Just Another Sunday Drive

Step 1. Point car down a random road and see where it goes.

Step 2. Enjoy the view. A Sunday drive seemed like a pretty nice way to get out of the house in a safe way. After a week where Butte had new snow almost every day, I think everyone here is looking forward to this week, where the temperatures are supposed to be warmer and the big sun ball is supposed to make an appearance, too.

Today’s drive took me across the Pipestone Pass. From town, this looks to be a really close route to trailheads for hiking. They are still covered in snow, but I did see a small handful of vehicle parked along the way. In the distance in the photo is the Tobacco Root range. Some day, I may live out that way. It is fun to imagine a daily mountain view.

Social Distancing, Part 3

It is pretty easy to find empty space in Idaho. Many times, that means heading off of the freeway, off of the state highways and byways, on down a gravel road.

I’ve never been a fan of using a GPS while exploring, via car, or especially on a motorcycle. The fewer gadgets the better. The abundance of gravel roads in Idaho was one of the main reasons I sought a smaller ADV motorcycle like my BMW G650GS. The bike is much lighter than many of the super-ADV liter+ bikes but runs well on a 50/50 tire, and can carry everything I need for longer trips in Touratech panniers.

So down the gravel roads I go. I this particular photo, what you can’t see from here is up this road a ways…are the Western side of the Tetons in Idaho. I spent a few days in this area rather than the much busier and more expensive Jackson area across Teton Pass in Wyoming. I had rented a small canvas walled cabin, stocked with a little stove for heat, and a nice front porch face a little stream. The favorite part of my visit was the hospitality of the local people. They checked me in, pointed to a path and said, “Your cabin is down that trail.” They offered the use of the fridge in the unlocked lodge, and then left to go home.

It was mid-week and clearly pre-season. There were no other guests at the 4 other disbursed cabins. Never saw another person for 2-1/2 days. Each evening I was stalked by local wildlife - in this case, a cat who clearly needed some company.

You don’t always luck into circumstances like these. In our current pandemic, I long for the remoteness of places like this.

Social Distancing, Part 2

One of the places with about as much distance between people (or cattle) as anywhere in the West is SE Oregon. It is a fun area to travel to and around. The landscape is very different from most of the rest of the Pacific Northwest. One of the most unique features of this area is the dry lake bed of the Alvord Desert.

Flanked on the West by the Steens Mountain, which has an elevation of 9,734 feet, this high desert area gets very little precipitation in the shadow of the mountain. Riding on the surface of the lake is a bit odd. It looks dry, but at least in May, there can be hidden mud and goo just below the white crust. It is hard to trust it as a riding surface.

So look up the Oregon Scenic Byway and the High Desert Discovery Route. You will be at least 6 feet, and maybe 6 miles away from anyone else.

Ode to the Road

If you think about the normal patterns of most people today, a large chuck of each day involves staring at an LCD, whether it be a smart phone, computer or TV screen. For me, a simple roadtrip offers an escape from that pattern. Staring off into the distance brings a certain peacefulness and a chance to reduce the noise and just breathe.

Door to door, GNP is about 300 miles from my house. I chose to use a bit of I-90 on the way towards Montana to shave some time. I quickly crossed into the Mountain Time Zone, and immediately lost that advantage. Oh well. Otherwise, the drive through the mountains of North Idaho and the NW corner of Montana offers many interesting routes. I had never driven through the Flathead Lake area, so I decided to give that a try. I also skirted alongside the Mission Mountain Range of the Rockies. Even the smaller ranges in Montana are impressive.

Since my timing was very near the end of the season for the park, I was hoping to see some vivid color changing of the leaves. That turned out to be an unfulfilled hope. Maybe I am jaded by too many blindingly bright seasons of color changes in Wisconsin. There were a few stray colors, but it seemed to be mostly the invasive trees at the edge of the forest, rather than any primary section of the forest.

The last time I visited the park, it was in mid-July and the weather was perfect. Still plenty of snow on the peaks and a perfectly blue sky. This time, not so much. A thick band of storm clouds settled in right on top of the park, hiding most of the view about 6000 feet. Visibility was about 25 feet on the road. With the huge cliff alongside the road, it was a bit un-nerving. Work crews had already been through adding 20 foot tall poles to the edges of the road to aid the snow removal crews in the Spring.

By the time I reached the bottom of the Road To The Sun, of course the sun was out, the rain had stopped, and the weather around Lake MacDonald was just fine. I had no intention of trying to wait it out and head back up the mountain. I figured I’d spend the rest of the evening seeing what Whitefish nightlife is like.

Central Oregon Loop

Call this the last gasp of summer. The weekend before Labor Day, timed with a burst of cool air from somewhere, made for a perfect 3-day getaway from Pullman. Getting to the Cascades is always a bit of a slog, but by taking an extra scenic route though the John Day Wilderness, hundreds of miles of mostly deserted mountain 2-lane twisties stretched out in front of me.

Sisters, Oregon is a nice little town to use as a home base for some mountain road touring. Plenty of restaurants and coffee shops in walking distance from an old school motel. A bit off the busy main road in town, which I think has just about reached capacity, at least on weekends. I'm sure the locals have figured out an alternate way around town.  The climate in this high desert area is pretty nice.  Even in August, the morning temperature was just 37°! It warmed right up by the time I was ready to ride, but the crispiness sure felt nice at the end of a hot, smokey summer.

Cabinet Mountain Weekend

I don't need much of an excuse to head for Western Montana. Not too far away, yet a world away in terms of scenery.