Wednesday, June 30, 2004, I fly out of John Wayne Airport for Seattle where I will grab a turbo-prop over to Spokane. I leave at 7:30PM and arrive in Spokane at midnight. Sam picks me up and after a short trip to his house, I go straight to bed.
Thursday morning, July 1. I haven't seen any of Washington state in the daylight yet. No time to waste. We get up early and head out to begin what should be a once in a lifetime weekend journey. First order of business - breakfast. We pull into Frank's Diner – an old converted railroad car which is now, according to Sam, one of the best places to eat at in Spokane. Turns out he's right. The food is great. The problem is, I'm not very hungry at this point. All I can think about is what's waiting for us just a few minutes down the road.
That next stop is Shumate Harley Davidson where we pick up two brand new Road Kings. The Road King has a twin cam, V-Twin engine displacing 88 cubic inches (1400cc). It is fuel injected with moderately sized saddlebags, a comfortable seat and a fairly upright seating position. These two come with removable windshields and are replete with running lights, engine guards and a luggage rack.
The fact that I'm about to commit to a serious weekend ride through the mountains on anything but a Suzuki is not lost on me. Up to this point, I have been staunchly against anything and everything Harley does or is – from their over priced, under performing motorcycles to the ridiculous rabid hype and mystique surrounding the marque. I find it a bit easier to suppress all of this knowing that for one thing, I'm not actually buying this thing, just renting it. I also realize that speed is not the point of this weekend. No, this weekend is all about slowing down and taking in the scenery. A 170 mph blast down Hwy 2 might be fun, barring the abundant Elk and Deer, but it's kinda hard to see anything that isn't directly in front of you at that speed. This trip is decidedly not about the yellow line in the middle of the road but about all of the other sights, smells and sounds around us. A rather slow & heavy, two-wheeled station wagon is exactly what this trip calls for. Not exactly my style, but for the ride ahead of us, it's just what the doctor ordered.
It takes more than a few minutes to complete all the paper work associated with renting the Hogs and the parking lot check is about as perfunctory as it could get. It's actually kind of frightening to think that anybody who actually needs to be told the stuff they tell you at this point is allowed to rent the thing! A few laps around the lot to show we can ride (?) then we're off.
From Spokane, the park is about 286 miles away. This is about the perfect distance for a day's ride and since it gets dark much later this far North, it should allow us plenty of time to stop anywhere we want to along the way. The plan is to take one day to ride up, one day to see the park and then one day to ride back. This isn't really enough time to see the park, but on this trip, the ride is the thing. The park is just a good place to aim at.
We head up Hwy 2 which will take us across the border into Idaho as it goes North up into the panhandle before turning South-East to cross the border again into Montana. Tonight we will be stopping to sleep in a small town called Kalispell, which is just down the road from the park entrance. The ride to Kalispell is absolutely incredible. We are blessed with perfect weather: 72° and a big blue sky littered with puffy white clouds. The mountains with one-hundred-foot tall Ponderosa Pine forests and numerous lakes and rivers are truly breathtaking. Along the way we see all kinds of wildlife including Osprey circling above the rivers in Idaho.
One thing you notice as you enter Idaho is that this state obviously doesn't have the same lame restrictions of California because there are fireworks stands everywhere. Granted it is the Thursday before the Fourth of July, but apparently these stands are always open. God Bless Idaho!
The idea for this weekend is that we have no schedule, no pressure as to when we have to be anywhere and no worries about how we get there. As long as we have gas, we have everything we need and nothing to worry about. The other part of this philosophy is that the weekend will be an adventure and as such, we are going to "go with the flow" at every opportunity. That includes where we will eat along the way. That grand idea is tested shortly after we entered Troy, Montana.
We had finally made it through Idaho with all of it's incredible natural beauty and into the Treasure State. We were hungry and in keeping with the “whatever the road throws at us” mindset, we pull into the first place we see that serves food. “R Place” seems charming enough. Although it looks like a renovated rental office from a long-gone mobile home park, it is clean and there are at least three cars in the drive-thru. Hey, it actually has a drive-thru so how bad could it be?
