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Monday, June 21, 2004
142 Miles
Whitefish to Big Fork, Montana
We left Whitefish around 9 am and drove around 80 miles to Roosville, Montana where we offloaded our motorcycles and put our bags on the luggage racks. At around 11 am we took time to take some photos at the border before we headed south. BJ and Andy followed us along a paved road to Eureka where we decided to stop for lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. Right after lunch Jonathan and I started riding on gravel roads again while BJ drove to Big Fork where we would meet that evening at the Timbers Motel.
It didn’t take us long to find ourselves alone on dusty gravel roads. It was comforting to look in my rearview mirrors and see Jonathan behind me. We rode through a very large burnt out area that had consumed thousands of acres of pine forest. Every tree was dead and blackened but you could see small saplings growing out of the ashes. We eventually came to Red Meadow Lake where we decided to take a lengthy rest break and enjoy its natural beauty.
A few miles after leaving the lake we came upon a couple who had accidentally driven their truck off the road. The truck was perched precariously on the edge of a very steep hill. We asked the couple is we could call anyone when we got down to civilization but they had already called someone on their cell phones. They must not have had T-Mobile service as our phones turned out to be worthless during the entire trip.
The second half of the day was on hard roads and we arrived at the motel around 5 pm. We were totally surprised by the charming city of Bog Fork. The town had many upscale shops, restaurants a summer theatre and a wonderful bungalow style hotel right on the river (not our hotel). We ate on the outdoor deck of a great Italian restaurant and then strolled around the town looking at all the shops. We had to park far enough away from the commercial district because Andy was barking his head off at being left alone in the car.
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