There comes a time...

[Cagiva 549]

That gardener Denver compressor is gas powered , the light colored thing hanging on the side of the motor is the magneto for the spark plugs . But some of those old motors were dual fuel and start on gas then run on diesel

 

[Elder Rogue]

"One of three original surviving buildings from the early 1860s. Apparently, the town burned to the ground three different times!" At least they saved the Saloon, got have your priorities straight.

 

[LicketySplit]

This is such a great report! I really love that area. Do you have any plans to visit ****'s Canyon and Joseph?

 

[Tourmeister]

Day eighteen, part two

I let Sarah go ahead so I could shoot the pics and video

Cool houses, small and VERY large, abound in the mountains around here!

The dirt road eventually dumps us out on the Banks-Loman Highway, which is a delightful highway. We run this all the way to Lowman at ID 21

Nice place for a break in the shade. Gas if you need it, not cheap. Right at the intersection of ID 55 and ID 21

Nice tables in the shade, much appreciated!

Kirkham Hotsprings on ID 21 just East of Lowman. It is huge!

There are trails of water all over the side of the mountain making their way down to the river

Views like these abound!

 

[Tourmeister]

Day eighteen, part three

Scenic spot for a vault toilet. It was quite convenient ID 21 somewhere between Lowman and Stanley

LOTS of burned areas along this highway!

Stanley is a cool town right where ID 21 meets ID 75. We went East on ID 75 along the Salmon river to Challis. It is an incredible ride!

The colors of the rock formation on the right didn't really come out the way they looked in the sun. There was a lot of green and yellow in it.

Getting closer to Challis, ID. The look of the mountains changes constantly.

Right where 75 hits US 93, there is a little gas station, 7C. Lisa and Sarah cook great food at VERY reasonable prices!

Sarah and Daniel sporting their favorite piece of riding gear, the heated jackets!

This was posted on the sign as we rolled into the campground. If Beth were with us, we'd probably be looking for a new place to stay! The camp host said they've seen three of them back when it was still warm. It was NOT warm the night we were there!

Cool mountain right at the entrance to the campground.

My spot

The kids spot, just on the other side of the bushes from me so they can't hear my snoring... too much

Those buildings on the left are where the pool fed by the hotspring is located. It closed at 9:00pm. We arrived at 8:30pm and had to set the tents up pretty quick before it got dark. There was not enough time to enjoy the hot spring before they closed it and drained it

We went walking down on the banks of the Salmon River. Daniel spotted this on a rock near the water

Long exposure after dark with the phone as the moon was coming up behind the mountains

The moon was behind me lighting up the far bank. It was well after sunset when I took this shot.

That is the moon coming up, not the sun.

LOTS of rocks along the edges of the river!

I fired up some hand warmers to preheat my sleeping bag, and then went to work on getting everything charged, videos and pics uploaded, etc,... Sometime around 11:30pm I finally crawled into the sleeping back and called it a night.

 

[Tourmeister]

Day nineteen, Thursday, August 31st

Challis, ID., to Elk Horn Hot Springs, MT., via the Lemhi Pass at the Idaho and Montana border.

It was a cold night in the tents, but a beautiful morning! As soon as the sun cleared the tops of the mountains it warmed up quickly! The tents were wet on the inside because of condensation from our breathing. Fortunately, there were picnic tables and fence rails where we could lay out the rain flys to dry in the sunlight while we packed up everything, leaving the tents for last. We got a bit of a late start, which seems to have become the norm Ideally, we'd all be getting up around 7:15am or so and be on the bikes by 9:00am. It hasn't really been working out that way.. Daniel is good about getting up because he is one of those annoying morning people. Sarah and I are more of the night owl type, so not as quick to rise and get moving in the mornings. Still, we roll out around 10:00am or so and hit the road. The plan for the day was to run up to Salmon, ID., then head South to Tendon, ID., and run Lemhi Pass over into Montana and eventually end the day at the Elk Horn Hotsprings and have a nice dinner at the lodge followed by some good soaking!

The run up to Salmon was very nice. It was just more miles of wonderful curvy road following the river winding through mountains. At Salmon we headed South on ID 28 to Tendoy, basically an intersection with a ranger station at the start of Agency Road that leads to the pass. ID 28 is basically boring and straight, running down between two mountain ranges. After turning off, the road started out wide and graded, but soon we reached a sign letting us know the road would be narrow and primitive. I let Daniel go ahead and I followed Sarah. The road basically became a two track gravel road that was quite twisty with a lot of elevation changes as it headed toward the base of the mountains forming the Idaho and Montana border. I have been preaching the Deep and Wide approach to cornering non-stop on this trip and it paid off great for Sarah when she met a car mid corner. She had time to see it, not panic, and get as far right as she could so they could get past her. After that, we never saw anyone else. I stopped to take a few pics and she got a bit ahead of me. We had been been having communicator issues and we lost contact just before a fairly long technical section where I'd normally be talking Sarah through the lines to ride. I eventually caught up to her and she had stopped at a level spot to do a head check and clear her mind. I made sure she was good and she said it freaked her out a bit but she got through it without any problems. Somewhere along the way we had passed Daniel. He stopped to get pics of us as we rode past him. We waited a few minutes for him to catch up and he got the communicators sorted by putting an external battery on hers. Then we started to really climb. I was leading the way and it got quite technical. It was quite narrow. Meeting anyone coming down would have been sketchy at best. It got quite steep. There were washboards, large embedded rocks, erosion ruts from water running down the road, tight corners with serious drop off exposure, and freaking EPIC views! Sarah was doing great, chugging along behind me with Daniel bring up the rear.

And then it happened...

I HAD to stop and take some pictures!!

