Fire Dancing and Tracer off-roading

[Warchild]

I was after three different PNW Grand Tour locations during this run, and a couple Tour of Honor locations along the way. I don't really care for riding dirt/gravel, though I will if it becomes necessary, as it did on this run this past weekend. I had thought the 105 miles of god-like twisties between St Maries, Idaho and St Regis, Montana was paved. 

That is not true.  🙄

At the Montana border... pavement just stops. It's hard-pack dirt/washboard gravel for the remaining 15 miles to St Regis. T'was a pinch gnarly in spots, especially steep gravel hairpins coming down Lookout Mountain. 😖

The first PNW-GT stop was GT15, Bear Creek Lodge near Spokane Mountain. It was 41 degrees F when I got here... brrr!

 

Next up: GT18 - TFP Restaurant in Avery, Idaho, buried deep in the northern Idaho mountains. Got there too early for lunch, but the smokey goodness smells from the wood-fired pizza ovens were to die for!

 

 

Continuing on this uber-twisty road, this was just fantastic until the Montana boarder, when asphalt stops. 😮 It was either continue on dirt/gravel for the remaining 15 miles, or go back. It was a no-brainer... the Tracer did well, I just took it slow and easy... but still really happy to get off the washboards by St Regis. Broke out the WD-40 and used a fair amount cleaning this dusty grit off the chain:

 

Last stop of the day: GT29 - National Bison Range Antlers near Glacier National Park: 

 

Here I am kicking back at the C'mon Inn near Missoula, where all Yamaha triples are afforded coveted covered parking to avoid overnight showers:
 

 

Up the next morning, grabbed the 2023 Tour of Honor MT7 in Rose Park in Missoula, this is a very moving Memorial:

 

Then it was over to historic Fort Missoula to photograph H110, a Huey helicopter that is on the Tour every year as an "Additional Ride".  This was early morning fog, not fire smoke.

 

Now time to blaze down one of the most awesome roads in northern Idaho: the 99 miles of hard-core HWY 12 twisties from Lolo Pass to the flats near Koosika. Devoid of any traffic; it was my personal racetrack the entire run. Here I stopped at the Lolo Pass summit to shed some layers as the sun started to heat things up:


 

Kooskia Café in Kooskia, Idaho is a magical local place that serves  awesome food and KILLER milkshakes! I have been stopping here for decades when rampaging on HWY 12 to Montana:

A world-class Chocolate Peanut Butter milkshake.... mmmmm....  ❣️



 

Passing thru Lewiston, Idaha, you must NOT pass up a chance to run the Old Spiral Hwy!

 

This is a motorcycle GOD-road! It drops 2000 feet in 10 miles, has 64 curves and multiple hairpins:

 

 

View at the top is still awesome even with lingering fire smoke:



I am fortunate to live relatively near these awesome roads. Old Spiral Highway is just one example:

[piotrek]

Nice ride and photos... and that whole business of road suddenly turning dirt/gravel... sounds familiar. These moments tend to get etched into memory. 😎

[Warchild]

1.5-minute video of Day One with the three PNW-GT stops:

GT15 : GT18 : GT29
 

Shorter Day Two video with the ToH stops and Spiral Hwy:

HOMEBOUND FROM MONTANA/IDAHO