We park the Hogs (biker talk) out front and make our way inside. There are many items on the menu from tacos to corn dogs and I'm thinking this little place just might surprise us. Sam asks the woman behind the counter “what are you famous for”? She directs us to the “Super Soft Taco”. “Yup, that's about the best thing on the menu”. Bull's-eye! Goldmine! Excellent! We're in for one of Montana's secret roadside treats. I mean heck, for three bucks, this thing must be a monster! And, after all, it made them famous.
But wait there's more.
Sam notices tater-tots on the menu. I wonder if since we're in a small town, maybe these are homemade tater-tots and possibly another undiscovered culinary treat awaits. Unfortunately the woman explains that the only thing homemade about these tots is the heat used to thaw them. My hopes are again rekindled when she mentions “Munchers”. Wow! Those must be great. What are they? “They're like tater-tots but filled with cheese”. Well, both of those things are great by themselves, so together they must be incredible! Sold. She informed me that for the $1.35, you only get six pieces. I figured at that price they must be really something.
I head over to the condiment counter for the first sign that something ain't right. The salsa which is housed in a nice stainless steel container on ice is actually just Pace Picante. Hmmm. Well, Pace is pretty good after all. Why waste time reinventing the wheel when that energy is better spent on the “Super Soft”?
About ten minutes later, the meal arrives. Look at that. I've never seen tacos like that before. Perfectly cylindrical foil wrapped things about the size of a large egg roll. Unwrapping the “Super Soft” reveals that it is anything but a taco. This is actually a flour tortilla rolled around what we later agree is probably Cheesy Enchilada Hamburger Helper with some tomatoes, lettuce and Thousand-Island dressing thrown in. This isn't a taco. It's a hand-held hamburger salad. It's a “hamburritaco”. And there is nothing "super" about the size. However, in keeping with the spirit of adventure – there is no whining. The Supers disappear in less than two seconds - literally less than two bites. I look at Sam and we both agree - the jewel of the "R Place" menu pretty much sucks. On to the Munchers.
When she said “like tater-tots”, what she meant was – made from the same ingredients. These things aren't even real tater-tots. They're tater discs. You know – like a tot cut into three pieces. So actually, I got two tater tots for $1.35! Was it cheese? Who knows for sure. We each savor our three minced-potato-discs, one actual tot each, and head out. I secretly wonder if we'll pay for this stop later.
We finally make it to our destination for the night - Motel 6, Kalispell, MT. It was cheap and easy so I booked this room on the Internet. We check in and soon see why it was forty dollars less than the next hotel in town. It's a hole. Oh well - the spirit of adventure clicks in and we go with it. It has a shower so that's really all we need. Besides, we're bikers... on Harleys... on a road trip. Luxury is the last thing on the list. However, sleep is a priority.
After having dinner at a pretty good Mexican food place across the parking lot, we turn in. It's about 9:30PM now, but strangely, the sun is shining like it's 4 o'clock. This is weird. This far North, the sun sets at 10PM and it doesn't get dark until 11PM. On top of this, the Motel 6 in Kalipsell is apparently the hub of local activity. Everyone is coming and going and making lots of noise. We have the window open because the bikes are parked outside and we're a little concerned about waking up to an empty stall. We were going to pull the bikes inside for the night but the room was too small. So with the window open just a bit, we can hear everything that is happening outside.
Next door is a family who we think is from Japan. Why they were in Kalispell, we do not know. Maybe they were visiting the park too? Well, the Sakamoto family has rented a brand new Ford Focus and guess what, it has an alarm with a remote. Apparently Mr. Sakamoto was even more concerned about theft than Sam and I were because this guy had to set the alarm every single time he came out to the car - which for some reason was every five minutes. The problem is that every time he set the alarm, the horn honked... twice. On top of that, the maintenance people at Motel 6 have apparently never heard of WD40 so every door on the building squeeks when they open and close. This went on and on and on until 11PM. No kidding. I finally looked through the window at the guy and gave him the "Ugly American Death Stare" (easy for me) and I thought he got the hint. Finally, peace and quiet. Sleep comes easy after that. We've been on the road for 7 hours and we're tired.