Sarah just kept right on chugging and I told Daniel to follow her. I got my shots and then took off to catch them. It got even steeper right near the top, but it was at least a bit smoother, although there was more loose gravel. When I arrived Daniel was waiting to shoot a video of me coming up and Sarah was already parked with her helmet and jacket off. She was remarkably composed and in good spirits. I gave her a big hug and high five. I told her I was very impressed with her ability to crush the fear of heights and get the job done. It wasn't easy, especially on a bike loaded down like ours were! Daniel just ran up it like a freaking mountain goat. We messed around, took pics, and then set about getting down the far side. Daniel led the way. I did not realize it at first, but he went the wrong way. There are several roads leading away from the pass and it was not until I had gone a few hundred feet and looked at the GPS that I realized what had happened. By then they were both out of communicator range I knew Sarah would NOT be happy about having to do a U-turn! Before I could go chasing down after them, Daniel came chugging back up the hill without Sarah. That always induces a moment of panic for me... But she came up a minute later. The road just ran down to a campground and it had a nice spot to turn around, so I did the same thing and rejoined them at the summit. We then continued down the correct road. This road was MUCH nicer than the one on the Idaho side. It was wide and well maintained. There were very few switchbacks and then it just ran out the valley below. While riding this, Sarah actually admitted that the climb up had been fun even though slightly terrifying. We struggled to keep Daniel in sight. The last bit of the pass was wide and mostly flat, so I took off after Daniel and had some fun. We reached MT 324 and ran that East to Bannock Bench Road, which heads due North. This was about 15 or so miles of a mix of sand and pretty chunky gravel. I was running about 40 mph and asked Sarah if this was a good speed for her. She actually asked me to speed up a bit! I think she is finally starting to get the feel for the stability of the bike with speed versus trying to go slow and feeling out of control. Daniel was GONE! He later claimed he was only running about 45mph... We hopped on MT 278 and ran that a short way to the Pioneer Scenic Byway and continued North. This was a really fun road. I missed the sign for the Elk Horn Hot Springs and we blew right past it, but the road was super twisty and the pavement was excellent. At the top of the mountain we finally realized what happened, made a U-turn, and headed right back down the mountain. Everyone really enjoyed this stretch of riding!

At the Lodge I went inside to check in for a tent site only to find out that the lodge itself, and the restaurant, was closed because of a plumbing issue. So no dinner! The nearest food and gas was at least 30 miles North and we were tired and ready to be off the bikes! Daniel wanted to make the run, but we talked him out of it. We got the tents set up and headed down to the hot spring pools. They had a little bar area inside the bathhouse that had drinks and snacks, so we could at least load up on junk food. Later in the evening they sold pizza by the slice and Daniel and Sarah had some of that. We spent a few hours soaking and visiting with people from all over, local and far off. Then we headed up to the camp site so Daniel could build a campfire. He got a really sweet one going and then it got quite cold as the sunlight faded. We enjoyed the fire for an hour or so and then called it a night. When leaving Challis this morning I bought the entire box hand warmers that was on the shelf at the 7C store. We split them up among us and headed to our sleeping bags. It was a superb day of riding. Daniel had a total blast. Even Sarah admitted that after the fact, it was indeed fun. Rsquared and I have had quite a few adventures that involved what we called Retroactive Fun. It's "fun" that is a bit traumatic and terrifying while it is happening and then after some time passes and the trauma aspect fades, the "fun" part tends to be all that remains of the memory. Sometimes it takes longer than others to close the gap between the actual experience and the time where you recall it as being fun! Sarah is getting a taste of that

The local Chipmunks and Magpies apparently had a heated debate in that tree on the right as the sun was coming up!

You can see the steam rising from the hot spring

Drying out the tent rain fly

The actual hot spring pool where the water comes out of the ground before it is feed into the swimming pool where you actually soak

The hot springs water is mixed with well water to regulate the temperature in the swimming pool

The pool bottom is lots of smooth river rocks of about the same size

I think some mom hung this up back in the 80s and no one ever came back to claim it

Daniel loves old trucks, so we always have to visit with the owners when we see then and get the chance. We spotted this one at the 7C store when getting breakfast. It had several hundred thousand miles on it and the owner said he never had to do anything to it other than regular maintenance. Not sure of the year, but pre RAM branding.

Anti-theft devices, super friendly looking but they went wild when I got within about five feet of the truck Good doggies!

The river running North toward Salmon

The bridge in the distance was closed permanently

I know newer concrete bridges last longer, are stronger, and require less maintenance, but they also are just so BLAH... The metal bridges are just cool! Maybe it is just all those truss load calcs I had to do back in my engineering Mecahanical Statics class...

Herading toward the climb up to Lehmi Pass, before the road got much more narrow

Still nice, wide and smooth

Starting to get a little more narrow and steeper

Looking West back into Idaho from about 3/4 of the way to the top

Once it starts climbing, it is a pretty long climb! Looking back the way we've been coming up.

She did it! Daniel doesn't understand why it's a big deal that she made it because to him it was all super easy. This doesn't bother her at all

At the top! I think there is a camp area or something further up that road behind the bikes, we didn't explore it.

Looking back down the way we just came from the Idaho side

Looking down the Montana side as I realize the kids just went the wrong way!

The source of the hot spring for the Elk Horn campground

My campsite from when I first came up here in 2013. The rock made for a good place to set stuff outside my tent.

We are on the left. Finding level spots was difficult as they don't have actual "sites". It's more of a pitch it where you like approach.

At least my sleep mat was level

Daniel was not impressed with the existing fire ring, so he had to make a new one

Sarah's site. The hot spring pool and bath house is just back down the road where those cars are parked

"cool" pool on the left, hot on the right, and sauna inside the bathhouse

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Rsquared and I have had quite a few adventures that involved what we called Retroactive Fun. Sarah is getting a taste of that

I don't know where I read it at but it has always stuck. For me it is Type 1 fun and Type 2 fun. Type 2, is exactly what you call Retroactive Fun. For me for some reason, that is the type of fun that I tend to seek out.

