(Today started with a quick errands run down the street to Missoula's finest laundromat. I emptied my laundry bag into the washing machine, bought $10 worth of American quarters to cover soap, wash, dryer sheets, and dry (plus one hotel vending water), and took Badger through a classic USA espresso drive-thru while the sudsy cycle ran. The laundromat had good WiFi so I caught up on the blog, then was ready to take on the day with an emptied head, caffeinated blood, and fresh socks. (Observation: Laundromat and blogging go well together. Maybe I should only pack one pair of socks...) |
Route-wise, I had contemplated a quick run south and back as it felt like a crime against motorcycling to be in Missoula and not go ride Lolo Pass. But, I cracked out my Butler motorcycling map for Montana and was enthused to see a plethora of red, orange, and gold-rated roads winding around the northwest corner of the state. So, I decided to leave Lolo in the history books for this trip and instead seek out some new gold. This proved to be a good decision, as it snapped my headspace out of a sort of purgatory between re-riding 2014 good finds and just hammering it home, instead offering me a combination of good riding and, at last, northward progress.
I exited Missoula headed east on the 200, then turned north on the 83 at Clearwater Junction, and zipped through the lakes and mountains past Salmon Lake (a lake), Seeley Lake (a place), through Lolo National Forest (aha, gotcha anyway), Salmon Prairie, all sorts of Swan-themed named places and finally Swan Lake, and then jumped the 209 across to Ferndale where I grabbed lunch and had strategized to let Badger cool off while I ate to reduce my gasoline geyser anxiety. Anyway, no geyser today. This connected me into the 93 northbound, which I tracked right into and through downtown Kalispell, then exiting on the 2 westbound. The wide mountain valley where Kalispell is situated (beyond the north end of Flathead Lake) was really beautiful, feeling wide and open, yet surrounded by rocky mountain ridges on what felt like all of the west, north, and eastern horizons. Super scenic, and it seemed like a nice city too, perhaps worth checking out sometime.
Over lunch I'd identified Libby as a target for the day and called ahead to book a room. Kalispell to Libby was about two hours of easy cruising with light traffic on impeccable pavement. It was hot, with Badger's thermometer reading 32.5°C most of the late afternoon. Nearing Libby, we passed through a few shaded valleys where that dropped almost instantaneously 10 degrees, down to 22°C, which felt like a blast of a fresh morning breeze. It was so nice.
Tonight, I'm studying the Butler map and working out fuel range, in advance of gulping down as much of NW Montana's best offerings as I can figure out for tomorrow.
Day total: 371 km, 6h25m Trip total: 4,010 km | Start: Missoula, MT. End: Libby, MT. Soundtrack: Shuffle, ruined Arcade Fire, TOOL. |