5AM Friday morning, July 2: I am jolted from a log-like sleep by noise coming from next door. Their TV is turned up as loud as it will go. Fine, I can filter that out. But then I hear kids giggling and squealing. Okay, they're getting ready to leave - only a few minutes more and it will be quiet again. Then I hear knocking on the wall. Okay, now this is approaching the limits of tolerance. Then the squeaking starts again. Mr. Sakamoto loves the door! It opens and closes and opens and closes. That's it. The bucket is full. I jump up and mutter "enough is enough" as I move towards the door. Sam is awake now too and offers to join me. Half asleep and the other half fully irritated, we go next door.
Their door is ajar so I go to push it open and Sam dives right in with a good old fashioned DEA-raid-style knocking. The door opens and there they are - the kids have constructed a fort between the beds and are gleefully playing, oblivious to the fact that it is five in the morning. Dad is standing there watching and looks up at us in horror. He sees two half awake, unshaven angry white men covering the door. There is no escape for the family from Japan. We've had enough and we let them know - in no uncertain terms. The children stare at us in stunned silence. The mother never shows herself. Mr. Sakamoto can only say "Solly, solly, solly". We thank him for his understanding and return to our cave. Back in our room, it occurs to me what the terrified folks next door must be thinking. "We have just had a near death experience with the Hell's Angels". I look at it from their perspective: Harley's parked out front, two huge bearded men, one blanketed with tattoos, coming into the room to eat the children and do something terrible to the parents. As Sam put it - Two Angry White Bears. Pretty soon we are laughing so hard, we can't go back to sleep. The best thing was - there was not another sound from the neighbors until they finally finished getting ready and left about fifteen minutes later.
A little while later we head out for Glacier National Park. It's only about 33 miles from the motel and we make excellent time.
We enter the park, and immediately see the big sign warning us of bears. This park is the real thing. Yes, Yosemite has bears - California Black Bears and yes they can be dangerous. But Glacier National Park has Grizzly bears. This park also has the highest number of bear attacks of any park in the U.S. We take the warning seriously.
It doesn't take long before we start to see that this place is incredibly beautiful. The road from the West entrance is is the beginning of the "Going to the Sun Road", a 55 mile ride that will take us through the heart of the park along the Continental Divide then down to the other side ending in St. Mary. This is recognized as one of the most scenic roads in the world and we are seeing why. The road begins running through the trees, along Lake McDonald. As you climb higher into the park, you start to get glimpses of the incredible snow capped peaks along Howe Ridge. The air is brisk even in July and the smell of the evergreens is incredible, like a Christmas tree lot. Awesome.
After a little time, we round a corner and find a number of cars parked in the turnout with people standing around. I wonder why they are here and then look off to the left. Wow. It's our first real view of a glacier. Amazing to see - but as it turns out, this is nothing compared to what we will see. Every view is awesome, but the view around the next corner is even better than the last.
There is peak after peak after peak. All snow capped or covered by glaciers. The sky is blue, the clouds are white and the moutain sides that are not covered with snow are green and lush. Spectacular.
As we continue, the road takes us up past many waterfalls. It is amazing how many waterfalls are active in the park at this time. There are literally hundreds of visible falls. Some are small but some cover the entire height of some of the larger peaks.
At this point along the route, the views are so plentiful and beautiful that my head is whipping around like it's on a spring. Since the speed along this road is 35mph, we decide to ride with our helmets off. It's worth the risk. Now I can see everything and actually hear all of the waterfalls. The weather is warm and it's basically about as much fun as anyone could have.
Waterfalls like these can be seen everywhere throughout the park. Maybe it's the recent rains from afternoon thunder storms that have been blowing in for days before we arrived or maybe it's the snowmelt from high atop the many peaks in this park. Either way, the water is moving in Glacier National Park.
This is one of the most famous areas of the park. It is called the "Weeping Wall" because the water flows through the cracks in the granite here continually. If you look closely at this photo you can see the gutter that the NPS has molded into this part of the road (which is concrete here) to drain away the water. If you don't drive into the other lane here, you will get a free car wash.
More glaciers and peaks along the Going-to-the-Sun-Road.
Most of the peaks along this road are around 9,000 feet high.