 

[Tourmeister]

Day twenty, Friday, September 1st

Elk Horn Springs, MT., to Missoula, MT.

We left Elk Horn Springs and headed North on the Pioneer Scenic Byway. It is super twisty and fun pavement up and over the mountains, but it is open range and we did meet cows in the road several times! We were worried about gas being available in the next town, Wise River. I stop a lot to take pics and the kids usually kept going whenever they saw me stop. When done getting my pictures, I would take off after them. If I ever took too long, they would usually pull over somewhere convenient and wait for me. Apparently, I took too long today and they pulled over to wait. I eventually caught and passed them but kept going. I then stopped a few minutes later at a nice spot to get video of them as they came through a long sweeper. I waited... and waited... and waited... About the time I was going to get back on my bike and head back to check on them, Daniel came around the corner and started slowing down. I motion for him to keep going but he kept slowing. He and Sarah did pass, but the video was worthless because he slowed so much. I could not talk to him because the communicators weren't working... again When he got back to me, he was kind of agitated and I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me. I didn't see anything obviously wrong with either of them so I told him to chill out and start from the beginning. It would seem that he took a nature break while they were waiting for me and while turning his bike around to leave he clipped a rock with the front tire and dropped the bike on its right side. The same rock hit the side of the exhaust canister and pulled the pipe off the header and bent the mounting bracket at the passenger footage. He had a small Rok Strap holding the canister so he could ride the bike. While he is telling me all this he is also quite excited to know if I noticed how awesome his bike sounded as he went by So he and Sarah pulled off behind me into a little turn around area and we busted out the tools to make repairs. The pipe slid back over the end of the header pipe after we loosened the clamp and we were able to bend the bracket mostly back into place so nothing would impact the swing arm. After maybe 10 minutes we were back on the road.

We were worried a bit about gas because we were all down to under 50 miles left on the tanks. Wise River should be in range, but whether or not they would have gas wasn't a 100% deal. We rolled into "town" and found a little general store with an old pump out front. 87 only. It was the old pump where you remove the nozzle from the side and flip the lever down, pumping first and then paying inside. 11 gallons among us at $55 total, and we were happy to have paid it! We milled around inside for a while warming up and grabbing drinks and snacks. I noticed a small video camera pointing at the back side of the gas pump. This was one of the old pumps with where the numbers are on a rotary indicator rather than being digital. It was even pump first, then pay inside. I asked about the camera and the lady behind the counter said they had to install it so they could see how much gas people were getting. Apparently, some people were lying about how much they pumped So now they have a little screen next to the register where they can see the pump face on the video feed. A sad commentary on some folks... Anyway, after a nice break we got back on the bikes and ran MT 43 West along the Big Hole River. At Mill Creek Road (MT 589) we headed North between the Beaverhead NF and Deerlodge NF. This road was paved but did not appear to be well maintained and was quite rough in some places. That was fine though at is was quite scenic and fun! As we approached MT 1 and the town of Anaconda, I spotted this huge black tower off to our left up in the mountains. There wasn't much around it to give any clue what it might be. Curious...

The weather had improved at it was getting a bit warm in direct sunlight. We stopped in Anaconda to shed layers and take another break. While there I asked about the big tower, which is known as the Anaconda Smoke Stack. As I suspected, it was used in mining operations early in the 1900s and was now just an inactive landmark from a bygone era. We were standing outside the gas station when several cool old vehicles pulled into the parking lot, a neat old car and cool old truck. We grabbed our pics and got back on the road. We continued West on MT 1 to Philipsburg past Georgetown Lake. The road got quite fun and scenic just beyond the lake. We headed West out of Philipsburg on MT 348, a fun but rough paved road. This eventually turned into Upper Rock Creek Road. This was unpaved and had a wide variety of surfaces. We encountered a large moose standing in the middle of the road drinking from a large puddle. You don’t realize how big they are until you are close to one!! I crept up and gently revved my engine and it nonchalantly walked off into the undergrowth, leaving us to continue unmolested. The rest of the road was amazing. There was a short but rough, narrow, and steep climb followed by a descent of the same nature. Both kids rode it very well! Then it was just miles of incredible scenery and TONS of nasty potholes! I had originally planned to run Schwartz Creek Road and Miller Creek Road over Holloman Saddle to Lolo, but we were tired and hungry. so we just headed to I-90 so we could run that over to Missoula.

The run up I-90 did not take too long. The kids saw a sign for Cracker Barrel as we were coming into town and it was decided that was where we were going to eat dinner. Fortunately, it was right across the road from a Best Western. I went inside and asked about a room only to find out they had ONE left at $280!! It turns out that the first home football game of the season for the local university was tomorrow night so all the hotels in town had jacked up their rates and they were full! I checked some places down in Lolo and they were no better. It was decided we would bite the bullet and just stay here for the night. I was a very nice hotel and had a fantastic hot tub!! We pigged out at Cracker Barrel, had a good soaking, and then went to bed. It was a great day. Both kids really enjoyed Rock Creek Road, even the tough parts. Sarah's confidence was finally starting to come back up to where it should be given her actual ability. It was fun to watch her work at overcoming her fears. It was also fun watching Daniel explore his limits and also choosing to be helpful when Sarah needed help simply because she either lacked the physical strength she needed or lacked the ability to get through something without some help. Despite all the issues we'd had over the last few weeks, spirits were high and we were still having a blast. We did some much needed laundry and I stayed up late planning the next day's route that would likely just get ignored and changed on the fly as had happened every day since Day one. The plan for tomorrow was to make the run Southwest on Hwy 12 from Lolo, MT., to Kooskia, ID.

