Adventure Motorcycle Blog

Started the day at the lodge. It was nice to get a shower, meal at the restaurant and a chance to do laundry and repack. We loaded up the bikes, grabbed a coffee and head out. By coincidence, the trail system was right behind the lodge property so it was really easy to get on it. It rained quite a bit during the night and the trails were extremely slippery and muddy. It was the same type of mud that cakes on top the tires and encases everything. It was difficult to keep the bikes upright for a couple miles. We eventually came across a part of the path that was rocky so we were able to get some speed and knock all the mud off the tires. Though we saw them from a distance the day prior, we made our way to Grand Teton National Park. Once inside the park we followed the flow of traffic and ended up at a scenic pull off and took some pics of the mountains. After that we continued on our path which lead us to a gravel/dirt trail system. We continued on this for miles and eventually found ourselves out in the country surrounded by wheat, potato, and hay fields. There was such a drastic change in scenery from the farm community countryside compared to the twisty mountain roads. A lot of it reminded me of SW Wisconsin. Rolling hills, old barns in need of repair and hay everywhere. Next we ended up on the Idaho Scenic Trail System 001. The first couple miles of it ran along side a gorge with really clear/blue water in it. This trail system was about as wide as a large four wheeler/side by side and was LONG. It was loose sand/rock and was whoop after whoop the entire time. Matt compared it to a suspension torture test track. Probably 40 minutes in, Matt noticed fluid coming out of his right fork. This meant there was a failure of the ring or perhaps debris caught up in there breaking the seal. We pulled over and called Travis. He’s the one in VA that built our suspension. He told Matt over the phone how to fix it on the trail so we worked the problem. We had to lay the bike on its side, pull the fork dust cover off, clean all with a rag and then cut a water bottle into a scoop shape then use that to dig the dried dirt out of the fork seals. We did all that and it seemed to work. We diverted to a paved road to give the suspension a little break. We found another gas station, filled up and continued. We hit another part of the gravel trail and out in the middle of nowhere we ran into Gary. He had an older large suv and was pulling a homemade travel trailer. We noticed he was trying to change a blown out tire so we stopped and helped him out. His first spare tire was too big to fit but he had a smaller tire so we mounted it for him and sent him on his way. Visually he looked like a combination of The Prospector from Toy Story, Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazard and Charlie Daniels. After that we continued on for another 40 plus miles on this gravel road and found a campsite by a mountain lake. The site was surrounded by marsh and had zero shade. It was still early in the day so we looked at the gps and found a different site over an hour away. We jumped on the bikes, headed to Lima, MT and found a gas station in town. We filled up and then rode another 20 minutes to the most secluded and tucked away campsite yet. There were 10 spots and we had the place to ourselves. Once we dropped off our gear at the site we took the bikes and went to all the fire pits, strapped all the wood we could find to the bikes and build a large fire after we setup our camp. After that we had dinner, hung the bear bag in the front of the park close to the entrance and went to bed.