6-24-07
Keith is a map maker over in Helena for the state. He has access to some really good maps and over several weekends put together a ride around the eastern part of the state on some of the coolest back roads I have ever been on. My buddy Colorado Ken (Harrell) was able to come up for part of the ride. He showed up at camp on Thursday night and stayed in the pod.
Ken had his gps unit ready as well as a bike odometer and his ‘comfort’ gauge, which is a thermometer. As you can see, it is too damn hot for him here at camp. Ken if comfortable in a 100 degree range, from –50 to +50.
We headed down the Tongue River road and stopped at the Brandenberg bridge. This is a great gravel road and it was in good shape. The river was high and there were spots along the road that had been fixed from damage from the heavy rains we have had.
The hay fields were being cut, this is first cutting and somewhat late as the rain has been a problem for the hay boys.
The Tongue River Reservoir was full and running over the dam.
Headed across the Crow Rez.
A strange little anti drug display in the Rez.
It was a cold but beautiful day.
We made it to Bob’s and set up camp in his yard for the night. We got to visit a little in the morning before heading out for Helena.
This was just south of Ryegate.
we had been up on rolling hills and came to the low plains. The road was wonderful except for the heavy traffic. Three cars and trucks in 100 miles.
The hoots are getting into wind generators. This is one of their colonies and they are big prosperous looking operations.
We stopped at the Blair mansion or museum and this little ‘Price Charles Setter’ came out to greet me. He is the ‘guard dog’ when he is there. Ken went on the tour while I petted the dog and took a quick nap down in a display tee pee in the yard.
We took the road by the old ghost town Castletown and over the hill to White Sulphur Springs.
It had rained and threatened more rain when we got into Helena and Keith invited us to stay at his apartment which we gladly accepted. In the morning we headed down to this little hippie restaurant and had one of the best breakfasts I have had in a long time. It was odd that I met two of the guys there that I dealt with on the coal bed methane problem.
Keith led the way on some back road pavement and gravel roads.
This was one of the major wonders of the state that seem to be kept secret. Many thousands of years ago the glaciers crept south and pushed the Missouri River south out of its channel. When the water got to this place it formed a huge waterfall and dug a lake as it eroded this rock.
Back out on the trail.
We made it to a point above the Missouri Breaks and the McClelland ferry where we spent the night near an old rotted down barn. It was fairly cool and that night it rained and blew like mad.
In the morning we headed on down the road but didn’t get far as the mud (GUMBO !!!) was thick, slick, and sticky. It built up on my front forks and covered the tires. I only went about thirty feet for this to happen. After everyone saw that, we all decided to head back and take a different route.
Every now and then I would just walk to the side of the road when we stopped and flake out just like Charlie is doing here. it is amazing how much a five minute nap can make.
here we are along the Charles M Russell wildlife refuge.
I wonder what kind of ‘dogs’ live around here.
NO damn cats!!
This is Gary who is a farmer up by Hingham and is a friend of Keith and Micah’s.
I stopped to take a photo of this little building and when I did the Fatdog quit running. After a quick search for the problem, it was determined that the rotor went bad. This is the fourth rotor that has gone out on me and I was pleased to have brought a new replacement along. It didn’t take long and we were back on the road after I got this picture. We are in big sky country here for sure.
for some reason, no one needed to use this rest stop.
Everywhere we went the ponds were full of water.
Must of gone to sleep or something. Boy the cop that was motioning us by was sure pissed I was taking photos while ridding along but was too busy to give me a ticket.
I love these big old grain elevators.
we all wondered what in the hell this little building was. I guess it must be a water tower that they had a well that they pumped water into with a motor as there was no windmill.
We all commented on how nice this place looked. We passed a lot of small farms that has folded up over the years and probably bought out by bigger farms.
Keith worked for the SOO railroad in a past life and told us that the old guys on his crew always used to say that they wanted to go to the end of the line in Whitetail, Montana. Here he is at the end of the line. I had to put a bmwdog sticker on it too. The end of the line……………..
Whitetail, Montana is a really nice little town. Not much there and what is there, is not much.
The pickup saw us and stopped in the middle of the road and turned off the key and visited for about 15 minutes. Not much traffic in Whitetail.
The Sooline road.
This was a really nice wildlife refuge we went through on little gravel roads.
some two track roads too.
We got pretty lost out there after the refuge and ended up in a farmers yard. I saw a little fence line road and thought it might lead somewhere. Keith said that he would follow me and off I went. The trail conditions got pretty funky and Micah, Charlie and Ken finally gave up waiting for us to come back and came along too. That is a pea field along the road and it was about a foot high and in full bloom. What a nice ride that grass trail was. No one got hurt or fell down even.
we finally got back on gravel. Charlie said that if we came to a sign that said ‘welcome to North Dakota ,” turn right”….
This is coming down into the breaks near Outlook.
We decided to camp the night in the town park near the river in Glendive. Ken had been having some surge problems with his bike and decided to clean the air filter.
He decided to dig deeper and check the spark plug too which involves taking off the tank.
Keith’s bike developed an oil leak down low and we decided to go to Miles City and have the bike shop check it out. They installed a new shift lever seal and off we went down Broadus to catch the gravel route again.
When Micah and I were in the little park in Broadus this guy came zooming in on a really nice restored Cushman scooter
Keith’s bike started leaking more oil and he decided to take it back to Miles and have them look at it again. They replaced the seal in the primary chain this time. Keith decided to head over to Bobs via the paved roads and Charlie went with him.
Keith and I decided to head over to bob’s even though it was late in the day. He had never been over it and even though I had been over it just a week ago I was happy to go over it again. It is a wonderful road.
there wasn’t as much water going over the spill way this time but there was still plenty of water to make the river high.
we stopped in Ranchester, WY to get gas and a drink and they had a large mirror outside which made a unique image.
It was a long ride but we finally made it to Bridger, MT after I made a wrong turn and ended up in a not so good place on the Rez. We ate at a little restaurant in Bridger where they had this sign posted.
It was almost totally dark when we got out of there and we headed over the gravel road via the back road to Bob’s. We got in somewhere around 11 and set up our tents in the dark and when I hit the sack I was almost immediately asleep. On Saturday the bikes and friends started showing up and we were glad we had our tents up on about the only level place. The party was great and there was a big group that showed up. The food was outstanding as usual and we all had a good time.
I got up early in the morning and snapped this photo of the ‘fire ring’ that Charles Ringer made for Bob and Anne. It is really nice to just roll it out in the drive and have a good size fire and keep all the nails that might be in the wood contained for easy disposal. These chairs filled up early in the morning when Bob brought out the coffee. What a great group to be with.
Thank you so much, Bob and Anne.
And a big thanks to my friends Ken, Keith, Charlie and Micah for putting up with me for a week. I know it was hard to do…..