Sandpoint, ID. 3510 miles.

Got an early start out of Great Falls – as early as possible. If you ever felt like visiting, just go ahead and check it off your list. Long morning run up I-15 to RT 44. Not the most pristine of Montana scenery along the interstate, shockingly, but once I was heading west on the state routes towards Glacier the view improved with every mile.

Unfortunately the very famous Heading to the Sun pass in northern Glacier National Forest is still snowed in. I was hoping to get lucky and have it be open by this time in June but no luck. At least I was able to catch Bearstooth. I suspect they are somewhat similar and maybe a 2nd straight day of heavy mountain riding would have been a bit much. So I got on RT 2, which I had originally ridden all the way back in St. Ignace, MI, where it originates some 2000 miles east. I rode through the southern edge of Glacier along the Flathead River. The difference in the landscape and wildlife between there and several hundred miles south in Yellowstone is pretty striking. Very little grassland as just about every square inch of usable land is taken up by enormous fir trees, some a hundred feet high.There was a considerable amount of construction and the pass was broken up all too often by trinket shops and tourist stops. I have to admit I was a little disappointed, though it did have its share of stunning views. But I was coming towards the end of my time in Montana and I had high hopes for this part of the trip.

So the Rockies passed somewhat undramatically, but before I knew it I found myself in western Montana. The difference in landscape from one side of the mountains to the other could not be starker and the next few hundred miles were the most fun riding I’ve done on this trip by far. The vast basins of eastern Montana suddenly give way to massive stretches of cedar forests rolling over enormous hilltops, spotted with blue lakes and tiny old timber towns. Somewhere along the way I picked up a road friend – a guy and his wife on a Sportster who pulled out of a camping site just as I was passing by. For the next hundred miles we played on an amazing stretch of road. The hills and valleys are so expansive that the road itself rides incredibly fast and the curves can be taken at full speed with practically no other cars for miles and miles. So we barreled through amazing country, taking turns leading and following lines, scraping pegs through the massive ramped curves around the hills. I could have stopped to take a thousand pictures that would make any of the ones posted here look tame, but honestly it was just too damn much fun. My road friend pulled off in Libby for gas but I still had half a tank so I didn’t stop until I absolutely had to.

(Feel free to skip this part if you aren’t into bike talk. I never really appreciated all the mods I’ve done to this Thruxton until today. The wide open air flow with the D&D pipes and TTP tune make it accelerate like silk without a single hiccup or flat spot anywhere in the throttle curve. It absolutely screams above 5000 revs and the frame finds its perfect tuning point so the vibrations almost disappear. And the suspension…The Hagon Nitros in the rear keep the ride smooth but along with the Roadmaster rubber just glue the rear wheel to the road and give you every ounce of confidence you could want in the tightest curve. And don’t get me started on the Bitubo cartridges in the forks. Look left, go left. Look right, go right. I am just dumbfounded how nimble this bike is with these forks. It feels like being on a GP bike. I think I might add a supplemental fork brace to keep wobble down on the high speed straight aways but these bikes with just a little work can be absolute beasts. You can almost hear how much she likes being ridden like this. Bike nerd rant over.)

And before I knew it (or wanted it) I was at the Idaho border. Nothing against Idaho – In fact the northern stretch across the panhandle is equally as beautiful as western Montana, but I hadn’t anticipated making it through Montana so quickly and especially after the last stretch I wanted to know what else I hadn’t seen. Another time…

Coming into Glacier from the east this morning I had to pull over and put on a sweatshirt because the air was so cold. Now at 3:00 in the afternoon in northern Idaho the temperature was almost 95 degrees and while I was covering a lot of ground and had thought about trying to make it as far as Coeur d’Alene today, the sun started to get to me and I decided to stop in Sandpoint, a really lovely town on the coast of Lake Pend Oreille. With another free hour (Hello, Pacific Time…One more reminder I’m running out of continent) I did a much needed load of laundry and gave the bike a much needed bath as well, although there’s some road grime on there that isn’t going to come out until I go over it with a scouring pad back home. In theory, tomorrow lands me in Bellingham, WA, the north-western most spot in the continental US. I’m not sure how I feel about that quite yet. In fact, I might spend an extra day out here in the hills before seeing the end of the West and start the long curve back home. We’ll see. There are people I want to see on the coast and the extra time might be better spent there, but the thought of running out of road once I hit the ocean is a little sad. I know there is still a lot of road to cover and amazing things to see but there’s just something about going west. This country will stay with me forever and I can’t wait to come back and explore it more.

Wyatt Neumann was a phenomenally talented photographer and director, a loving husband and father, and a passionate motorcyclist. On June 11th he was doing what he loved riding in Delaware when he suffered a brain aneurysm which caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. He died shortly after. Wyatt was instrumental in both inspiring this trip and planning many of its routes and logistics. The title of this site was unapologetically stolen from his series of photographs from his own travels. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. A memorial fund has been established to help his family in this very trying time. Please consider donating. Any amount will help. Thank you.

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