“It hurts me too “ | Big Horns 7/7-7/14

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Loop  ~ 1900 miles through Eastern Idaho and North Western Wyoming
Riders – John   KTM 1190R
              Thad   KTM 1190R
              Tim     Honda 1000 AT
              Byron  BMW 1200 GS   

Byron was the only one that wasn’t gimpy at the beginning of the ride.

Tim had hip replacement surgery in February.



Thad broke his hand ( dirt biking ) in May.


I was nursing a bad shoulder , maybe a torn rotator cuff .

Byron caught up by the end of the ride.



1 flat
2 getoffs
2 bobbles
1 LEG FRACTURE 
0  sauce
              

Saturday, Boise – Idaho Falls

Leg - 327 miles , mostly pavement with a  section through the Arco Desert/ Idaho Rift





We departed Boise at 8am , stopping  in Shoshone for a meal at  the Manhattan .



Minidoka – Arco Road

The road out of Minidoka is a “high grade” desert gravel road that would easily
average  50+ mph.

Cream Can Junction
Confirmed , the Arco desert looks just like the Boise desert

Bear Trap Cave , a 15 mile long lava tube .
The gravel road ended here and the road turned into a typical desert two track.
Dry slick and rutted . I had to let some air out of my tires .

Big  Southern Butte
We rode up to the base but the road was freshly graded and soft , decided
not to ride to the top .

On the way to Atomic City there were a few silt beds. In one of them I got cross
rutted and went down hard. It stunned me and I had to regather my composure
and take an inventory of aches and pains. Thad thought I was knocked out , I was mostly tired.

Atomic City Bar – Rested and had a Coke.
You can see my hand guard and crash bars were put to use !  



Motel West- decent place , staff are nice and helpful .
The next morning it was packed with Chinese tourists .

Right next door is Gandpa's Bar-B-Q , it qualifies as Soul Food.
Even had a no nonsense black girl as a waitress .

Sunday, Idaho Falls – Thermopolis

Leg ~ 367 miles , over half off pavement

South Fork Snake River outside Idaho Falls

We stopped for a meal in Alpine and then followed the Grey River Road out of town.
There was a lot of traffic and dust from people heading home on Sunday.
Wasn’t enjoyable at all.

We finally lost the traffic on the McDougal Gap Road.

Thad


McDougal Gap


The road topped out on a ~8,000 ft sage brush steppe that was full of Pronghorns .


Thad and Tim on the Lander Cutoff .

The Lander Trail  was one of the immigrant roads related to the Oregon Trail
that runs along the base of the Wind River Range .

I had planned for us to ride the Louis Lake Road but the west end was closed for
a wrecker to recover a car that drove off the road. So we took HWY 28 into Lander.

Wind River Canyon into Thermopolis.



Elk Antler Inn -
It’s ok ,beds need new mattress .
We met a couple from Holland ,the lady filled us in on “the immigrants”.
You would have thought she was a “ Deplorable”.  






Town center .

Had dinner at the One Eye Buffalo ,best beer on the whole trip.

The the town also  has some hot springs but with the temps  pushing
100F it wasn’t that inviting.


Monday , Thermopolis – Story 

 

Leg ~ 257 miles , 100 miles off pavement ( Big Horn Mountain Road ).

Breakfast at Black Bear Cafe .

We topped off our tanks at the Bright Spot before we turned off HWY20.

We left HWY20 at Walton and followed the road through the oil fields to
Aminto and found Buffalo Creek Road and Big Horn Mountain Road.

Buffalo Creek Road .

Water crossing on Big Horn Mountain Road .

After this spot we had about 10 miles of rutted muddy two tracks , the
aftermath of the storm we were following .

It was a great loop ,big remote country .
Probably need 3 days or more to explore the Big Horns .

Back on improved roads !
There were still some slick spots from the storm.

Because of the storm and time we couldn’t do Crazy Woman Road  but
Hwy 16 was an awesome ride with beautiful views .

Story Pine Inn nicest stay on the trip .

Tuesday , Story- Cody 

Leg 257 miles , ~ 50 miles off pavement



We had breakfast in Sheridan , on the way out of town we got separated from
Byron , then he took a wrong turn . 
We waited for Byron at the base of Red Grade Road after a few minutes we reconnected .

Black Tooth Peaks from the Red Grade Road .

The second half of the road had just been “graded” which made the road
slick as talcum powder on a garage floor , worse than riding the mud the day before.

Big Horns from Hwy 14 .

Medicine Wheel .

It was a ~ 3 mile round trip hike from the parking lot to the Medicine Wheel .
The road is open if you are driving through or handicap .
Would have been our route into the Big Horn Canyon .

Interesting but don’t know I would do it again.


Fat Boys having fun.


Hwy 14 into Lovell , the temps reached 105F at the base of the cliffs !
I’m glad we didn’t take the dirt road into the  Big Horn Canyon .




In Cody we had dinner at Zapata's  , listen to Lyle !
Food was OK but it wasn’t Mexican , first clue was all the staff were white.

Downtown Cody after dinner


Wednesday, Rest Day Cody



We used Wednesday as a rest day.
Tim and I visited the Wild Bill Museum  and had lunch at the Irma .




Thad and Byron went fly fishing .

Thursday , Cody – Dillon 

Leg -175 miles, 50 miles off pavement  


Started the day with the breakfast at the Irma .


The first leg of the ride was on the Chief Joseph Highway

Dead Indian Summit

Road into Cooke City

Lamar Valley is full of buffalo

We moved through Yellowstone OK, traffic was not that bad.
We had a couple of delays for road construction .

The originally plan was to ride the north side of Red Rock Valley from Island Park
then a ranch road into Dillion.

However the first clue was a story board about the history of the sand dunes.
Then the sand got deeper and deeper.
Then Bryon dropped his bike and the pannier landed on his leg spraining his ankle.

Ranchers confirmed our decision  to tap out telling us the sand gets much worse
before it gets better.

We back tracked and rode  the gravel road on the south side of the valley.

Byron & Tim.

Only encountered a couple of cars  allowing me Tim to ride side by side much of way.

We then had to buzz 60 miles up I-15 to Dillion.

Sundowner Motel reminded me of one  of the motel scenes out of
“No Country for Old Men” but all the other guests were nice , not SJW’s.

The hotel clerk suggested Feista Mexicana for dinner.
She’s from Texas and thought this was the best Mexican joint north of the
Red River. Unfortunately  they were closed and we had to settle for Pizza Hut.

Friday,Dillon –Arco

Leg 203 miles ~ 50 miles off pavement





While checking his chain Tim noticed his rear tire was flat , it had a fence
staple he probably picked up in Red Rock Valley. 80mph on the I-15 didn’t
break the bead.

We had to use Byron’s Happy Trails bead breaker. 
         
          
 The Chevy dealer across from JB’s sells GasGas !

First stop was Bannack State Park a well preserved ghost town.
Well worth the visit .
         




           



         
        
       
Schoolhouse on bottom floor and Masonic Lodge second floor.

Hotel Mead

( Two years ago we rode a a portion of the Bannack Freight Road, see day 4 )

Bannock Pass – back in Idaho !


       
      Fancy Fences

Dropping into Leadore

Gilmore townsite

Birch Creek Kilns

DK Motel

Saturday , Arco – Boise



Leg ~190 miles all pavement .

We only stopped a couple of time .
        
        
       

FINI !

         
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POST SCRIPT -

AFTER 400 MILES AND ~ 7 DAYS BYRON WENT TO THE DOCTOR AND
DISCOVERED HE BROKE HIS LEG !




He still drank me under the table every night .

( I CAN’T STAY UP PAST 9 PM )