Ryker Goes to Tillamook: Final Leg

 

For my break at the resumption of the pavement after Skalkaho Pass, I scrambled down to the creek you see here.  It's a nice spot.  I also walked around the trike a couple of times, kicking the tires and other things to determine if anything seemed amiss after the preceding rough road.

Everything was still in place and solid.  Ryker is a tough little beast.

On the road again, the surface was really just tar-sealed gravel - but it followed the mountain stream beautifully.

Once it left the water, though, the route widened and reverted to loose rock.  Unlike the conditions over the pass, however, the last unpaved section was well-graded, fast, and fun!

I made it to the intersection with Montana HWY 1, having ridden 55 miles on HWY 38 from Hamilton.  It was the same spot where I had turned around five days ago in highly questionable weather, opting to leave Skalkaho Pass for my return trip.  Wise choice.

Heading southeast, I soon was flanking Georgetown Lake again - the peaks of the Anaconda Pintlar Wilderness standing sentinel.

Fifteen minutes later, I gassed up in Anaconda - an interesting town that needs a longer visit someday.  Then it was back to the I-90 superslab.  Butte, Bozeman, and Livingston passed in relative bliss.  But, as usual, Billings was where things really started heating up.

By the time I made it to Ashland, on HWY 212, it was unbearably hot!  I pulled over at a convenience store with an adjacent park.  After making a selection of fine drink and snacks, I ambled over to a covered picnic table and settled in under the shade of the pavilion.  There was just enough breeze to make it a tolerable place to update some friends and family via text.  I was only 200 miles from home!

Finishing up my meat and cheese sticks, I finally noticed the brand name on the wrapper - Werner.  You can see the outline of the state of Oregon in the bottom right corner, but you probably cannot make out the tiny white print on the lines above the "Best By" date.  I'll read it for you, "Werner Gourmet Meat Snacks, Inc. Tillamook, Oregon 97141."  How appropriate is that?

After a 30-minute break, I made it another 100 miles (half the remaining distance) to the community of Alzada, near the Wyoming border.  There's a spreading shade tree by the post office there that has become my traditional last stop before home.  It did not disappoint!

It was after 6:00 by then, but temps had not dropped much.  On the plus side, the area's frequently strong winds had not yet materialized.  And the lower angle of the sun was really beginning to light up the lush grass and trees.  This final leg of my Oregon trip was going to be a largely enjoyable one.

Wyoming only lasts for 30 miles on 212 (the far northeast corner) before you hit the South Dakota border.  The Mount Rushmore State has been my home for over three years now - hard to believe it's already been that long since our move from Oregon.  It doesn't look like much from here, though I've come to appreciate the plains.  But as you approach Rapid City and the Black Hills, you'll start to think you've warped back somehow to the edge of the Rockies.  I recommend you plan a visit!

I rode up my driveway at 8:00.  Kim had been following my GPS breadcrumb trail and was standing on the front porch when I arrived.  Within minutes, I was eating homemade chicken pot pie and fruit and berry crisp!  No, good food is not the only thing I miss about home - but it's up there in the rankings.

We talked until 10:00, when I finally fell into bed.  It had been a roughly 700-mile day - 14+ hours on the road.  Guess I still got it!  Barely.

  

Ryker Goes to Tillamook: Limping Home

 

It was somewhat cloudy but still dry at the Missoula Super 8, as departure preparations were underway.  I'd risen at 4:30 after a fraction over three hours of sleep.  The hope was to make it home by dark - even though I'd be tackling the gravel pass I'd skipped because of bad weather on my trip west.

The collision with the deer the previous night had broken some of the fasteners that hold on various plastic parts.  There'd been no issue at the slower speeds I'd maintained getting to the motel, but I thought I'd better batten down the hatches before achieving full daylight velocities.  To that end, I zip-tied the lower edge of the left side cowling to the frame, below the headlight.  Notice the big crack in that corner of the hood?  It wasn't going anywhere though - just unsightly.

Then I zip-tied the radiator grill cover to the steel guard underneath it.  That should do.  Funny how I'd overcome two instances of electronic "Limp Home Mode" activation on this trip - only to end up limping home physically with a broken headlight and temporary body work repairs.

I was all ready to go at 5:30.  The full breakfast was still not set out, so I grabbed a couple of pre-wrapped muffins and stuffed them in my tank bag for later.  There'd been four other cycles parked around the front door when I'd arrived in the dark - and they were all still there.  It was not a race, of course, but I was winning!

An hour later, it sprinkled a little as I passed through Hamilton, MT.  On the south edge of town, I found the turn for Highway 38 (aka Skalkaho Pass Road) and took it, heading east.  At first, it was a nice two-lane, running through a residential area.  Then I passed an open gate, and it narrowed to a roughly paved single-lane route, as it began to climb into the mountains.

The rain had stopped, and it looked like I'd have no more trouble in that regard.  The observant viewer will notice though - only one of the two primary headlights is shining.  Fortunately, there are still the LED lights down lower and the marker lights over each wheel.  My degree of visibility remained rather high. 

Near the top, the pavement gave way to a hardened native surface with frequent boulders poking through.  There was no real gravel to smooth things out.

It was nothing Ryker couldn't easily handle, but I took it pretty slow - so I could handle the beating better!  Guess it looks fairly nice in this photo, but it really wasn't.

Beautiful scenery though!

Eventually, I met a couple of pick-ups coming the other way.  They didn't say anything, so I figured the road must be open all the way through.

This gushing falls was a pleasant surprise.  It reminded me a lot of one of my last road improvement projects on the Tillamook Forest.  A very similar cascade used to frequently wash out one of our district's mainlines, so I specified a larger culvert and administered the contract to have it replaced.  Problem solved - a least for a while.

When the road narrowed even further, I began to wonder how bad it was going to get.  I'd been going only 10-15 mph for miles - a far cry from the well-graded 35 mph gravel road I was expecting.

And then the surface turned muddy - and I was even more glad that I hadn't attempted this route in the rain and snow earlier in the week.

About this time, a small two-wheel-drive car approached, meandering around the largest rocks.  If he could make it, so could Ryker and I!

There never was an obvious pass, but the road slowly began to descend.  Down in the dense timber again, the surface finally improved.  There was even a highway sign!  Nice to know I was still heading east.

This is not a great photo, but that's pavement - just beyond the cattle guard.  I still had 10-15 miles to go to get back to a real road, but the most challenging part was behind me - always a realization with mixed emotional impact.

I pulled over (there on the right) to stretch my legs a bit and savor the trip's last moments of relative wilderness.  Within the hour, I'd be back on Interstate 90.  The world is different there.