The Great American Total Solar Eclipse Squiggle Tour of 2017: Getting Up Close and Intimate with The Chief

Day 9: Leigh Creek Campground, Big Horn National Forest, Wyoming

Distance traveled: 472.7 km

Cumulative distance: 3482 km

Maximum speed: 132 kph

Moving average: 82 kph

Temperature range: 10.6 – 29.0 C

Before we left our cute little abode this morning, we relaxed on the deck with our coffees, allowing ourselves the luxury of sitting without regard for what was to come. Not that we had trepidation, we just don’t sit around and drink coffee before embarking on the day’s ride. We knew we had a pretty long one but we were not concerned, even with a portion of the ride being through Yellowstone.

Re-entering Yellowstone, we learned that entrance was free because today is the birthday of the national parks system. Too bad we hadn’t planned that better; we could have saved $55! Not surprisingly, traffic was slow moving; there was a single, lonely buffalo creating a 2 km line of stop and go traffic. However, it didn’t take long for things to improve. Rather than re-tracing our steps towards Grand Teton Park, we were heading northerly up towards Cooke City, which is on the Montana side of the border outside the northern boundary of Yellowstone. We went through four intersections and with each pass, traffic diminished, to the point where there was very little traffic whatsoever. We saw huge heards of buffalo in the process but because there was so little traffic, the roadside turnouts were not jammed up and there was lots of room for people to slow down and take a look and allow others to pass without issue. It would seem that west part of Yellowstone has all the traffic. In addition, the scenery was stunning. Or maybe it was that I enjoyed it more, not having to worry about all the other traffic. Rolling hills with large heards of buffalo and occasionally, deer and we passed by numerous more sulphur pools.

This guy needs to get some packing tips from my brother Rob!

We stopped for a bite at some place called Yellowstone Tower General Store. It had shown up on the GPS as a place to eat and even though we were only about 75 km into the day, we were an hour and a half and hungry. It turns out, it is not exactly fine dining. There are hot dogs, ice cream and some emergency provisions like graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, probably exclusively for ^th. I can only assume that means “2017”. Slices of nitrate-ridden turkey-something on gooey mutli-grain bread. No spread, butter, mayo, topping of any sort, not even plastic butter.It is good to know that should civilization as we know it collapse, we can always return to this place and find something to eat that is still fresh.

the campground across the road, which was full. But, there was also a cooler with sandwiches that had been pre-packaged and shrink-wrapped. We carefully avoided the ones that said “chicken salad” and picked the more innocuous and safer-looking “turkey” on multigrain. Good till September 15

And then we met The Chief. This is the Chief Joeseph Highway and the ultimate squiggle-fest, a target of my desires for the past two years. The entire road is good but there is one particular section that winds its way down one side of a valley and back up the other with turns so tight you can see your own posterior. My only disappointment was that we were on the edge of rain; the weather was moving east just behind us and we were struggling to stay ahead though occasionally, we were riding on the leading edge. This robbed me of a little of my confidence to push the corners as hard. Still, I think today is the most I ever had the bike leaned over, angling up or down the hairpin turns.

Once we had been down one side and up the other, there was an outstanding lookout that afforded us a view of about a half dozen turns down to the valley and the road on the other side of the valley as well. Riding through them before looking back was great and while I had looked at it on Google Street View so many times I almost already knew the road, this was really special.

The crowning glory.

At the lookout we met and chatted with other motorcyclists and bikers, some who had just come through it and some who were heading that way. We met Michael, the Mild Mannered (retired, I believe train engineer from Billings riding a Honda ST1300 and his buddy Dan, riding another of the same. As we rode into the lookout, Mike gave me the thumbs up and a look like he thought he knew me. Of course, I never remember faces so it wouldn’t matter to me either way. There is a North America-wide club of ST owners that meet yearly in a different place and these two, with another buddy riding a Super Tenere, were headed to Reno for the meeting. I’ve thought in the past it would be fun but I have never wanted to sacrifice my holiday time to ride to a destination in the middle of the desert in the middle of summer. Edmonton is a long way from everywhere, including Reno. Great guys, though and I think they would be a lot of fun. Mike hands me his "business" card as we are saying good bye; on one side it says "mild mannered train engineer" with a picture of his beloved Rail Link 4303 and on the other his picture poking out of his tent... with his bike INSIDE the tent. Hey, if there is ever a ST owners meet-up somewhere within a thousand kilometres of home, I’m all over it.

Dan on the left, Mike on the right.

There was some good description at the lookout, too. The lookout is called the in-Canada-politically-incorrect “Dead Indian Pass”. In 1877 the Nez Perce Indians (as they are called here in the U.S.) were in a fierce battle for their lives against the U.S Cavalry in a war that was increasingly unpopular with the American public of the time. The cavalry were getting their posteriors handed to them (The 7^th Cavalry with Custer had been wiped out the previous year) and they were out for revenge, so thousand of troops had been moved into the area and were overwhelming the indigenous. 600 Nez Perce with 2,000 horses were attempting to escape over the mountain where we were standing; they had left behind a wounded warrior who, upon being discovered by the advancing cavalry, was killed.

Here is today’s bonus. After we exited The Chief, we rode down to Cody and while there was a shorter/faster route to our destination, for us it is not always about shorter or fast, even on a long day. We went south from Cody and then across this vast, expansive, open sedimentary basin that was about 75 kilometres wide. This place was no-man’s land. The entire distance, we saw four cars. The first was parked on the side of the road and because we had seen no traffic, I felt compelled to slow down and signal to the occupant, was everything OK? A person out there would die of exposure before getting rescued or a tow truck. There were in fact, a few ranches along the way but they were few and far between; it would not have been possible to walk from one to another. He was fine, just out taking pictures.

Saw a wildfire minutes after it started.

A storm had just blown through and the fire dept from Meeteeste was responding.

The road was immaculate and while not quite twisty enough to attract motorcyclers it seems, it was twisty enough to be interesting. It could have been really interesting at 100 miles per hour but we had just been told an hour before that Wyoming has little tolerance for speeders. But the view was incredible. In every direction, layers and layers of sediment hundreds or thousands of feet high – red layers, grey layers brown layers and in places, jagged canyons carved out of the plains. It was spectacular and made for an unexpected, pleasant surprise for the day.

Our pre-booked campsite was a beautiful spot along Ten Sleep Creek, deep in the canyon in Big Horn National Forest. It was the first campground we stayed that actually filled up; there was one spot remaining when we arrived and it was soon filled by a family of four from Michigan. The dad, mom and two daughters whose ages I am going to guess were 8 and 11, were on a climbing holiday. I'm not talking climbing up the side of a hill, they were climbing the side of the canyon cliffs. We are talking full harness gear, ropes, bolts screwed into the rocks... everything. I bet those girls will have a story to tell about "what I did on my summer vacation".