May 28, 2026
I slept pretty well but at some point in the night I had a serious leg cramp. This is likely dehydration and I know I drank less water yesterday than usual. The rain had stopped at some point and when I looked outside the tent, the skies were blue. The temperature is chilly but nothing more than sweats and a knit hat are required.
I got water to heat on the stove and made up the usual breakfast: overnight oats and cocoa. While letting the oats steep, I finished off writing yesterday’s blog and thought about today’s plan.
I have two options for the return roughly to Billings: the 2-lane or the slab. I don’t feel strongly about one or the other and if I had a preference it would be to save time and get back earlier than later. I’ve never ridden the freeway all the way from Missoula to Billings and I am leaning toward that for the experience if for no other reason. I have time to decide until I get back to Missoula, about an hour and half form where I am camped.
Today’s breakfast table:
I was on the road a bit before 8 am and the roads were clear and dry. There were very few other vehicle out at this time. Not far from where I started I saw a your deer on the side of the road. That was the only animal I saw this morning and I was keeping a sharp eye out.
The climb to Lolo Pass was fun, lots of curves. When I got there I pulled in to the visitor center to shift the bike’s clock to Mountain Time. And I took a few photos.
The ride to Missoula was uneventful. I stopped for gas just before getting on the freeway. Once rolling, I decided to take the freeway all the way to Billings. It’s actually easier than the 2-lanes roads as there is no cross traffic and I can just put the cruise on a settle in.
Somewhere around Drummond I pulled into a rest area to shed layers. It was really getting warm and I wanted to get the liners out of my jacket, open all its vents, get out of my sweatshirt, and switch to my summer gloves. I parked next to another motorcycle, a Suzuki GSX-R. It was packed for traveling.
The owner came out and we had a nice long talk about motorcycles and cross country traveling. He’s from the Seattle area and heading to New York. He wants to ride Tail of the Dragon so I told him about how my son and I did that 2 years ago.
I asked about the drum on the back of his bike and he said it is his heartbeat. He is a Native American and the drum is made of cedar and elk skin. He plays it in the campgrounds. He also told me how he smudged his bike with sage before the trip. All that is quite fascinating.
He took off and I finished up my thing and got headed east myself.
By that time I got to Butte, I was getting hungry so I grabbed a bite after getting gas. After that is was just cruising on the freeway. That’s the thing about the freeway, I just go and rarely pull over to check out the sights. They are made for getting from point A to B and nothing more.
In Belgrade I needed a break and pulled into the truck stop. I took off my long sleeve shirt and put in my backpack while I also changed how the pack is positioned behind me. I’d rather not carry the backpack and would rather everything fit in my clothes bag but I have to bring clothing for so many situations I don’t know how I could cut it back to less than what I have. I have to bring rained and gold weather gear for riding. I bring my running shoes and clothes. Then there are clothes for the non-riding days. It’s an issue.
Somewhere west of Big Timber, the guy on the Suzuki passed me. We waved and I noted the time so I might get dashcam video of that. He took a selfie of us and out bikes and said he’d email to me so I gave him my card and told him how to get to this blog. He was planning on camping in Big Timber tonight.
The rest of the way to Billings was just about getting the job done. I had the cruise set to 80 MPH and the bike just loves that. It is stable, even with the cross and headwinds I found.
Once back in Billings I rode Shilo and the roundabouts to Grand and the to the gas station. I always (well, almost always) bring the bike home from a ride with a full tank.
Today was a 420 mile ride.
Still to do is to capture and edit all the dashcam videos and go back and insert them here on the various pages. I plan to have that done by next Monday.
I will also be posting a wrap up page and a table of contents.
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