Forth and back TOR '19

[RBMann]

Originally Posted by Droptarotter

Leopard print flip flops? WTF??
Great pics RB.......even has maps!

Cheers

Yes and the shorts I gave him after I found them on the side of a road in California last year.

[RBMann]

Day 7-Libby to Seeley Lake, MT 245 miles



While sitting in the motel we questioned if it was worth the 200 extra miles side trip on boring Hwy 2 to see Kootenai Falls. Well since check out was 11:00am we decided to get up early go see the falls then come back and pack. Wow! just Wow! The falls were amazing and so worth it-









Some intrusive German tourist kept getting in my shots-

[RBMann]

Day 7 cont.-













The Kootenai Falls truly exceeded expectations and did I mention there is a suspension bridge also. Well two really, the old one which Ralf bounced around and the newer safer one that was not done yet-

[RBMann]

Day 7 cont. 2-

After the falls it was time to ride back to motel and pack. ATGATT-



At dinner last night a couple of cross-country bicyclist told us about a backroad route to Whitefish instead of retracing Hwy 2. I thought it was going to be about 80 miles of fire road but instead just very enjoyable old logging roads with about 15 miles of dirt-













South of Kalispell I looked in my mirror to see my belongings escaping from the top box. Ralf waited while I backtracked three miles to our gas stop, collecting items along the way.

My phone’s battery had swollen in Canada and popped the screen loose so Ralf decided to one up me and tossed his off the bike at 60 MPH, somewhere north of Seeley Lake. This time I waited while he backtracked. About 1.5 hrs. later he reappeared. He found the case in the road and after 20 minutes found the phone in the weeds. The screen was shattered but it still mostly worked. After finding four campground full and sensing Ralf was in the dumps I offered to get us a motel room in Seeley Lake where we had stayed a couple years ago. I got lucky, they had tent camping and showers too. Saved me about $120 so we got cleaned up and went out for BBQ dinner. Amazing what a shower and meal can do for your spirits.

[RBMann]

Day 8-Seeley Lake to Elkhorn Hot Springs, MT 195 miles



The morning started out nice as we headed south-



In the nice old town of Philipsburg, MT we stopped for lunch. Ralf was trying out his new impish school-boy look-



Just as we were ready to leave the bakery, the skies open and it rained, I mean really rained with thunder and lightening too. The hardship of being stuck at a bakery is difficult to express-



Just as quickly as it started it was gone and so were we. Our route dodged between the rain clouds the rest of the afternoon-







We made it to Elkhorn Hot Springs where we set up camp before the rain finally caught up with us-

[Chris Canning]

Keep e’m coming not too sure on the shorts...... but a small price to pay

[RBMann]

Day 9-Elkhorn to Colter Bay CG, WY 266 miles



Ah, raisin bran in the morning smells like victory. They had a breakfast buffet at the lodge included in our camp fee-



Our first stop of the morning was Bannack State Park a historic ghost town-











Running south from Bannack and parallel to the Continetal Divide is Medicine Lodge Rd. For a number of years I wondered what the terrain would be like on its 80 mile route to Idaho. Turns out is just a nice smooth dirt road through the open high country-

[RBMann]

Day 9 cont.-





On the southern end where it crosses a stream(no pics), the Continental Divide and Bannack Pass it becomes a little more technical but I didn’t get any photos that show it-



Fresh smooth pavement near Liddy Hot Springs, ID on Hwy 22-



We had a few freeway miles to cross over to Ashton-Flagg Ranch Rd. that runs east between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Things warmed up in Idaho and we had used our cooling vests but as we started climbing it cooled off then looked like rain ahead-

[RBMann]

Day 9 cont.-

When we popped out on Hwy 191 just north of Jackson Lake the rain had stayed west of the mountains and the view of the Snake River was a treat-





We managed to get a camp site, showers and dinner at Colter Bay then watched the sunset over the Tetons. A good end to an enjoyable day-

[RBMann]

Day 10- Colter Bay to Big Sandy Reservoir, WY 247 miles



Another nice sunny morning as we scooted east on Hwy 26 toward Dubois, WY and Union Pass-





Excuse me sir, what are you doing over there?-





I have been over Union Pass before but our goal today was Green River Lakes. Ralf stopped me at one point and said his GPS indicated we should have turn left at the last junction. The GPS doesn’t know a nice forest road from an ATV trail and our first sign was a group in a side-by-side asking if we knew where we were going. I only have one photo but it doesn’t show how bad it got. There was a point where I hoped we could get out at the bottom since I don’t think I could ride back up the way had rode down. After lots of thrashing around and cursing we made it. No one got hurt, no one fell over and I only got the Arica Twin high centered once in an erosion ditch-

