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klb1122
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Day 6 - 8/01/2013 – Kalispell, MT to Pendleton, OR - 472 Miles
Day 6 – MAP LINK
We had breakfast at the hotel again before hitting the road. The forecast basically showed we would be in rain all day long. Luckily it wasn’t raining yet, but we suited up and prepared. From the hotel we took US 93 south to MT 82 and then south again on MT 35. MT 35 ran along the east side of Flathead Lake. It’s the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River in the contiguous United States. There was cherry farm after cherry farm along the road. I wanted to find a place to stop for some pictures, but I didn’t like any of the places we passed that had a lake view, so we kept moving on.
On the south side of the lake we joined back up with US 93 and soon after it began raining. We continued south on US 93 down to Missoula and ended up stopping for gas in Lolo, MT.
There were a bunch of these types of rigs up north. Every time I would see one, all I could think of is how much I love my motor.
A little over 30 miles later, we were entering yet another new state, Idaho. As you can see, the conditions still weren’t great. It was raining and we were trying to keep the fog on our face shields under control.
I knew this sign was coming up and that I wanted a picture of it. This isn’t the way I hoped to see it though, through a drizzle and with slick roads.
It was a great road with sweeper after sweeper, but the conditions were a bummer. I’m already slow, with twisty slick roads I’m even slower. But at the same time, if we didn’t keep a decent pace we were going to be riding until the sun went down. What the rain really did was kept me from stopping for pictures every 5 miles. We rode at least half of the road before there was a pocket in the rain and I was ready for a stretch. You can basically take the pictures below and imagine that for 100 miles, that was US 12 (Lolo Pass) through Idaho.
I took a few pictures of some passersby and then I made dad ride by for a picture.
We took off and it wasn’t far down the road that something caught my eye across the river. It was a bald eagle and what looked to be a few juveniles. It wasn’t raining at the time so I told dad I was going to turn around. Since they were across the river I thought I might have a shot at getting some pictures of them. We looped back and as we slowly pulled up the mature bald eagle took off and started flying down the river. We rode alongside it for about 200 yards before it flew up and landed in a tree. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. We found a spot to turn back around and the eagle too off again and this time I lost track of it. No pictures, but it will live in my memory bank forever.
Close to the Washington border we stopped for a break at Lewis-Clark Canoe Camp State Park. “These grounds have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Nez Perce people, but are best known as the place where the Lewis and Clark Corps Of Discovery worked with the Nez Perce to carve the canoes that took them to the Pacific Ocean in 1805.” After watching the canoe building show the other night, we now have some idea of the effort it may have taken to build those canoes. I peeled off my rain gear here hoping we had finally broken the rain.
Sniper shot of dad…
Coming into Lewiston, my GPS got confused and I ended up taking a wrong turn onto US 95 north. After getting back on track we ended up avoiding the town and crossing over into Washington on the north side of the Snake River. I missed the sign so we had to U-turn and come back to it. It wasn’t a great spot to stop. There wasn’t much of a shoulder and it was a pretty busy road.
I mentioned we had missed most of the town because we were now running low on gas and there weren’t any stations on our path. We stretched the gas out farther than I ever have to almost 240 miles before seeing a station in Pomeroy, WA. While we were here several combine harvesters rolled in to refuel. Those things were huge and not quiet.
A lady walking out of the store asked if we wanted a picture so dad handed her his camera and here’s the result.
I know Kansas is famous for wheat fields, but I really don’t recall seeing any as we traveled through there. The southeast corner of Washington, on the other hand, is nothing but wheat fields.
Wheat fields as far as dad could see…
There had to have been a Victory motorcycle rally in the area, there were tons of them on the roads around here. In Walla Walla we took WA 125 south and soon after we were at the border with Oregon.
The road turned into OR 11 and we finished off the day riding into Pendleton, OR. After we checked into the Best Western we walked over to Shari’s and had breakfast for dinner, since it was just like a Denny’s. We were able to get free pie for dinner for staying at the Best Western, but we were so full neither one of us took up the offer. Back at the hotel I relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before going back to the room and crashing out.
