6/21/17
Seem to be still on Eastern time waking again as 4:30. up at 5:00. The roar of the Boulder River was great to wake up to. Tidying up the the camper bags that go into the cab… a bowl of cereal and off I went back to Big Timber to hop back on I-90. As usual what I thought would be the day’s events turned out about 50% right. Montana is big. Drove to Missoula (3 hours) and got a coffee as I was fading. Was there in 1998 for the BMWMOA Rally. Luann and I drove two up on the R100 (1991)… don’t think I would want to do that again as we did five long days as well and those are exhausting on a bike. Still glad I did it while I could.
As per the advice I received about the passes, three in Montana and 2 in Idaho, there was some white knuckle driving. A heavy truck handles very differently on a steep on a steep incline. Wild up and down thousands of feet through countless curves with 75-80 mph speed limits. The “plan” was to stop at Cabelas on the Idaho/Washington border to get some bear pepper spray and some practice canisters to get the feel for using it… don’t think I’d have time to read the directions one more time if Griz wants to eat me. As always coming into the American strip shopping miles is not too much unlike a feeding frenzy I’ve seen on the Paranå River in Paraguay. I got in and out and was happy to get back up in the hills.
Decided to try a spot to boondock (dispersed) camp about an hour and a half off I-90… this proved to not to be a good idea as I ended up on the far side, the wrong side of a wetland an hour out in the ‘moors’ of Eastern Washington… ending at a chained gate on public land … a tangible dichotomy if there ever was one. As my Irish family would say “you are stuck in the arse-end of nowhere without a clue” and indeed I was. Technically my truck was on public land so I was tempted to stay where I was (it had taken a long ride in on gravel) but as there were numerous shell casings on the ground and a couple live rounds, Even though I had already clocked 10 hours driving, I thought perhaps I’d try elsewhere. I found a BLM site and put that into Google maps after getting out to the main road… it brought me 30 minutes later to another dead end road with the Google announcement “you have arrived at your destination!” … not bloody likely. Trying another time with another GPS Maps.ME app ( I downloaded all state maps before leaving so I could be offline with routing on GPS). This Got me to where I am now, at a BLM campsite at Roosevelt Lake (way above the Grand Coulee Dam). Free. The wind is wild up here off the water and the cottonwoods are suffering limbs loss. It was another unplanned 11 hour drive. Strangely enough though tired, I spent a lot of time laughing at circumstance … why not… I was safe with food water and a place to sleep no matter where I ended up at dark.
Tomorrow’s “plan” is to find some National Park as close to Bellevue Washington where on Thursday morning I have a scheduled service appointment for the truck …fresh oil and filter for AK. With the miles we will be putting on I brought a complete oil/filter change with me for latter as Dexos 2 is hard to find. I also brought a sealable oil drain pan to drop off at some auto place when full. Lots of details