Wilsons Sandbox

Posted: **Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:21 pm**

The North Cascades Highway was described by the late Charles Kuralt as the most beautiful road in America. Kuralt may well have been right, but Kuralt didn't ride. Not surprisingly his description neglected to mention that Washington Route 20 is also one of the premier motorcycle roads in the nation. The road features miles and miles of linked sweepers, half-dozen mountain passes and as Kuralt noted, world-class spectacular scenery. The road embraces the Canadian border at high elevations so the road slumbers each winter beneath a mantle of a dozen feet of snow, immune from the free-thaw cycles that begat potholes. So the pavement tends to be great condition as well. So when my grad-school bound son and I decided to ride to our Montana fly-fishing trip, we began our trip by droning north on Interstate 5, working our way just north of Everett, WA - willing paying the slab-price to pick up WA-20. I was on my WeeStrom with my son riding my 70K mile KLR, a twin to the graduation present KLR waiting for him at grad school in NC. We camped the first night near Kettle Falls, on Lake Roosevelt, a reservoir created by a dam on the Columbia River. My son had just returned just two days earlier from Spain, surviving running with the bulls in Pamplona but falling victim to food poisoning that had kept him close to a bathroom for the final day of his Spanish trip. At 5AM, in tent in Kettle Falls, WA his food poisoning symptoms returned with a vengeance. After consulting the map, we decided to take the quickest route to Spokane, the closest city with good access to health care. I asked the GPS to route us to a hospital but the route took us right past another hospital so we stopped at the first hospital we encountered. The ER physician diagnosed food poisoning, prescribed prodigious quantities of Pedialyte and a broad-spectrum antibiotic. The pharmacy across the street had both the antibiotic and the Pedialyte in stock. My son spent two years in a fraternity so was able to chug the first liter bottle of Pedialyte in one long gulp. My tuition dollars at work! Our medical issues behind us, we looked for an interesting route to get us to US-12. We settled on US-195 which was anticlimactic after the spectacular WA-20 but not a bad road none the less. At Lewiston ID we picked up US-12, a wonderful motorcycle road that following the bank of Clearwater River as it ascends to the Continental Divide at Lolo Pass, the border of Montana and Idaho. We stopped for the obligatory photo (Sharp Curves Next 130 Miles) then began S-curving our way up the gentle grade, never more than a fly-cast from the Clearwater. We stopped for the night at one of my favorite overnight spots, the Lochsha Lodge. We elected to stay in a "rustic" cabin, it had no running water but the bathhouse was close. In the morning my son wanted to lead with me following and filming using the Go Pro camera we just bought for the trip. I noted that I had never failed to see big game in the 10 or so miles that separated us from Lolo Pass and that he should be VERY cautious, covering the brake lever and riding MOST conservatively. I mentioned that we had already visited the hospital once on this trip and had no desire for a return engagement! Just a few miles short of Lolo Pass the Go Pro video camera on my WeeStrom captured my son threshold braking to avoid a grizzly bear that decided that NOW was the time to get to the other side of the road. The griz scrambled up a steep talus slope, sending baby-head sized rocks tumbling down the slope onto the road. We stopped at Lolo Summit to view the video and congratulate ourselves for taking the time to have my son practice threshold braking on the KLR before we began the trip. He had just a thousand miles of riding experience with only 500 miles on the KLR. But his natural athleticism, following instructions, and the threshold braking practice came together just when we needed a break, or more correctly a brake. At the town of Lolo we turned south on US93 to Lost Trail Pass then took Montana 49 east over Chief Joseph Pass toward the Big Hole National Battlefield. We stopped at the National Battlefield and listened to a Park Ranger, a full-blood Nez Pierce; recount the story of the massacre Nez Pierce women and children at the hands of US Calvary and irregular volunteers. I bought my son a "Passport to Your National Parks', a passport-sized binder to record his visits to sites administered by the National Park system. I have been using such a Passport to record a decade worth of motorcycle-borne visits to Park sites and I hope that he will continue the tradition. Big Hole National Battlefield is worth a stop; those that fail to study history are truly condemned to repeat it. At Wisdom, MT after a stop for lunch we turned south on MT 278 and stayed on 278 to Dillon. At Dillon I usually pick up the (dirt) Blacktail Road and run that to Yellowstone National Park. But the weather was looking like rain and I had experienced the Blacktail Road in deluge a couple of times before and had no desire for a repeat engagement on a Tourance-shod WeeStrom. Imagine axle-deep clay in the middle of nowhere with a gale force wind blowing the pouring rain parallel to the ground and you are close. Discretion being the better part of valor, we took MT287 into Ennis where we stopped for pictures next to the many-times-life-size statue of a fly fisherman in the center of town. Fly fishing is the economic lifeblood of this part of Montana and our fly rods and wade shoes marked us as valuable contributors to the local economy to all that saw us on the bikes. We took US 287 south out of Dillon into Yellowstone National Park where a pleasant Park Ranger confirmed what I had earlier predicted: all the park campsites were full. We left the park and camped instead on Rainbow Point on Hebgen Lake in the National Forest, ten or so miles back north from the national park entrance. After breakfast in the morning we re-entered Yellowstone NP at West Glacier and ran northeast to the Cooke City exit of the park picking up US 212 over Beartooth Pass, reentering Montana. Yes the Tail of The Dragon in NC *is* curvy but The Dragon is just a dozen miles long. Beartooth Pass is nearly a hundred miles of equally tight twisties combined with top-of-the-world scenery. Our friends were waiting on the Boulder River for us so at Columbus, MT we reluctantly hit I-90 west into Big Timber where we picked up the Boulder River Road and rode south to our fishing spot. After four days of spectacular catch-and -release fishing we bid goodbye and headed for home. My son had flight to catch to Durham, NC to begin his graduate school so we really didn't have time to repeat our ramble on the homebound leg of the trip. So we decided to grit it out and stay on I-90 westbound into Ritzville, WA where we took US195 south to WA 26, WA26 west to WA24 and WA24 west to US-12. US-12 took us north to WA-133 which we took north into Mount Rainier National Park where we picked up WA-410. From WA-410 we took a variety of country roads from farm country into suburbia and home. My son summed up the trip as follows: Gas for 2300 miles $212 New Front Tire: $107 Time spent on a motorcycle trip with your Dad: Priceless. GPS track here: http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4J 2#!i=2081297699 http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4 J2#!i=2081297699&k=5RkvbfB> &k=5RkvbfB Now that I have access to a minty KLR in Durham, NC it's time to start planning a Blue Ridge Parkway trip the for the next time work takes me to the east coast. The Dragon awaits! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Posted: **Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:43 pm**

