The weather is changing and fall is gone with the leaves on the trees and looking ahead I see lower and lower daytime temperatures. That doesn’t leave much time for riding but today was the day to get it done. Jason, a new-to-him FJR owner, and friend, contacted be and we texted back and forth until we came up with a plan for today’s ride. It’s a route I’ve done in one way or another in the the past and it seemed like a good one today.
We left at high noon and road through the Billings Heights, avoiding Main Street by using Hawthorn, Bitterroot, and Mary Streets to take us by Dover Park and eventually to Hwy 312. From there is was out to Pompey’s Pillar.
From there we road the frontage road to Custer, a nice, though straight, 2-lane highway that parallels I-94. In Custer we turned west for a just a few miles to Pease Bottom Road. It’s open range and we had to keep an eye on the cattle wandering on both sides of the road. About 8 miles along we pulled over for a break and to admire the scenery.
We turned around, went back to Custer and grabbed the slab for a few miles to the Hwy 47 intersection. We rode that to Hardin. There, Jason took the lead and we roads Old Hwy 87 back to Lockwood and through the twisties. We stopped shortly after that and after a brief discussion we headed to Carts Brewery to debrief. By the time we left it was dark and Jason headed home. I headed to a gas station and topped up my near-empty tank with no-alcohol premium for its winter rest.
It was about a 150-mile day.
