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CHAPTER 18


DAY 33 BABB TO LINCOLN VIA GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 380km

Today it was thru the Glacier National Park which is one of the iconic National Parks of the USA. And it did not fail to deliver. We were treated to magnificent mountain vistas as we wound our way slowly up and over Logan Pass. Because the road thru the National Park is narrow and winding there is a ban on all RV's ( except very small ones). This certainly made it easier although we were amazed at the number of motorcycles on the road



All along the road there are tons of photo stop places and it certainly was a photographers paradise






From the park it was then down thru a lovely sylvan forest park and out into a delightful town called Lincoln ( no, Abe babe never came from there ). We stayed in an old 100 year plus two story log cabin hotel complete with sloping floors and rustic fittings


The hotel corridor




OK fella. - show us your gun !


And those spare ribs for dinner. They warned me it was a full rack and I would struggle to finish them. With Hubbard determination I proved them wrong but only just. 24 hours later the bloated feeling is just going

I must tell you about a delightful conversation after dinner. It was with an old grizzled gold miner who had his gold mine close to Lincoln. As we chatted he told me he was a former linesman. My jaw dropped. I asked him if he worked for the county in this job and he nodded. I had struck gold! Here I was in Montana talking to "The Lineman from the County". I felt like bursting into song as I carried my spare ribs upstairs!


DAY 34 LINCOLN TO RED LODGE 530 km

And the glorious days continue. Today we travelled over lovely sweeping mountain passes and thru wheat fields and cattle ranches of upper Montana. We briefly went int Helena , the State capital of Montana. Then it was about 400 km of rural riding to the town of Red Lodge at the bottom of Bearfoot Pass.



A highlight today if that is the right word for it was stopping for a break at a " Trading Post " in the town of Big Timber. In the store was the most amazing range of guns for sale. There was everything from semi automatic machine guns to short barrel shot guns to high powered rifles. There were pink rifles for young girls! I was half expecting a rainbow colored rifle for Gay folk. It was all very sobering really. And to top things off the gun store was next to the liquor store! So convienant!


Camping at Red Lodge







DAY 35. RED LODGE TO CODY. 190 km

Today was a superb trip over Beartooth pass. This is a high pass with a spectacular road that could have been specially designed for motorcycles! I have run out of superlatives or at least are off the scale! Then it was Dow n thru cowboy and injun country to the real wild west town of Cody

We rode our iron horses down the main street of Cowboy town Cody. That is along with hundreds of Harleys going up and down the main street in a cacophony of sound. Some of the decorated bikes were amazing .

Cody was named after Gen George Cody otherwise known as Buffalo Bill. Everything in the whole town revolves around his memory and at one stage he was the best known person in the world. How they measured that I do not know.

In the afternoon we went to the Buffalo Bill museum. It is actually extremely good and not just a tourist attraction. You could spend several days there. Then in the early evening it was off to a free concert by the Beverley Bros which featured - you guessed it- guitar Western music .



DAY 36. CODY TO JACKSON VIA YELLOWSTONE NAT PARK. 445 km

It was a great to see the fabled Yellowstone National Park. A highlight was the herds of wild Bison very close to the road. In fact when an angry looking young fella got within about 30 meters of the bike it was time for a quick flick of the throttle wrist !

And we saw that geographical feature that could have been named after me - Old Faithful ! I do hasten to add that is because I am both old and faithful and not because I erupt or spout forth every 90 minutes or so !

Then to finish off it was a glorious slide past te Grand Tetons and down to Jackson. " I wanna go to Jackson " and we have. However there are at least a dozen Jackson's according to the GPS so I am not sure we have got the one immortalized in song.

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Comments

EHertz said…
I am so inspired and just a little jealous....

Let me know when you are getting in South America so i can alert my friends in Quito and Guayaquil....

Eric Hertz

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