Very cool and beautiful morning

Cow pie factories were everywhere!

They all just stared at me and drooled... What a life...

Waiting to shoot a video of Daniel and Sarah zipping past me...

We pulled over back in a clearing behind that sign to work on Daniel's bike

We had to bend the mounting bracket at the passenger footpeg and really tighten the clamp at the bottom of the canister to keep it from wobbling around

Good as new? It was bent in so far that the rear brake caliper was hitting the backside of the pipe. Bending the mounting bracket fixed that.

Sign on the wall inside the store. Sarah has the first down pretty well but is still working on the 2nd and 3rd.

See the camera behind the pump?

Typical of the views heading to Anaconda

The road to Anaconda got narrow and rough, but really fun! We all really enjoyed it!

The Anaconda Smoke Stack there on the right in the background. It is HUGE but far away. I got it in the shot by accident. It was used for copper smelting way back in the day...

1971 or 2? I can't recall what he said. Couple hundred thousand miles on it. Daily driver.

Coming down the mountains just past Georgetown Lake heading to Philipsburg

At Philipsburg we headed West. I've been up this way before with Rsquared. The road was in much better condition back then (2013 I think).

In the South, Cotton is King. Up here, it is hay!! This is only a small collection compared to what we have been seeing all over the place!

Near the start of the Upper Rock Creek Road.

Across the road from a food truck out in the middle of nowhere, which apparently caters to all the people that come out here to fly fish.

The road surface and terrain change a lot over the length of this road!

Daniel came around a corner to see this standing in the middle of the road...

Eventually the road started to narrow and got a little more rough and rocky. I was following Sarah here and Daniel was behind me. I was close enough to coach her as she started what looked like a climb to some kind of pass. It was not long, but it was challenging and she just rolled right through it! The top was a tight U-turn and the whole surface was off camber to the inside. Thinking she might have a problem turning that tight while up high and kind of exposed, I just rolled up and told her to stop and we'd do a mental reset. I had to do a 5 point turn to get my bike facing the right way. Daniel pulled up behind us and helped Sarah get turned the right way. I then went down the descent first and reported back what it was like. Still kind of rough and steep, but no tight corners and not too long.

Looking back up the hill, most of which is out of sight in the trees.

Both kids got down the hill fine. There was a cool truck at the bottom, obviously a tanker truck for fighting fires, and there are quite a few burning in the area. We've seen signs for fire camps and have smelled them even though the smoke hasn't been too bad yet. After this little pass, the road levels out for the most part and just follows the creek/river all the way to I-90.

I could have taken a few hundred shots just like this on the road. The latter stretch of the road got back into the woods with lots of campgrounds. There were a ton of people camping and fishing all along the river, so there was a good bit of traffic on the road. For the last part, Daniel was usually leading and I was following Sarah. This stretch had a TON of horrible pot holes and it seemed to take forever to get through it all before we finally made it to I-90 and made the decision to just head for Missoula and call it a day.

 

[Tourmeister]

Day twenty one, Saturday, September 2nd

Missoula to Kooskia via the Lolo Motorway...?

Today was supposed to be another short-ish day, only 150 miles or so and all paved. I had tried to buy new communicators last night from Amazon and they were showing they'd be available by Sunday evening. So I thought I would order them last night (Friday), have them delivered to this same Best Western here in Missoula, we'd make the run to Kooskia on the paved road today (Saturday), and then make the dirt run on the Lolo Trail Corridor back to Missoula (Sunday), pick up the communicators and be on our way. Brilliant plan! Except that when I put in the hotel address for the shipping, the delivery time went from Sunday to Friday a week later... So... no new communicators. Before we could get on the road and get out of town, we had to make an unscheduled stop at a nearby Lowe's so Daniel could look for a bolt to replace one that had gone missing from one of his auxiliary light mounting brackets. That went amazingly quick and we were soon rolling down US 93 towards Lolo. Once in Lolo, we turned West on US 12, the Lolo Motorway. This ran along Lolo Creek back up into the mountains, getting progressively twistier as we went. It did not take long before we arrived at the Lolo Motorway Visitor Center at the state line between Montana and Idaho. I decided to stop in to see if I could get current information about the Lolo Trail Corridor, the dirt route just North and roughly parallel to the highway which is the route taken by Lewis and Clark on their expedition.

Inside the visitor center was a nice museum with info about the surrounding geography and of course the stories about the local Indians and their interactions with Lewis and Clark. We spent some time checking that out and it was nicely done. I talked with a Forest Ranger and asked her about the trail corridor. She basically said it had just been redone and was in very good condition, but the roads we'd have to take to get up to it were in pretty rough shape. I asked if she had ever been up there, even in a pickup, and she said no. That kind of blew my mind! How could she work here and supposedly be the expert on the subject and never go see it when it was so close to here!? She didn't really even seem interested in seeing it. Just a job I guess... Anyway, at this point I had pretty much made the decision that we would not be going back to Lolo tomorrow via the trail corridor. Instead, we would just press North from Kooskia and try to intersect one of the routes I had planned before we left for this whole trip. If we could hit that, we would actually be back on the original route and even mostly back on schedule! I thanked the ranger for her help and we headed outside. There was some kind of display thing going on and I thought it might be interesting to see what it was. It turned out to be a husband and wife that had a display setup to show people what life for the average settler might have been like back in the day. They were dressed in period clothing. She was knitting and had various house making type things on display that she LOVED to talk about. He couldn't get in a word even when he tried. He had a small blacksmithing operation setup behind her and was making touristy souvenir type stuff for people to buy. I tried to get him talking about his setup, but he wasn't real chatty even when given the chance. So we headed back to the bikes and got back on the road.

