Day 9 (9/14/11)

Well as you can see I was not able to do a part 2 to the blog for yesterday. Actually, there was not much to tell other than that I had to change my route a little due to the heavy smoke coming from the Bitterroot mountains. My planned route would have taken me into the thick of the smoke although the roads from what I could find out were still open. Rather than risk going into pretty remote country and dealing with the smoke, I headed north up a huge long desolate valley after leaving the west gate of Yellowstone. I eventually hit I-90 and headed west to Missoula, MT. An added benefit of the change is that it put me closer to Lolo Pass and Clearwater River which was on the schedule for today. Missoula is home of the University of Montana. They are going to be hosting a home football game on Saturday with Eastern Washington, but nobody in town seemed to know much about it, or for that matter, care. It is the polar opposite of State College, PA where everyone there knows who is coming to town and is talking football. This is a whole different world out here. I guess out in these states, horse shows and rodeo's are more what the locals follow. I asked a local couple what it costs in tuition room and board for an in-state student to go to U or Montana. They said about $3,000. Wow, what a difference from back east where Penn State has to be up around $17,000. This morning I left Missoula and headed west on U.S. Rt 12. This route goes up over Lolo Pass which is where the Lewis and Clark expedition built their log canoes after the portage from Great Falls, MT and navigated the rivers to the Pacific. I have been through Lolo pass before and I would have to classify it at one of my "happy places". Meaning I could live here. Unfortunately, Adele would not buy into it for a minute. Oh well, pass through and enjoy it for a day. It is remote, but the scenery is stunning. Large pine trees lining a beautiful river valley for over 150 miles. There is almost no traffic on the road and the sweeping turns are rythmic. Riding them at a moderate 60 mph is like a 150 mile long downhill ski run, if you can image that. I could ride this road over and over. Pictures just don't do it justice. The cool mountain air, the smell of pine trees and the quiet hum of a motorcycle doing what it was made to do. It does not get much better than that. I have ridden close to 300,000 miles on a motorcycle all over the country and this stretch of road is at the top of my list. Nothing I have ever ridden in the east including the highly touted Deals Gap and Cherahoala Skyway come close in my book. It you ever get out this way, you have to drive it. At one point I came upon a group of about 20 AC Cobra sports cars cruising along. I am pretty sure none were original Cobra's, as I think the going price now is about $500,000 for a real one. The replicar versions are somewhat less, but very collectable none the less. The owners were having a great time. The throaty roar of their big V8 Ford engines sounded very cool in the crisp cold mountain air. They were polite and allowed me to pass and move on. Motorcycles handle these turns far better than sport cars from that vintage. Maybe they just wanted to save gas, who knows. :-) In any event I continued to follow Rte 12 all the way to my current destination in Walla Walla, WA. The scenery changed dramatically when I came down out of the mountains and turned to large hills covered with wheat fields, as far as the eye could see. The hills are so steep in places that it is hard to believe that a tractor would not overturn trying to plant and harvest the crop. Eastern Washington is very arid and it looks like it has not rained for a long time out here. You can see why grass fires in this area are to be feared when they are driven by winds. There is nothing buy dry straw as far as the eye can see. I did see one huge tractor working on the side of a steep hill. I did not get his picture, but it was one of those tractors with tracks instead of wheels. I guess this is what is required to work this kind of steem terrain. Well, I had better either find a spot to camp for the night or possibly travel on another one hundred miles or so. If I do that, it will make tomorrow's ride that much shorter and allow me more time to linger at Crater Lake in Oregon. I hope you enjoy the pictures from today.