7,000 miles. 19 States. 2 Bison encounters. 1 epic trip! - part 2

After Yellowstone, I made my way to Ten Sleep, WY (via the Beartooth and Chief Joseph Scenic Byways - but wind was a scary deterrent at altitude!) to spend the night, and then Devil's Tower National Monument via Crazy Woman Canyon. There is a story behind the name, but once I rode through the area and saw Crazy Woman (everything) stores/etc., it all made more sense. It was a little gravel road through a canyon with a couple of huge boulder areas. I'd go back to camp there, but enjoyed the Big Horn mountains quite a bit more.

I linked up with my buddy Jason, who accompanied me for the rest of the trip as this year's Moto Mountain Man adventure, at Devil's Tower. We got a decent sunset, clear skies for stars, and then a nice sunrise at Devil's Tower. We stayed at the KOA, which meant showers and laundry (both needed and appreciated!).

From there we made our way to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We rode the Spearfish Canyon, Needles Highway (twice), and the Iron Mountain road to Mt. Rushmore. We camped there two nights, which meant we had time to ride and day trip the area. I will definitely go back to hit some of the gravel roads through the area.

This was also where we had the second bison encounter. We were riding the Needles highway and came around a blind curve, when lo and behold, another dumdum in a white car was stopped to photograph a bison on the left side of the road, just standing in the ditch. We hit the brakes hard to avoid colliding with the car, when Jason saw the bison and said into our intercoms "go, go, go!". We both passed the dumdum (thankfully no oncoming traffic), but could have practically slapped the bison on the butt on our way past!

We then rode to the Badlands National Park. Along the way we took shelter from a severe thunderstorm (complete with close lightning and thunder and hail) under an abandoned hotel's awning. Shortly after we got there, two dudes from Canada showed up to also take shelter. We chatted for about 30 minutes waiting out the storm.

All that rain meant the temperatures were down a bit. We rode through Badlands in early July in the 70*'s - fantastic!

From there we rode through Nebraska (the Survey Valley was very pretty and remote), Kansas, and Oklahoma on our way to the Ozarks. We had a couple of nights there, so we could day trip some roads. Arkansas was nice, but the (in)famous Pig Trail just didn't live up to the Blue Ridge or Cherohala Parkways (imho).

We made our way to the Tail of the Dragon: 318 curves in 11 miles. That was a workout, but a complete blast! After that we rode the Blue Ridge Parkway, then Highway 16 through Virginia (the "Back of the Dragon") and West Virginia, followed by Highway 555 in Ohio.

All told, I rode more than 7,000 miles to get to Pennsylvania, through 19 States, in about a month. I'm tired, but ready to explore what Pennsylvania has to offer. More than that, I am ready for Catherine and the kids to join me.

Cheers,

Marc

7,000 miles. 19 States. 2 Bison encounters. 1 epic trip! - part 1

Whoo - I think I am still decompressing and absorbing this latest trip. I kicked off 19 June and signed in to my next duty station on 19 July. I was on the move for the overwhelming majority of that time on my motorcycle. Catherine and the kids/young adults drove to Memphis - I'll let her tell that story if she wants. Suffice it to say, as of the 20th, they still aren't here.

I got a nice, early start to my trip. I had originally planned to ride around Mt. Rainier, but since Chinook and Cayuse passes were open, I took a chance. There was still plenty of snow at altitude, but the roads were clear.

I made my way through central and eastern Washington, to include a trip to Palouse Falls. I camped for the night at Field Springs State Park, which was a nice way to finish the day. There were a couple of RV'ers there, but they were quiet.

Next day I headed south and thoroughly enjoyed riding the Rattlesnake Grade through Washington and into Oregon. The road was amazing, switching from high desert into montane and sub-alpine terrain. I continued on through the Wallowa area and Hells Canyon. Both of those areas deserve more time to really explore!

However, I was on a schedule and needed to get to Idaho (Nampa - near Boise) for an off-road motorcycle course.

The course was two days of in the field instruction followed by a day of riding, really putting those lessons into practice. I am really pleased with how I did, only a couple of falls (deep sand, loose rock) - really only hurt feelings/pride! The course really paid for itself immediately after, and again here in Pennsylvania. The photo below is one that the instructor/school took - this was a very tame section, but still not to be underestimated on a 500# bike!

Part of the appeal to the trip for me was to put the course into action. We actually rode fairly close to the Leslie Gulch area for our instruction, but I had planned to go there camping. Once the course was done, I got up the next morning with a fully loaded bike and headed deep into the Owyhee wilderness for a night. They have these amazing volcanic tuff rocks/towers that I really wanted to experience first-hand.

I had the campground to myself, which was a treat. I got up close to midnight to photograph the Milky Way core coming up over the tuff. I am pretty pleased with how those turned out.

I was supposed to camp the next night at Seven Devil's campground in Idaho, but the campground wasn't open. The roads were cleared all the way to the top (9,000'ish feet) from snow, but downed trees kept the campground closed. I still wanted to see the lake, so I rode up to see it. It was a bit of a challenge to find, mostly because the trails to it were still covered in snow, and finding rocks to hop on (to spare the soft grasses and flowers) was time consuming...but totally worth it! I rode back down into 95*F temps and decided to find a hotel, with AC. The next morning I rode into Montana and spent a night weathering thunderstorms. I then made my way to Yellowstone National Park.

I camped at the Madison campground on the west side of Yellowstone. I got up to photograph the Milky Way and was treated to some pink airglow (northern lights?). The photo below captures the entire Milky Way arch - basically a 180* panorama!

I'll end with the bison story (well, the first one). As I was leaving Yellowstone, I got caught behind some dufus in a white car. He stopped to iPhone photograph a bison on the (driver's) side of the road, stopping over the double yellow line (meaning no one could get past him). He eventually moved on, but the bison decided to cross the road at the same time. It was just me and the bison - no car to protect me if he decided to charge. He stopped in my lane, swiveled his big fat head to stare at me for 15-30 seconds. I didn't make eye contact to avoid provoking a charge - which either worked or didn't - but he didn't charge. He eventually meandered into the meadow on the other side of the rode, and I was able to make an escape. I hope to never repeat such a situation again!

Cheers, 

Marc