Easy Rider 2006: Day 7, Jackson to Billings

We've been on the road a week, and this is the day we've been looking forward to. I've actually forgotten what day of the week it is too -- apparently it's Tuesday -- or so I'm told, as I haven't read a newspaper in a few days. Without a radio on the motorcycle, both Tony and I tend to "sing" songs in our head -- either favorites or ones that are somewhat apprapro for the moment. One that came to mind today for me was by country-folk singer C.W. McCall, who had a song called "Wolf Creek Pass" in which he describes some mountain road with lots of curves as "one of them looked like a can full of worms -- another one looked like malaria germs..." That would be an accurate description to the wonderful 306 miles we rode today on a road known as the "Beartooth Highway".

Today we teamed up with two other tour riders -- Dan, who sings with Tony, and his partner Ken. Both ride Harley's and are in another group we ride with, the Border Riders. Because we were riding through Teton and Yellowstone Parks on the 4th of July holiday, and given the distance as well, we figured an early start would be best. We were glad to leave the "Snow King Resort" in Jackson -- a sort of "hotel hell", of which if I have time on our off day tomorrow I'll post a list of reasons why you should never stay there, but I digress..We met up with Dan and Ken on Jackson's main street at 7:30am and promptly headed north on US 89, the main road through Teton and into Yellowstone. The sun was coming up and lighting the east face of the Tetons in a wonderful light. It was rather cold, in the mid 50s, so we had to bundle up, but with no traffic (save for an ungodly number of cyclists Lance Armstrong wannabes who were on some tortuous "Tour de Teton" or something who tended to ride in clumps, peddling madly with their heads down watching the asphalt roll away rather than at the gorgeous mountains) we made good time and soon we were paying our $20 to ride through Yellowstone.

The tourists were just beginning to stir as we started through the park, and so were the buffalo. We ran into the midst of the largest bison herd in the US not long into our ride. We were in a high sage plain and there were several thousand grazing along the road for a mile or so. This time I kept hearing Roger Miller sing "you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd..", nor can you ride very fast through one on a motorcycle. We stopped for some breakfast at the south end of Yellowstone Lake, and then hit the road again. We bypassed the main tourist portions of the park -- Old Faithful and the like, so we could make good time towards Beartooth.




Midway through the park we took another break at "Artists' Point" in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and posed for the obligatory picture with the falls in the background. We headed towards the little used North East entrance to the park which sits at the base of the Beartooth. Tony and I had wanted to ride the Beartooth ever since we'd seen it written up as one of the best and most scenic motorcycle roads in the world, and it was the main inspiration for riding the bikes on this tour. Our riding partners Dan and Ken had ridden the Chief Joseph Highway to this end of the park a year ago when the Beartooth was washed out and closed. The Chief Joseph is also highly regarded as a great scenic motorcycle road, and we'll have to come back and try it again.

Just after leaving the park is Cooke City, Montana, which is where the road up to Beartooth Pass starts. We stopped for lunch at a bar that had a dozen Harley's lined up like horses in front of an old west saloon -- so we knew it had to be good. It was a nice rest, and we geared up for the ride up the pass, slathering on sun screen and making sure the ties were secure on the luggage. It had warmed up considerably so we were all riding in t-shirts. The first few miles were of freshly watered gravel -- kind of slick, and slow going. Once we hit real pavement again though it was a great, curvy, twisty, "can full of worms" road up the mountain. We stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks, and as we neared the top we could see the daily mountain thunderheads building up along the top of the pass, so we changed into rain gear. In the picture below, you can see the top of the pass as the "notch" above and to the right of Ken's head (the one in the black head-wrap). It's way up there! It was a good thing too, as the elevation gain had lowered the temperature once again and it was rather chilly.

Beartooth Pass tops out at 10,947 feet, and we (and the bikes) felt for the lack of oxygen and had a bit of difficulty running, not to mention it being a tad cold this high above the tree line with lots of snow still around. The view back down from where we came was stunning, and we could see the road twisting and turning and heading north back into the Yellowstone Basin.

On the other side of the pass, the road had a sickening drop and was more an equivalent to looking like a "malaria germ". It clung to the side of the mountain and twisted its way down and around, taking 20 miles to advance about 3 miles in the direction we needed to head towards Billings while dropping 3,000 feet in elevation.

At the last scenic overlook we stripped out of our still dry rain gear as it was getting warm again (best prevention is one that is never used) and started down the last portion of the pass. Naturally, not 1/4 mile after we left we ran into the remnants of a shower and a few drops on the windshield later we were out of it, and not wet at all.

We dropped down into the town of Red Lodge, another biker friendly town (indeed we saw more bikes than cars on the Beartooth), where the motel advertised "free bike wash" if one stayed. It was a cute town and we'd like to have had time to explore, but having been on the road for almost 10 hours, and because EVERYTHING was closed for the 4th of July, we hightailed it on down the road, watching for cops after being warned by a fellow biker of some nasty speed traps. After about 40 miles of fast running on flat farm land we hit I-90 and decided to ride it the short 15 miles to Billings (Montana's speed limit is 75 on the freeway, so it was a fast run) where we checked into the Sheraton - a good two hours ahead of the main contingent of Chorus folk, who had taken a shorter route and left Jackson 90 minutes later than we did.

We showered and rested, getting the sun screen and grime off, and went to dinner at one of two restaurants open in downtown Billings on the holiday, and we heard from the Chorus members who had made it to town about how they had sung "This Land is Your Land" before a nice crowd at the Old Faithful Inn where they had stopped for lunch, and how they paused for a group picture at one of the Teton overlooks and broke into "The hills are alive..." It reminded Tony and me of when we all posed for a group picture on the steps of St. Paul's cathedral in London when the Chorus sang there several years ago, and how they all broke into "We Shall Overcome.." The picture of that tour is framed and on our stairway to this day and one of our favorite memories. We both wished we could have been in that group picture at the Tetons as well.

Tomorrow is actually an "off" day of sorts -- the show isn't until 730pm and we have the day to rest and not do much of anything (except go to the Harley dealer for Beartooth t-shirts.) Its going to be nice to not get up and drive somewhere tomorrow. The concert in Billings should be good too, and the local PFLAG group has been busy promoting it, so we expect a good crowd.

From the 16th floor of the Billings Sheraton Hotel -- glad we don't have to ride tomorrow..a very tired..

Gary and Tony