Beartooth and Chief Joseph Scenic Byways

Thursday, August 29, 2013
After yesterday's late start we were on the trike and heading back to the Beartooth by 9:00 am!  We brought more clothes and decided to try to hold off on pictures a little so we could get both the Beartooth and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byways in before dusk.  We're trying real hard not to ride at dusk or later.  There are so many deer around!  We've talked to two people who've hit deer on their current travels and both times the deer ran into the side of them with lots of car damage.
Anyway.... these byways are two of the most beautiful roads we have ever seen.  I don't really know how to describe them in words and even the pictures don't do them justice. There was a gorge on the Chief Joseph (see picture) that was just unreal.  Overall, it was a quiet ride because you just want to look and be part of it all.  We just kept saying ...wow. 
On the way back to Red Lodge we successfully dodged the rain clouds but ran into wind that was every bit as bad as Iowa.  It actually hurt the inside of our noses! 
We decided to stop for a little break in a tiny town called Belfry about 18 miles east of Red Lodge.  It really looked like it was going to rain so... why not? Well, the only place to eat in Belfry was at a restaurant/bar/casino  called the Silvertip.  It didn't look like a great place, but Rick and I are pretty flexible.  We walked in and there were only two people there. Not a good sign.  This lady (the owner, Jean) and gentleman (a customer, Jim) were sitting there kind of looking at us like, "What are you doing here?" Neither one was very friendly and she was really downright crabby!  Well, you know Rick.  He was his friendly self, just kept conversing, asking them questions about the area, telling them about our journey and before you knew it, we were having a real nice time with them.  Jim gave us a history lesson on Chief Joseph and Jean and I were swapping nursing stories. She had somewhat of a bad taste in her mouth for Wisconsin-ites.  Apparently 3 from our state have moved out there and have not made a very good impression in this small town.  Too bad.
From Belfry back to Red Lodge for our last night with the rushing river.(Picture below) We'll miss this campsite and the cool but have to keep moving if we want to get to all the places on our list.  Hope all is well with you.  Happy trails.

On Top of the World!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Our new home campsite at Perry's Campground in Red Lodge, MT is delightful!  And it's cool!! High 70s to low 80s during the day and high 50s at night. So much better!  It is now my 6th night in a row camping so I must be getting used to it, huh?  Our site is right next to Rock Creek and it is a wonderful, noisy, rushing creek.  It's one of my favorite sounds. The owner here says there are very few mosquitos because of the rapidly moving water.  

After a very late start close to noon, we headed out for the Beartooth Mountain Scenic Byway located about 5 miles from our campground. The entire highway, from Red Lodge to Yellowstone, is 68 miles but after about two and a half hours, we had only gone 30 miles!  We didn't realize how slow the trip would be with all the turns and switchbacks and that we would want to stop every 5 minutes to take pictures. We got as high as 10,975 ft. and yes...we were freezing!  The temperature on the bike said 55 and the wind was blowing like gale force so we decided to go back down and regroup for the next day. It was so beautiful we definitely want a do-over. 

We went for a late lunch in town and browsed some of the shops. Then back to the campsite to just enjoy and appreciate the beautiful day. The Canadian guy camped next to us probably described it best. He said they've been through Canada from coast to coast, up to Alaska, through Washington, Oregon and then here to Montana.  The drive through the Beartooth Mountains was the most beautiful of anything they had seen.  We would agree.  Happy trails.

Little Bighorn & A Moose!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013
From now on, I'm going to start each blog with the date of the events I'm writing about.  When I write and post the next day, it automatically posts that date and I'm getting all confused.  Happens easily these days with no calendar or watch!
Anyway.....Little Bighorn Battlefield and Custer's Last Stand was an experience that will stay with us for a long time. We ended up spending almost four hours there in the heat of another 95 degree day and that says something.  We got there just  a few minutes before a park ranger presentation.  The guy was a former history teacher who has studied this battle for the past 25 years.  He was such an excellent storyteller and being able to point to this ridge or that line of trees along the Little Bighorn River, made it so real. It was a very solemn and sad experience that moved me to tears more than once.  Rick wasn't surprised. After the park ranger spoke, there was a great film and then you could actually walk through the battlefield. There is a white stone marker placed where each soldier died and a red stone marker for each Native American.  There is still debate about how many Indians died that day because they take their dead with them rather than burying them where they fell. You can then drive through the park and see and learn about the larger perspective and strategy of the battle.  An excellent experience for anyone coming  this way.  Thanks to our friends, Dick & Jan for recommending.
We left there late afternoon and headed out for Red Lodge, MT.  It was still very hot and I was still spraying myself silly.  It was a 126-mile drive north and west through Billings and then south toward the Beartooth Mountains.  Once we turned south and went a ways, you could actually start to feel the temperature drop as we climbed into a higher elevation. It wasn't long before we stopped to put on jackets. Yay!
Now dusk was approaching and we were getting a little nervous about wildlife. Sure enough. Barely got the words out of my mouth and there were two deer in the road ahead. Saw several more in the fields.  Then we went by this line of trees and I thought I saw this huge steer right next to the road.  Then I saw moose antlers!!!  Was I seeing things?  Rick got my camera, turned us around and we went back.  After a couple of passes, we found him on the other side of the tree line.  He was huge and calmly eating dinner.  I got a few pictures but they are on my camera and I can't send them from my phone.  I'll definitely send them later. 
Hope you're still awake after this long post but I guess we had a lot to share.  :)
Happy trails.

