Day 4 -505 miles- Boise, WY to Kalispell, MT

The temperature fluctuations and accumulated miles from day three had made me pretty tired and I slept great that night. I think we rode through about a 40 degree swing from the upper 50s to the upper 90s, from rain and overcast to bright-sun-in-your-face-sucking energy-out-of-your-sweat-soaked-bones. Luckily my AST and a bottle of water I could squeeze into my vents as I rode kept me cool in the hot stretches.

Day 4 promised to be different.

The continental breakfast was pretty good. I had fresh waffle (made it myself) covered with strawberries and whipped cream. As I was stuffing my pie hole with all that goodness Carlton was upstairs watching the local new and weather. I think that kind of takes the fun out of it. I mean we’re going where were going anyway, right?

As it turns out, a fire started in the night right along our planned exit route. I learned this from Carlton as we were mounting up. They hadn’t closed the road yet but it was a possibility. Since we really wanted that road we decided to head on and hope we made it through before it closed.

We headed out and when we reached the top of the pass we could see that the valley ahead was full of smoke. I took a picture but it really doesn’t show the smoke that well:


I didn’t have my camera out as we headed into the valley and I really should have, Carlton got some great shots. I wanted to get a shot of the fire I could post on the blog from the road, not knowing at the time that my friend at work couldn’t see my pictures anyway. I could post pictures from my phone but not from my camera but I couldn’t use my phone as a camera while riding so had to stop. Had I watched the news, I’d have known hat this is one of things you are not supposed to do but I didn’t get caught so I was able to post the picture nobody could see.

Here are some of Carlton’s (kind of):




After the fire things got really nice.


The road was wide and lonely, the speed limit was high enough to be fun and the turns were wide enough to sail a ship through.



Somewhere before Hwy55 intersected with Hwy95 we passed through the little town of Donnelly, ID. In and of itself this is rather insignificant. We didn’t stop although I wish I had long enough to get a picture of the sign in front of the local café. It read:

Buffalo Gal’s Diner
World Cuisine
&
Sushi

That struck me as one of the funniest sites I’d seen. I could just imagine a bunch of farmers in Podunk Idaho bellying up to the Sushi Bar in their overalls. I kick myself for not getting that picture.

Shortly after that we turned on to Hwy 95 and cruise into Grangeville where we picked up 13 to Kooskia, ID, the gateway to Motorcycle Heaven.

But first a spot of lunch.

In the small town of Lowell there was a small Inn, Ryan’s wilderness Inn, with an attached diner that evidently people come from all over the country to enjoy:


There is a quest book on the table beneath the map and a little dish of pin flags for customers to use to add their home town to the list. Mine was already pinned so I just took the picture and signed the book.

(Lunch was good too. Bonus. I had the tuna on wheat toast and cheddar/broccoli soup)

Hwy 12 is also know as the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway. It supposedly unchanged since Lewis and Clark first saw it (I assume they mean other than the asphalt).

Back to Motorcycle Heaven:

All that squigelliness on the map is what motorcycle riders live for. It happens to come right after this sign:


And in this case the sign does not lie. What followed was an uninterrupted hour of some of the best riding on the trip. The turns were great big, high speed sweepers that didn’t take so much concentration that we missed the scenery which was spectacular. It was the best of both worlds; scenic and great fun to ride.






As we started to climb the pass (Lolo Pass) the turns began to tighten up but still not so tight we couldn’t enjoy the scenery.



At the top of the pass we crossed the state line.


And we relaxed for the rest of the cruise into Kalispell.


I had put my camera away at our last fuel stop as the sun had started to set and I figured it would be too dark soon. Once again, it was a mistake. The first sight you get of Flathead Lake as you head north on Hwy93 is absolutely breathtaking. I didn’t take the picture because we thought we would be back that way the next day at around the same time but we never made it and so there is no picture and it’s your loss. I got to see it and it will
remain with me for a long time. I know that sounds kind of harsh but there it is. All I can say is, “Go see it!” I know I’ll be back.