Williston is very near the border so I was soon in Montana after my usual early motel breakfast. It was overcast and threatening rain this morning as I traveled west on Highway 200. In fact, it had rained a bit the night before. The first cache of the morning was at a small cemetery and again the mosquitoes were so bad that the only gear I removed was one glove. I stopped for about a dozen caches that day and found all but two.
As I pulled into a
gas station/convenience store in Circle, MT, a work van I had recently passed
pulled ahead of me in the parking lot and the driver got out and walked back to
me. He was an avid motorcyclist about 60
years old and was interested in my bike and began telling me about his and some
of his trips. Besides getting gas my
reason for stopping here was that there was a geocache beneath the foot of a
big dinosaur in a lot next to the store.
I took my new friend over with me and he found his first geocache. He owned a business that serviced boilers
stationed out of Great Falls. He gave me his card and invited me to stay
with him the next time I was in Great
Falls. Those Montana folks are about
as friendly as the Canadians. |
| Red Granery - a DNF |
Rather than
traveling directly to Great Falls from Lewistown on Highway 87 I opted to take
Highway 80 which loops north up to Fort Benton.
I had traveled 87 on a previous trip so I welcomed the chance to use a
new route. It was a fun motorcycle road
to travel and I stopped in Ft Benton to get a couple of caches and some
gas. It had gotten quite hot by this
time. I did get on 87 here which goes
southwest to Great Falls. I got behind a couple of cars that wanted to
go fast so I enjoyed the trip behind the cop shield.
I had booked
reservations at the Quality Inn in Great
Falls which turned out to be downtown. However, I couldn’t find it. The Econolodge was where my GPS said the
Quality Inn should be. I stopped nearby
and asked someone and was told that the Econolodge was the Quality
Inn. The motel was run by Japanese
Americans and when I mentioned that I hadn’t seen their sign they said it was
hard to see because of the trees. Later
I went out and looked and the only thing the trees partially obscured was the
Econolodge sign. They totally ignored
the fact that obviously this had very recently been the Econolodge. The only thing that said Quality Inn was the
bill. They also had my reservation for
the following night. Nevertheless I did
get a ground floor on the end of the building but it was apparently too far
from the network server to get WIFI. Otherwise the accommodations were fine.
As usual, after
checking in I went out to get some nearby caches. In the process I found a fantastic place to
eat about 3 blocks from the motel. It
was called The Pizza Baron and I had a grilled chicken/bacon foldover which was
out of this world. I was also able to
eat out on the sidewalk which was very pleasant.
I got my usual
early start after breakfast and headed southwest on Highway 200 toward Missoula. As you get closer to Missoula the highway becomes more twisty and
hilly, great for motorcycling. I stopped
for several caches along the way but the best was in a tube under a bridge
across a beautiful river. It was called Blackfoot Garden.
As I was returning
to my bike parked on the road shoulder from a cache out in the woods I noticed
the back tire looked a little flat. Upon
inspection I saw it was worn down to the steel belt and had only 10 pounds of
pressure. I had just checked the
pressure the night before and added a couple pounds of air bringing them up to
40 psi. When a motorcycle tire loses
pressure the rubber will disappear very quickly on the highway. I couldn’t find a nail in it so I got out my
little electric pump and put it back up to 40 psi. Fortunately I was only about 10 miles out of Missoula. I cautiously got back on the road at a
considerably slower speed. I soon merged
onto the Interstate where I immediately hit road construction. It was the first time in my life I was glad
to be in road construction. The speed
was slowed to 45 mph for some distance which suited me just fine.
About the first
business I saw when I turned on to Reserve
Avenue (the busiest street in Montana)
in Missoula was
a Triumph motorcycle shop. Unfortunately
the cheapest tire they had in my size cost $230. I normally buy a complete set on sale for
less than $200. One of the salesmen gave
me the phone numbers of a couple other shops which I called. I found a tire for $135 at a Honda/Yamaha
shop between Missoula
and Lolo which was right on my way. It
was during the lunch hour and they were short handed but they agreed to lend me
tools so I could remove the wheel myself.
I did have one embarrassing incident.
As I was maneuvering my bike between another bike and a piece of
machinery I totally forgot about my saddle bags which stick out like a pregnant
cow. One of the bags hit the piece of
machinery and down I went. It was my
first spill on that bike but no damage was done to it or me.
 |
| Historic Lochsa Ranger Station |
With the exception
of being very hot the ride down the Lochsa
River was very nice. As the tire problem had thrown me a couple of
hours behind schedule I only stopped for a couple of geocaches. One was the Historic Lochsa Ranger Station
which was pretty neat. I stopped for gas
in Kamiah and it was 97 degrees. I got
home before 5:00 p.m. having traveled 2,609 miles in 6 days (435 miles/day
average) and logging 59 geocaches in 4 provinces, 4 states and 3 time zones. It was a very pleasant trip, tire problem not
withstanding. M/W
2 comments:
That old Lochsa station is cool. Back in the early '40's, while he was just out of high school and before he went in the service, my dad manned a lookout, Mocus Point, on the Lochsa district. Beautiful country. If you'd like a little history, try this link. My dad is referenced part way down on the paragraphs. http://idaholookouts.weebly.com/mocus-point.html
Thanks for the link. We'll check it out.
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