9-27-2010

Summer 2010

The Beartooth Rendezvous

Steve and a guy that was playing a big mandolin.

Steve’s new ride. It was found in a garage with only a few miles on it. It is a R80 with a EML sidecar. This has a special made frame for the bike and leading link front end. This is  the top of  the line in the sidecar world.

This guy inherited this bike from his buddy that never rode it. It is almost like a brand new R80G/S after being ‘touched’ by Amigo Bob.

We went for a ride and I was just behind Micah when I came around the bend and saw Micah down on the other side of this little stream. I hurried to get stopped and get my camera out, BUT he knew I was behind him and would take a photo of him down with his bike on its side. So he scrambled like a little cockroach (that he is) to get his bike up. A fisherman ran over to help him get it up. Sorry for the poor quality but it is Micah’s fault as I would have taken my time with the camera to get a good shot of him down in the dirt and mud.

It was a really nice little road and the other riders had NO problems getting across that little trickle of water.

Perfect weather for a ride.

This is the Chief Joseph pass

We circled around  and came back over the Beartooth pass.

Micah and I took a ride around the area and came across this guy that evidently is making these cool machines  for snow country.

There was a art fair happening in Fishtail when we came through.

Across the street is a wool shop.

This lady was teaching a felt class. She was surprised that I knew about felting.

This is some of the beautiful scenes in different color wool that are felted.

Washing  out the soap from a new felt piece.

Photos around the shop

the place was stuffed with beautiful women too…..

On down the road we went up into the mountains.

I met this guy at the Rendezvous and he was headed over to North Dakota so I invited him to come to  my place and spend the night. Pizza for supper and he was  on his way in the morning.

I was invited to a party over at Jen and Ted’s. They had met a four ‘kids’ that were riding around the 49 states. They had been to Alaska and were headed over to North Dakota.

I really liked this little weather proof camera he had on his bike.

I really like these street parties that they have.

Sheila came for a visit and I put her to work mowing my weeds. Where she lives in Michigan she has to mow her grass about once a week. I had mowed my weeds this year twice as there has been so much rain this summer. It is  actually still green here now at the end of Sept…..

We went to the  county fair and they were having the puling contests for tractors and trucks. WOW, the sound of those high horsepower rigs were amazing.

Donny Pile driving his dads V-8 Ford tractor. He and his brother Ted restored it when they found it as a rusted hulk in a ranchers bone yard. They are very Rare.

Sheila and I went for a ride up to Fort  Peck Lake. I remember my Father was hired to run a crew at a quarry where they blasted rock and drilled holes in it, to be used as rip-rap on the dam. They drilled the holes to put a steel pin in that they then used to pick up the rocks and place them on a rail car. They used the same holes to pick them up and place them on the side of the dam to protect it from erosion.

My dad probably drilled some of these holes.

We stopped at a restaurant and found these boot mud scrapers outside.

The weather was rather  poor with storms both front and rear as we made a dash to get home. I took this  photo  between Forsythe and Miles City. That sheet of white you see hanging down from that  cloud is HAIL….

We followed it all the way to Miles but by the time it had gone that far it was starting to wear out. I talked with Scotty and he said the ground was white when he got home so I guess the storm just grazed the north part of town.

I bought  a really nice R100GS and had it delivered from Seattle by a guy that had a ride share link on Craigslist. He was coming over for a buffalo hunt and I met him in Hardin. He is a really nice guy and is starting a tipi rental company.

The problem with the bike is that it had a pulled stud, which is one problem that can happen with these bikes. I had just bought an engine over in Missoula so I thought I would just swap engines.

I had to bring in a bike for comfort in the cabin.

It is nice to have a bike inside again.

The Autumnal Equinox and the cat is caught in the setting sun. same thing happens in the spring.

The motor that I bought in Missoula after I cleaned it up getting it ready to go in the bike. That is not good…..

I went over to Amigo Bob’s with a pickup load of engines and parts. He is going to pull my ass out of the mud on this motorcycle deal, I hope. He has this very cool WWII German sidecar in the shop for some engine work. It has a machine gun mount and several ammo cans mounted on the car and bike. This thing must weigh a ton when fully loaded with ammo, gun, rider and  driver. It does have power to the sidecar wheel, which helps a bunch, especially in the mud and snow.

I got a call from Craige Whiteley over in Laural. He and a buddy were going on a GS ride up to Fort Peck the next day and wanted to know if I wanted to come along…. Well, YEAH..

We met at Ingomar for lunch and I took a little ride around town and noticed this “Bunk and Biscuit”. Best place to sleep in 100 miles!! I guess the hunters come and use this place.

A GS ride is as a ride where you travel as many miles on gravel/dirt as possible to get to where you are going. Craig rides a R80G/S and friend Blake rides a R100GS much like the one I just bought with the bad engine.

These roads are just great with no traffic and wide open spaces.

We were doing great and traveling at a good clip when Craige found a deep sand pocket just at the crest of this little rise. The left cylinder was packed with this soft damp sand.

Here he is showing his ‘broom’ that he used to sweep the sand out of the fins. It is always so great to be riding behind as ‘tail dog’ and be able to come up on these photo ops….. and not have it be ME that is down and dirty.

They have a nice new interpretative center that told all about the dam and how it was built.

This is dinosaur country and this T. Rex was found near here. the most complete T Rex ever found.

A black footed ferret and a fat prairie dog

I am not sure what they were trying to show here other than what my friend Dirty Mike does to those Prairie dogs with a rifle at 200+ yards.

There sure are a lot more roads than this. We were ‘lost’ in one of these white areas on the way up to Fort Peck and there were little  dirt roads  going everywhere. these are the big ones or county designated ones I guess.

The  spillway at the dam. I found a little road that we could take the GS bikes on and I am  sure we were not supposed to be here but sure was fun.

We stayed in this really wonderful wooden hotel built in the early 30’s.

More good roads headed on south. We could travel these roads between 60-70 mph and they sure are fun that way. No traffic other then a few cows now and then.

A nice little church that is not used anymore.

nice little rock building at Angela

the old Post Office looks no longer used. Budget cuts I guess?

I was surprised to find this Organic wheat field sign out back.

There are so many GS bikes in the shed now that Blake had to park his outside. It is always nice to get a big collection of these bikes together. The stories they can tell……

The boys spent the night and I showed them a couple of nice roads down the Tongue River and over to the Moon Creek road and then a little road that ends up at Hathaway. It was great to be invited on their ride and nice to have company for the evening.