The ride all the way up to Logan Pass is picture perfect. We could not have asked for more. We stopped at the visitor center here to take a break and take in the sites.
Logan Pass is adjacent to "The Garden Wall" - a popular place to view Big Horn Sheep. Today is no disappointment. Just across the road and down a short trail, there is a herd of about 6 - 10 sheep grazing. I was able to walk within fifty feet of the herd and snapped a few photos with my Canon A1. (Click on links). Sam took this photo with his digital camera.
Big Horn Sheep pic 2 | Big Horn Sheep pic 3 | Big Horn Sheep pic 4
The namesake of the road we are on - "Going to the Sun" Mountain. This peak is 9,642 ft. high. This photo doesn't do any justice for how huge and awe-inspiring this mountain is.
This is St. Mary Lake - located on the backside of the Continental Divide. If you look to the left of the bike here in the lake, you will see Wild Goose Island. This is the same island you can see in the photo at the top of this page. The peaks and glaciers visible in the top photo are just over my right shoulder here. St. Mary Lake is 9 miles long.
Just down the road from here is the East entrance to the park. Just North of the East entrance is a little restaurant called "The Park Cafe". Someone told us about it back at Logan Pass so that's where we decide to go for lunch. Sam asks again, "What are you famous for?" and without a moment's hesitation the girl answers "Pie". Something tells me this is where we will make up for our experience at "R Place". This Park Cafe has burgers made with 100% Angus beef and they are by far the best food we've had on this trip. The menu boasts a number of different choices for pie. One that jumps out at me is the peach pie. That's fresh peach pie. Up on the wall I see a sign advertising "Wilconson's Ice Cream - a product of Montana". That's it for me - peach pie a la mode it is! It is by far the best I have ever eaten. Sorry mom.
What I didn't realize at the time was that "The Park Cafe" is only about 19 miles from the Canadian border. If I would have thought about it, we could have gone in to Canada. Just exactly why I would want to, I don't know.
After lunch and dessert, we head back into the park, past another "Deadly Bears" sign, to enjoy the same beautiful scenery and weather a second time.
(note: flags at visitor center behind me at half-mast in honor of President Reagan)
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We make our way back up to Logan Pass - but this time it looks a little different. Uh oh. The afternoon thunder storms are moving in and the pass is dark and ominous. Some of the people up here look a little panicked when we hear thunder. Something about the crack of lightning at 7,000 feet and only a mile away that gets your attention. I'm no Grizzly Adams but even I know it's going to rain. The question is, do we go into the visitor center and spend a few hours reading about Lewis and Clark while the storm passes or do we try to beat it? Maybe the storm will blow over - but maybe it will last for three days? Who knows? A look down the pass shows some sunlight and blue sky and so it looks like we might be able to ride around the storm just by staying on the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. We decide to make a break for it. Well, this road could now be called the "Going-to-the-Ark-Road". We get less than 100 feet out of the parking lot at Logan when the sky opens up. Crap. Guess we aren't going to ride around this one. Luckily the rain isn't as cold as it could be at 7k ft. - but it isn't exactly a warm Summer shower either. The drops are huge. Fortunately, my pants and jacket are 100% synthetic. Even if I get soaked, I know I can dry out quickly.
The rain isn't really a big deal to us. We can handle some water. What is a big deal is the totally idiotic tourists on the steep, twisty, wet, mud slickened road in front of us who decide that now would be a fun time to stop and try to touch the waterfall coming down off the rocks next to the road. I find this all less than entertaining and use the Harley's horn for the first time on this trip. Nice horn! Sounds like a Buick. Scared the crap out of me! Got Florida Boy's attention too! Beautiful. At this point, I simply go around the guy and assume my position in the front of the line.
The photo here is from the NPS (National Park Service) taken the day before we got there showing the rock slides that covered this portion of the road. The NPS got the rocks off the pavement but there was plenty of mud and sand left behind. Add to this that it's an honest 1,000 feet straight down if you go off the side and this quickly goes from a happy frolic in the park to man stuff. Stupid maneuvers from oblivious car drivers are not funny at this point.
