Day 3 - AAA to the Rescue

Day 2 - Magical Mystery Tour

On Wednesday I set  my GPS for Glacier NP with Sand Point ID as a way-point.  The route looked awesome... the GPS must have read my mind in that I wanted to avoid most Interstates and major roads.  But what my GPS failed to understand was that my top heavy R1100RT was not too fond of unpaved gravel.   Soon after I crossed over into Montana my GPS had me make a left turn at Trout Creek.   The first couple miles of this road was paved (barely).  Then came the gravel and I have to make a decision.  Rerouting would have had easily added an extra 100 miles to my ride that day.... so I committed to the route I was on.  I crossed my fingers and hoped that maybe in 5 or 10 miles I'll hit pavement again.  But to my dismay in 5 to 10 miles the gravel road only got worse and my RT was not liking it one single bit.  At the worst point I almost got bogged down in a mud puddle.  At is narrowest point it was 10 feet across and I had no choice but to go threw it. My rear tire did go from side to side a few times but I managed to keep the bike up right and made it to the other side.  After about 25 miles I finally was back on pavement again with no visible damage to the bike.   So if you're an off road enthusiast just look below... have I got the road for you!

That night I had a campground reservation in St. Mary/East Glacier, MT.  By the time I got to West Glacier it was much later than I had planned on... thank your very much GPS!  And I had about 70 miles left as I intended on finishing the day with Going to the Sun Road.  This was July 6th and to my surprise the Going to the Sun was not yet open for the season and was not scheduled to open until the following week. A major disappointment!  So to get to St. Marys I would have to loop around the bottom of Glacier NP and go back north for at least 50 miles to keep my reservation and I was bushed!  So I checked out a campground in West Glacier found and site and stayed there for the night.  Lesson learned... do NOT make reservations for where you think you will spend the following night.  So much can change... so many unexpected twists and turns in the road!  So from this point on I decided that if I am going to truly enjoy this trip that I need to anticipate anything and everything!

Day 1 - Blasting Off

Here I am leaving on the first leg of what was originally planned to be a 14 day 3400 mile loop around 11 western states.  Well plans change and since I'm writing this a few weeks after my return I'll tell you right now it ended up to be a 19 day 4800 mile loop around 10 western states.  Never did make it to New Mexico. My first days leg was approximately 400 miles and here is the route.  No neat motorcycle or scenic roads... just getting into position to make it to Glacier NP the following day. 

My first days ride was from my home in Portland OR to Newport WA.  This was possibly the most emotional phase of my journey.  It felt like breaking away from the gravitational pull of the earth.  Leaving behind my family, my home, my job, and all the responsibilities that always kept me in one place.  I had never done anything like this in my life.  The emotional pull of all that I was leaving behind really surprised me and not until the next day would I begin to feel the excitement of the adventure I was embarking on.

I

I am not a big time camper and I was wondering how I would adapt to this motorcycle lite version of camping.  Actually it didn't take very long to grow on me.  I liked that I could set up camp in about 30 to 40 minutes.  And pack it all back up in an hour or less.   One problem I had was with my sleeping bag.  The inside has this material that tends to stick to your clothing and skin and I found having to fully wake up to just change sleeping positions.  After about 3 rough nights I discovered that if I turned the sleeping bag inside out so the the slippery nylon outer shell was on the inside I slept just fine.  By the time I got to Utah my self inflating air mattress developed a leak to so I stopped at REI to get a repair kit and a few other necessities.

Still On Track

Even though I haven't decided on an exact date to leave I know it will be the first or second week of July.  So that give's me about another six weeks to prepare.  Earlier this month I did a 429 mile loop in Oregon just to see how I'd feel physically after that distance.  The only other factors not accounted for that I will face in July is the heat and the bike loaded down with extra gear.  The heat is my big concern so I'll be carrying enough water to stay hydrated.

By the middle of June I should have about everything I will need as far as gear is concerned. 
KOA campgrounds will probably work out as the least expensive place to spend my nights.  And I like the idea of camping and being able to take a shower too.   Hopfully the next photo I post will be of my bike fully loaded with all my camping gear :-)

Everything is Coming Together

It seems like this trip is meant to be.  I even found an over sized cargo rest designed to fit my old 1998 RT that is no longer in production.  The company that made it put on their website the the only ones that they know are available were at a BMW dealer... not across the country but just 20 miles down the road.  How cool is that? Without that cargo rest I wasn't sure how I was going to carry all the camping gear.  As I finish  collecting all my gear I will probably still have a few challenges packing it all... but hopefully no major hurdles.

The Bike

In last August found the perfect bike for my dream trip.  It is was a blue 1998 BMW R1100RT with only 9,700 miles... a real blast from the past!  By October I pushed the odometer over 12,000 and took to bike to Steve Prokop a well known and respected mechanic in Dundee, OR for it's recommended 12K maintenance... so now it should be ready to go to 24K.  Hopefully I won't go over that before the end of my trip.  As of the date of this post I have 15,510 on the odometer.  The trip I am planing is about 3,500 miles... so if I am not too far over 20K when I leave I should be fine.  I am also hoping the tires hold up.  The rear tire now has 5,000 miles on it and the front has 3,000 miles.  They are not showing much wear so they should still be good for the trip.  Mechanically the bike is sound... so all that I will do before leaving is give it some fresh oil and a new oil filter.