Great trip for a number of reasons, John. Thanks for posting. Bogdan From: John Biccum > Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:21 PM To: "DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.comDSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com>" DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.comDSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com>> Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Ride report Seattle to Montana with my son The North Cascades Highway was described by the late Charles Kuralt as the most beautiful road in America. Kuralt may well have been right, but Kuralt didn't ride. Not surprisingly his description neglected to mention that Washington Route 20 is also one of the premier motorcycle roads in the nation. The road features miles and miles of linked sweepers, half-dozen mountain passes and as Kuralt noted, world-class spectacular scenery. The road embraces the Canadian border at high elevations so the road slumbers each winter beneath a mantle of a dozen feet of snow, immune from the free-thaw cycles that begat potholes. So the pavement tends to be great condition as well. So when my grad-school bound son and I decided to ride to our Montana fly-fishing trip, we began our trip by droning north on Interstate 5, working our way just north of Everett, WA - willing paying the slab-price to pick up WA-20. I was on my WeeStrom with my son riding my 70K mile KLR, a twin to the graduation present KLR waiting for him at grad school in NC. We camped the first night near Kettle Falls, on Lake Roosevelt, a reservoir created by a dam on the Columbia River. My son had just returned just two days earlier from Spain, surviving running with the bulls in Pamplona but falling victim to food poisoning that had kept him close to a bathroom for the final day of his Spanish trip. At 5AM, in tent in Kettle Falls, WA his food poisoning symptoms returned with a vengeance. After consulting the map, we decided to take the quickest route to Spokane, the closest city with good access to health care. I asked the GPS to route us to a hospital but the route took us right past another hospital so we stopped at the first hospital we encountered. The ER physician diagnosed food poisoning, prescribed prodigious quantities of Pedialyte and a broad-spectrum antibiotic. The pharmacy across the street had both the antibiotic and the Pedialyte in stock. My son spent two years in a fraternity so was able to chug the first liter bottle of Pedialyte in one long gulp. My tuition dollars at work! Our medical issues behind us, we looked for an interesting route to get us to US-12. We settled on US-195 which was anticlimactic after the spectacular WA-20 but not a bad road none the less. At Lewiston ID we picked up US-12, a wonderful motorcycle road that following the bank of Clearwater River as it ascends to the Continental Divide at Lolo Pass, the border of Montana and Idaho. We stopped for the obligatory photo (Sharp Curves Next 130 Miles) then began S-curving our way up the gentle grade, never more than a fly-cast from the Clearwater. We stopped for the night at one of my favorite overnight spots, the Lochsha Lodge. We elected to stay in a "rustic" cabin, it had no running water but the bathhouse was close. In the morning my son wanted to lead with me following and filming using the Go Pro camera we just bought for the trip. I noted that I had never failed to see big game in the 10 or so miles that separated us from Lolo Pass and that he should be VERY cautious, covering the brake lever and riding MOST conservatively. I mentioned that we had already visited the hospital once on this trip and had no desire for a return engagement! Just a few miles short of Lolo Pass the Go Pro video camera on my WeeStrom captured my son threshold braking to avoid a grizzly bear that decided that NOW was the time to get to the other side of the road. The griz scrambled up a steep talus slope, sending baby-head sized rocks tumbling down the slope onto the road. We stopped at Lolo Summit to view the video and congratulate ourselves for