Friday 19th September 2014
Cooke City to Cody via The Beartooth Pass, Chief Joseph Highway & Dead Indian Pass.
Glyn, Sandra, Steve & Judith have decided to do their own thang today & take a longer route to allow them to see the site of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. I'd considered doing this option back in the UK but ruled it out due to the high mileage. It did make for a long day, those 4 getting into Cody much later than us, but they certainly seemed to think it was worthwhile when I spoke to them about it after the event.
I was late setting off, having to dry my gloves out on the heater for an extra hour after the debacle of copying Andy's brilliant idea.
The Beartooth Pass is a fabulous road, one of the highest tarmaced roads in America & fantastic to ride. Sweeping bends, tight hairpins, great road surface & very quiet apart from the odd pedestrian Harley rider getting in everyone's way - again.
It was a cold start though, with ice in places making for some interesting moments & it was bally windy at the top as well.
Lovely scenery on the way up, quite Alpine in places.
The height of the snow poles gives you an indication of how bad the weather can get up here.
Such, such good fun.......
And here we are on what feels like the roof of the world.
The symmetry of the height of the summit pleases my OCD
and then we're heading down the other side
To the metropolis of Red Lodge, famed for it's liver eating polis.
where bikers are clearly welcome.
This place has got as much going on an anywhere we've stayed for a few days & I spent a happy hour and a half mooching around in the warm sunshine.
The local sweet shop was decorated with vintage signs & bicycles.
Further up the street there's a shop selling Kalshnikov spares, obviously.
And then it's back over the Beartooth to pick up The Chief Joseph Highway. More motorcycle fun to be had as the scenery spreads out ahead of me & the horizon becomes more distant.
I've had another Eureka! moment during the day. Before I came away I really didn't like the GSA & regretted chopping in the RT to buy her. But it I've really, really grown to love her on this trip. I can't believe how comfortable she is, she's more reliable than any BMW I've owned & she does she's done everything I've asked of her. Plenty of luggage space, forgiving throughout the gears & the fuel consumption is getting lower. Riding her day in day out for many miles has made me feel like a proper 'biker'. Now I know that sounds corny but whilst I've always had bikes they've only ever been for fun. I've never really had that feeling of properly 'bonding' with them. Sure I've enjoyed them & loved the look of them but this is different. For the 1st time in my life I really can't imagine life without a bike. I want to do this all day, every day - you simply cannot beat it. As I've acknowledged this is The Full Green Giant but it feels good.
At one point the horizon spreads so far into the distance that I'm sure you can see the curvature of the earth, no photo as it was too murky for some reason? I mentioned it Paul when I got to Cody & he agreed, joking that with binoculars you could have seen both of our houses.
Then up over Dead Indian Pass, where the road & scenery really are the gift that keeps on giving.
I had a little chat with this fella & his pal at the top of the pass, feeding them some nuts. I might be too late to save the millions of slaughtered bison but I'll do what I can for the existing chipmunk population. I'm not sure if this one is Chip or Dale.
And then it's into Cody, WY.
A minor fcuk up means we have no rooms booked at the hotel but Sam & Paul have saved the day as 1st arrivals and booked accommodation for all of us. I was horrified to hear that I only had a single room & was all set to go elsewhere when Bilco explained to me that a single means one bed, rather than two, but a double bed all the same. So I stayed.
More sport on the telly, as you can see.
The world's strongest hairdryer appears to have blown Bilco's syrup away.
Initially we took the bikes into town, having been told it was too far to walk. As 'too far to walk' in this case meant about a mile we decided to come back & drop the bikes off. I headed for a quick shower & waited for the others but having arrived much earlier than me they had already cleaned themselves up & had gone straight back into town which was a shame as I fancied some company tonight. Aah well, Cody's not the biggest place in the world, I'm sure I'll find them - wrong.
Cody, and Montana/Wyoming are proper cowboy country; if you saw people walking round like this anywhere else you'd assume it was fancy dress, here it's the norm.
Cody is only a small place but it's connection with Buffalo Bill makes it very touristy. The hotel he had built is still in use today.
I had a look round, couldn't see any of the others & decided to head to a restaurant by myself. I overheard a lady telling a store owner that the minimum wait time for a table at just about all of the eating places was 2 hours* so I headed back to a pizza takeaway I'd seen on the way in & placed an order. Having let me ponder size, crust depth, crust filling, what cheese & which toppings to have the young lad told me that they don't actually cook the pizza on site, just make them - you're expected to take them home & cook them yourself. Arse. There was a supermarket alongside the hotel so I opted to go in there in search of cooked chicken/salad/sandwich - anything really, but there was nowt on offer so I resigned myself that great America staple McDonalds, not what I'd planned for or indeed hoped for. It could have been worse though, at least I didn't get locked in the McDonalds, unlike Andy.
*It transpired that there was some sort of Furniture Manufacturers convention on the night we were there, hence all the busy restaurants.
This was a disappointing end to what had been a fantastic day's riding. One of the best on an already brilliant trip. If you get a chance to go this way on a bike I'd urge you to do it.
It didn't
quite match the Icefields Parkway & Canada but then very little ever will.
Steak has to be rare, or medium rare for ladies.