US 12 was just a really nice ride. There was a good bit of traffic but there were also places where people could pull out to let us pass and enough places where we could pass that it wasn't a big issue. It's not that we wanted to be going real fast. It's just a LOT more fun to be riding without traffic right in front of you, constantly riding their brakes through corners or slowing down to enjoy the scenery. Parts of the road had been recently repaved and were really nice. Other parts were being worked on in preparation for being repaved. In particular they had been replacing culverts that ran under the road from interior corners on the uphill side of the road to the outside of the corners on the downhill side of the road. They had to dig up the pavement to replace these and then they had shoveled asphalt over the dirt to "patch" the road. These were ALL pretty much at or near the tightest part of the corner where we would normally be at maximum lean angle on the bikes, the time when you want your available traction to be at its best, not the worst! The result was that we got a LOT of practice diving into the corners, standing the bike upright just as we hit the patch, then laying it back over to complete the corner. This is actually a very important skill to have for times of emergency avoidance mid corner, so I really didn't mind. They didn't last forever. Sarah even said she didn't mind them much, but there was this one... Apparently, it got in her head and she scared herself by running a bit wide, but she got it under control and made the corner anyway. It was always easier to hear about these kinds of experiences when she was standing in front of me telling me about them herself when I could see that she was fine. Daniel loved them.

Somewhere alone the way I pulled over into a rest area beside the Lochsa River near Fish Creek Road. Sarah was REALLY liking the riding this day and had been spending most of the day behind us with her communicator turned off so she could just enjoy the ride. I made sure not to get so far ahead that we'd lose track of her. She did have her own GPS loaded with all our routes. Daniel and I would have some fun then ease up and/or pull over to wait for her. However, most of the time we did not end up waiting more than a minute or two. She was really finding her rhythm. I did spend some time following her and noticed that she was really doing a much better job of going deep and wide into corners and holding her line around the corners, being nice and smooth. Daniel was doing really well with his lines. Most of the time when we were having a little fun, he was glued to me, following every line through every corner and being very smooth as well. Smooth makes me happy! So we waited a few minutes and she soon rolled into the parking lot. We took some pictures and wandered down by the river. It was a neat spot.

A few more miles down the road from the rest stop we came upon a line of cool old trucks. We had to stop and take pictures. They were obviously lined up neatly, as to be displayed, and they had been there a long time. There were all kinds of weeds and vines growing up around and in them. Sarah waited patiently while Daniel and I walked around looking at all of them and getting our pictures. Not long after this we rolled into Kooskia looking for gas and food. It was around 2:00pm and we had not had any lunch yet. We stopped at a little gas station to fill up and I ended up visiting with a couple that were traveling on cruisers with their dog. We could all smell something that smelled REALLY good, but were never able to figure out where it was coming from. After topping off the bikes we found our way to the main drag and found the Kooskia Cafe. The food was good, but like so many places on this trip, they weren't cheap. It seemed like getting something as simple as a BLT or grilled cheese sandwich for under $10 was impossible! And I am not talking about the whole meal with a drink, I mean just the cost of the sandwich itself. Anyway, everyone was happy with the food. It was still early and I suggested that we head North to Orifino to see if we could get a room there. Kooskia is not a big place and it looked like Orifino would have more options.

Rather than get back on US 12 to head North, we crossed over the South Fork Clearwater River to pickup Ridgewood Drive. It ran along the West side of the Clearwater River up to the town of Kamiah. This was a really fun road. It was paved and basically a single lane road with no cutting or filling anywhere. It just followed the natural shape of the terrain and was VERY steep and tight in places! There were a lot of blind corners and hills, so we did have to watch for traffic. It wasn't very long, but it was a nice side road! Once we reached Kamiah, we got back on US 12. This just hugged the West bank of the river, having crossed it at Kamiah. It was very scenic and had loads of nice fast sweepers with minimal traffic.

Orifino was a bust. EVERYTHING was booked because of the Labor Day weekend. There were a few places to camp, but they were the super crowded types of campgrounds. We moved on, heading to Lewiston because it was the nearest large town. Being a larger town, we figured they'd at least have enough hotels that perhaps everything would not be booked. So it was another 35-40 miles of cool river road riding. As we started getting closer to Lewiston, it started getting much hotter and our elevation dropped significantly, down to under 1000 feet. As we rolled into town a familiar smell brought back childhood memories of visiting my grandparents in Pasadena, Tx., paper mills. As kids we called it Stinkadena. We always knew we were getting close to being there when we could detect that smell. It was much the same in this case. It was also now in the 90s, so that reminded me of Texas as well! We stopped so I could do a quick hotel search and we turned up a Holiday Inn Express. It was perched up high above the town on a bluff overlooking the Clearwater River and much of the town. They had rooms available and they were remodeling. The room was very nice. They did NOT have a hot tub! After unpacking, we walked down to a nearby Wendy's to get dinner only to find out they close their lobby at 8:00pm because they are so short handed It was 8:05pm but someone forgot to lock the doors. They did at least let us get food to go. We enjoyed our dinner sitting on a big rock wall not far from the hotel looking out over the city below. The hotel had a cool deck off the breakfast area where I was able to sit outside and enjoy the incredibly nice evening while working on ride reports and trying to make plans for tomorrow until late in the evening!

Sarah ready for a nice relaxing day of riding twisty pavement through epic scenery

Daniel ready to ride whatever ends up in front of him

But first he has to stop by a Lowes to get a replacement bolt for one that went missing yesterday

At the Montana/Idaho border there is a Ranger station with a cool museum center and they were doing some kind of live thing. The lady did ALL the talking and the guy just did his blacksmith thing. He was a man of few words even when addressed directly.

