Day Five
When I go Yellowstone I try to avoid the thermal areas and certainly Old
Faithful. It is a zoo in the summertime. There is a song title
Summertime and the jazz great Ray Brown with his trio of Jeff Hamilton
and Gene Harris do a great version of this tune. As it has no vocals so
no quip here but it is great swing music.
Today's route is a favorite and the destination for this ride after
leaving the Fab 5. From Gardner I get an early start about 7:40am then
onto Lamar Valley, Cooke City Montana, a down and back on the Chief
Joseph Scenic Byway, over Beartooth Pass and spend the night in Red
Lodge.
Here is the route.
The key for this ride is doing a down and back on the Chief Joseph
Scenic Byway. Most will go over then north to Belfy and Red Lodge or
south to Cody. Why, when the best is just where you came from? Get
back up in elevation when it is hot and stay cool. The only reason to
stay on Hwy 120 is when the weather inclement and I did that once years
ago.
This was the first time I have been here since the Yellowstone River had it's way with the road along the river, washing it out, in June 2022.
The new road goes up a hillside with lots of switchbacks on good
pavement with a 25mph speed limit and enough traffic to just relax and
enjoy the views. The new route drop into Mammoth above where the old
road was. Very nice.
It wasn't long before my first wildlife encounter but it wasn't a fluffy cow. Oh no.
I did a couple of u-turns to get a good view a decent shot and stay safe.
Fluffy cows along the Lamar River.
Soda Butte Cone
View along Chief Joseph byway, also known as Crandall Road on Garmin
maps and Wy 296 and whatever you call it the is a great road for brisk
riding. Absolutely sublime.
Clark Fork Canyon along Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.
Along the Beartooth Hwy where there was no construction. Yippie!
At the summit.
Some mountain sheep or goats I don't know which.
A deer in downtown Red Lodge.
It was a great day to be on the motorcycle. I was ride very well today.
There are just some days where everything clicks and this was one of
them.
I had a good meal in Red Lodge, I believe it was elk. I like eating things unavailable at home.
End of Day Five
Day Six
Hi Kevin. Yeah the route Patrick created went through Yaak. I had
never been there and its fun to go someplace new. Enjoy the PNW-GT.
Jim
Lyle Lovett wrote a song titled What Do You Do / The Glory Of Love and
the version he sings with Francine Reed live is great. The music is
big band swing and part of the lyrical refrain is what to you do. This
is stuck in my head.
In Red Lodge on a blue sky day where the temps are going to be record
breaking what do you do you? There ain't no questions and I don't have
the blues. With a motorcycle you get an early breakfast, an early start
and head for Beartooth Pass, that's what you do!
The route for today, follow the red line starting at the Lupine Inn.
A few photos before the pass.
The Beartooth Run
was on Saturday July 11th featuring a 5k, 10k and a half marathon all
above 10,000 feet elevation. Let me repeat that all above 10,000 feet
elevation. OMG!
And I was lucky enough to be there. This was completely unplanned on my
part and those who use to work at Boeing Defense and Space may recall
the use of the term unplanned event - a screw up if you will.
This wasn't screwed up! Far from it. This was fun. There were folks
of all shapes and sizes participating in this event and most were
smiling and having a great time. Walkers and runners alike. One lady
who was not in her 20's had a knee brace on and was walking. Kudo's to
them all! It was a pleasure to witness and made my heart happy.
After the summit I the I whipped out my camera to see what might happen
with the morning light. Of course I didn't stop - I need to keep moving
on a hot day rather than looking great photo with simple gear.
It is lovely up here. Spread my ashes here - this is were may spirit soars.
The Triumph with Beartooth Peak as a backdrop.
A closeup of Beartooth Peak sans most snow.
Waterfall.
Back Chief Joseph Highway I go. Was there any doubt?
It is Saturday so there are a few more cars, trikes and bikes on the
road today. I was feeling a bit frisky so these were opportunities for
exploring what this Triumph can do. So I put it into Sport mode. Stir
the tranny, use the quick shift and OH MY! I like this bike. It is
nimble and handles very well. It is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
There is a saying there is not replacement for displacement. Wrong.
There is, it is called technology. Modern motorcycles are amazing.
A view from the summit at Chief Joseph Pass.
Another waterfall. This one is near the intersection of Beartooth and
Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. The water comes from the upper right corner
of the image an runs down a rock slab. There is trail leading the to
falls. Too hot today but someday. As if I needed a reason to come
back.
Check out the limestone layer beneath the volcanic layer. Imagine the
volcanic layer was not there millions of years ago. Then imagine this
land was covered by the ocean laying down the limestone layer. Uplift
and tectonic plate activity raised the limestone layer and later
vulcanism expels molten rock and gases creating a new layer on the old
one.
Back in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone.
A fluffy cow on the road! This bull was off to the right on the
hillside mulling around as I approached. Observing this I slowed, then
stopped a safe distance way to watch him walk down the hillside and
across the road. Fun!
The same fluffy cow that crossed the road.
After Lamar Valley traffic thickened on the way to West Yellowstone and
not even Sport mode would save me. The elevation change from Lamar
Valley although to to Mt Washburn and Dunraven Pass at nearly 9,000 feet
provided a welcome respite from the heat. I dropped off the parade a
few times, once because following a pickup truck with a terrible diesel
smell wasn't appealing. At one of the stops I learned I was on the edge
of the Yellowstone Caldera. Very cool.
A random photo in later in the day.
A bubbling pot.
Despite the hydration system, I limped into Yellowstone were it
was between 87-92°. Homie don't like heat while riding, even though
this bike doesn't throw a lot of heat on homie's body.
I checked into my room at the Club House Inn and chilled for a while the comforts of Air Conditioning restored my tired mind. After a
shower I went into town for dinner. Along the way more old iron.
The World Cup soccer game was on and five minutes after arriving England
scored a goal to break the tie. How cool was that. The waitress was
rooting for Norway because she had the hots for Erling Haaland a
Norwegian player.
That night I dined on some very good food. I had elk and bison skewers
with a trout entree stuffed with crab and shrimp. Perfect. I returned
to skiing last year after an 8 year absence and I did pretty well. I
could do better if I loose enough weight the bonus is to try heli-skiing
one more time.
In March 1986 I skied 175,000 feet of vertical in a week at Mike
Weigel's at Blue River BC in the Cariboo and Monashee mountains. It
would be fun to try a day trip again or snowcat skiing.
From 1986.
The asymmetrical track was mine so I had to buy the wine that night. I
was thinking about the shot rather than skiing. I used an early Canon
point and shoot film camera. The guys at the camera store were keenly
interested in the photo asking about the camera setting. I said it was a
point in shoot - the were stunned. The photo was displayed at the
camera shop in the mall for quite a few years. This is a low resolution
scan of the original image.
My apartment and my winter passion with evidence. Three years of ski
tickets, well almost. I had a night passes at Alpental out of Seattle.
Good vertical drop there.
End of Day Six.
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