Big Sky Country

This is the name by which Montana is known and it lived up to it. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature perfect at 75 degrees. I was not sure when I woke up that I was going to ride today. Another night of feverish sweating and feeling awful. Cannot decide if it is a cold, flu or a dreaded 72 Hour virus. However another day of no riding would eventually end up putting pressure on me towards the end of next week, so I decided to tough it out and get on with it. Man up time!

Leaving Billings Montana, it was soon into the plains and Karoo like scenery. Not what I thought that I had signed up for. Too many straight roads and miles and miles of flat scrub everywhere. Through Comanche and Lavina. Then left onto the Hwy12 West. Marked as a scenic route, the view started improving. Then a sign “Road works ahead, motorcyclists should consider alternative route”.

They chased them everywhere. Relentlessly!

Worry, not me I am on a GS not a Harley. So FMF. About twenty miles down the road I found out what they were talking about. Similar to Jan’s advanced off road course but this time I was on a bike with about 120 lbs. of extra weight on the back.

So I stood up, looked up and worked my way through it all. Great training for Alaska. Need to adjust my handlebars though or I am going to have a very sore back and hands. Good to know this now as I do not have the tools to do it with me. Left them in Michigan – Idiot!

Passed through White Sulphur Springs and turned north on the I 89. I get my first sight of the mountains with snow still on the top. I will have to cross these mountains to get to where I am going. Soon things start changing, the scenery becoming more interesting. An alpine look and feel. More fir trees.  Small streams winding through those trees and the fields. This is trout fishing country and signs of it everywhere. Little fishing shacks dotting the riverbanks and chalk streams. This is perfect water. A few big dams, lakes and people camping out for the weekend.

Then suddenly, a message from the woman underneath me. My bike. The road has been slowly becoming more and more twisty, the curves tighter and tighter and I have been focusing on the scenery and not the road.

The message from her is: concentrate, I need attention!

No more easy riding, this is short stoke time!

Riding a bike is, as I have said, like being with a woman. Enjoy, but never relax. The secret to successfully negotiating the corners is tempo and timing and the right line (angle-of approach into the corner). If you get these right it is a slam-dunk. If not everything starts going wrong in a hurry.

So in the required order. Get your speed right (tempo), then get your approach angle right and then just feel your way through whilst setting up for the next corner. When you get it right you just flow through one bend into and through the next effortlessly. But never ever relax. Always keep one foot lightly on the rear brake pedal and your hand lightly on the throttle, as these two controls are the key to successfully managing the bike in the bends.

So I was doing it the way it was meant to be done. In control, managing the tempo and loving it. Mile after mile through the trees, up and then down, left and then right. A bit faster then a bit slower, then a slightly more acute angle and then a bit more upright, feeling the bike underneath me and enjoying the total feeling of being one with it and alive.

I had been watching a small river on my right side for a few miles and reflecting on the time, 38 years ago, when a few of us were hiking on the Elands River in the Du Toits Kloof. A hot day and we decided to have a swim. Clothes off and into the water, when who should walk out of the bushes, but a group of nuns

Well it was hot today and the chances of nuns slim, so I stopped, climbed a fence, took my gear off and had a fantastic swim, pity it had to be on my own. Afterwards I sat on a tree stump and dried off enjoying the feeling of the son on my body and the cool of the water evaporating.

Parking for the swim and a coffee

My stream in Montana

Then back on my girl and off to Great Falls.

Another surprising town. Bigger and more modern than I expected. It has an air force base that dominates the town. During the cold war, Montana, the Dakota’s and Nebraska were home to much air force activity due to the central US situation and the fact that they were felt to be as far from the Russians as needed.

Tonight, rather than eating out I am doing “take ins”. The local supermarket is next door and I have bought myself some soup, salads and bits and pieces. It is going to be an early Nyquil (US version of Vicks Medinite) night as tomorrow I go up to the Glacier National Park. I have still not decided as to whether I will camp or lodge. This will depend on how I feel and what time I get there.

It is unlikely that I will have internet connectivity in the park so I will catch up on Tuesday or Wednesday when I come out the West side of the park and stay somewhere with the “net”.

Till then, enjoy whatever it is that you are doing.