Day 12- Seeley Lake to Glacier NP.

171 miles.

We made the trek down the dirt road and back onto Highway 83. It's a super fun, fast, and smooth road through the forest. The speed limit in Montana is 75 pretty much everywhere, except in towns. It makes for awesome riding.
We stopped in Bigfork for breakfast, gas, and bought some Flathead cherries.
We made it to the park early and found an awesome campsite at Sprague Creek. It's right on the shore of Lake McDonald, so the first thing we did was go for a swim/bath. It is a super deep lake formed by an ancient glacier, it's sand and rock bottomed and the water is super clear.
We then rode The Going to the Sun Road to the top of Logan Pass. It's amazing up there and we hiked up through snow and along glacial lakes. The views were amazing and we saw some mountain goats.
Back at the campground we made dinner and went for another swim. We met our neighbors, Kate and Hannah and we sat around their campfire talking and roasting marshmallows. Today was most excellent.



Glacial lake.



Hidden Lake, I think.



Tourist viewpoint.



Mountain Goat.



Mom and baby.



Glacier NP

Bug Report.
6/10
The bugs were mellow today, a few on our way to the park. No in the park.

Day 11- Hebgen Lake to Seeley Lake.

346 miles.

We woke up super early in order to get to Missoula in time for Rudi to get his new tire. It was butt ass cold, probably in the high 30's. We froze our asses off until the sun came up.
I was a little bummed we couldn't take the roads I took last year, instead we just mashed up to the 90 and got to Missoula ASAP. The tire got installed and we left town, headed north into the mountains to explore an old ghost town called, Garnet.
It was an 11 mile dirt road to get to it and it was totally worth it. It's considered Montana's most well preserved ghost town. It's like a much smaller version of Bodie, CA. While there we also learned that there are huckleberries all over the mountains.
It was getting late and we were planning on staying at a NFS campground at Seeley Lake, being 6:30 pm on a Saturday we had no luck. Instead, we turned up a dirt fire road called, Rice Ridge Rd. About 4 miles up we found a perfect spot to camp. It was a little nerve racking camping up there, as it's grizzly country, but we were fine.




Garnet ghost town.












A big ol' blower.






TCOB.












Safety Zone.



Old flooded mine shaft.



Dinner.



Dessert.


Rice Ridge.

Bug Report.
8/10
Lots of good ones, I even have a new moth friend.

Day 10- Grand Teton NP to Hebgen Lake.

125 miles.

We made breakfast and headed towards Yellowstone. We crossed the Divide a couple more times and stopped to see Old Faithful. A lot of waiting, build up, anticipation, but not much of a show. We got wet though.
We continued through the west side of the park and stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, which is very, very cool.
Because of Rudi's tire, we did not explore the northern or eastern parts of the park.
We left the park and ate lunch in West Yellowstone and headed towards Hebgen Lake to meet up at the base camp for the Buffalo Field Campaign.
We were welcomed and unloaded our gear and headed down to the lake for a swim. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting around and talking to a few of the volunteers. We made dinner on a real stove and continued hanging out into the night. We were going to wake up and watch the meteor shower in the middle of the night, but the full moon lit the sky up too much. We camped on the front lawn.









Fattys waiting.



A squirt and some steam.



Midway Geyser Basin.



Some buffalo.



Montana. USA.



Slanty shanty.






Home for the night.

Bug Report.
7/10
Today was pretty good. Caught a lot of little guys near the lake.

Day 9- Dubois to Grand Teton NP

144 miles.

I slept well and late. We went next door to the Cowboy Cafe for breakfast and I made sure to get some of their pie togo. As we were leaving town we had a little scare with Rudi's bike when the oil light came on briefly. We topped up and headed towards Jackson.
They're still doing a ton of construction over the pass and it ate up a lot of time.
We eventually made it to Jackson and stopped at the market to stock up on food. I noticed that Rudi's tire was wearing super fast, less than 3,000 miles and it was almost bald. The closest place that could get us a tire was in Missoula, Montana almost 500 miles away. We told them we'd be there by Saturday.
We cruised through the park, which took way longer than we expected and we were looking for some of Rudi's friends who do the Buffalo Field Campaign. By the time we figured out where they were we were on opposite ends of the park and it was getting late.
We got a spot at Lizard Creek CG, it was alright, but this was the second National Park we've been to on this trip that has contracted out their campgrounds to private companies and they charge insane rates. $20.50 at Teton and $25.00 at Mesa Verde. It's criminal.
Anyway, we went for a swim in Jackson Lake, made dinner and crashed out early.



Snake River and the Tetons.



Jackson Lake.


Babe mobile.

Bug Report.
5/10
Nothing like yesterday, but a few guys.

Day 8- Grand Lake to Dubois.

383 miles.

We left Rocky Mountain National Park early in the morning because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. At the entrance to the park is the Grand Lake Cemetery, where our grandmother is buried. We stopped there and planted some Columbine seeds. She died 14 years ago, but I still miss her dearly.
We headed north to Wyoming and followed a river for awhile, river roads are always super fun for me. Rudi's bike was finally handling well and he was blasting.
Once we got into southern Wyoming it started to get pretty windy and flat and Rudi was questioning why the hell we were there. Eventually the mountains appeared in the distance. We were planning on camping up in the mountains above Dubois, I was there last summer for a job and knew of a few awesome places. By the time we got into Dubois we were both pretty pooped and decided to get a hotel instead. It was my first shower and bed in 8 days, it felt great.



Our grandmother's grave.


Willow Creek Pass.


Mummified police.



Rand, CO.


Wyoming, USA.

Bug Report.
10/10
It was a fucking bug holocaust. I guess this explains why we've been getting eaten by Mosquitos so much, payback.

Day 7- Angel of Shavano Falls to Grand Lake

222 miles.

We packed up first thing and headed out on the road. Stopped for coffee and a bite to eat in Buena Vista and then continued through the mountains. We went through Leadville and Climax, which has the world's largest molybdenum mine, it also sits at 11,360'.
We stopped in Winter Park to ride the alpine slide. We used to go there as kids and it was still super fun. We continued into Grand Lake and stopped at the Post Office. Rudi had a pair of shocks sent to him from his shop in Santa Barbara because his were toast.
We went into the Park and got a spot at Timber Creek. It's a pretty shitty campground to be honest. It's just a big flat open space with no trees and the sites are super close to each other. We set up and rode into town and do laundry. We used to come here every summer until we were 14, our grandmother lived here and our great grandparents were pioneers in the town. Our great grandfather had a store that supplied the miners and was the postmaster. It is also the headwaters to the Colorado River, I bet all my pee as a kid has finally reached LA. Drink up. Not much had changed since the last time I was there.
We rode back to our campsite. I installed Rudi's shocks and he made dinner. We crashed out by 10.



Some alpine lake.



Moon dude.


Mountains.


Berthoud Pass.


Alpine slide.



Rudi, scared.



More alpine slide.



Zoooooooommm!!



Think of this when you drink tap water in LA.



Chomp.

Bug Report.
7/10
We hit a lot early in the morning, especially in the meadow outside of Leadville. Nothing to crazy though.