Red Lodge, Montana

Friday 6 August

Day 19, 6286 km

Actually, its the morning after, but I find it easier to diary up in the early am out of everybody's way.

Didnt write up the eventless run from Virginia City to Jackson Hole day before

sweeping again across Montana part of the day, wide expanse between the Madison and Gravelly ranges.

Lower Mesa Falls

Up over 6800' Raynolds Pass, past Henrys Lake, then did a loop road detour to look at the Mesa Falls, on a tributary of Snake River, itself the biggest feed into the Columbia system.

Here we are 11 days since leaving the mouth of the Columbia and we're still doodling around it one way or another.

The ID47 highway loop brought me back right onto ID32, now in Idaho

a road I missed last year and got lost, doing an extra 30 odd miles in the recovery of

which in retrospect was fortuitous, as this year didnt pass the site of the Teton Valley

where the dam burst and flooded 24 homes with some loss of life years ago.

This part of Idaho is very productive, spuds, wheat, mainly, under irrigation

rolling switchback country, the soils only asset appearing to be friability, with water added giving it life.

Its that sign again...

Just short of Jackson, got hauled up in bumper to bumper traffic, spotted flashing blue and red up ahead

assumed a crash, but getting closer it turned out to be a managed ani-jam

a moose was grazing in the Snake marshland.

Amusing throngs these ani-jams, hordes of people taking photographs of where they just seen the moose or bear, minutes before it sauntered off.

One each corner of the square - lot of deer died for this

Jackson Hole is Queenstown on steroids...

the endless promenade of chromed Harleys, RV's, and pickups, around Main Square wasnt the novelty it was last time, somewhat facile now

quick couple of JB's at the Million Dollar Bar, and that was it.

Yesterday Jackson to Red Lodge was drama day.

Started innocently enough with bumper to bumper past the Grand Teton's to Yellowstone West Thumb.

Grand Tetons

I was right about increased tourist numbers

July is max tourist month here in US, and Yellowstone has had a 60,000 increase over last year, to 957,000 for the month

staggering......

$25 a car, they got a record 3.3 million visitors 2009, already they've passed 2m for the first 7 months of this year.

Most of us opted to give Old Faithful a miss, which I thought was a bit of a miss for those who hadnt seen this icon before

plus the thermals and bison on the central circuit

and we slipped out of West Thumb direct to Cody, now in Wyoming

although some of the group saw bears, and cubs, on the way.

Cody's on the Shoshone River, which at that place is thermal, discoloured.

The William F Cody Museum is the major attraction here, a 2-3 hour diversion.

Have to moderate my assumption that the indians were peaceful, they could make war pretty good alright.

They'd mastered the compound bow technology, and some of their ball clubs were downright viscious with a big spike on the business end of the ball

however it was the intricate and beautiful buckskin clothing and coloured porcupine beadwork thereon that really impressed

mocasins too.

At about gun 300 of the 3000 gun collection, I just got confused

although the tracing of the history of what made a gun go off was interesting enough

the terminology has its lasting effect on today's language

"going off half-cocked", the hammer at half-cock didnt make the flint spark, so no bang

"flash in the pan", the spark did ignite the powder in the powder pan, but failed to ignite the charge in the barrell, no bang again.

The wildlife section was great.

The Buffalo Bill bit was, as could be expected, immense, but I dunno

we all thought it was a bit overdone, US style.

His missus outlived the whole family, kids included, we got to see her mourning dress

and how a bloke could shoot baddies, and injuns

then gather what was still alive of them into the great Wild West Show to go on to entertaining royalty...

well, this is A-merica, A-men.

The collection of saddles, coaches, bits and bobs was cool.

Then the fun started...

back to my old ways of dropping off the bunch, doing my own historical, point of interest site, junkie thing

I walked out of the museum an hour after the others, into an approaching violent thunderstorm.

The carpark was mayhem as bikers asked themselves and the Bloke Upstairs, out loud, what to do next.

Well fore-warned by Paul McCormick, I rode the CB round the back of the museum looking for some immediate lee

rather quickly on account the wind was so violent I was fearing getting blown over

and found a couple of low trees with spreading branches, so up over the footpath where I, bike, and gear, stayed spotless

while the hospital across the street got a veritable lashing of rain, hail and thunder, and lightening overhead.

After an hour of wondering whether I should try and find a motel here for the night

it was all over, blue sky as the storm wandered off down-country.

Not so flash for the others on the road, they got wet, and a fright.

Highway W212 we were going to take over Beartooth Pass, 10,950', was being re-sealed.

The re-sealing process is first, a sort of 1" deep rotary hoeing/grooving, followed by the application of a hot oil coat

after which the hot-mix, or combo tar-sprayer/chip layer machine follows.

Anyway, if at the oil stage you also apply some rain and hail, plus some bikes, the result is mayhem

9 bikes went down, 2 pillions got helicoptered out

only one of our group was included in this, fortunately escaping with a pulled calf muscle

but a dented, bent handle-bar bike, and a crack in a side-plate thats leaking a tiny bit of oil.

By the time I caught the others up, the road had been closed,

so it was that we sought the alternate route.

Yellowstone Lake

So there you go...

riding America does have a lottery aspect to it

but being a little on the conservative side dont hurt neither