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Montana Ride 2006 Written August 27, 2006
Apparently it caught the eye of the producers at the Myrna Loy Theatre in Helena, Montana. They invited "Awesome" to put on noSIGNAL there on Monday, the 21st. They would provide accomodations, but we had to get ourselves to Helena. When "Awesome" invited me along, it took no time for me to say yes. How often do I get such a good excuse to go to Helena? I'd never been to Helena before, or anywhere else in Montana, for that matter. I typed "Helena, MT" into Google, and had it propose a route for me. It said 10 hours and 23 minutes. It was obvious to me that I would only want to attempt that trip on the motorcycle in two days. Oh, I certainly could have carpooled with someone else, but how often do I get such a good excuse to take a motorcycle trip? So, if you'll follow the logic of the timing, it goes something like this:
So, I'd be on the road for two days each way, and out of work for three days. Well, if I'm already taking 3 days off from work, why am I not taking the extra two, and just making a trip out of it? What's there to do in Helena? Well, camping around the state was the obvious answer. A Plan is FormedI quickly formulated a plan whereby I would take camping equipment with me, and spend the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday after the show camping. At the time I was planning all this (around May), my motorcycle situation was in a state of flux, to say the least. The Moto Guzzi was for sale, the Z750s had just annoyed me enough that I made the decision to sell it too, and I wanted to buy another Ninja 250. The Guzzi was the bike I'd purchased and outfitted for this mission, but I figured (correctly) that it would be sold by August. The Z750s would make an acceptable substitute, but I guessed that it would be gone too (again, an accurate guess). So, I would have to plan the trip around taking a Ninja 250. I considered taking the Goldwing sidecar rig, but it seemed like a marginal choice, given its relatively poor fuel mileage, lack of wind protection, and heaviness of steering. As the date approached, I also found a growing crack in the sidecar's wheel, which was eventually determined to be a cosmetic flaw rather than a functional one.
I also started feverishly and obsessively researching camping gear, of which I had almost none. I quickly settled on and bought a tent, stove, cookgear and sleeping pad. I already had a sleeping bag, and had, made or purchased a number of other useful items for the trip. The Day ApproachesIn the weeks preceding the trip, I was carefully making a gear list and refining it, and test-packing all the stuff I was intending to bring into the drybag I had (more than one source had suggested that sudden, unexpected thunderstorms were the rule for Montana summers). It looked like it would all fit, but it might be tight. I was also occupied with rehearsals for the show (which I was stage managing), so the weeks leading up to the trip felt very full and hectic indeed.
What!? I made some last-minute cuts to the list (half the redundant bandages in the first-aid kit, a book on camping in Washington, a few other things), and just squeaked by, although the opening of the drybag was only folded over two times instead of the recommended three. It all fit onto the bike, and I was able to come up with a strapping method that seemed fairly stable, and which proved quite effective through the rest of the trip. Of course, as I hefted the drybag up onto the back of the bike, it occurred to me that it weighed a lot more than I'd expected it to.... Fortunately, it didn't turn out to be a problem. I went to bed confident that I'd be ready to go in the morning. The TripI've arranged the days of the trip each in their own page. Please follow the links below to see each day in turn.
There is also a gallery of all the pictures I took, but it's unannotated. Please restrain yourself from downloading the high-res pictures if at all possible -- my bandwidth takes a serious hit if you access them. | ||||||||||||||||