Very nice and very knowledgeable lady

Cool air pump to replace large and hard to transport billows. The ball on the opposite side of the handle is to balance the handle and provide an inertial mass so that once you get it spinning, it will keep spinning for longer to provide air.

Much of the road had brand new black top pavement that was incredibly nice to ride!

Imagine nearly 150 miles of this...

He can't resist getting in front of the camera

And she can't seem to keep her eyes open

About 15 miles or so before we reached Kooskia, I spotted a long line of old trucks. This has been a theme for the whole trip because both kids and I think the old trucks are just cool looking and they are EVERYWHERE out in this area. So had to pull over and take pics!

The RAM motif for Dodge trucks has been around a long time

Some of those trucks were REALLY tied down with blackberry vines! They were kind of sour. Whoever owns these obviously lined them up with some thought to showing them off to people driving past on the highway, so it makes me wonder why they would let it get so over grown?

Across from the truck was an apple tree FULL of apples!!

The couple we met in Kooskia. She was riding her own bike and he had the dog. They were from Wyoming. This was the first trip with the pooch. Pooch wasn't real sure what to think about the experience!

Had a really good, if slightly expensive, lunch here.

It was still early in the day and Kooskia really didn't have much in the way of hotels. So we decided to head up ID 12 to Orifino and see if we might find a place to camp or a hotel. The ride was just more crazy nice river road scenery.

 

[Irishcoffee]

Five weeks cooped up in the house since back surgery, this thread is a HUGE inspiration for a future explore if I heal as hoped. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

 

[leeroy]

Glacier NP on your list?

 

[LaserDave]

Believe it or not, I have done a laser show in Anaconda. I remember two things about it.
The "main drag" of businesses on each side of the street were small bars every third door.
The old theatre's idea of 3-phase power, was a single phase disconnect, and get another hot leg from a different source. Not! They ordered a generator, and eventually a semi trailer pulled up behind the theatre, and inside was an un-muffled D9 CAT engine and a generator. 3 phase of NOT quartz-locked power, and was the LOUDEST thing ever!!! Even blasting music in the theatre, the genny was still the loudest sound. The people didn't seem to care.

I also had friends that lived for a couple years in Orofino, as he is a Army COE hydro dam operator. They called it Horridfino and quickly went back to the tri-cities. They had a cool house on the side of a mountain that was making them sick. They later found out it had been a major meth lab for a few years. Guess the realtor forgot to tell them that little detail.

 

[Irishcoffee]

Typical realtor.

 

[Tourmeister]

Glacier NP on your list?

Yes, sometime in the next few days.

 

[leeroy]

We are in East Glacier until Sept 14

 

[DFW_Warrior]

We are in East Glacier until Sept 14

Not to thread hijack this, but what is the trick to actually getting a spot to stay up there? We looked for RV spots but man, I think it might be easier to win the lotto.

 

[leeroy]

Make reservations in October for the following September. Not a guarantee.

 

[CrosbyDave]

Thanks for taking us along, what an incredible journey!

 

[Tourmeister]

Day Twenty two, Sunday, September 3rd

Lewiston to Saint Maries?

My original plan was to stay in Kooskia and then run the unpaved Trail Corridor, the original trail Lewis and Clark used, to head back up toward Missoula. Being in Lewiston, that was way too much back tracking. So instead we headed North thinking we'd get a room at Saint Maries, drop our luggage in the room, then ride East out of town on the St. Joe River Road until we got tired of it and then just double back to the hotel and call it a day. The climb out of the valley at Lewiston on US 95 was cool, gaining altitude quickly, nearly 2000 feet by the time we got to the top and things sort of leveled out! It was hot in Lewiston but cooled fast once we got up on top of the plateau North of the city. The terrain changed from rugged rocky mountains to gentle looking rolling hills covered with wheat, barley and hay. It was harvest time so many of the hills were covered in wavy lines that followed the contours of the hills and made circles around rock features or groups of trees. It looked like a giant Japanese rock garden. We turned off on the Old Hwy 95 at Genesee and ran that through the country side. It was just more of the same on a fun twisty road!

Soon after we turned off Old Hwy 95 onto the Genesee Troy Road, another little Texas FM style road. At ID 8 we turned East and ran into Troy. We stopped for gas and a snack. I spoke with a young guy that had a tricked out CRF 150. He was heading out to ride with his buddies. We had a lady that looked to be in her late 70s stop and check out my bike for quite a while before coming over to speak to us. She was a Harley rider wayyyy back in the day, even building several bikes on her own. She and a friend traveled quite a bit on their bikes and had great adventures. Talking about bikes really seemed to put a spark in her eyes. After saying goodbye we continued on ID 8 to Deary and picked up ID 9, heading back to the NW until we hit ID 6. This was all nice farmland and very pretty. The ride was also nice with very little traffic. We ran 6 up through the St. Joe NF and it became the White Pine Scenic Byway. This stretch of the highway was super nice and fun. The trees were huge, the forest kind of dark and ominous, and the road very twisty! We stopped at a campground to use the restroom and ended up taking an extended break. We were at the Giant Pine Recreation Site. We were actually at the entrance to a campground and there were hiking trails nearby that wandered off into the woods. We did some exploring without going very far. It seems these particular pine trees would get VERY big, at least compared to those I have ever seen in any other states. One of them had been felled and the trail was cut right through the remaining trunk. It had been the record holder for size. I had Sarah stand next to the trunk for scale and took her picture. We wandered around for maybe 15 minutes or so then got moving again. A few miles up the road it started getting fun and twisty as it dropped down into a valley that brought us to the Saint Maries River. The curves were still damp and the pavement cold from last night so we had to be sensible with our speed. It was still really fun though! ID 3 ran basically North through really hilly terrain, just rolling up and down back and forth like a roller coaster all the way to Saint Maries.

