An International Ride - Day 2

October 10, 2023

We camped in Trafton Park in Malta which is the city park along the Milk River and, as a city park, one is serenaded by a cacophony of city sounds: cars driving through the park, traffic on nearby Hwys 2 and 191, dogs barking, and a train going by every couple of hours.  I pretty much slept OK, even with the clatter and the cool temperatures.  We both got up about the same time and got moving around to stay warm.

The park is actually quite nice and the price is good too: $5.  We were not alone as there were a couple of RVers there as well.

We went through the ritual of getting packed up, a process that, from experience, takes the best part of an hour.  The itinerary I’d made had us leaving at 9am and it was 8:54 when we started up the bikes.  We’d both gassed up yesterday so we were ready to roll.  The first stop was there in Malta at the Phillips County Courthouse to add to my collection of photos of my bike parked in from of courthouses.  This one is pretty nice.

Then it was back on the highway and instead of 191 we were headed west on Hwy 2, formally known as U.S Route 2, which extends from Maine to Washington state and has its own Wikipedia page. In Chinook, MT we pulled over at a historic point that explained the Battle of Bears Paws, a sad part of our history.

The next stop was in Havre, MT for gas and another courthouse photo.  We are in Hill County now.

BTW, my bike continues to average a bit over 54 miles to the gallon on 87 octane regular.

Havre is a pretty good-sized city and maybe a place to come back and visit someday.  We hunted down Hwy 87 and headed south.  It’s still a bit brisk out but I am staying comfortable with my grip headers on the medium setting.  Here’s a couple photos of the landscape just north of Fort Benton.

The terrain in this part of the state is easy to view as it is a grain-growing region and hardly a tree to be found.  The highway is very straight with only the occasional hill or valley.  Some might call it “boring” but on a motorcycle, things are never boring, after all, I am on a motorcycle, riding along in the open road.  How can that ever be boring?

North of Big Sandy, Hwy 87 runs parallel to the railroad and the track is pretty obviously being used to house some rail cars.  I should have stopped for a photo but here’s the lines of cars that ran for many miles:

The cars were marked with “DTTX” followed by a number and after returning I looked that up and it appears that these are flat cars designed to carry intermodal shipping containers.

My navigator software, which I hear on the speakers in my helmet, guided us to old Fort Benton which sits right above the Missouri River.  Historically, this was as far up the river that steamboats could travel as the Great Falls were impassable.  Fort Benton has a deep history and worth another visit, during “the season,” when museums and such are open.

We picked a picnic spot at the old fort with a nice view of the river.  Bill cooked up his lunch while I wandered around the park and took in some views of the river.

Back on the road we wound our way to the town of Belt and stopped for gas.

We headed south toward Monarch to where the road became interesting.  Pine lined curves, one after another for miles and miles on Hwy 89.

I didn’t stop to take any more photos on this section as I just enjoyed the run.  However, we did tour a few campgrounds along the way for future reference and I think I liked Many Pines the best.

At the end of our tour of Hwy 89 we headed east on Hwy 12 toward Harlowton, a 55 mile stretch though vast ranch lands.  At one point I glanced down at my odometer and saw that I’d hit the 29,000 mark.  There was a pull off just in time to grab a photo.

I bought the bike, new, in April 2021 and figure that with having it stored during our winter-no-riding months (December through March), I get 8 months per year of riding in.  I think that makes about 22 months of riding to cover those 29K miles, or about 1,300 miles per month.  I guess one can say that I like it.

Ah, the open road….

In Harlowton we made a gas and comfort stop/

From the rest stop we could see snow covering the Crazy Mountains.

The ride to Billings was fine, a road I’ve done numerous times, and glad to be getting though it before dusk as it is a known highway of death for the local deer population.  

I pulled into my driveway at 6:22 pm.  It was a 434 mile day with 817 miles for the trip.

While is was a bit late in the year to attempt an overnight ride, it was more than worth it.  We dodged the incoming wet weather, covered lots of miles, and I saw parts of the state I’d never visited before, not to mention the side trip to Canada. That was a lot for just 2 days.

The bike needs a good washing and then it will be ready for a few more rides before it gets put away for the winter.  There are quite a few day rides I’m thinking of before that happens.

One last thought after going through LOTS of small towns.  It’s tough, economically, to make a business survive in these places evidenced by the many abandoned or boarded up buildings.  However, it seems that the last to survive is a bar.

Here’s our trip map:

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