[RBMann]

Day 10 cont.2-

Green River Lakes are in a beautiful fjord like setting but when we got there it was just starting to rain and not so beautiful. We decided not to camp and halled ash 18 miles back to pavement-



When we took a break for gas and food in Farson, WY the woman told us there was free camping at the Big Sandy Reservoir, sold! Nice setting and Ralf had time to do some homework-



The only other campers were a father and his two sons tent camping in a Tesla S. Nice views as the sun started setting-



Mostly nice views of the sunset. Funny how one person can ruin a view when they get in front of you to take their picture-

[wswartzwel]

You and Ralf make a great traveling team. Perhaps some go pro's, and you two could become Utube sensations traveling around on the motor bikes.

[signit98]

Well, the GoPro WAS in action and I have about 6 hours of video I don't really know what to do with... working on it.
And yes, Bill... WE DO. We have immense amounts of fun, share a curiosity that constantly leads us into trouble (Quote: "See, Ralfy, this is exactly the $hit I swore I would not get into this year") and pick each other up, when needed.
With our shared knowledge of places and areas and our network of friends to draw from, we have one amazing trip after another...
My only regret? Not having started earlier.

[ckcarr]

Good thing I bought that 27" monitor!

[RBMann]

Originally Posted by wswartzwel

You and Ralf make a great traveling team. Perhaps some go pro's, and you two could become Utube sensations traveling around on the motor bikes.

Yes, we do. The biggest problem is a couple days after getting home I am ready to start the next trip.

My current dilemma is 2020 will be my 50th year of motorcycle trips. It seems like I should do something special but this year was probably as good as it gets. Time is the key factor for me. No more I want to do 10 states in three days or daily mileage goals. My #1 goal is to enjoy what I am doing.

This year I figured it would be 6-7 days to get home from TOR. Instead we went to see CK, spent a day in Moab, I went two days riding farther south with Ralf and I found some cool stuff on the way home. 6-7 turned into 13 days by the time I got home. Time and flexibility in schedule is what works for me.

[RBMann]

Originally Posted by ckcarr

Good thing I bought that 27" monitor!

Did I go too big? I thought it was the same size as the last couple year but it looks like I unintentionally bumped it up.

[RBMann]

Day 11-Big Sandy to Sheep Mt., CO 299 miles



Dawn was sunny and bright again. There were swallow’s nest in the eves of the shelter and when you walked toward them hundreds of swallows would take flight-





We tried to take part of the Oregon/California Trail but it turned to sand and we had to backtrack about 5 miles-





Ralfie sniffing the sagebrush-



We ended up using Oregon Buttes Road to cross The Big Empty from South Pass to Table Rock on I-80. The Big Empty is a basin the Continental Divide circles and the only place in the US where water does not drain to either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans-



And why it is called The Big Empty-

[RBMann]

Day 11 cont.-

Many hours later we arrived at Lake Marie on Hwy 133 near the WY/CO border. I had only seen pictures of the area a couple months before we left and we decided to include it on our ride. At 10,000’ the view is magnificent and exceeded all our expectations-

















However the campground was still under a couple feet of snow in mid-July so we continued east. In Centennial we had dinner and a woman told us of a campground at Sheep Mt. but she was very concerned by a recent bear attack. I read her Forest Service bulletin and they were 30 miles away in the opposite direction. So another beautiful free campground with a great view-

[RBMann]

Day 12-Sheep Mt. to Deckers, CO 242 miles



Considering how many times we saw rain, the mornings were usually sunny-



Nice road south from Sheep Mt. that became Co. Rd. 103 in Colorado-



Just before Chambers Lake where we would join Hwy 14, I hit a rock and jammed a rib somehow. A couple minutes later I was distracted by the pain and coming over a blind rise almost drove into the lake-



Hwy 14 over to Fort Collins is a good road. Fort Collins was our most expensive town after I bought a new phone, Ralf got a new tire and we had very pleasant lunch-



We both had GPS issues near Black Hawk. No routing, no maps, no signal what? It only lasted about 15 minutes but we did managed to find Lone Rock Campground down by Deckers-

[ckcarr]

Originally Posted by RBMann

Did I go too big? I thought it was the same size as the last couple year but it looks like I unintentionally bumped it up.

Perfectly fine!
Don't change them. Landscapes should be BIG!

"It's the Journey, not the Destination..."