Upon reaching St. Marie, it was immediately obvious that getting a place to stay here would be iffy, at best... There was some kind of massive Labor Day thing going on, the streets were packed, parking lots were packed, every hotel in town was packed, camp grounds were packed... I guess I should have expected something like this. We stopped after driving the length of town and I called hotels in Coeur d'Alene. I found a Best Western and they had ONE room left, so I booked it. This was becoming a regular thing! We hopped back on ID 3 and ran up to I-90. It was a really nice ride, but we had to run it at 50-55mph because there was a truck pulling an RV going quite slow. The line behind him was quite long, and passing places were far and few between. Alone, I might have worked my way through it, but with the kids, I opted to just chill and enjoy the nice scenery. When we hit I-90, it was game on, at least for some of us. A state trooper got on right in front of us and immediately pulled the truck with the RV over to the side, reason unknown. But we got past that and took off. I don't usually use the words interstate and fun in the same sentence, but this time would be an exception! For a freeway, it was quite twisty and fun! Also, the scenery was cool! We did hit a bit of one lane 55mph boringness through some construction, but other than that it was fun. We rolled into town, found the hotel, and got checked in. It was a really nice Best Western. It had a nice bar and grill on site. The rooms were nice. We hadn't really eaten all day and were hungry, so we found a nearby Cracker Barrel and got dinner. Then we enjoyed a slow walk back to the hotel to finish unpacking the bikes.

While we were unloading the bikes a BUNCH of firefighters started showing up in the parking lot and congregating under the covered entrance area. These were forest service fire fighters. There had been numerous fires burning in the areas where we had been riding. We could smell it when we were in Lewiston, but we never saw any concentrated smoke and it never really seemed to be enough to make our views hazy. There had to be 50 or 60 guys, all in great shape and maybe 20-25 years old. Sarah was feeling a bit conspicuous standing around in motorcycle gear and being a girl because they were all noticing her It seemed that the hotel had made a booking error and put them all in single queen rooms instead of double queen rooms. Needless to say, these manly men did NOT want to share a bed with their buddy! The last thing I heard as I was walking past the front desk was the manager telling the clerks to find every trundle bed they could find to put in the rooms. I wondered how they would decide who got the nice queen bed versus the not so comfy trundle bed? While we were in the room unpacking Sarah mentioned that she wanted to go back down to the lobby area to buy one of the T-shirts they had there. I said, "You mean the ones with the fire fighters in them??" She blushed and denied it all. Daniel almost died from laughing. Coeur D'Alene wasn't too far off my originally planned route from before the trip started that had us stopping in Saint Maries. If we ran East on US 90 in the morning, we could get back on the route. So that is what we settled on. The only issue was the weather. It had been raining quite a bit in the area and was expected to rain through the night. We did not want to get into any mud and I had no idea whether or not the planned route was paved or dirt. As was usual, Sarah started pre-stressing about it before we knew anything definite. I promised her we would stick to pavement and would turn around if it became dirt. I spent a little time uploading images and videos, and then we were off to bed.

Lots and lots of gentle rolling hills and fun curves!

Rest stop in the Great Pines Recreation Area, I think most of the really big ones are all gone now.

The story on the tree in the picture above with Sarah. Tallest? Thickest? Oldest?

The bark on these pine trees is very different than that on the pine trees in East Texas

This is on the climb to the summit before we hit the twisty fun stuff

BRAND NEW blacktop on the Northside of the summit!!

They let us put the bikes up front under the breezeway, which was nice, because they were on camera there and also because it was expected to start raining around 8:00pm. We couldn't have the rain washing off all the dirt we had worked so hard to accumulate!

We got an Uber to a nearby Cracker Barrel and stuffed our selves. Daniel needed a new hat...

This was in our room. Weed is legal in Montana?

The rains came as expected...

Way too late we finally went to bed. Another great, but slightly short, day of riding!

 

[LicketySplit]

You are killing me. I think I may just quit my job and ride up there.

 

[William Wolfen]

You are killing me. I think I may just quit my job and ride up there.

Very tempting, isn't it?

 

[Irishcoffee]

As I read this thread I am thinking of several close friends and clients who have had very unfortunate experiences with their children in the age range of Sarah and Daniel. Not everyone rides motorcycles but having some experience with their parent in any activity like this would have such a positive impact I firmly believe their lives would have been totally changed. I also believe it could have changed the outcome of many marriages if a couple could do something like this tying them together. Obviously I am blown away by this thread, thanks Tourmeister and God Bless!

 

[LaserDave]

Is there a more enjoyable and positive thread here? I doubt it! I wonder if they can hear us cheering?

 

[Tourmeister]

Day twenty three, Monday, September 4th

Coeur D'Alene, ID., to Libby, MT.

It rained pretty good last night and it was COLD in the morning. My plan was to head over Thompson Pass, which is North of I-90, but I had no idea what this road would be like, paved or dirt? If dirt, will it be mud? With few other route options available that get us moving back to the East, I decided to just ride out and see what we'd find. We got bundled up and headed out of town at a reasonable 10:00am The run out of town on I-90 was a lot of fun until we got to the single lane construction. There was still a heavy overcast and the clouds were clinging to the trees in an attempt to keep from being blown away to reveal the blue skies above. We eventually reached the exit for Coeur d'Alene River road and headed into the mountains. I could really tell it was the end of a holiday weekend because the RVs were pouring down out of the mountain like a fast flowing stream! The road was paved and fun, twisting and flowing with the river.