What is With This Heat?!?

Truth be told, today was a hard day. We left Deadwood and South Dakota this morning and decided to head about 250 miles west to the Little Bighorn Battlefield around Hardin, Montana.  That was a pretty long ride for us as we've been averaging closer to 200.  Add 95 degree heat, wind, and tired butts to that, and we were both ready to find a rest spot at the end of day.  I used two sprayer bottles full of water to cool us down as Rick drove.  It helped for a few minutes at least.  Now, I'm thinking nice cool air conditioning.  Rick's thinking nice cool pool and cool night under the stars. I really don't believe him but since he compromised the night at the Badlands for me, I figured I owed him one and agreed to give it a try.  We chose the KOA in Hardin and were in the pool 10 minutes after setting up. It felt so wonderful!
We cooled down so much, we even went in the hot tub!  Aaahhh...... Maybe it isn't such a hard day after all. 
We're really looking at the route we had loosely planned and after we go to the battlefield today, we're going to head west and a little south to the Beartooth Highway & Red Lodge.  It's runnung about 20 degrees cooler there than Whitefish, up by Glacier right now, and we just think 75 sounds a lot better than 95.  Now I'm happy!  Rick was right, though.  It did cool down nicely and we slept great.  He brought along a little fan that I used and I was fine. It ended up being a good day. Well, we're off to Little Bighorn.   Happy trails.

One More Night in Deadwood

We're enjoying it so much around Deadwood, we decided to stay another night!  So instead of leaving Sunday, we'll head into Montana on Monday morning. When we got back to our campsite Friday night after the Paul Revere concert, three other groups of campers had moved in around us.  Three guys from North Dakota who come here every year to ride motorcycles for a few days, a family of 4 from Hot Springs with a 4-week old baby and a 3-year old, (they were about 10-feet away) and two couples sharing a tent.  All very different stories, and all very nice but, let me say, a much less peaceful sleep with the baby wanting to eat every few hours!  :)
Saturday was another very warm... ok, hot day for me.  Way too hot for town so we decided to ride.  That was hot, too, but at least there was more beautiful scenery. We drove north out of Deadwood to a town called Belle Fourche. That is where we will pick up the road to take us west into Montana. We noticed leaving the Black Hills immediately as the wide open spaces returned. From there we circled around and went to Sturgis.  We were both curious to see how it had changed since we were there 8 years ago. It sure was quiet compared to what it probably was a few weeks ago.  I think we only saw 5-6 other motorcycles.  The town seemed to have grown immensely from what we remembered, though.
We got home from our ride early evening and everyone was in town.  We decided to just sit back, enjoy the campsite and cooling air.  We played Gin Rummy, I won, and then we hit the sack to catch up on a little lost sleep from the night before.  Never heard a thing when they all came home.
This morning there was the Kool Deadwood Nights Car Parade.  They went right by Whistler Gulch so we had a front row seat.  Rick was having a blast. All the hot rods would lay a little rubber and people would hoot and holler and cheer.  These people really love their old cars!  After the parade, Rick went for a short 8.3 mile, 2-hour hike.  He's something else.  I went for a swim, read, and played Granny Nan to 4-week old Baby Olive while the family next to us, and almost all the other campers, packed up and headed out.  Peace and quiet has returned to Deadwood and the Paris duo is heading west in the morning.  Happy trails.

Kool Deadwood Nights

Everything in this town right now is about Kool Deadwood Nights.  We never expected this to be such a big event!  So many people, lots & lots of good music, tons of cars and motorcycles, (old and new) and of course, beer.  It was like an old people's Woodstock, for crying out loud.  We took it all in yesterday afternoon and last night after hanging around the campsite during the day, swimming, & trying to keep cool.  It's still very warm here and no end in sight with temps in the high 80s. Rick is loving it. Me, not so much. We heard yesterday that part of Yellowstone is on fire and some roads in and out of the park are closed, so we'll have to keep an eye on that. It'll be quite a while before we go there so hopefully they will be out by then.
We saw Paul Revere & the Raiders last night and Paul was really old.  He was very sick about 3 months ago so he didn't sing much, but he had a young guy, lead singer who sounded just like him.  The guy could also do Elvis, Tom Jones and he was really very good. Paul was quite funny and many of his band members had been with him 35-40 years.  All in all, we thought it was a great concert.  "Til tomorrow.... happy trails.

