Day 8 - June 3, 2015

Today I rode along the Clearwater River for a very long time.  Beautiful river and roads.  Then my route took me off on a subsidiary river that flowed into the Clearwater River.  Heading up to Lolo Pass you know it will be interesting when you see the sign that says “Winding road ahead next 99 miles”.  And, right after that a sign that warns of rocks on road.

Curvy, mountain roads are neat and normally not a problem for any motorcycle rider.  In fact a lot them ‘live for curves’.  I did not think much of road imperfections until it started to rain about half way up.  Minor flaws are adjusted too on the fly.

This road was slightly different.  You may have heard the phrase ‘washboard road’.  Well this road had minor corrugations that made if feel ‘uncomfortable’ when riding in the rain.  This condition did not seem to appear on the straighter portions of the roadway.  Another roadbed flaw was the tire track areas seemed to have pressed into the subsurface just a little.  Not near enough to be called a rut but like a slight depression.  If you got out of your tire track just a little to the left you were on a very slight hillside that wanted to push you back to the right.  Then you went up on the right side and it wanted to send you left. 

That condition was on the whole road intermittently. Just enough to make you feel like you were constantly working to keep the bike running straight.  The biggest problem was facing the side-to-side variations along with the corrugations on the road while riding in the rain.  Just enough to make you work harder that you realize and give you tense muscles in neck and shoulders.

Stopped at the top and visited the information center.  They have several small colonies of Columbian ground squirrels.  Very similar to prairie dogs but slightly smaller.  They consider them a nuisance as the dig around the foundations of their buildings.

Got to Missoula, Montana and decided that I would go on to Helena for the night.  DID NOT CHECK WEATHER RADAR!  Big mistake.  About half way the sky turned a horrible black and the roads were wet.  Stopped and checked radar and it confirmed bad weather ahead.  At least it was headed northeast.  So I waited maybe 30 minutes and started off again.  About 12 miles later it started raining on me, and the temperature was dropping.  Finally made the summit and started down and the bottom dropped out of the clouds.  When I was about 10 miles from Helena I saw a lot of white on the side of the road and sometimes a pile in the road.  Also, the fields were white.  It was snow, a good inch deep.  For me the temperature was only down to 45, so it must have happened just before I got there.

Ending mileage for this day was 163,056 for a total on the day of 472.