On 26 July 2009 Larry Scarborough, Nancy Galbraith and myself left on a two week bike trip.  Nancy and I left Bandon in the early morning and met Larry in Coos Bay.  We drove from Coos Bay to Pasco Washington, about 500 miles on day one.  This ride was one of the hardest of the whole trip because it was the week that the Portland area and the Columbia Gorge experienced its hottest weather in decades.  The temperature was in the low 100’s for at least five hours of this trip.  In addition we were held up in Salem because of an overturned onion carrying truck.

     Day two saw us up early to avoid the heat and possible winds of Eastern Washington State.  We rode to Hungry Horse Montana the next day.  This included a stop at Spokane, Wa. to pick up some hot weather riding gear.  We really only had Oregon cool, rainy riding clothes.  We continued passing through Coeur d’Alene, Idaho heading for St. Regis, Montana.  Here we all decided to ride naked.  We took our helmets off for the remainder of the trip, at least until we arrived back in Oregon.  From St. Regis we turned north making a quick stop at the Harley dealer in Kalispell, Mt.  We did hit a short torrential downpour for about ten minutes during this ride.  We finally arrived at the “Resort” at Hungry Horse at about 5:00 pm.  This day’s ride was about 450 miles, but a much more relaxed enjoyable ride than the previous day.  Just a word to those who would head to this area.  DO NOT STAY ANYWHERE IN Hungry Horse!!!!  For more info talk to one of us.

    We relaxed and rode around locally driving up the Flathead River where we saw numerous wild animals not the least of which was bald eagle about 100 ft from us.  We also got a little wet, but dried off on the ride back to Columbia Falls Mt. where we stayed.

    The next day was the ride we had come here for.  We left Columbia Falls at about 8:00 am driving to West Glacier and breakfasted, continued on with the goal of riding straight to St. Mary Mt. but it was so damn cold, 34⁰, that we had to stop a few times and rub our hands together.   It did give us a chance to take in the gorgeous scenery all around us.  At last we did get to St. Mary and had hot cocoa, not once but twice.  We continued on from there to Many Glacier.  By the time we reached there the temperature was back in the high 70’s so we were all comfortable again.  The views here were absolutely spectacular and we saw a Grizzly Bear.  He was about 20 feet up a slope off the road and then other hundred or so feet back from that.  He was just looking for berries and grubs and could care less that we were all taking photos.  We drove back to St. Mary which is where the entrance to the “Going to the Sun Road” begins.  This was the real reason we came to Glacier National Park.  It is a two lane road that goes through the park and you can stop many times and take pictures.  To describe the views would be impossible.  Suffice it to say everyone on a motorcycle should ride it.  It was built in 1933, is 50 miles long and takes at least 2 hours to ride it.  Every moment on it is worthwhile.  We arrived back at our hotel at about 6:00 pm tired but having thoroughly enjoyed the day.

  Next day’s ride took us through a different part of Montana ending at Missoula.  This was our stopover that night, allowing us to attend the Testicle Festival in Clinton Mt.  The ride to Missoula is about 2.5 hours so we took our time, stopping at a Prayer Casino for breakfast and just took in the sites on the way.  Nothing really good to say about the festival except we all tasted some testy.

  Next day we are up and away heading for Sheridan Wyoming, about 400+ miles.  It was mostly freeway with the obligatory stops in the local Harley stores for t-shirts etc.  We did stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield for a tour and picture opportunity.  Kind of uneventful day.

  Then we headed for Sturgis.  On the way we stopped at Devils Tower and Mount Rushmore.  These are both worth seeing and spending some time viewing.  We stayed about 20 minutes down the road from Sturgis outside Rapid City.

    We went to the Rapid City Harley dealer which hosts a load of different vendors.  Nancy bought a few items for her bike, Engine bars, Mustang seat, LED taillights, HID headlight, Transmission linkage, and Windshield.  As these items were being installed, for nothing, we wandered around.  When we left there we went to Sturgis and drove around a little, parked, and walked around shopping and sightseeing.

  Next day saw us up early and heading for Wall Drug.  This iconic store is filled not only with junk, but history of the west and the world.  If you go don’t just take in the façade and move on.  It is worth walking through.  After leaving here we traveled through Badlands National Park.  Pretty spectacular viewing.  On the way back we stopped for a Buffalo burger and a beverage.  That night one hell of a storm passed through.  We felt lucky we were not camping so we could enjoy a drink and watch the lightning, rain, and thunder from the comfort of our hotel room.

  We left in the morning for Cody Wyoming.  This was to be our jumping off point for Yellowstone.  After leaving Buffalo Wyoming we climbed ten thousand feet seeing beaver dams, mountain goats, and more terrific scenery.  We were chased by black rain clouds part of the way but thanks to 75mph speed limits we did not get caught.  This was only about a 7 hour ride.

  This is Yellowstone day.  We left early, enjoying the cool air.  Traffic was heavy approaching the entrance with a 30 minute plus wait in line.  Once inside it was clear sailing.  We drove to Old Faithful and only had to wait 20 minutes for a pretty nice five to ten minute show of high proportions.  We left there heading south for Jackson Hole.  On the way we encountered some hail and rain.  We decided to outrun it rather than putting rain gear on, and it worked.  We hit a 25 mile stretch of road that was all dirt and some areas of sand.  This made for some challenging bike riding, but we all made it through unscathed.  After exiting the park we had great views of the Tetons to our right.  A big storm was sliding up the Tetons moving north which made for some great pictures.  The downside was that the storm hit us in Jackson Hole.  Nancy talked us into having some food while the storm passed, which it did.  We then continued on going over Teton Summit and driving to Idaho Falls, Idaho.  Some of our party thought we had encountered some bad weather, but I told them we hadn’t yet.  Well on the way to Idaho Falls we found the worst of biking weather, WIND!  For the last fifteen miles we encountered 60 to 80 mph crosswinds.  We made it there ok so had adult beverages and retired.

  The second to last day of our trip we drove to Burns Oregon.  We passed through Boise.  We had all put our rain gear on prior to leaving Idaho Falls as it was quite nippy and looked like rain.  It rained for the last 30 miles approaching Boise.  We had to pull over when we slowed down to 60 in traffic in Boise because some could not see out of their glasses.  I haven’t been to every Harley dealer in the country or world but the Boise store is FANTASTIC.  They are super friendly, great selections of everything, free coffee, tea, cocoa, and LARGE.  For a while I thought Nancy was going to buy another bike.  We shopped and dried out there and when we left the rain had ended.  We had to stop and put our helmets on before we entered the lockdown state of Oregon.  I had never driven, nor had any of our party, in Eastern Oregon and found it to be quite picturesque in the drizzle. 

  The last day we drove from Burns to Bend to Eugene to Coos Bay/Bandon.  We left Larry as we passed through Coos Bay and headed south on 101. 

  The trip was super and we learned to research overnight accommodations better, ALWAYS fill up with gas when possible, and don’t let a little weather deter you.  I think I speak for the three of us in that we all had a super time and saw some amazing sites along the way.

Fergus

Tugman Picnic May 2009