Wow…. Just WOW!

Keith

We started the day with a shower in the morning at the campground. I have to say those were the cleanest showers I’ve ever seen in a campground. After the shower I headed back to site and brewed both Leah and I an americano. We wandered around the site and I started talking to another group of riders. One of the their bikes, a 2019 FLH had some major clutch issues. Apparently he made it down mountain before complete failure of his clutch. (After you see some of the pictures you will be amazed at this feat)

After a coffee we loaded up the bikes for the day ahead and headed into Red Lodge for breakfast. We decided to stop at Prindy’s on the south side of town. After waiting for a few minutes we were quickly seated and given a few coffees. The food kinda took a while but it was worth it as we would not eat until around the time I’m typing up this blog.

Coffeed up we hit the road heading up to the Beartooth highway. Anyone that knows me is aware that I seek out fun and twisty roads to ride on the bikes. The Beartooth was the whole reason for this trip so there was a lot of expectation.

Immediately we were greeted by some rock bluffs and sweeping corners. I immediately knew that this road was going to be special. About 10 miles into the trip we could see the road climbing the side of the mountain. I mean switchbacks up the side of the damn mountain! This is the point where the perma-smile came out on me that I could not get rid of.

We started the climb and stopped numerous times to take picture of the sheer magnitude of this road. As I’ve said to people I work with, it looks like they just threw spaghetti on the side of the mountain. The road is full of so many twists and turns it can satisfy anyone’s appetite.

Midway up the climb we stopped at a view point. We were immediately greeted by a group of riders that asked if we had any peanuts. Confused we asked why at which point one of the riders handed me a small bag of mixed nuts. We headed up the trail and immediately knew what they were for. There were the fattest bunch of chipmunks on the trail that had all been fed by the tourists. I convinced Leah that she needed to feed one, I also said that these are chipmunks and not squirrels. Leah hates squirrels for all those that don’t know. After feeding the fattest chipmunk I’ve ever seen, I mean this thing was the size of a Richardson ground squirrel! We continued to head up, and up, and up!

We stopped at a little bit of a hike near the summit that led to a set of rock bluffs and a patch of snow. I guess for those that never see snow this is quite the thrill. Jumping on the bike we quickly arrived at the summit of the Beartooth at 10,947 feet. I have to say the views were incredible, you felt that you were the highest thing out there. After taking some picture for another riding group, I asked that one of the riders take ours. It’s pretty crazy that most people don’t know how to operate a proper camera any more.

Getting back on the road we hit the top of the world store in Wyoming. All they had was regular gas but as we were unsure when we could fill up again it was decided that we would ensure we had a full tank before heading out.

Shortly after the top of the world store we turned onto the Chief Joseph highway that connects to the Beartooth. I was immediately greeted with high speed 65 mph rolling sweepers, this was a great change from the 35 mph average speed on the Beartooth. Leah and I both let our bikes stretch their legs figuratively speaking.

We stopped at a canyon to take some pictures when we were greeted by a nice couple from Cody Wyoming. The first thing I notice was that the gentleman was carrying a sidearm. After chatting with him I explained that this is kinda foreign to us Canadians.

Soon we reached a portion of the road that looked faintly familiar with us hitting switchbacks heading up, and up, and up. I have no idea what the altitude was at the summit of this road but both Leah and I both think this road is probably underplayed being so close to the Beartooth. There were some rock formations on the ride that looked like someone had painted them with rust coloured paint, so of course we had to stop and take some pictures.

We soon reached the junction to either head north back to Red Lodge or head south to Cody. As it was around 2:00 we decided to start making our way back to Red Lodge.

We soon found ourselves riding through an area that looked like badlands, lots of sand and hoodoos and heat. The roads were very straight in comparison to what we had experienced earlier in the day. The heat was almost unbearable and soon we started to find ourselves under some cloud cover. Well that cloud cover decided to unleash all the rain at once! At first we thought that it would be a sprinkle so both of us did not put on the rain gear. Man were we wrong! After a good soaking we quickly raced ahead of the storm cloud and back into the heat of the badlands. It’s crazy on how quickly 90 F heat paired with 70 mph will dry you out.

About 2 miles outside of Red Lodge we started to feel the rain hitting us again. This time we decided that as we were currently dry, rain gear would be required.

Hitting camp we organized our gear and decided to hit the town the only problem was the threat of rain. We decided to take a cab and quickly found out that there is only a single cab in Red Lodge. After some issues we were able to download and order a cab from Lyft.

We are now sitting at a sports bar with live Pink Floyd playing and playing back the day in our minds. Can’t wait to hit the Beartooth again tomorrow!