Day 8 - Saturday

Saturday, July 17, 2010
Cody, Wyoming, United States
Woke up about 6:30am this morning, and was anxious to get going towards the Beartooth mountain pass, which is one of the great motorcycle roads in North America. I decided that while Yellowstone would be great to spend time at if I was in a car and not by myself, it's not a great place to be if you are on a motorcycle road trip, which is exactly what I'm on. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes after I got up and headed to the bathrooms, a rain cloud came overhead and it rained, quite heavily, for about 10 minutes. While this wasn't really more than an inconvenience, it made tear down much messier, and my 'Wing was all wet. Thank goodness I have lots of cleaning supplies with to clean off the tent and dry the bike before I left camp.

I headed through the park, working my way to the northeast entrance as quickly as I could . Some weird rubbing noise was coming from the front tire, like something was rubbing against the rotors. I noticed this yesterday as well. I decided to check it out when I get to the gas station right before I left the park. While driving there, I was getting a bit worried that it was possibly a worn out brake pad. I did check them out before I left for this trip, but they have been used pretty heavily in the mountains. But the weird thing is that the rubbing noise, while it changed pitch with the speed of the wheel, it didn't change when I applied the front brakes. This made me believe that it must be my wheel covers I have on the front - one must be rubbing against the brake rotor. When I stopped and inspected it over, I found out that a bee got jammed in between the front fork and the wheel cover, forcing the wheel cover over and it was just enough to touch the rotor. I simply grabbed my long screwdriver I had with, cleaned out the carcass, and used a quicktie I also had along to hold the cover against the fork. Problem solved .

Man, Yellowstone is big! It was over a 60 mile drive from the campground down on the southern end to the northeast entrance. And at 45 mph, takes a while also.

Right outside the entrance is Cooke City, which I had known to be a famous place for snowmobilers in the winter to go to do some mountain riding. However, I quickly found out that in the summer, it is a popular motorcycle hangout as well. Bikes were rolling pretty steadily in both directions through town, and were lined up on both sides of the road. Cool! Of course I had to stop here and mingle with some other bikers, and stop for lunch as well. I found out that Red Lodge (on the other side of the Beartooth pass) was having a huge bike rally this weekend, and that there is going to be a abundance of cycles on the road today.

I must have passed nearly a thousand motorcycles while going the 60 miles over the Beartooth pass to Red Lodge, MT . Let me tell you, while I really liked the St. Joe River Scenic Byway in Idaho, not even that road can beat this road. This road had to be designed just for motorcycles. It has very, VERY tight turns, strong grades of nearing 10% in some areas, and it's narrow and without side guards for a good portion of the road. Oh, and it goes high - really high! You won't see any motorhomes on this road! While the base on each side was in the upper 80's, the summit was only in the upper 40s. In fact, there was still quite a bit of snow up there.

Red Lodge was just full of bikes, all lined up on both sides of the main street, for the whole length of the town. I mini Sturgis, really. While I would have liked to stop for a while, I really couldn't secure my gear much, and it was just too hot. Plus I wanted to make it to Cody, WY for the night, which I needed to go back over the Beartooth summit and onto the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway into Cody - about 110 miles. So back up the mountain I go . At least now I know where all the good turnouts are so I can stop and take a few pictures. When I get towards the summit, of course a rain cloud was approaching, which it then started to rain (more like sleet really). At least I was prepared - I had my leather chaps, jacket, and full face helmet on. I saw many bikers that got caught in this that weren't wearing nothing more than a cut-off shirt or, for the females, a tank top. Brrrrrr - that must have been chilly. You can never assume the weather when it comes to these high passes. Things change very quickly and usually is way different than at the base.

Turned off on the Chief Joseph road and headed towards Cody, WY. This is a really good road as well. The only thing I hate about these really twisty roads is when you get stuck behind someone that is going way too slow that you can't really enjoy the challenge of the road.  I mean, you need to pay attention to these roads very carefully as a hairpin corner can come up at any time which means you need to be down below 20 mph if you want to make the corner . However, these roads are marked very well, and you can spot them when they are coming up. I guess that is what makes motorcycling on these roads so fun - you can get involved in the corners by leaning into them good and then powering out of the turn and onto the straightaway with a good acceleration.

Made it to Cody, WY - the rodeo capital of the world - for the night. I quickly tracked down the campsite that was recommended to me by another cyclist. They were filling up quickly, but had still some tent spots open, which was what I was looking for. Great!

Cody is the rodeo capital, with rodeos going on every night June through August. Where Medora has a nightly play, Cody has a nightly rodeo. I couldn't pass this opportunity up to see the rodeo - it's been quite a few years since I've been to a rodeo.

They way it looks now, I'm going to be home a day earlier than what I originally planned, since I didn't have to use my rain day, and I really didn't have anything that I could use this day for . That's ok, then I will be home when my wife and daughter get back from California. I am sad that tomorrow will be the last day of mountain riding - that would be the Bighorn mountains in north-central WY. From what I've heard, this is quite a spectacular ride as well, with a great view of the eastern plains on the east side of the mountains. It will be sad to be surrounded by flat plains again - this trip has taken me to so many beautiful places and wonderful mountain roads. Once I leave the Bighorn mountains, it will probably seem like eternity to make it home across these plains.

On the other hand, I am missing home a little more each day - there is just nothing like sleeping in your own bed and being in your own house. Even when your home is on the flats.

Miles Today: 273

Comments

Lori
2010-07-19

I'm glad for you that it was just a bee! ;) I can't believe a lil pest like that could create such a racket.....

2025-02-16

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