My Trails

Sign in laundry

Great Falls, Montana turned out to be an expensive visit. As I entered town I saw a McDonald’s ahead, and being that i have not eaten a burger in several weeks, turned down the side road to park. I thought I would turn around and park heading out to make my departure easier. While making a uturn I got too close to the curb and cut one of my back tires.

It is nice in a way that there are duals on Minnie because it allowed me to drive to a tire store about 5 miles away. The tires on the back were old anyway so I replaced all four. New tires, groceries, gas, propane, laundry, and a movie, all helped to drain my bank account. I will have to save for a while now.

Road

I hope I can get out of here in the next couple days. With all the rain over the last week, and pickup trucks driving back and forth across this muddy spot in the road, I’m a little concerned about making it out. When it is dry you can sometimes straddle the ruts, but if it is slippery, you will just slide right down into them.

I never expected this much traffic over the holiday weekend. I talked with a couple guys on ATV’S and they said it is bow hunting season and these trucks are probably hunters. He said a lot of them are too lazy to walk so they hunt from their pickups. I saw one pickup filled with guys in camouflage clothing go by my camper at least 20 times yesterday.

With all the cloudy weather over the last few days, it has been a struggle getting a good charge on my batteries. My generator just doesn’t put much juice into the batteries like my solar does.

And to make matters worse, it has been cold. Every night drops into the 30’s. Two nights ago we even had a layer of snow and hail. This means that my heater runs a few times in the night, using up what precious juice I have stored during the day. Once, when I awoke in the night to check things out, I ended up starting my generator at 3 am so as not to kill my batteries. During the day I use my catalytic heater, which uses no electric, but I don’t trust it overnight.

I’m not sure where I will go now. I would like to run up to Glacier NP for a day or two but it will depend on various things. This is the time of year to see National Parks because the crowds are gone. I wanted to jump over to the Pacific Coast and slowly move south but a more direct route back to AZ may be wiser. It is certain I will have to move soon because the tanks are full and the cupboard is bare.

I spent the night in Gallatin National Forest at the end of a dirt road. It was a parking lot for a trailhead and not really a camping spot but nobody seemed to mind. In the morning I drove to White Sulphur Springs and stopped at the Ranger Station for the Lewis and Clark National Forest. They were helpful pointing me to several dispersed campsites deep in the forest with streams and trees for my camping pleasure. I asked if there was any place in the forest where you could get cell signal and they had to think hard about that. One of the Rangers told me of a high mountain ridge where she could get a signal and gave me directions to the road.

After winding up a narrow, rough, rutted, dirt road for 5 miles, I finally came to a campsite where I had a tiny bit of cell signal. It took me half an hour to reach the ridge and I would have turned around and gone back down after two miles if there was any place to turn around.

Even though I had a tarp over my motorcycle, it was still covered with dust. It took a long time to wipe and wash it clean enough to ride for a look around. I went higher up the road but couldn’t find any more campsites and I lost cell signal altogether.

The ride back down to the main road was much easier on the Honda. I explored a few miles through the forest and checked out two pay campgrounds. I will probably be here for a few days and then make the next step to Glacier NP.

It is time to move to a new location. I have enjoyed the area around Red Lodge with many motorcycle rides, visits to interesting landmarks, and trips into town. The weather has been almost perfect. A few chilly mornings and a little smoky haze from the western forest fires have not been a problem.

Tank Vent

Richard has been telling me to get one of these for a while now. I happened to find it at the True Value Hardware in Red Lodge. It is working great and has solved my odor problem.

I have noticed a couple of behavior scenarios among solo travelers which strike me as interesting . Some single people are almost like hermits and avoid contact with everyone they see, while other individuals are starved for companionship and become clingy when they meet someone. I try not to fall into either category and attempt to be friendly but not impose on people’s space. I guess it is more of a personality thing than anything.

I’m heading north in Montana and will post more when I know where I end up.

We made it!

Yesterday I rode the Beartooth Highway to the top of the pass. It was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride and a beautiful road for a motorcycle ride. The road is a marvel. My admiration to the engineering and building of such an awesome stretch of highway. After winding up through miles of switchbacks and hairpin turns, it tops out at almost 11,000 feet, high above treeline in a landscape littered with rocks and tufts of tundra. I’m pretty sure the wind constantly blows and it is always cold at the top. I could see patches of snow on the shady slopes across the valley. While not as craggy or rugged, it reminded me of some of the passes we hiked through in the Sierra.

It is only a few miles to the town of Red Lodge. There is a supermarket there and good cell signal. Other than that, the town is a typical tourist haven with plenty of inns, shops, and restaurants to delight all vacationers with a pocket full of money.

Camp

The camp where I set up is in an open meadow, surrounded by mountains on two sides, and only a few feet from a roaring, mountain stream. There were only three other campers here when I arrived, but as the weekend draws near, more people pull in with there trailers.

My plans are to stay here through the weekend and then move up through Montana. I don’t dare move any more west because everything that way is on fire. I want to get up to Glacier National Park and see if I remember anything from the last time I was there 35 years ago.

Today I explored some backroads where people boondock along the Rock Creek. There were quite a few nice, secluded spots along the road, but as I drove deeper the road became filled with holes and rocks until it was not fun even on my Honda. I turned around when the road turned into a boulder field.

It is already starting to feel like Fall. Several nights have been in the 30’s and daytime highs in the 60’s. People here tell me this is not normal and the temperature usually would be in the 90’s. I have been lucky to adjust the climate by moving up in the forests, and I guess a little cool weather is better than hot. I can always turn on the furnace and put on a jacket. If it was hot, I would have to go to an RV park or suffer.