Road Trip 2006 Day 2 (Complete)

Day 2 (image gallery here) of
the fantastic voyage has been AWESOME! I started the day in Kooskia, ID and 280 miles
later am in Columbia Falls, MT, just southwest of Glacier National Park.

Highway
12 is pure motorcycle sex. The best part of all is that with all of the kids in school
and everyone wondering if it is too early to head north, there were few if any recreational
travelers out there. The only other bike I saw on Lolo Pass was a BMW R1200GS.

After oiling my chain every 200 freaking miles, we’ll be hearing moer about the GSA
soon. I rode about 50 miles of dirt today and while the Anakees worked reasonably
well for 80/20 tires, the I have to admit that the high-reving Tiger just is not a
genuine duel sport machine.

Firstly, I dropped it last week on the left side and had to replace both the left
peg and the shifter lever before I left. That is ridiculous. If you want to be a genuine
duel sport contender, fall over without breaking. Beyond that little diatribe, the
Tiger wants to run in the 5K RPM range to have any grunt and that is just too much
to keep up when you are running slow on dirt. Lastly, I am always keeping an eye on
my water temperature gauge with a look of distrust. The temp ranges high/low when
I am running slow. Not that it ever gets too hot, but I worry. An oil cooled machine
for off road running just makes sense, I think.

Missoula has got to be on be of the most beautifully placed cities on earth. Every
time I drive into the valley, I marvel at the views no matter what the new road of
approach. There is something about that high altitude, western valley scene that pulls
at my heart. There are only a few places in the world where one can find that view.

In my opinion, Stanley, Idaho up and over into western Montana is the most beautiful
region of earth. Well, at least that I have seen so far. I will be going into Glacier
National Park and hopefully up to Calgary tomorrow and we’ll see what I find there.