We eventually reached a sign for Thompson Pass and turned off the river road. Much to my delight, and no doubt Sarah's, the road continued to be well paved. Daniel might not have been so thrilled about it. But it was still a really fun road! Not far from the pass the clouds were starting to engulf the trees. There would be no epic views from the top. At the pass the clouds blocked all views so I didn't even bother stopping. We crossed back into Montana as we crested the summit.The run down the East side of the pass was fast and flowing with lots of big sweepers. We stopped in Thompson Falls for gas and lunch. There was a club of trike riders with perhaps 20+ trikes, many pulling trailers. Nice folks! We visited with quite a few folks here as this seemed to be a popular stopping spot for gas and food. When were done we headed Northwest up Hwy 200. It was mostly straight with some slight curves but at least had pretty scenery. Things got more fun when we turned North on 56 and started following the Bull River up into the mountains to Bull Lake. This eventually hit US 2 at the Kootenai River. Here we turned East toward Libby, our destination. Just before town I spotted a sign for the Kootenai Falls and whipped into the parking lot. It was early and we had some time to kill, and being spontaneous was supposed to be part of what this trip was about... So we parked the bikes and headed over to see what's what. Well, the deal was that there was a LOT of walking up and down steep paths! The views were worth it, but it was work!!

It was getting warm, especially after we started walking. I had a bottle of Gatorade but it did not last long. Fortunately, I did have my backpack bladder full of cold water. We decided to visit the swinging bridge and not the actual falls. That would just be too much walking! It was quite the hike to get to it. We had to cross some railroad tracks via a walkway bridge that had several flights of stairs on the downhill end. The "floor" of the stairs was just steel grating and we could see right through it. Sarah was not real wild about this as we were up quite high. Even after crossing this, we still had a good hike to get to the bridge. There were a good number of folks hanging around the start of the bridge when we arrived. It was not real wide, so getting by other people took some cooperation. It took VERY little moving to really get it swaying! Just a normal walking pace would get it swinging back and forth without even trying to make it swing. Also, the wind was really blowing up the valley quickly because there was a storm off to the West pushing the air up the valley. Daniel led the way and I followed. Sarah took a bit longer to get across, having stopped about midway to take in the experience. She did eventually make it to the far side to join us. After taking pics we headed back. The walk back was even warmer and took longer. I had to take a few short breaks along the way to hydrate and catch my breath. I don't do much hiking... Getting back up those stairs at the train bridge was real fun... NOT. A bench or five might have been nice We eventually made it back up to the top where there was a little store that sold food, souvenirs and ice cream! Go ahead and guess what we got

Yeah, not a tough guess. While eating ice cream I called a hotel in town and got a room. It was the Venture Inn. It was a cool place, slightly old, but still nice with a really cool lobby and nice on site restaurant with good food. The owner has been organizing and hosting a wood carving contest for the last seven years. The next contest was this coming weekend. All around the outside of the hotel and in the lobby there were pieces from past competitions, most of which were for sale. While checking out some of the pieces outside, Daniel and I got to visiting with one of the competitors. I was impressed by the pieces he had in the back of his truck. Daniel was impressed with the truck! It was a nice older F-350. We eventually decided to head inside and see about dinner at the restaurant.

We had a really good dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. Sarah headed back to the room and Daniel and I headed for the hot tub. There were folks already there speaking in German, one of which was the guy I mentioned above. Two were from Hungary and two were from Germany. Eventually we were joined by a guy from Wales and another from Ireland. There were also people coming from Argentina and somewhere in Africa. There was a dude from Wisconsin as well representing the homies. It was a really cool time just hanging out with these people and talking about life, chasing dreams, work ethic, etc,... We eventually had to clear out of the pool area at 10:00pm. I put in some time working on ride reports and such. I got to talking to Daniel about how we'd been on the road for six straight days and I was tired. He was too. I knew Sarah was as well. We decided to take tomorrow off and make it a rest day. So I headed out to the front desk to reserve the room for another night, then took a shower and went to bed.

Heading into the mountains North of I-90

It is hard to see here, but there are a few houses up there in the clouds.

Climbing up to the pass

Getting up into the clouds and it is getting COLD.

Taking a break in Thompson Falls and visiting with a lot of other riders

The Kootenai River on US 2 near the Kootenai Falls

Smart enough to leave her jacket back at the bike... Is that a bear back there climbing up those rocks?! Sasquatch after a little skinny dipping?

There are people over there on that beach. I don't want to know how cold that water might be!?

If only we were on dirt bikes...

There are stay cables on both sides, but they aren't very tight... It was REAL easy to get the bridge swinging pretty good!

Maybe 36" between the sides?

Nerd stuff...

View from the bridge

No fear of heights!

Doing it, but not loving it

Cool rock formation at the start of the bridge on the starting side.

This is how we got over the train tracks and down the trails. Now we have to go back up, They REALLY need benches at each platform on the way up!! Sarah did not like that the steps and decking were all made from extruded metal that you could see through.

And finally... the reward for all that hard work and sweating!!

I like to traumatize my kids occasionally, so I took this and texted it to Sarah In hindsight, I now realize I should have been in a bathroom somewhere holding my phone up in front of a mirror when I do these kinds of shots It is so hard trying to stay hip...

Chain saw art around the inside and outside of the hotel lobby in Libby, MT.

Back side

Front side

$12K for this dude

Libby is called the City of Eagles, so there are a LOT of eagle statues, sculptures, carvings, and paintings all over town

Front side

Back side

A Floral Interlude...

We met the guy that did these. Daniel LOVED his 1996 F350. He was from Czechoslovakia originally but has been in Washington state for 16 years and does this for a living. Very nice guy.

Cool clouds coming in from the West, eventually got a sprinkle but no rain.

 

[Tracker]

Thanks for sharing. Great pics.
If you're like me, you stare and stare and stare and take countless pics that just never quite capture the majesty and beauty of it all.