About another mile down the road we encounter "Camper Bob". Here's a guy that has a brand new Ford F-350 with a camper shell on it. But Bob hasn't got a clue as to where the four corners of his vehicle are. This means that every time Camper Bob comes to a turn in the road - a road bordered by sheer granite walls to the right and sheer cliffs to the left - he stops and proceeds at 1mph for fear that he'll hit his camper shell on a rock. Great. It's raining, the road is paved with snot and now I have to deal with hitting the brakes every few feet on a steel pig that weighs in at around 800 pounds. At this point I'm pretty sure I will probably get to see the inside of a Montana hospital before the day is over. But after a few prayers, God blesses us with a break in the rain and with some encouragement from the other drivers following the camper guy, he pulls over and let's us pass.
After this, we simply continue on back to the West entrance to the park. It rains on us periodically for the next twenty five miles, but it's okay. We stay pretty dry with what we are wearing and after all - it's an adventure weekend.
We returned to the Motel 6 at around 6:30PM MDT and neither of us wanted to stay there again. So we got a refund for the night and decided to make our way back to Spokane. We already had about 200 miles and ten hours on the clock, but even making the 250 mile trip back to Washington sounded better than spending another night in Kalispell.
After some brow-beating for cancelling our room, the clerk at M6 advised us to stay off Hwy 2 at night. "Too many animals", she said. Normally I probably would have dismissed this as alarmist, but after all the deer and deer parts I saw on the way over, I took her seriously. We chose an alternate route.
We really didn't care when we would get home. We knew we could stop and rest whenever we wanted so going for the long haul although ambitious, was still reasonable. The route we planned was filled with lots of beautiful scenery and it definitely fit into the "adventure" category.
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Everything was fine until we got to Ravalli, Montana. Somehow we decided to turn right instead of left. We had intended to take a short cut through Plains, Idaho to hit I-90 and then blast up to Spokane. Instead we ended up doing about 150 miles up Hwy 200, along the Clark Fork River and Trout Creek. We were pointed in the right direction but the route was longer. The views were spectacular until the sun went down on us and basically we were lost. I mean, we knew where we were on the map, so we weren't lost - but we were not where we planned on being. The trip added about two hours to the ride. We landed in Spokane around 1 AM PDT. I slept like a soggy log that night.
We spent the rest of the weekend riding the Harleys everywhere. We rode back into Idaho a few times - to Priest Lake and over to Couer d'Alene and the famous Hudson's Grill - a tiny family owned hole in the wall that served the best hamburgers I have ever eaten. And yes, they are better than In-n-Out or A's Burgers.
I do have to say that Idaho is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. There are lakes and rivers and trees literally everywhere. There is abundant wildlife everywhere you look. The areas of the state that I saw give you that true "unspoiled America" feel. Not to mention that Idaho is one of the last states in the union to recognize the original concept of American freedom - i.e.; no helmet or seatbelt laws, minimal gun laws, fireworks still legal, etc.
On the Fourth of July, we went out to Green Acres - an area about twenty minutes from Sam and Lauretta's house. It is an area of rolling hills covered with lush green orchards of apples, cherries, huckleberries, etc. The area is dotted with beautiful houses on variously sized parcels of land. Kind of like what Coto De Caza wishes it could be. We rode through the hills and plains out there and stopped at a small house converted into a store/restaurant and had lunch. Another day of great food, friends, weather and scenery.
From there we went back into Spokane to BBQ dinner at Sam's house. Then we rode the bikes over to Cliff Drive - a high priced area overlooking downtown Spokane where we were able to park in front of all the cars, walk up to a front row spot and watch a fireworks display that lasted for a solid half-hour. When it was over we simply walked back to the bikes, fired them up and split before anybody else could even get their cars in gear. Ah, yes, it is good to have a bike, especially when there are crowds.
We kept the bikes until Tuesday morning. As much as I hate to admit it, I didn't want to give the thing back. Like I said before, for this weekend and this trip, it was the right bike.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004, I fly out of John Wayne Airport for Seattle where I will grab a turbo-prop over to Spokane. I leave at 7:30PM and arrive in Spokane at midnight. Sam picks me up and after a short trip to his house, I go straight to bed.
