Getting a Group Ride Together
There were 5 of us, making it the largest group I’ve ridden with in decades. So why did the introvert put such a thing together? Well, it’s about fun and experience and doing something new.
Over the past two years since I bought my FJR, I’ve met other folks who have motorcycles and the talk of riding together has come up a few times. Bill and I have done quite a few day rides together and, most recently, a 10-day road trip. Keith I’ve known for a few years and knew he had a Gold Wing but we hadn’t had the chance to ride together because of work being done on the bike. Rob, who Keith brought into the group, I knew tangentially through my days teaching and it turns out he likes to ride. Mick I know through my car club and he’d expressed an interest in a group ride. I thought, why not bring this diverse group together and do a ride and see what happens.
Route Planning
We have quite a few options here for routes that range from long, straight rides over the prairies to routes with twisty mountain roads. Some rides have destinations, such as a museum or a brewery, while others are simply about the road as is the case with the Beartooth and Chief Joseph scenic highways.
I made up some possible routes on Google maps, looking at distances, times, and attractions. I thought maybe an easy first ride might be from Billings to Lavina to Roundup and back. It does define easy but is very high on the boring. The Beartooth would be a good option but the technical nature of the ride, as a first ride, along with impending negative weather, put that on the back burner. Yes, we have weather issues with daily thunderstorms predicted, not unusual for this time of year. After playing around with multiple options, I decided that a route that would allow us to bail out if the weather turned inclement would be the best option and chose a Billings to Columbus route would be a good first leg and from there we could choose wether to take the longer way toward the Beartooths and Red Lodge or cut it short and head to Joliet from there.
The Ride
I’d sent out text messages to Bill, Mick, and Keith and Keith contacted Rob. I explained the route and indicated that we’d meet up in my driveway at 9am and leave from there. And that we did. My wife came out and shot some photos of our departure.
We headed west on Rimrock Road and wound our way out of town on what has become a standard escape route from the city, to Buffalo Trail and took that to Laurel, MT. From there we took the old highway that goes past Park City, through the short set of twisties east of Columbus, into Columbus where we pulled over for a discussion of the route. The weather didn’t look too bad with some dark clouds ahead but they seemed to hover over the Beartooths and, hopefully, would stay there.
An even short perusing of this blog will show that I tend to stop and take lots of photos to document my rides but today I didn’t take many. The route is rather short on safe places to pull over, even just a single bike, and when there are five of us we’d need as much room as an RV so I only took a few shots when we stopped for gas and such. As you read this, if you feel like you need some scenery, I’ve done this route before and there are some good photos on this entry: Belfry, Red Lodge, Columbus Loop.
The ride from Columbus through Absarokee, past Roscoe, to Red Lodge is a particularly nice ride. It’s not got the twisties of other roads but, instead, has massive uphill and downhill sweepers that are fun to negotiate and give the bike a chance to really stretch its legs. The first time I rode this, about two years ago, I was really intimidated as my skill set was still low on the learning curve and there were massive cross winds coming out of the nearby mountains. On today’s ride, my skill set is greatly improved (I have added over 25,000 miles of riding since that first time) and there is virtually no wind.. The sky looked increasingly threatening and I wondered if we’d end up in a serious thunderstorm and have to abort the ride but things held steady and we arrived in Red Lodge dry and satisfied. It was time for a few to gas up and we took a break at the Town Pump just off the roundabout.
We discussed the weather and decided we could continue on the planned route and would likely outrun the storm that appeared to be sticking close to the mountains. We rode though Main Street and saw all the road construction that was repairing the flood damage from last year’s event that did lots of damage to that end of town. I take part in an annual 10K run there around Labor Day and I remember that last year they had to alter the course a bit last year because the road was covered with river rocks and mud. Repairs are still ongoing.
We made it to the bridge that crosses over Rock Creek, which is running high and fast, and headed up on Hwy 308 toward Bearcreek. This is a nice curvy road that climbs up to a scenic lookout and then makes a quick descent before it winds across some nice green scenery (green this time of year) before coming to an end at Hwy 72 in Belfry. Even though tourist season is upon us, traffic today is very light and we proceed north past farm and ranch land to the intersection with Hwy 310 a mile south of Bridger.
In Bridger we turn right on East Broadway to do the backroad to Fromberg. This is a small county road that was paved/patched a few years ago and offers a nice 8-10 mile diversion from riding the main highway. We were about a mile into this road when we started getting a few raid drops from a huge, gray cloud to our right. The drops became more steady but were still in the sprinkle category and not concerning enough to make me want to pull over and don my rain gear. By the time we got to Fromberg, the rain was behind us and we sailed along the highway to the turnoff for the town of Edgar.
Edgar is really small, with a population of 110, and has a few businesses that serve the surrounding agricultural community but is locally known for the Edgar Bar and Restaurant, a place people rave about for their steaks and other menus items. As a longtime vegetarian I’ll just have to take their word for it. However, Edgar’s attraction for me is a display at the east end of town. I know nothing about this other than I’ve watched it grown over the past two years with new elements added frequently. I refer to it as a “Carhenge” and it’s a great example of “outsider” or “folk” art.
We continued on the highway to Rockvale where we got onto Hwy 212 for about a mile before diverting off to the old Hwy 212. This 9-mile section of 2-lane was replaced by the 4-lane highway a few years ago but the old one is more interesting so I prefer to take it. It eventually connects back to the new highway, just a mile south of Laurel where I made the turn and glanced back in my mirror to count that I still had four bikes behind me. What I saw was surprising as one of the group had trouble negotiating the turn and ended up in the weeds in the center of the road. I pulled over and watched the action in my mirror but when I saw the rider get back up on the highway and continue on I went ahead riding.
When I got to Theil Road I turned right and we rode that to the intersection with Duck Creek Road, a route that is a nice alternative that winds its way along the Yellowstone River. As per the the plan for the day, we stopped at Canyon Creek School’s parking lots for a debriefing and to allow everyone to proceed on from there on their own.
There was some discussion about the off-roading that took place but was quickly replaced by the arrival of the Highway Patrol. I thought “uh-oh” but it turned out that he was looking for a couple dogs that were running loose. Evidently they had crossed the road in the middle of our group so, being lead, I’d missed that but had seen them when we had stopped. The patrolman went on his way and a few minutes later a county sheriff showed up asking about the same dogs. Wow, that’s a lot of law enforcement for a couple stray dogs so they must be on some “most wanted” list to have instigated the level of a dog hunt.
We chatted a bit and then headed out, all looking forward to doing this again.
It was a 173.7 mile day.
An Update
After the group went its separate ways, I proceeded along the Frontage Road and turned right *south_ on Wise Lane to get to the ramp that goes over the freeway and connects to Zoo Drive. Here’s the intersection where I will make a left turn.
At the time, a northbound truck was at the stop sign. Here is a view from where the truck was.
Note that I do not have a stop sign. As I approached the intersection and was getting ready to start my turn, with my turn signal on, the truck proceeded north, causing me to grip the brakes. The other driver must have assumed that this intersection is a 3-way stop, which it is not, and this is something I’ve noted in the past at this intersection which is why I was prepared for this.
I’ve written an email to the county road office and suggested that they could improve the safety of this intersection by adding signage to that northbound stop sign that indicates that “Oncoming Traffic Does Not Stop” or by adding a stop sign for the southbound traffic that makes this a 3-way stop.
I always assume the worse when approaching ANY intersection.
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