Summer's (journey's) end

Our big summer motorbike trip is over, and we're both preparing for the separation that comes with fall quarter starting next week. Julie leaves for OSU in just a few hours. Reluntantly, we're facing summer's end.

There are tons of pix from our trip to Glacier on the mobile photo blog, and Julie has posted some of her favorites as well.

My highlight of the entire trip was tackling the rugged gravel roads on the western edge of Glacier National Park, making our way up to Polebridge and then on to Bowman Lake. All told, we did over 100 miles on gravel, a challenge that helped me get to know the bike better and really added to the feeling of being away from it all.

Here's our 2,700 mile, international route:

Five days out...

Map thanks to Google

and six days back...

Map thanks to Google

We had some of the coldest motorbiking weather we might have asked for. Starting on day 3 of the trip, we encountered... memorable temps in eastern Montana, which (along with the, um, ample rain) accompanied us for the rest of the trip.


Image from The Weather Underground for Havre, Montana.

(If you read this graph to say that the temps never climbed above the normal low for those days, and were often below them, you would be correct.)

Julie and I are fans of arduous cycling, and have a renewed appreciation of what that phrase can entail. Truthfully, I'm happy to be warm and dry, but also wish we could have just kept riding. Probably south.

Into every trip...

Here was the news greeting us on the iPhone this morning: a pretty
major storm in our path along US-2 toward Glacier (from Chinook via
Cut Bank on the map), temps in the 40s, and snow advisories on the
western side of the park. (Okay, it's no Gustav, but it's tough riding
weather to be sure.)

After a leisurely morning, and an unfortunate delay due to a bone-
headed gaff on my part pertaining to the placement of my (only set of)
motorcycle keys, we set off in the rain nevertheless. Despite having
so many layers I felt a bit like a sausage packed into my shirt,
flannel, fleece, moto jacket, and raingear, it took only 20 miles to
convince us that today might be better spent indoors, which is where
we'll be today. Tomorrow calls for warmer, drier weather. And
hopefully, Glacier! Happy Labor Day one and all.