Leaving the little town of Wisdom, I headed out in a beautiful cool morning along the wide open ranches. There’s nothing like riding in the quiet of an early morning. Once again the weather was spectacular, the temperatures were low, and the wind was nonexistent. Rolling along the ranches it seemed that all the cattle were cheering me on as they gathered by the fence line. As I stopped to take a picture, they all seemed to rush the fence as if I was going to give them something. After a while the ranches disappeared and into the forest I went. I felt as if I was back in Yellowstone or parts of the Grand Tetons. As my view caved in because of all the trees roadside, I scanned the surroundings for any wildlife.
Once again the route followed the journey of Lewis and Clark. I never consciously planned that but it’s been fun looking at the history. As I came to the top of the climb at Chief Joseph Pass I didn’t realize it at the time but I had just entered Idaho. Down the first mile, I came to a junction which revealed both welcome signs for Idaho and Montana. From that point it was a steep, curvy, seven mile descent. I stopped several times to allow my brakes to cool not wanting to overheat them to failure. Without even trying at points, I was traveling almost forty miles an hour which is too fast for me.
Finishing the descent, I started traveling through some quiet windy roads past some beautiful homes along a river. Lisa Marie stopped in a small market for some sandwiches and we had hoped to sit by the river but unfortunately we had passed everything. So we just sat in the car and enjoyed lunch together. From there the descent although slight, continued all the way into our final destination. Today I dropped almost 4000 feet in vertical height throughout the ride. I know I’ll pay for that in the future, but it sure is nice. We traveled through a quaint little town called Darby that was packed with tourists. I chose not to stop because of the traffic increasing on the road, the heat, and of course once again I had a tailwind. The shoulders opened up into almost 4 feet which made the ride more comfortable. Passing Trappers Creek I noticed a ranch with an id check. This was the second one I saw so I decided to stop. Talking to the local police and security, they told me that this was a film shoot for Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone series. They were shooting in multiple locations all along the Bitterroot the mountain range. Lisa Marie and I later found out that the hotel we were staying at regularly housed the stuntmen and women along with the animal trainers. Finishing the day and getting checked into the hotel, Shelly the attendant, blessed us. We had a great time talking with her. Later this evening after dinner, the west winds are blowing forest fire smoke heavily into town. We will have to see what the air quality is like tomorrow. Hopefully we can move north and get some much needed Intel on how to travel the rest of the way to the coast. Stay tuned.
Insights from Lisa Marie
Travel from Wisdom to Hamilton, Montana was pretty standard basin type scenery. Lots of ranches of course. At one point I saw a very long string of single file cattle going nowhere it seemed. No water source in sight and passing many herds eating in the same pasture. When I finally reached the leader he seemed to have no clear endpoint🤔. Again with nothing else to do I came up with the theory that this was exercise for the group and they were following their trainer😂. Anyway I am enjoying my 4th book which is the story of a man destined to be executed on death row in Texas and on the day of said execution, another death row prisoner in Alabama confesses to the murders in Texas. Sorry non book people I am loving this one but again I digress……
So we come over the pass and see mountains again! We passed through the Bitterroot Mountains the rest of the day. Had great sandwiches from this little market we were told about back in Wisdom. Enjoyed scenery all the way into Hamilton with peaks and streams roadside.
