It was another chilly night but not as bad as the last one. The Conservation Corps folks were taking down their tents and getting their breakfast together while we started our morning routines. I made myself a cup of hot cocoa, the cup which made a good hand warmer. Things were pretty damp and while I don’t like packing the tent up that way, it’s the last day and I’ll get it dried out when I get home.
Before getting too far, we gassed up in Wisdom and started the ride to Dillon, MT.
It's quite beautiful out although we need to cross those mountains at some point.
As we got close to the small town of Jackson, the road was covered with something that made me concerned about slipping: several miles of manure. It looks like they had a cattle drive here very recently. Down the road a ways, we stopped for a photo opportunity.
In that background are the mountains and clouds we need to go through and go through them we did. The fog got so thick that I could barely see what was ahead and kept my speed at 35 MPH or slower to give me enough time to brake should I encounter something on the road.
We left the cloud as we descended the other side of the mountain and it felt good get into the clear again. In front of the college in Dillon we pulled over to wipe down our visors which had a heavy condensation from the fog.
We headed toward Twin Bridges and Whitehall with the plan to get gas. We rode through a fair amount of rain along the way so when we stopped to gas up in Cardwell, MT, I got my rain gear on. That is pretty much a guarantee that the rain will stop and, for the most part, it did.
As we went across Bozeman Pass, my odometer turned off to 25,000 miles. That’s a lot of riding from when I picked the bike up, new, in April 2021. Considering that there are 5 months per year where it doesn’t get ridden, due to our weather, that means that I’ve ridden it for 14-15 months since I’ve had it. That works out to about 1,700 miles per month.
We grabbed the slab (AKA the Interstate) and rode that to Big Timber for another gas stop. From there is was a quick ride to Laurel where we exited the freeway and took our tradition route between there and Billings via Buffalo Trail. We honked our good-byes as we passed the turnoff to Bill’s and I arrived home a few minutes later to a welcoming wife and a happy dog.
It was a 335 mile day. The trip total 3,979 miles.
What a GREAT trip!!!
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