Deadwood & Whistler's Gulch

Well, the guy at Whistler's Gulch kept his promise and found us a campsite. Too funny.  Ever camp on a basketball court?  Well, not exactly on it, but right next to it. As it turns out, the spot is great.  We're the closest campers to the restrooms and showers, the pool is in our "back yard" and we have a great view of all the action.  We're on a big hill so we see all the 5th wheels and motorhomes piling in.  We get a lot of thumbs up as they pass by us.
We took the shuttle trolley into town late afternoon to check things out.  Went to Saloon #10 where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and watched it happen. :)  It was a fun reenactment.  Then on to looking at all the old cars.  Rick really enjoyed this as it brought back a lot of good memories for him.  He had some great conversations with people from all over the U.S.  We topped the evening off with a really great steak dinner at Maverick's (I love the wild west) and trolleyed back home about 1030 pm.  Crawled into our little camper and slept like rocks.  Life is still good.  Happy trails.
P.S.  Yes, that's Rick in the pool.

Spearfish Canyon & Roughlock Falls

Our stay in the southern Black Hills  comes to an end on Thursday so Wednesday we headed into the Deadwood-Lead area to look for our next home site.  We heard through the grapevine that it was going to be really hard to find a place to stay in Deadwood this weekend. A big event going on there called "Kool Deadwood Nights" apparently is quite popular.  It's a big 50s/60s sockhop, a car auction of all the cars from that era and music galore.  Friday night the main band is Paul Revere and the Raiders and Saturday, it's The Buckinghams.  We were thinking that they must be pretty old by now!  Ha.  It's just up our alley, though.
Anyway, we got lucky with a place ti stay....or at least I think we're lucky.  We got a camping site for 3 nights at a place called Whistler's Gulch.  They were fully booked but when the guy saw our motorcycle and Rick told him about the camper, he said he could come up with something.  We'll see.
With that accomplished, we took a ride through Spearfish Canyon.  It is a beautiful byway through a huge canyon.  Big rock walls way above you, wherever you look.  We got on a gravel road for the first time (didn't really want to do gravel roads if we didn't have to) to go see a place called Roughlock Falls. So glad we did.  It was one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen.  The entire canyon ride is going to be hard to beat.  We knew we really enjoyed SD when we were here in '05, but we don't remember it being this beautiful.  Happy trails, friends & family.

Wide Open Spaces, Wildlife & Mount Rushmore

Monday and Tuesday were fun, hot, and very busy days.  This post will include both days so I can catch up on the blogs. The temperatures here remain in the very high 80s to mid 90s.  I think we saw 95 yesterday. Now that's getting to be a little much!  Despite that, we've put on about 300 miles in the past 2 days and I've survived.  :)

We turned right around and did a second loop through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway on Monday.  We absolutely love the wide open spaces and beauty of it all.  Went to one of the Iakes in the park, scouted out a few campgrounds, drove to Hill City for dinner and came home around 10:00 pm pooped.  

On Tuesday we headed south and drove through Wind Cave National Park towards Hot Springs.  We saw a huge herd of buffalo on the way.  That's what I wanted to see!  Then just down the road a bit we saw a coyote.  He was quite close to the road and we got a great look but no pictures. Just not fast enough.  Lots of pronghorn antelope today and of course, a stop at Prairie Dog Town.  It was so hot in Hot Springs we decided to do something inside. We had been told a few times to make sure we went to the Mammoth Site. Sounded a little odd to me but I was up for anything to be cool. What a pleasant surprise.  It's a  site (actually a sinkhole) where they have found the remains of 62 mammoths (and other animals) from late in the ice age 26,000 years ago!  It's an active dig and world renowned. Who knew? We both thought it was very interesting.

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore.  We saw it in 2005 but never got to see it at night. That was another thing I really wanted to do and it sure didn't disappoint.  Very patriotic, moving and beautiful.  What an awesome country we live in...

Happy trails.

Custer St. Park & Needles Highway

We left the town of Interior at the foot of the Badlands Sunday morning.  Back to the amazing geology and ferocious wind.  Arrived in Rapid City late morning and set about finding a place to stay for the next few days.  I won this round.  Found a very cute cabin. :)  They are experiencing a heat wave out here (high 80s, low 90s) so I really wanted air conditioning. We ended up at an elevation of about 4600 feet so that helps a lot.  Rapid City was much warmer. The nights up here are comfortable. We hopped on the trike (now without the trailer) and headed for Custer State Park and Needles Highway.  They are so beautiful!  We were surprised at how high we were on the Needles Highway. We reached 6400 feet in elevation.  Put these two on your bucket list if you haven't seen them.  In Custer we saw a buffalo here & there but not the whole herd.  They were way up in the back part of the park.  We also saw several antelope and of course, the burros.  We'll definitely come back here with our 7 day pass!