taking the time to have my son practice threshold braking on the KLR before we began the trip. He had just a thousand miles of riding experience with only 500 miles on the KLR. But his natural athleticism, following instructions, and the threshold braking practice came together just when we needed a break, or more correctly a brake. At the town of Lolo we turned south on US93 to Lost Trail Pass then took Montana 49 east over Chief Joseph Pass toward the Big Hole National Battlefield. We stopped at the National Battlefield and listened to a Park Ranger, a full-blood Nez Pierce; recount the story of the massacre Nez Pierce women and children at the hands of US Calvary and irregular volunteers. I bought my son a "Passport to Your National Parks', a passport-sized binder to record his visits to sites administered by the National Park system. I have been using such a Passport to record a decade worth of motorcycle-borne visits to Park sites and I hope that he will continue the tradition. Big Hole National Battlefield is worth a stop; those that fail to study history are truly condemned to repeat it. At Wisdom, MT after a stop for lunch we turned south on MT 278 and stayed on 278 to Dillon. At Dillon I usually pick up the (dirt) Blacktail Road and run that to Yellowstone National Park. But the weather was looking like rain and I had experienced the Blacktail Road in deluge a couple of times before and had no desire for a repeat engagement on a Tourance-shod WeeStrom. Imagine axle-deep clay in the middle of nowhere with a gale force wind blowing the pouring rain parallel to the ground and you are close. Discretion being the better part of valor, we took MT287 into Ennis where we stopped for pictures next to the many-times-life-size statue of a fly fisherman in the center of town. Fly fishing is the economic lifeblood of this part of Montana and our fly rods and wade shoes marked us as valuable contributors to the local economy to all that saw us on the bikes. We took US 287 south out of Dillon into Yellowstone National Park where a pleasant Park Ranger confirmed what I had earlier predicted: all the park campsites were full. We left the park and camped instead on Rainbow Point on Hebgen Lake in the National Forest, ten or so miles back north from the national park entrance. After breakfast in the morning we re-entered Yellowstone NP at West Glacier and ran northeast to the Cooke City exit of the park picking up US 212 over Beartooth Pass, reentering Montana. Yes the Tail of The Dragon in NC *is* curvy but The Dragon is just a dozen miles long. Beartooth Pass is nearly a hundred miles of equally tight twisties combined with top-of-the-world scenery. Our friends were waiting on the Boulder River for us so at Columbus, MT we reluctantly hit I-90 west into Big Timber where we picked up the Boulder River Road and rode south to our fishing spot. After four days of spectacular catch-and -release fishing we bid goodbye and headed for home. My son had flight to catch to Durham, NC to begin his graduate school so we really didn't have time to repeat our ramble on the homebound leg of the trip. So we decided to grit it out and stay on I-90 westbound into Ritzville, WA where we took US195 south to WA 26, WA26 west to WA24 and WA24 west to US-12. US-12 took us north to WA-133 which we took north into Mount Rainier National Park where we picked up WA-410. From WA-410 we took a variety of country roads from farm country into suburbia and home. My son summed up the trip as follows: Gas for 2300 miles $212 New Front Tire: $107 Time spent on a motorcycle trip with your Dad: Priceless. GPS track here: http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4J 2#!i=2081297699 http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4 J2#!i=2081297699&k=5RkvbfB> &k=5RkvbfB Now that I have access to a minty KLR in Durham, NC it's time to start planning a Blue Ridge Parkway trip the for the next time work takes me to the east coast. The Dragon awaits! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Posted: **Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:06 pm**

