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!
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