Motocaching the Cowboy State - Final

Day 7

I was up again at 6:00 and it was COLD.  There was no breakfast served at Motel 6 so I decided to try McDonalds again.  At first I thought it wasn’t open but it was.  I was just the only one there.  I tried a fruit parfait which was good but not very substantial.  My route was to take Highway 278 northwest over to Wisdom which was about 60 miles.  This carried me over Badger Pass at 6,670 elevation and Big Hole Pass at 7,360 feet.  Did I mention that it was cold?  I had to stop twice to warm my hands on the engine.  Later at a service station stop in Wisdom I asked a local how cold it had been that morning.  He said, “Not too cold.  About 37 degrees.”  I told him that was plenty cold traveling on a motorcycle and I’m sure it was even colder going over those passes.

 

A few miles before Wisdom a truck was stopped on the road with the driver waving his arm out the window signaling for me to slow down.  I couldn’t figure why but I complied anyway.  That showed wisdom on my part because I soon encountered a herd of cattle on the road with a couple of cowboys pushing them along.  Yep, this is the wild west.

 

There were three caches in Wisdom which as you may have gathered is a small rural ranch town.  Ordinarily I wouldn’t have taken the time to try all these caches but I was stalling hoping it would soon warm up a bit.  The first cache was at a grass airstrip coming into town.  This cache was a first for me as it was hidden in a fully functioning outhouse.  But that’s not all.  The next cache was behind a church in town.  You guessed it.  It was also in an outhouse but a much classier one.  It was a two holer with a partition and separate entrances.  I suppose to separate the genders although I saw no markings.  The third cache was located in a park pavilion on the edge of town.  The pavilion was completely enclosed and I was a bit taken aback when I opened the door to find it occupied.  There were two persons curled up in sleeping bags with their bicycles parked inside along with their gear.  Dismayed but undaunted I tiptoed around one and grabbed the cache which was up near the rafters.  One of the sleepers stirred a bit as I was signing the log but I just acted like I supposed to be there and nonchalantly replaced the cache and left.  I won’t forget Wisdom for a while.

 

My strategy had worked as it had now warmed up just a bit as I continued west toward Lost Trail Pass on the Continental Divide which is also the Idaho-Montana border.  The pass summit is 7,264 feet and is a great motorcycle road.  I have ridden it a few time before and driven it even more.  There was a neat cache located on the downhill side which required a hike up a fairly steep hill.  I welcomed the opportunity to warm up a bit more and after logging this cache I wasn’t cold any more.

I proceeded north on Highway 93 and my only other cache was in a parking lot in Stephensville.  While I was parked there an older man came over and said he was glad to see someone of my age on a bike like that.  He obviously thought I was old but I didn’t correct him.  He had been a motorcyclist too and told me about his old bike.

At Lolo I turned west on Highway 12 went over the Lolo Pass and continued along the fabulous motorcycle route down the Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers through Idaho.  This was the reverse route I had taken a few weeks earlier on my Montana trip.  It was so smokey from the forest fires that you almost needed a mask.  However, one benefit of that condition was that there was very little traffic.  I stopped at the bridge leading into the Gateway Campground and had a sardine lunch.

I arrived at the house around 3:00 pm and I believe my mileage for that day was 413 miles.  Total mileage for the trip was a little over 2,700 miles.  It was a fantastic trip made especially special having Yancey along.  Next summer Utah is on the list.  

Pictures: Not relative to this day because I was too cold in the morning and it was too smokey in the afternoon.  1 - east of Yellowstone, 2- entering Grand Teton Natl Park, 3 - hot springs at Thermopolis, 4 - back of my helmet which Yancey says looks like a teddy bear.  Looks like a tiger to me.  That's all folks.  Thanks for following along.   M/W