Thanks John for that indepth and entertaining report of your ride with your son. Last weekend I did something similar with my son only not as far. He has had a learner's permit for nearly a year and his KLR650A for around 6 months. He had only travelled about 1600km (1000miles) in total when we started our trip last Friday. He had never been on dirt roads let alone travel with luggage. Our trip was only 640kms (400miles) with around 30kms (20miles) of dirt. The route took us through lots of twisty tar and finally a large climb up into our mountains to the Grant Historic Area in Victoria, Australia. This area is dotted with old gold mining townships that don't exist anymore, only in name. Then on to Talbotville, descending on the dirt and dangerous road with 1000ft drops to the side, for our motorcycle rally. Fortunately this year the dirt was mostly dry and the wet clay and slippery mud was non existant. This made for a really good ride both in and return. This was our first big trip together by motorcycle and what a delightful activity it was. After waiting 27 years for him to join me I can only say the wait was worth it. I, like you, had given him all the hints and advice I could prior to the ride and it all paid off. The trip was without incident and he learnt a lot, both about riding and his Dad! I can only say that everyone should do the same and share one of life's rare moments. Cheers and may you have many more happy rides together. Regards Glenn [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Posted: **Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:10 pm**

On Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:21:08 -0700 "John Biccum" writes:

> The North Cascades Highway was described by the late Charles Kuralt > as the > most beautiful road in America.

Some Snippage. <><><><><><> <><><><><><> John, Great trip report. Glad you got in some quality time with your son. Thanks for sharing. Best, Jeff Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650 . . ____________________________________________________________ Fast, Secure, NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband. Try it. http://www.netzero.net/?refcd=NZINTISP0512T4GOUT2

Posted: **Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:42 am**

I rode that Northern Cascade loop on my Concours about ten years ago but unfortunately it was pretty cloudy. Imagine....clouds in Washington. I also never got to see Mt. Rainer (clouds again). We hardly ever see them here in Texas except when they are spinning around and or spewing lightning. Thanks for the ride report. Criswell Sent from my iPad