Sunflowers, Wind & The Badlands

Saturday was an amazing day, but before I get to that, we have been without internet or phone service for two days. I'm not sure how writing a daily blog is going to work but I'll give it my best shot. We headed out across central South Dakota and once we crossed the Missouri River, man oh man....the wind was phenomenal!  Almost blew my helmet off! I give Rick so much credit for driving that whole way.  I just hung on!  The prairies were beautiful and I loved the vast fields of sunflowers.  I thought of my friend, Alice.  :)

We got to the Badlands, found a spot to stay for the night and headed right for the hills. It was early evening and we hit the jackpot.  Along the roadside coming toward us were two Bighorn Sheep.  They became extinct in SD many years ago and were reintroduced to the Badlands. We were lucky enough to see them.  We also saw a whole family of mountain goats.  They walked so close to the front of the bike, I could have touched them. So fun. Happy trails.

South Dakota...Here we Come!

Life is good....I survived a second night of no running water, non-electric, out in the boondocks, camping.  I must say, in all honesty, it isn't bad; it just makes everything more difficult.  From brushing your teeth to having to walk a block early in the morning to you know what. While men just naturally have it a little easier, Rick was truly born to do this.  I mean live outside. He is loving this so much it makes me laugh. It's definitely an adventure for me!
We left Iowa and crossed over into South Dakota around noon today.  We ate lunch at a little local cafe and had fun conversations with people.  Three different tables were involved and wanted to know where we were headed and about the motorcycle camper. That thing really seems to intrigue people.
It was cool and cloudy most of the day today but we only got a few sprinkles of rain.  We're headed into a hot spell out here and, of course, that makes me nervous.  Everyone knows I don't do hot so well.  :)
I'd like to say "Happy Anniversary" to Dick and Bonnie, my big brother and sister-in-law today.  They sure got the marriage thing right.
Love to our friends and family.  Happy Trails.

Iowa Cornfields

Hi Friends & Family,
Well, Day 2 is under our belt already.     Sorry for the delay in yesterday's post to Facebook. Not sure what happened. We left Wyalusing State Park this morning about 10am.   A late start because of me. I think I had "helmet head" or "swivel neck" or something. Took a couple of Advil and was fine.  Then on to the beautiful farmlands of Iowa. Huge farms and endless fields of corn!  I was glad we were on the motorcycle.....might have been a little bored in a car.  We drove until about 6pm tonight and found a campground in Spirit Lake. It's a popular recreational area in northern Iowa.  Between yesterday and today we've put on just short of 500 miles and we're happy with that. Rick is doing a great job driving and getting me comfortable with this camping stuff.  We'll finish off Iowa tomorrow and get a good share of eastern South Dakota behind us. Thanks to those of you sending comments.  It's always fun to hear from home and people you love.  Happy Trails.

...And We're Off!!

Departure day for our trike trip finally arrived!  We left Colgate this morning about 9AM and had a beautiful day of riding across the state of Wisconsin.  Wildlife spotted included 1 turkey and 4 deer.  Two bucks; one quite large, one small, one doe and one fawn.  All crossed the road in front of us but thankfully no need for quick stopping.  We arrived at Wyalusing State Park in Bagley, WI about 4PM.  It's a beautiful park in the bluffs along the Mississippi River.  We're sitting in front of a warm campfire as I write, enjoying the cool evening. Tomorrow we start the trek across Iowa.  Happy trails.

Trial Run

The trike was ready, the trailer was loaded and away we went for a four day "trial run" motorcycle camping expedition to Wildcat Mountain in Ontario, WI.  It's a State Park about 150 miles northwest of where we live and Rick thought it would be a great place to test how well we actually prepared for our trip out west.  I wasn't too keen on the idea at first, but now I can say I'm very grateful we had this four-day, three night camping experience.  Some of it I loved and some of it I didn't, but I knew that would be the case when we left. We did learn a lot, though, and would like to share some of the most important things.
1.  Raccoons can open coolers even with bungee cords wrapped around them.
2.  Weekdays are great days to camp.  We pretty much had the park to ourselves.
3.  You can survive without electricity for a few days.  Not always easy....but doable if you're married to an ex-boy scout.
4.  Raccoons love sirloin tip steaks. Broccoli.....not so much.
5.  There are still a lot of different bugs that I've never seen before.
6.  A campfire without a million mosquitoes is one of life's greatest joys.
7.  Motorcycling on the back country roads of an Amish community proves that some people do just fine without electricity.
8.  If our trial run is any indication, we have an amazing trip ahead of us.  We look forward to having you come along.