Today was the last big-mile day for a long time and the last day of the sprint west. I got up around 6am to temps in the 40s, so despite having almost everything packed before 7am I took my time to wrap up, drink an extra cup of coffee, and let the day warm up a bit. Around 8:30 temps were in the 50s and I decided that was good enough.
The morning through Yellowstone to the West Entrance (for my exit) was definitely faster than the previous day. I still wasn’t up for crowds, and knowing that I’ll eventually be back with Tori I decided to skip all of the popular geothermal features in the west half of the park. I did snag a few photos in quiet spots, but didn’t linger for long. Even still I wasn’t out of the part until after 10am.
The border with Montana is right outside of Yellowstone, and the state started off strong with Earthquake Lake which was formed by an earthquake-caused landslide in 1959. After descending down into the main basin of MT, though, this quickly took a turn for the boring and most of the day was high speed highway riding.
Unlike WY, whose geography seemed to last forever then change on a dime, changes to the geography in MT seemed to sneak up on you. You see snow-capped peaks in the distance and the landscape slowly changes until you’re in them without realizing it. For the most part I followed Google Maps today instead of my originally-planned route to make sure I made it to my accommodations in time to check in, but Google and Garmin mostly agreed accept for a couple of dirt bypasses I’d selected.
I did go through yet another Sheridan in Montana — I swear every one of these states has a town named Sheridan and a town named Platte.
Eventually I came across one of my planned dirt roads that cut the corner of the highway I was on and decided to take it — I was ahead of schedule and I didn’t want to make this trip about schedules, anyway. The road started off as a ranch access road and I had a close-encounter with a calf that decided that in front of the motorcycle was the best place to run away from it.
The road slowly meandered its way into the mountains and at which point it quickly became interesting. The road became increasingly tighter (though still smooth and well-groomed) until I got a “Welcome to Idaho” notification from my phone after cresting a long hill climb. Then the road became even tighter as it slalomed and switchbacked its way down into the valley floor. I was definitely glad for the Norden’s off-road chops and low center of gravity — while the DRZ would have made short work of this road, I would have been white-knuckling the Tiger the whole way down.
Eventually I reached the valley floor and it was a quick 10-minute ride into the Lodge. I parked up next to a fence because the main lot was steep with loose gravel, at which point a bridesmaid from a wedding that hadn’t started yet asked me to move — apparently a sweaty motorcyclists and dirty adventure bikes didn’t fit with their theme. I let her know that I was just checking my email for details on how to pick up my key and that I wouldn’t be in any shots.
The yurt I booked was baking, but there were fans running and I had plenty of space to air out some of my base layers while I transferred videos and got myself cleaned up. There was no restaurant, but the nearby general store had frozen microwave meals and home-made ice cream, which felt just about right for the trip so far.
Finishing the sprint west feels like a huge accomplishment for the trip and is, literally and figuratively, a major turning point. From here I’ll be following the spine of the Rockies North / Northwest basically until I’m on the Dempster, other than the week I head across the Central BC Plateau and up the Coastal Mountains until they’re re-united with the Rockies in The Yukon.