On Sep 11, 2012, at 2:21 PM, "John Biccum" wrote: > The North Cascades Highway was described by the late Charles Kuralt as the > most beautiful road in America. Kuralt may well have been right, but Kuralt > didn't ride. Not surprisingly his description neglected to mention that > Washington Route 20 is also one of the premier motorcycle roads in the > nation. The road features miles and miles of linked sweepers, half-dozen > mountain passes and as Kuralt noted, world-class spectacular scenery. The > road embraces the Canadian border at high elevations so the road slumbers > each winter beneath a mantle of a dozen feet of snow, immune from the > free-thaw cycles that begat potholes. So the pavement tends to be great > condition as well. > > So when my grad-school bound son and I decided to ride to our Montana > fly-fishing trip, we began our trip by droning north on Interstate 5, > working our way just north of Everett, WA - willing paying the slab-price to > pick up WA-20. I was on my WeeStrom with my son riding my 70K mile KLR, a > twin to the graduation present KLR waiting for him at grad school in NC. We > camped the first night near Kettle Falls, on Lake Roosevelt, a reservoir > created by a dam on the Columbia River. > > My son had just returned just two days earlier from Spain, surviving running > with the bulls in Pamplona but falling victim to food poisoning that had > kept him close to a bathroom for the final day of his Spanish trip. At 5AM, > in tent in Kettle Falls, WA his food poisoning symptoms returned with a > vengeance. > > After consulting the map, we decided to take the quickest route to Spokane, > the closest city with good access to health care. I asked the GPS to route > us to a hospital but the route took us right past another hospital so we > stopped at the first hospital we encountered. The ER physician diagnosed > food poisoning, prescribed prodigious quantities of Pedialyte and a > broad-spectrum antibiotic. The pharmacy across the street had both the > antibiotic and the Pedialyte in stock. My son spent two years in a > fraternity so was able to chug the first liter bottle of Pedialyte in one > long gulp. My tuition dollars at work! Our medical issues behind us, we > looked for an interesting route to get us to US-12. We settled on US-195 > which was anticlimactic after the spectacular WA-20 but not a bad road none > the less. > > At Lewiston ID we picked up US-12, a wonderful motorcycle road that > following the bank of Clearwater River as it ascends to the Continental > Divide at Lolo Pass, the border of Montana and Idaho. We stopped for the > obligatory photo (Sharp Curves Next 130 Miles) then began S-curving our way > up the gentle grade, never more than a fly-cast from the Clearwater. We > stopped for the night at one of my favorite overnight spots, the Lochsha > Lodge. We elected to stay in a "rustic" cabin, it had no running water but > the bathhouse was close. > > In the morning my son wanted to lead with me following and filming using the > Go Pro camera we just bought for the trip. I noted that I had never failed > to see big game in the 10 or so miles that separated us from Lolo Pass and > that he should be VERY cautious, covering the brake lever and riding MOST > conservatively. I mentioned that we had already visited the hospital once > on this trip and had no desire for a return engagement! > > Just a few miles short of Lolo Pass the Go Pro video camera on my WeeStrom > captured my son threshold braking to avoid a grizzly bear that decided that > NOW was the time to get to the other side of the road. The griz scrambled > up a steep talus slope, sending baby-head sized rocks tumbling down the > slope onto the road. We stopped at Lolo Summit to view the video and > congratulate ourselves for taking the time to have my son practice threshold > braking on the KLR before we began the trip. He had just a thousand miles > of riding experience with only 500 miles on the KLR. But his natural > athleticism, following instructions, and the threshold braking practice came > together just when we needed a break, or more correctly a brake. > > At the town of Lolo we turned south on US93 to Lost Trail Pass then took > Montana 49 east over Chief Joseph Pass toward the Big Hole National > Battlefield. We stopped at the National Battlefield and listened to a Park > Ranger, a full-blood Nez Pierce; recount the story of the massacre Nez > Pierce women and children at the hands of US Calvary and irregular > volunteers. I