A Little Chunk of Big Sky

About a year or ago I joined a bunch of old codgers that meet informally the first Saturday of the month at Mac’s Cycle in Clarkston.  They are almost exclusively BMW riders and we even set up a Google Group Page called Macsbeemerbunch.  At any rate, rides are posted and some of us regularly get together for rides.  Last week I was invited on a Montana ride with four other riders. 

The plan was to ride to Lolo, MT, and then head south to Wisdom and the old ghost town of Bannack.  Since I was planning on coming back from my planned Wyoming trip that way next month I wasn’t particularly interested in a repeat.  However, the ride up the Lochsa River to Lolo is a fantastic ride and I was interested in checking off some of the Montana counties on my counties Geocache quest.  So my plan was to turn north at Lolo instead of south and loop back up through the Idaho panhandle and then down through eastern Washington.

We met at a service station in Lewiston Tuesday morning at 6:00 am and headed up highway 12.  It was a little chilly and by the time we got to Kamiah I couldn’t feel the fingers on my right hand.  Fortunately we stopped for gas there and I was able to warm up my hands on the engine.  We made one other stop on the way up before stopping at Lolo Pass for a regrouping and picture.  From there we rode on into Lolo and had lunch at a Taco Time.  Some old timer there asked if we some aged Hells Angels.

 

After lunch we separated and I headed north into Missoula.  It was only a couple of miles to the first cache which was a bucket promoting the library and you could exchange books.  The next one was the old Historic Fort Missoula in downtown Missoula.  It was located on Reserve Street which connects Highway 12 with Interstate 90.  It must be no more than 4 or 5 miles over to the Interstate and it took me at least 45 minutes to get there.  I haven’t been in traffic like that since last summer in Seattle.  Move a few feet, stop and wait, repeated over and over.  And, of course, it was midday and very hot.

I traveled northwest through Lake County making a couple of stops for caches there.  Next I turned south on the 135 Cutoff road connecting the Interstate to Glacier National Park.  This is a beautiful highway that lies alongside the Clark Fork River.  Even on beautiful back country highways like this one the speed limit is 70 mph in Montana.  I love it!  My destination was St. Regis and I picked up one cache along the way and made an unsuccessful attempt on another one.  I arrived in St. Regis around 4:00 pm and picked up another cache before going to my motel.

The Little River Motel was like a step back in time.  It was like what they used to call “Tourist Courts”.  There were two or three little cabins and a couple of three room units all kind of out in the woods.  It was located on a ¼ mile section of what was left of the old highway.  This old highway abutted up against the Interstate at an angle but there was no access.  I ate at the local Subway and afterwards at dusk I took a walk down that section of old highway toward town and I met a woman walking in the opposite direction.  She was visiting but had lived there 40 years ago.  She was remarking that everything had changed so much she didn’t know the area anymore.  She wanted to know where the Little River Motel was.  It was probably pretty nice and the only one there back in her day.  The pictures are of some of the neat carved figures on the grounds.  The room was clean but very small and extremely spartan.

I ate breakfast in the room and was on the road before 6:00 am.  I reversed my route the twenty or so miles back up the 135 Cutoff.  I had gone down that way to get Mineral County.  Now I was in Sanders County going west through Thompson Falls.  This is extremely scenic country and I stopped for 3 caches the other side of Thompson Falls.  There was a portable flashing sign on the shoulder of the highway saying there were “Bighorn sheep on the road”.  And indeed, I had to stop just before a cache to let a herd cross in front of me.

 

In order to get Lincoln County I took a 90 degree turn north on highway 56 up to Bull Lake.  I got three caches in that area before turning around and going back to highway 200.  I soon was back in Idaho and hit road construction all across the Panhandle to Sandpoint.  It wasn’t too bad, nothing like Missoula, and the scenery was gorgeous with Lake Pend d’ Oreille on my left.  I went through Sandpoint and continued west into Washington picking up a cache along the way.  I stopped for lunch at a convenience store where a cache was located.

Traffic through Spokane was slow and hot but again, nothing like Missoula.  I stayed on the main highway (195) until I got down to 271 which took me to the small communities of Garfield and Palouse.  Highway 271 is a nice  back road through wheat fields with little traffic.  It’s a fun motorcycle road.  I stopped in Garfield and took a break in the shade at the park.  I stopped for a cache in the middle of town but found that some workers were washing down a brick building in the vicinity of the cache.  One of the workers asked, “Are you looking for the Geocache?”  I told him I was and he pointed and said they had to move it over there while doing the work and was very apologetic.  They had just set it on a concrete block.  It didn’t bother me at all. 

I made two more stops for caches before reaching Pullman.  The last one I didn’t find which was disappointing because I had climbed some steep rocks with a 4 terrain rating looking for it.   I stopped for gas in Pullman and got compliments on my bike from some other bikers who were returning from an Oregon tour.  I was back home before 5:00 pm having traveled 715 miles.  After unpacking we took a refreshing swim in the river. 

Montana is a big sate with 56 counties so I don’t know when I’ll finish my quest for a Geocache in each county.  It will be the last state contiguous to Idaho that I will attempt.  Wyoming is next month and Utah hopefully next year.  M/W