Divide Ride, August 21, 2011

August 21, 2011

Tonight we sit on our Best Western (Rawlings Wyoming) room porch with our bikes backed up to the door.  The sun is just setting, the beer is great, and our dinner should be here any minute.  We just showered and cleaned up and had a “bruise count”  (Michele = 8, Mike = 8 – ya we’re tied for quantity but Mike takes the win tonight with surface area!).

Highlights of today?  Lots.  Wyoming is one of the most impressive places we’ve seen yet as we are getting a first hand perspective of the vastness of the desert plains.  We basically road a full day today, hours and hours, without seeing pavement.  We road gravel roads and 2 track trails that are primarily used by the ranchers to herd up their cows.  The oil-gas industry uses some of these roads as well for access to areas like the “Buffalo Basin” oil wells – an impressive site with no humans anywhere near the working well heads.

Imagine driving or riding down a gravel road through grass scrublands for…. Oh say for 2 hours.  Then imagine running into some ranchers just sitting by their truck having a sandwich.  You stop, just because you do, people are rare in these here parts.  They yell out “looks like the long way down”.  Now you know they’re bikers since they just referred to a bike flick.  They invite you over for a water and whatever else you need.   A couple minutes later a real live cowboy shows up on a CRF 450 motocross bike.  You chat up a storm about anything and everything sitting in the middle of a road in the middle of a desert in the middle of Wyoming in the middle of North America.  After 20 minutes they broach the reality topic of just how far you have to go… you’re still 70 miles from pavement.  The cowboy offers to show you a short cut and you’re off, riding through uncharted territory to you but this is his backyard.

Well what a ride we had today, and a very special thanks to our ex US Navy dentist and rancher extraordinaire Wesley David who like any gentlemen rancher gave Michele his CRF 450 to ride through the knarly and rugged off road stuff as he toured us through some of the most amazing country we’ve ever experienced.  Remember, this is not a view from a car window from a paved road, this is living and breathing the true remoteness of ranching in Wyoming.

With 7” of precipitation per year this is true desert, and with the pressures of government agencies forcing the ranchers to move their cattle if the grass is less than 7” tall it must be a challenge to round up a thousand cattle and truck them to another area.   Kinda fun sound’n though eh!

Another adventure, another day, and a bunch more pictures and stories.

Over and out for tonight.

Michele and Mike

Divide Ride, Video Blog Entry, Aug 20th

Divide Ride Blog Entry for August 20th
We're too tired to write anything - the video will explain most of it.
We'll catch up soon.
Michele and Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYaGUPqB4M

Oh Give me a Home Where th .....

Friday  - 450km

Wow a great breakfast at the Elk Lake Lodge with all of our new friends…..after goodbyes we were back on the road.  More of that great backroad gravel we enjoyed so much yesterday. 

We ran into a guy on a KTM at the side of the road and did a few miles with him…the road was really dusty and felt like it was made of ball bearings…so it was tough going. We did see a cow and calf moose today, and they ran along the road with us for a while.

We had lunch in Jackson Hole…tooooooo many yuppies…..get us back to the wilderness!

Road some great paved roads a well today but there is more traffic and construction…Mike found a great back road around some construction and we ended up at a Turpin Meadow Campground and got a room in a cabin…we arrived just in time for a cookout…chicken, ribs and potatoes and pasta salad…finish it off with ice cream cake…yikes stuffed!

Mike got some great pictures of the sunset…..wow it’s beautiful.

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....

Video footage of today, Aug 17, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYi3TtKDEc

Wednesday August 17, Fun in Sun in Big Sky Country - Montana

Wednesday Aug 17th,  260km

Today’s Highlights.             

Early morning camp breakdown, a forest fire, awesome forest roads, a knarly mountain pass, an old fire tower at 8,000 ft, bright sunny day, ghost towns, hours of therapeutic riding…

Ok so the mileage was not great….we did 50km by 9:00 but the next 50 took us until 11am.  We had a great ride in the morning, stopping at Montana’s for lunch at noon, yes, Montana’s in Montana.  But it was a proprietary restaurant and was fantastic.  After lunch we were back on the trail but the GPS kept leading us down the wrong trail and we did a lot of back tracking.  No big deal but we did not make a lot of head way south.  We did take our first divide pass ride and it went fairly smoothly…the uphill was a bit of a challenge but the downhill was easy,...just what we wanted with no back brake.

Tonight we are in a Super 8…great rates with CAA…. and rags to wipe down the bikes.  Dinner at the pub next door, and finally the beer Mike has been talking about all day.  We were thoroughly entertained by the pictures and videos of the day.  Very tired as it was another long day.  Looking forward to more ghost towns and camping in the backcountry.

MnM Over and Out for Wednesday August 17, 2011.

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…… ;)