October 1, 2025
I rained a lot over night. By the time it began to get light it was coming in 30-minute waves with 30- minutes of rain and 30-minutes of light drizzle. During the lighter moments I got up to stretch and get some photos.
I got my breakfast going and with more rain I ate in the tent.
It finally looked like it was going to be clear so I got on the road. Right outside the campground was a stop for construction.
I had a pleasant ride to the state line at Lolo Pass.
The ride to Lolo and Missoula was quite nice. I got passed by some Harleys along the way but other than them I didn’t see much other traffic.
When I got to Missoula I pulled over to check my map and find where the county courthouse was located. When I started off, I was in front of Sentinal High School and it was lunch time as students escaping. I had to stop for pedestrians and was coming up behind several other cars, going very slow, when a car to my right backed out of her diagonal parking spot WITHOUT looking. She missed the back half of my bike by a foot. Unfortunately, my dash cam was still booting up and I didn't catch it on video.
I found the courthouse and can add that to my collection of my bike in front of county courthouses.
Now it was a straight ahead and nice ride to Helena and then to Townsend where I stopped for gas and a snack. From there I rode east and instead of doing the “shortcut” which misses White Sulphur Spring, I headed north to that town. I’ve done the shorter route which goes to Martinsdale, but I am not fond of one section of that road which is a bit rough. The other roots only adds a few minutes, plus I get another count courthouse photo, Meagher County.
I’d like to say that the remaining 90 miles to Billings was uneventful, and it really was, except for one rude dolt from Texas. I was in a short line of cars following two cattle trucks. As is done, starting with the first car behind the trucks we were taking turns passing them. When it became my turn, I signaled and was getting ready to go when a car passed me at a very high rate of speed. It had a Texas plate and I’m getting he was doing about 95 mph. It’s a good thing I check my mirrors.
While it really had nothing to do with that guy, I did open it up to pass those trucks and when I glanced down at my speedometer as I pulled back into the right lane I saw it read 103. That’s a personal record.
The remaining ride back to my driveway was swift and it felt good to pull into the garage.
It was a 414 mile day and about 9 hours. The total miles for this trip were 2,208.
No comments:
Post a Comment