Hall Road Trip 2007

Well today marks the end of the first week – already. It seems we’ve just got started. Maybe next time we should take a couple months to do this.

Here is a shot of downtown Dubois from our room

There was a bar across the street from us that had an upright piano on the sidewalk and every so often the guy would come out and play a couple of ragtime tunes (he only knew 2 or 3 songs) – you could hear him from our room. I mentioned to the motel desk lady how neat it was and she made the point she was there all the time.

Our motel:

Left Dubois around 9am after a killer breakfast and headed to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.

When we got our yearly passes for the National Parks the fella at the counter mentioned that since my beard was gray I might be over 62 and the pass would be only 10$ instead of 80$. I thought about it for a minute and paid the 80$. 62 will get here soon enough.

Here are some shots while driving through Yellowstone – so many jaw dropping views that its hard to decide when to stop let alone when to take a picture.

There a quite a few dead pine trees around – some kind of beetle has been wreaking havoc with them and some of the places were burned a couple years back and are now regenerating naturally.

And I suppose no trip to Yellowstone would be complete with the obligatory stop at Old Faithful. The place was crowded with people like sardines in a can. I stayed with the bikes and Steve walked up just as the geyser shot its wad

Its just plain weird to see all this natural beauty coupled with all these people. I’ll take my wilderness lonely if you please. And most of these folks are in such a hurry. If you go the speed limit you end up with some ahole right on your tail. Why do they even come here if all they want to do is drive as fast as they can through the wilderness? Stay on the damn interstates. Good thing I’m not king.

We stopped for another dip in the river to cool the dogs. When we stopped we were the only ones there (for about 3 minutes) the next thing we knew there were 6 cars, a couple RV’s, screamin kids, and yellin parents.

So we left the park via the west entrance/exit to get fuel and decided to head north through Gallatin NF, the crowds disappeared and the mountains got bigger. Heading north the roadway follows the Gallatin River as it descends from its source. We’re not talking a gentle slope, its a steep decline, and it goes down hill for 50 miles. HUGE mountains.

This would mean missing the Chief Joseph Highway and the Beartooth Highway for now. We didn’t think we could make it back through Yellowstone to the east side and find a place to stay before it got too dark. While there is a full moon now and it would be really nice to see some of the mountains by moonlight – there are tons of big animals on the road (elk, antelope, bear, bison etc) and I’m guessing that encounter would not be good for the bikers or the beasts. There is also some severe weather on the eastern side of the rockies right now so we are going to head west from here and try to come back later.

One of the things we noticed when comparing notes was that the bug, besides being more aggressive, are way more juicy out here. Back home in PA when a bug hits you it leaves a little pasty mark. When you get nailed here, you think its rain drops falling. Hmmmm.

And another – back home the little chipmunks like to dart in front of your car when your driving down the road – must be some kind of rush for em. Well out here thats what the prairie dogs do. You look down a straight stretch of road and there is nothing, a car passes and you can watch em run across in front of the car as it travels. And apparently quite a few of them are bad at judging when to run.

Arrived in Bozeman, MT about 7:30. Will figure out the new plan of attack.

The missing stats:

Day 5 – 217 miles for a total of 2162 miles

Day 6 – 282 miles for a total of 2444 miles

Day 7 – 252 miles for a total of 2696 miles.

Hope all is well with you out there in internet land.

And a big hello to Jesse – Kate said she was showing you the site. I’m still trying to get a good picture of some buffalo or elk – the camera doesn’t zoom in so well.

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