapefruit juice and dumped about half the bottle on the fluid, hoping to cool it down but now I was thinking…crack the disk.  Mike came back after filming the deer looked it over and said…..you don’t need the back brake anyway…which I don’t on the BMW….it’s always been crap.  Mike determined that the brake line pulled itself out of the crimp mount on the caliper…not easily fixable as the other end connects to the ABS.  Once out to civilization we made a bunch of calls and determined that there were 7 of these parts available to BMW USA and they were all in Germany 1.5weeks to order….BMW Canada couldn’t even manage to figure out what an F650GS was….Ok no problem I can ride without a back brake we only have 3500km of trail left to go!  I figure that’s my goof up for the entire trip

Lunch was in a great “South Park” Town…full of yuppies in outdoor gear and tons of moms and kids…lots of money here as we looked in the windows of the tiny mountain town…Prada, Sierra Designs and lots of turquoise for sale (Whitefish Montana).

Right now we are camping in a state park…did you know its 5 bucks a vehicle and 25 bucks per site….wow our hotel last night was 65!  Next time we camp we will not be in a state park.  The site is great…sorry WAS great…we pitched our tent in a beautiful vacant site…too good to be true Mike thought as he rode back into town for a few groceries.  He was right….the warden was soon over and we determined that we were not “the Sousas party of 6”…… I waited for mike to get back and we both poured ourselves a glass of wine…a large glass of wine and moved across the street to the crappy little site on the other side.  Got a great fire going (and for those of you who have seen our “Little bon fires” at home you’ll know we’re both pyros) we roasted corn on the cob and ate nachos.

One thing we learned about camping is that campers want to talk….they want to know where you are from and where you are going and of course talk about their own bikes and what they have done.  Up to the washroom for teeth and over to the food locker to lock away “anything a bear might like”.  Goodnight…we’re warm and snuggly in the tent….but it’s going to be a cold tonight…… ;)