Passes & Canyons Blog

Day 3 broke cloudy and cooler and was much more bearable. First off, however, JC needed an oil change for his new Slingshot at 600 miles to Yuki had picked up the oil and filter and made an appointment to have it done in Rexburg. He met JC at 7 a.m. and led him over there–and hour away–while the rest of us slept in. Then we got on the road and met JC and Yuki in Ashton. Yuki, you’re a good man.

U.S. 20 took us north until it started bending east toward West Yellowstone, at which point we turned west and north on Idaho 87. That brought us to U.S. 287 and lunch time found us in Ennis, Montana, where it became necessary to make a stop at Willie’s Distillery. You will recall, of course, that Willie–our Willie–was the organizer of this trip. And we had lunch, too.

From Ennis we needed to get to Butte, and the best, most direct route would have been on Montana 359, but Jungle was so focused on the cars in front of him slowing to make the turn onto that road that he did not see the signs and so we blew on past. Judy and I noted this and presumed he had not been confident that this small road was paved all the way and had decided to go a little further to catch Montana 2 to join I-90 at Cardwell. When Jungle, who we later learned was still looking for 359, got to the left-right option at Montana 2 and turned right–the wrong way–I ran up close on his rear flashing my brights but he just kept on going.

Truth be told, there was nowhere at all on this little two-lane with no shoulder at all where we could have pulled over or safely gotten four bikes and two Slingshots turned around. So I settled in behind him knowing highway 2 would also hit I-90 at Three Forks Junction, just adding 25 miles to our ride. This, of course, on top of the extra 10 miles added by not turning onto 359.

Interstate 90 west to Butte was brutal but we finally reached exit 208 to Anaconda, where we were supposed to have met Terry, who had gone ahead in her Porsche (and had not missed the turns). Of course she was not still waiting; we had called her and told her we would be late.

We were now on Montana 1 headed to our day’s destination, Philipsburg. But our hassles weren’t over. We came upon road work and waited awhile in what was now about the hottest sun we’d encountered all day and once we got going we found we were facing nearly 15 miles of fresh chip seal. As in mucho, mucho loose gravel and absolutely no way to avoid it. But passing through some beautiful country on a very twisty road. I strongly recommend this route any time they’re not doing a chip seal.

We finally got past the road work and on to Philipsburg, a very nice old town enjoying a rejuvenation, and stayed in the beautifully renovated Kaiser House hotel where, at Willie’s direction, Terry had arranged a spread of wines and cheeses and sausage and crackers awaiting us.

What a relief to shed the leathers and dive in.

Biker Quote for Today

I don’t have a bucket list but my bike-it list is pretty long.

Starting out Day 2 we cruised over to the canyon overlooks by the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center before heading to Manila for breakfast. The Red Canyon Lodge serves dinner but not breakfast so we got going pretty quickly this morning. The route was a bit further north on U.S. 191 then left onto Utah 44.

From Manila we headed northwest on Utah 43 to the state line and then Wyoming 414 to Mountain View, under I-80, and on north on Wyoming 412 to U.S. 189 and north to Kemmerer.

At Kemmerer Jungle made a mistake the rest of us appreciated when he passed U.S. 30 and took us almost into town. There was a gas station so we stopped for gas. Relief! By this time it was starting to be clear that the rest of us like to stop and get off the bikes more frequently than the 125-150 miles Jungle seems to prefer. So starting at Kemmerer we took more frequent gas stops even though nobody was truly low on gas.

And yes, once again it was blazing hot. I’ve learned that I need Gatorade or something of that sort to ward of dehydration on days like this so Kemmerer got a little more sales tax out of me.

We went back the very short distance to U.S. 30 and followed it past Cokeville almost to the Idaho state line, where we picked up the north-south Wyoming 89 that serves as a shortcut around Montpelier, Idaho. Then we joined U.S. 89 on north into Wyoming’s beautiful Star Valley.

Past Afton, to Thayne, and a little beyond and we came to a very important stop, an ice cream shop we had been told about. The Old Mill Ice Cream shop serves single scoops that are as big as the double scoops you get most places. And everyone knows how important ice cream is when you’re traveling on motorcycles.

From there we continued north to Alpine, and Alpine Junction, where U.S. 26 took us northwest into Idaho and along the shore of Palisades Reservoir, which was one heck of a great ride. Absolutely gorgeous.

Once past the lake we turned northeast on Idaho 31 to Victor and then Idaho 33 to Driggs. We checked into our motel, had badly needed showers, and then spent the rest of the evening in the large, luxurious mobile home of Willie and Jungle’s friend Yuki, who lives in Driggs. This is a thing about traveling with Willie and Jungle. People they know come join you for a while and then peel off. We’ll meet a lot more of their friends along the way.

Yuki provided beer and wine, a variety of munchies, and we got so settled in we canceled our dinner reservation and sent a team out for a couple pizzas.

Two hard days under our belts and we’re having a great time.

Biker Quote for Today

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long.

We got away from Willie and Jungle’s place in Eagle not even an hour later than planned–not bad for eight people in/on seven vehicles. Destination: Banff and Jasper.

The line-up as we left, which remained largely the same through much of the trip, was Jungle in the lead on his Honda Interceptor, Judy and me on my Concours, followed by Donna on her Star Silverado. Then came Jean, Donna’s sister, in a Polaris Slingshot she rented. I say “in” because as far as I’m concerned, that thing is a three-wheeled car, not a motorcycle. And in Colorado this last legislative session, they created a new vehicle class for this sort of thing, called “autocycle.”

Next was JC in his own Slingshot. Brand new, just delivered the day before and already the speedometer doesn’t work. JC had been planning to ride his Harley but he was taken by the thought of Jean’s Slingshot so he tried to rent one, too. They didn’t have any more so he said, “OK, sell me one.” They didn’t have any to sell either so he called a dealer in Denver, bought it, and had it delivered to Vail.

Following JC was Terry in her Porsche Carrera 2, and Willie rode sweep on her Yamaha FJ1100.

That was the crew as we headed west on I-70 through Glenwood Canyon to Rifle and then north on Colorado 13 to County Road 5, which skirts west and north avoiding Meeker, and up to Colorado 64, where we turned west to Rangely and on to Dinosaur, where we picked up U.S. 40. Then west to Vernal. All this way it was blazing hot and in Vernal it was 103 degrees. We were being cooked!

At Vernal we turned north on U.S. 191 to a turn-off for the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and also the Red Canyon Lodge, our destination for the day. The coolness at this higher elevation was much appreciated and the forest setting of the lodge made for a great stopping point.

The two folks in the Slingshots couldn’t rave enough about how much fun they were having in those things.

Me, I was just glad Judy and I were doing well on the Concours. We haven’t done a lot of long-distance rides together so I had been a bit apprehensive. But we did great. That’s a good thing because we had 12 more days and about 3,000 more miles ahead of us.

Biker Quote for Today

I love to ride; I hate to arrive.