Day 6 – MAP LINK
We had breakfast at the hotel again before hitting the road. The forecast basically showed we would be in rain all day long. Luckily it wasn’t raining yet, but we suited up and prepared. From the hotel we took US 93 south to MT 82 and then south again on MT 35. MT 35 ran along the east side of Flathead Lake. It’s the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River in the contiguous United States. There was cherry farm after cherry farm along the road. I wanted to find a place to stop for some pictures, but I didn’t like any of the places we passed that had a lake view, so we kept moving on.
On the south side of the lake we joined back up with US 93 and soon after it began raining. We continued south on US 93 down to Missoula and ended up stopping for gas in Lolo, MT.
There were a bunch of these types of rigs up north. Every time I would see one, all I could think of is how much I love my motor.
A little over 30 miles later, we were entering yet another new state, Idaho. As you can see, the conditions still weren’t great. It was raining and we were trying to keep the fog on our face shields under control.
I knew this sign was coming up and that I wanted a picture of it. This isn’t the way I hoped to see it though, through a drizzle and with slick roads.
It was a great road with sweeper after sweeper, but the conditions were a bummer. I’m already slow, with twisty slick roads I’m even slower. But at the same time, if we didn’t keep a decent pace we were going to be riding until the sun went down. What the rain really did was kept me from stopping for pictures every 5 miles. We rode at least half of the road before there was a pocket in the rain and I was ready for a stretch. You can basically take the pictures below and imagine that for 100 miles, that was US 12 (Lolo Pass) through Idaho.
I took a few pictures of some passersby and then I made dad ride by for a picture.
We took off and it wasn’t far down the road that something caught my eye across the river. It was a bald eagle and what looked to be a few juveniles. It wasn’t raining at the time so I told dad I was going to turn around. Since they were across the river I thought I might have a shot at getting some pictures of them. We looped back and as we slowly pulled up the mature bald eagle took off and started flying down the river. We rode alongside it for about 200 yards before it flew up and landed in a tree. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. We found a spot to turn back around and the eagle too off again and this time I lost track of it. No pictures, but it will live in my memory bank forever.
Close to the Washington border we stopped for a break at Lewis-Clark Canoe Camp State Park. “These grounds have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Nez Perce people, but are best known as the place where the Lewis and Clark Corps Of Discovery worked with the Nez Perce to carve the canoes that took them to the Pacific Ocean in 1805.” After watching the canoe building show the other night, we now have some idea of the effort it may have taken to build those canoes. I peeled off my rain gear here hoping we had finally broken the rain.
Sniper shot of dad…
Coming into Lewiston, my GPS got confused and I ended up taking a wrong turn onto US 95 north. After getting back on track we ended up avoiding the town and crossing over into Washington on the north side of the Snake River. I missed the sign so we had to U-turn and come back to it. It wasn’t a great spot to stop. There wasn’t much of a shoulder and it was a pretty busy road.
I mentioned we had missed most of the town because we were now running low on gas and there weren’t any stations on our path. We stretched the gas out farther than I ever have to almost 240 miles before seeing a station in Pomeroy, WA. While we were here several combine harvesters rolled in to refuel. Those things were huge and not quiet.
A lady walking out of the store asked if we wanted a picture so dad handed her his camera and here’s the result.
I know Kansas is famous for wheat fields, but I really don’t recall seeing any as we traveled through there. The southeast corner of Washington, on the other hand, is nothing but wheat fields.
Wheat fields as far as dad could see…
There had to have been a Victory motorcycle rally in the area, there were tons of them on the roads around here. In Walla Walla we took WA 125 south and soon after we were at the border with Oregon.
The road turned into OR 11 and we finished off the day riding into Pendleton, OR. After we checked into the Best Western we walked over to Shari’s and had breakfast for dinner, since it was just like a Denny’s. We were able to get free pie for dinner for staying at the Best Western, but we were so full neither one of us took up the offer. Back at the hotel I relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before going back to the room and crashing out.
I wouldn't be alive right now! 
