Stage 11
Basin To Kalispell
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Northeast of Basin is the infamous
Lava Mountain Trail which most everybody that are on bigger bikes or are
carrying camping gear don't attempt. Going North would be even harder
as there is an impossible uphill you would have to get up. I found a route
thru to Rimini on the West side of Lava Mountain on my own--and it was
marvelous.
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We went over Priest Pass and came to the Empire Mill which I have searched the net and haven't been able to find out squat about it. Monty is standing by the steam boiler. We then climbed over Priest Pass |
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After summiting Priest Pass the clouds
were really building and it seemed I was going to have to do another anti-rain
dance as we crossed the Brulington Northern Railroad.
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We motored on toward the small town
of boulder and the bright yellow flowers just jumped out at me. I had
heard before I left of the heavy rains in Montana and that the colors
were awesome--yes they were.
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I've been gathering route imformation
for this ride for over a year--and I suspicioned that the route thru hear
may be gated.
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It wasn't gated---it was rocked----I
almost put my foot on Monty's rear tire and gave him a shove as I knew
I couldn't make those flimsy BMW saddlebags look any worse than they already
did. Hackneys track log (going South) ended just 1/2 mile in front of
us--evidently there was a problem for him getting thru here too. We turned
around--the only time on the trip as the trail beyond these rocks was
single track hiking---or so it appeared to me.
There were no signs---I wished I had soldiered on. |
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I came flying around this corner and just gassed it thru this mudhole and got completely sideways in the mud and almost high sided. I knew Kevin would be coming but before I could get my camera out and catch the mayhem he did the same thing I did and amost lost it. So----out comes both our cameras as we wait for our next victim to come around the bend at warp speed. We hear him coming and he's moving on---that old Monty is getting smart---he spies the camera's--smells a rat--and hits the binders and putts thru the puddle without so much as a bobble. |
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We rode on thru the cool moutains
thru Swan River and road North on the Foothills Parkway to our Motel in
Kalispell---we needed a bath.
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288 Miles for the day
Stage 12 "Are we there yet" ???? Crap------we are !!!!!!!!