bob_m
Active member
I just purchased a 2000 K1200RS. After having it get a level II service I took the bike east past through the brushed corduroy hills of the wheat near Walla Walla, through the hot (and dreadful) city of Lewiston and into the Idaho Rockies over Lolo pass. This road is renowned among motorcyclists and it is common in the blogs to see photos of riders next to the road sign that reads ?winding road next 99 miles?. On the east side of the Bitter Root range I got a room in Hamilton Montana. Even though the route 93 ran through a broad flat valley, the elevation was quite high. This is evidenced by there being ski areas with runs to the valley floor and by my waking up with a splitting head ache after having only 3 beers the night before. Continuing south I rode over a pass that had, within this past decade, been denuded in a hot fire. It was now recovering with a shrub layer of huckleberries and deciduous plants that painted the ground plain red between the black decaying snags of the burnt woods. That pass dropped me into Salmon ID and from there I rolled at a brisk pace south then east through the flat, open and empty sage steppe to Idaho Falls and from there north east over Targee pass and Teton pass. These passes went between craggy peaks and bright aspen fall color. The drop down into Jackson WY is nothing short of spectacular. A little south of there I saw a sign that indicated a road that lead to a camp ground. The road started as paved, then went to smooth gravel and incrementally worsened until it became too rough for my limited courage, and I just found a flatish spot and set up camp in the big rolling foothills grassland that is so emblematic of Wyoming. I woke in the morning with an antelope staring at me from a nearby ridge. I was apparently in his game trail.