bought my son a "Passport to Your National Parks', a > passport-sized binder to record his visits to sites administered by the > National Park system. I have been using such a Passport to record a decade > worth of motorcycle-borne visits to Park sites and I hope that he will > continue the tradition. Big Hole National Battlefield is worth a stop; those > that fail to study history are truly condemned to repeat it. > > At Wisdom, MT after a stop for lunch we turned south on MT 278 and stayed on > 278 to Dillon. At Dillon I usually pick up the (dirt) Blacktail Road and > run that to Yellowstone National Park. But the weather was looking like > rain and I had experienced the Blacktail Road in deluge a couple of times > before and had no desire for a repeat engagement on a Tourance-shod > WeeStrom. Imagine axle-deep clay in the middle of nowhere with a gale > force wind blowing the pouring rain parallel to the ground and you are > close. Discretion being the better part of valor, we took MT287 into Ennis > where we stopped for pictures next to the many-times-life-size statue of a > fly fisherman in the center of town. Fly fishing is the economic lifeblood > of this part of Montana and our fly rods and wade shoes marked us as > valuable contributors to the local economy to all that saw us on the bikes. > We took US 287 south out of Dillon into Yellowstone National Park where a > pleasant Park Ranger confirmed what I had earlier predicted: all the park > campsites were full. We left the park and camped instead on Rainbow Point > on Hebgen Lake in the National Forest, ten or so miles back north from the > national park entrance. > > After breakfast in the morning we re-entered Yellowstone NP at West Glacier > and ran northeast to the Cooke City exit of the park picking up US 212 over > Beartooth Pass, reentering Montana. Yes the Tail of The Dragon in NC *is* > curvy but The Dragon is just a dozen miles long. Beartooth Pass is nearly a > hundred miles of equally tight twisties combined with top-of-the-world > scenery. > > Our friends were waiting on the Boulder River for us so at Columbus, MT we > reluctantly hit I-90 west into Big Timber where we picked up the Boulder > River Road and rode south to our fishing spot. After four days of > spectacular catch-and -release fishing we bid goodbye and headed for home. > My son had flight to catch to Durham, NC to begin his graduate school so we > really didn't have time to repeat our ramble on the homebound leg of the > trip. So we decided to grit it out and stay on I-90 westbound into > Ritzville, WA where we took US195 south to WA 26, WA26 west to WA24 and > WA24 west to US-12. US-12 took us north to WA-133 which we took north into > Mount Rainier National Park where we picked up WA-410. From WA-410 we took > a variety of country roads from farm country into suburbia and home. > > My son summed up the trip as follows: > > Gas for 2300 miles $212 > > New Front Tire: $107 > > Time spent on a motorcycle trip with your Dad: Priceless. > > GPS track here: > http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4J > 2#!i=2081297699 > http://johnbiccum.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Montana-trip-with-B/25318657_KMF4 > J2#!i=2081297699&k=5RkvbfB> &k=5RkvbfB > > Now that I have access to a minty KLR in Durham, NC it's time to start > planning a Blue Ridge Parkway trip the for the next time work takes me to > the east coast. The Dragon awaits! > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Posted: **Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:38 am**

Great trip report! You guys did some great country. Thanks for sharing. As for 20 being the best road in the US, hmmmmmmmmmmm. I'd hate to vote on the best road I've been on in this here lower USA. But 20 up there is a great road.

Posted: **Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:57 am**

I live in Vegas and I was hoping to find other people who ride in the area. I go out in the desert fairly often and I keep thinking to my self if I wreck out there and get hurt I'm really screwed. So if anybody in the area also needs a safety net/ wingman/ riding partner let me know.

Wilsons Sandbox

las vegas southern nevada area

ride report seattle to montana with my son

ride report seattle to montana with my son

ride report seattle to montana with my son

ride report seattle to montana with my son

ride report seattle to montana with my son

ride report seattle to montana with my son

las vegas southern nevada area