Beartooth and the Chief Joseph

 August 28, 2022

Pretty nice weather so why not do the loop?  I checked with Bill yesterday and he was in so we met up at 8am this morning and got on our way.  Bill led us to Red Lodge on the usual route, Buffalo Trail to Laurel, and Laurel on Hwy 212 to Red Lodge.  

We stopped for gas and I ruined someone’s morning.  Bill pulled up behind a police pickup and got gas there.  I drove around to the other side of the island and noticed a guy in, I think, a PT Cruiser type of car, pulling in and driving around the traffic cones into a gravel area.  I had no idea what he was doing and I stopped on the pump opposite Bill and go ready to top up.  Well, the guy in the car wanted to turn out of that gravel area and pull up where I was and now had to back up and turn around.  He let out a litany of F-bombs and MF-bombs.  He continued doing so all the way to the other pump, while he was gassing up, and when he left.  I’ve heard of “road rage” but I guess this gas pump rage.

I took the lead and we went up the highway to where the switchbacks start and stopped for the first photos of the day.

We continued on to Vista Point.

We stopped at the lookout above Gardner Lake for both photos and I needed to don some more clothing.  It was about 40 degrees with a good wind so plenty chilly.  I had my rain liner in my mesh jacket but that wasn’t enough so I pulled out a sweatshirt with a high collar and put that on under the jacket.  I also swapped out my summer gloves for my cold weather ones.  I already had the grip heaters on High.  This a pretty spot.  Bill said he used to snowmobile here.

We stopped at the top for the usual photo.  Bill took advantage of his bike’s built-in hand warmers.

We headed down the west side of the mountain and stopped for a moment at Long Lake.

We stopped at another scenic lookout and met a young guy from Utah on a month-long excursion on his Triumph.

He’s already been to South Dakota and was heading to the Pacific Coast to ride that coastal highway.

I snapped a few photos before we headed down the hill to the intersection with the Chief Joseph Byway.

We did some miles on the Chief Joseph and I found a place to pull over before he headed up the switchbacks.

We next stopped at Sunlight Creek Bridge, the highest bridge in Wyoming at 285 feet.

There is quite the view from there.

The next stop was at Dead Indian Summit Overlook.

At some point we lightened our layers and went back to summer gloves as by the time we got to the bottom, the intersection with Highway 120, it was getting plenty warm again.  The ride north from that point to Belfry, is well, straight.  Very straight.  At one point we were passed by a stream of Harleys and the last guy wouldn’t have avoided the oncoming car if I hadn’t moved over.  Dumb ass.

In Bridger we stopped for gas and chatted with a guy who pulled in driving a ‘59 Studebaker pick up.  It had a great patina.

We picked up the Fromberg/Bridger road, a nice, paved, backroad that I road for the first time last week.

In Fromberg we made a quick stop so I could photograph the abandoned garage that I’ve used as an art subject a few time.  I had my Rolleicord camera, which shoots film, so no pictures of that here, yet.

Bill took over the lead and we made our way back to Billings having left 6 and 1/2 hours earlier.  A 260 mile day and lots of fun.

Backroad from Fromberg to Bridger

August 22, 2022

I headed to Fromberg to do a bit more sketching. It was really nice out and the ride was relaxing.  When I got there I set up across from the Post Office since I’d worked my way toward that end on the street in my previous sketch.

I parked in a shady spot in front of the fire desperate not.

Here what I am sketching today.

I turned to a new page and got started.  It was quiet there and most of the action takes place at the Post Office, people coming by to pick up their mail.  After a bit, 3 of them come over to see what I was doing, including Mr. Edwards who I’d talked to the other day.  They checked out the drawing and then I heard more about the local history.

I got about as far as I wanted for today, about 2 hours worth, and had the post office and what used be be the old theater inked in.

I got out my medium format film camera to take some photos on the street.  I wanted to reshoot the old candy machine I’d shot the other day in 35mm and see if I get a better negative to work with.  The one I got is OK but I think that a larger negative and finer grained film might be beneficial.  I also took some shots of the old bank, the Post Office, and an abandoned building.

I geared up and rode across the highway and went over Clarks Fork River to get to the Fromberg-Bridger Road.  I’d looked on the map and it appeared to be paved so I thought I’d give it a try.  It’s a great ride through farmland on a road that is well-paved and has some good twists.  I stopped for photos along the way.

The road went to the right across the tracks and I missed that and headed straight.  Whoops!  The pavement ended and I thought maybe I could ride on the gravel but right away it turned into a loose, washerboard mess.  I turned around and got back on the pavement.  The gravel had started just past those silos.

I picked up some dirt.

Well, that was it.  I got back on the highway and retraced my steps, getting home about 2:30.  A great, if short, day ride.

Riding and sketching

August 9, 2022

My goal today was to ride at least 80 miles and see my odometer turn over to 15,000 miles.  To accomplish that I decided to ride to Fromberg, about 40 miles away and do some sketching.  I’ve been there before and sketched up an old abandoned garage in May of 2021:

The ride there was great.  It was getting warm but the light traffic made it relaxing.  I cruised the downtown main street, the whole block of it, several times looking for an interesting view and some shade to sit it.  I decided to park in from of a blacksmith’s shop, near their town hall and sketch the north side of the street.  I set up my stool, got out my drawing tools and go after it.

I think I was there for a little over an hour.  Time really does fly when doing this type of sketching.  I started with a layout of shapes in graphite and then switched to pen and added the details.  I am using my sketchbook in a 2-page wide angle configuration and plan to get maybe 5 building is this drawing.  I needed to get up and move around, plus I was losing the shade, so I decided to call it quits and come back and continue in the same spot another day.  Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I’ll be adding watercolor to it later.

While sitting there a couple tourists rode by on a Honda ST-1100.  It was the first bike I’d heard in a while, other than mine, that wasn’t a V-Twin.  Here’s my bike on the street there:

I took my usual return trip back to Billings, Hwy 212 to Theil Road (River Road), to Duck Creek, to Story Road, and then up Shilo through the roundabouts.  When I got to King Ave. my odometer said to pull over for a photo:

Yep, I’ve ridden 15,000 miles since I got the bike in April 2021.  That’s over 1,000 miles per month which, of course, is probably higher than that since I really didn’t get out much during our winter.

I got home and had logged 84.7 miles for the day.

A short ride

August 7, 2022

It was a busy day with stuff interfering was riding.  At early A.M. we had to set up and manage the Yellowstone Rim Runners Mile at the Lockwood School track.  We hauled the clock and other stuff there and 4 runners showed up.  Sigh.

The Billings Urban Sketchers had a meetup at 1pm that I might have gone to but I had to attend a Yellowstone Rim Runners meeting for the planning of our Thanksgiving Day 5K at 2pm.  I rode my bike to the meetup and took off afterwards for a short ride.

I wound my my over to South Billing Blvd. and headed south, stopping for a quick look at Riverfront Park.  While a regular running spot for me, I’ve not been there in months, avoiding it due to ticks and mosquitoes.  It’s a better venue in the fall and through the winter until ticks emerge in April.  What I noticed is that they have paved more of the main road into the park and added the much needed speed bumps.

I continued on through Bluecreek and up over the hills to Pryor Road.  I’ve been there with really wild crosswinds but today was quite still.  I turned left on Pryor Road and traveled a mile or so before pulling over.  I wanted at least one photo op on the ride.

From there is was over the twisty road into a Lockwood and head on home.  A 50-mile day.