State 5 of 50  

    Montana

Capital: Helena

Population: 997,000 (ranked 44th of 50 states)

Area: 381,000 km² (ranked 4th of 50 states)

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Ride Report

This state: 943 kms     Journey to date: 4,456 kms

Scroll down below the route map for this state's ride report and photos

Ride Report

Well I've had it all in Montana over the last 2 days.. bears, breakdowns, big mountains, burgers and brilliant roads. Entered Montana from idaho on the Thompson Pass and it was fairly straight forward riding down to Plains then through to Flathead Lake. There was a lot of smoke over the road caused by a forest fire in a nearby range of hills. I rode into the smoky haze not knowing if you did that sort of thing. There weren't any signs or cars coming the other way so what the heck.

Entered Glacier National Park at West Glacier & it cost $12 to get past the ranger station. The road wound through Milford-like beech forest climbing all the time. This road is known as the Going To The Sun Road. It soon became obvious why it was called that it, even though I was riding over it at just before dusk. It was slightly perilous if you didn't watch the drop offs.

Descending the other side into St Mary I found the bike was overheating while idling, such as when pulled over the take a photo. Once up to highway speed the temperature gauge went down again. I suspected a rapidly failing cooling fan motor as there was also a whine down by the radiator. Nothing for it but to press on and see what happened. Rounding a bend on the lonely road I found a black bear rambling across with 2 bear cubs following. It stopped and looked up at me with what I took to be a challenge. I had read the pamphlets about what to do when confronted with a black bear. Basically you have to fight for your life as opposed to just playing dead with a grizzly. So following instructions I dismounted and rugby tackled the bear. No wait that's not it. I slammed the bike into reverse. No wait, the bike hasn't got reverse. Oh yes, the bear just ambled into the woods and I rode on. I camped at St Mary last night and made sure the zip was done up tight on the tent. Can't be too sure..

Today was under brilliant blue skies, the big sky of Montana so they say. From St Mary the scenery was equally stunning as the road through to Choteau tracked the Glacier National Park. But then suddenly it opened up into flat plains as far as the eye could see with combine harvesters in fields and nothing on the road. As long as I kept up speed the bike was air-cooling and the now dead fan didn't matter. Once I slowed down to idle through towns the temperature went up again.

In a town called Lincoln I met a fellow biker called Bob and we had lunch together at the Moose Saloon. I had a Reubens which was grilled pastrami, cheese, sauerkraut and dressing. On the highway to Missoula I rode up into the Rockies and crested at Rogers Pass which is also where the continental divide crosses. Then it was a fast run into Missoula, a quick visit to the Suzuki dealer who verified the cooling fan was stuffed, and tonight I write this in the local campground where a tent site costs $24 and there is an icecream "happy hour" in which I helped myself to a Huckleberry special. Had a well needed shower, hung out socks to air and caught up on the web site and emails. Tomorrow it's over the Lolo Pass, another iconic route, into Oregon and see how far I get. I plan to phone ahead to the Suzuki dealer in Gillette, Wyoming, where I'll be in about a week, to get a new fan assembly ready.

Here are a selection of Montana pics.