Today is Canada Day, but that doesn't mean anything in the US of A. Everyone is getting geared up for the 4th on Thursday and probably 90 percent of Americans don't even know that July 1st is our July 4th. Jim and I will miss the celebrations as we travel through Montana.
This morning we were off at about 8:30. We rode to the centre of Bozeman to see what an 1890s downtown looks like. The Masonic Lodge seems to be big in Montana and Bozeman's is right on the main street. Unlike any other Masonic Lodge I've seen this one has a statue of a rearing palomino horse on its corner. It is certainly striking.
The Masonic Lodge palomino scupture
We left downtown Bozeman and headed to Yellowstone H-D in Belgrade, MT which is just east of Bozeman. The main purpose, as well as checking out the dealership, was to see if anyone at the dealership could suggest a good ride for us today as we had nothing really planned for the day except to generally head west and avoid I-90. The person we talked to had several suggestions but the one we liked best had us leaving I-90 about 50 kilometres west of Belgrade, riding north to Helena, then taking secondary roads through northern Montana to Kalispell.
We had no real idea of the distance involved but the ride looked good so we made the decision to take this route. As usual for the past three days, the heat began to build quite early and by the time we reached Helena, the bank thermometer read 91F. Form I-90 to Helena is mostly farmland with huge fields of wheat which stretch almost literally to the horizon. After all the desert colours we've seen over the past several days it was a welcome change to see green fields backed by mountains, for a change.
West of Helena the highway began to climb to an altitude of more than 6300 feet as we climbed over Macdonald Pass. Near the top we stopped at a viewpoint that gave us a tremendous view of the road and landscape that we had just traveled on and through. If anything it was even hotter as the ride and day progressed.
View to the east from Macdonald Pass
View to the south
View to the southeast
We stopped at the intersection of Highways 200 and 83 for gas and an ice cream cone. The memorable aspect of this stop was a huge statue of a Hereford steer. The last part of the ride was through a valley surrounded by low mountains.
Stoney's Steer
Mountains on the way to Kalispell, MT
The remainder of the ride to Kalispell was through alpine evergreen forest. It was one of those rides that I call 'industrial' in that the whole point of the ride was just to get to journey's end. We reached Kalispell just before 5:00 p.m. found a motel and settled in.
As we were leaving to get dinner I took several photos of an orange Ultra Classic which was parked close to our bikes. The owner came out and we had a good conversation. He was travelling with a friend from Arizona and had just arrived from travelling in Glacier Park.
Another Orange Harley
Today was one of those days when the scenery was mundane and the main point was to get from one place to another. There were some outstanding sections, including the climb over Macdonald Pass as well as several twisty sections throughout the ride. It was an OK day, but not as outstanding as yesterday's ride. In all we covered 482 kilometres today. The remainder of this trip will be easy rides and our plan is to make it back to Kamloops on Thursday, July 4th.
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