My plan was to spend another day in the national park before leaving the park heading west for a little detour.

One of the memorable sights along the way was the petrified tree which was the last of three preserved trees before tourists destroyed the other two by removing bits as souvenirs. It’s quite astounding how this group of trees survived the elements for so long while all the other trees (there must have been more) and the material around them that caused the trees to petrify have already withered away.

This is solid rock:

More wildlife. This time a bear feasting on the local vegetation.

Spectacular views everywhere.

Just like the day before I noticed my helmet visor suddenly being all lose. I checked it and found that this time the opposite screw was causing the problem: It had simply disappeared. I would have had to take the visor off altogether which would have been fine in the park but would not on the highway where I would collect 100km/h flying bugs inside my helmet. Looking at the empty screw hole I wondered if I could re-purpose anything I had on the bike to restore the visors function. It looked like the hole was the same quarter inch screw size that camera mounts have and I happened to have such a screw with me from a simple little magnetic mount for the GoPro Camera that I built for my panniers.

It fit perfectly. The mechanism worked smoother than ever before. Now I just had to make sure that in case of a crash I would not fall onto my right side. Easy.

The hot springs continued to look quite inviting even in the warm weather.

Seeing this you’d think the air was cold and that’s why the surface of the water was steaming.

Another bubbling death trap.

This one looked particularly inviting. A pool of steaming, thick, bubbling, boiling goo.

The fact that these trees had time to grow before they died shows how quickly the landscape in this area changes.

Despite the warm cloths it was not unbearably hot as long as I was driving or in the shade.

At a little creek I took the opportunity to cool off a little.

By poisoning the local fish.

A little later I even discovered a waterfall where swimming was not only allowed but encouraged.

Another canyon revealed an incredible geological pattern which otherwise could not be seen.

A little later I found a gravel road which brought me to the top of a little mountain.

The view reminded me a bit of the alps at home during summer. I took a little break enjoying the soothing silence.

The only crowded spot in the park was one of earths biggest and apparently the ‘most photographed geyser’, Old Faithful. Ideal for tourists, its eruptions can be predicted and occur in some 15 to 30 minutes intervals.

The wait is worth it. Like Old Faithful many geysers announce their imminent eruption by an increasing amount of steam followed by the slowly rising spout of boiling water. Old Faithful reached it’s maximum height within half a minute and subsided again another minute later. It’s stunning to get a glimpse of the power at work below earths surface.

Another exhausting yet hugely satisfying day was coming to its end. The sun was starting to set and it was time to look for a place to sleep.

I heard that there was supposed to be a camp site at the southern entrance of the park. The chances of it not being fully booked were again slim but since I didn’t have many alternatives I gave it a try. I wished I could have just put up my tent at one of the lakes but as much as I and the 600 bears in the park would have liked that it was not allowed so I kept looking for the camp site.

I found it a little later and walked to the end of a cue that had already formed there. I asked the two ladies ahead of me if they knew if the camp site was already closed but they didn’t know since they were just there to get some water to continue their trip. It was a big surprise when I heard them continuing a conversation in the German dialect that only exists in my home town Vienna. We chatted a bit and wished each other and said good bye after I luckily received yet another last minute camp spot in the park.

I set up my tent in the dark and an hour later I also had a fire burning. Remember the bison I saw the previous day? It tasted quite well.

There was a little general store next to Old Faithful where you could actually buy bison meat. It tasted much like beef but it was even more lean and had a bit of a sour aftertaste. I’ll probably stick to beef but it was not bad.

After dinner I spent another hour looking at the stars and enjoying the silence around me while the fire was slowly dying.

The next morning started again with the sun burning onto my tent.

Before a small cereal breakfast I spent a few minutes looking the bike over, fixing a few things here and there and lubricating the chain.

Today’s leg of the trip would first lead me further south and finally east towards Yellowstone.

The land had become flat again making the wind really pick up. Any barrier like a few trees here and there was a welcomed relieve.

I passed two old towns which perfectly preserved the historic feeling of the old west and still looked like they did over a hundred years ago. These places never cease to amaze me. Especially considering that these were no movie sets but the real thing and this was the real west. It is easy to assume the street and the cars away and imagine the train arriving at the busy station a century ago with Claudia Cardinale stepping off.

The only alterations made on the buildings are the white lines of cement that mow insulate the old warped logs.

I strolled through the town which admittedly didn’t look as exciting from the inside as from the outside (main street).

Some buildings though were fitted with furniture and items from their times. The time periods varied but all the buildings were really small.

I left the town continuing south. Ever so often I took a little break to recover from the exhausting wind.

Soon the terrain was getting rockier and hills turned into mountains as I was approaching Yellowstone National Park. I passed a lake which had been the epicenter of one of the biggest earth quakes in North America in the previous century. Luckily it wasn’t in a densely populated area because it was powerful enough to lift the bottom of a lake many meters up, significantly changing the landscape (tilted lake) and causing huge landslides.

For a change I found a camp site before sunset. Since the sun was still up the camp host was still available and I could get some firewood from him before choosing a spot.

Again all around the camp site there were bears warning signs.

Travelling solo I had made it a habit on this trip to always carry my bear spray, knife and bear bell with me in the woods. I figured it would be pretty neat not have to regret anything.

I didn’t have much food left so after setting up my tent I drove to the next town which was a hour away where I stocked up my food supplies for the next couple of days. Among others I got a juicy steak I was going to roast on the fire. Back at the camp it was already dark but this time it didn’t take long until I got the fire going.

Lighter fluid did help.

A cut through the middle of the first half of the steak confirmed that it was done. I must admit I wasn’t sure this would be so successful. It was delicious.

After this feast I cleaned the dishes as best as I could (=not well) and stowed them away in my airtight panniers. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep after crawling into my tent. Next stop: Yellowstone National Park.

As Winston Churchill said: This is not the end this is not even the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the beginning.

The next morning the sun was warming up my tent quickly, turning it into a green house which made getting up early very easy.

After a quick wash and cleaning the my dishes from the previous day …

.. I took some time to transferred the photos and videos I had made so far onto my external hard drive. With a cable I had made for my last trip I could charge my electronics on the bike and never needed to rely on finding a power outlet let alone stay at a hotel.

It was now over 30 degrees and the tent was baking inside and outside. I took it down and was soon on the next leg of the trip.

I had seen a hand water pump on the previous day where I wanted to stock up my water supplies for the day but I wasn’t entirely convinced that this was drinking water.

I probably could have gotten cleaner water from the pond right next to it. It looked kind of prehistoric to me. Almost as if dinosaurs could be coming here any time to get water.

A few hours later as I was heading south again I saw a sign next to the road that there would be a ghost town at the next turn. I wasn’t expecting an hour long deserted gravel road up a mountain but it was a ghost town after all.

In some areas the road was actually a nice challenge as lose gravel is a motorcycles worst enemy. So it didn’t feel like a complete waste of time when the ghost town itself turned out to be a little underwhelming. I’m not sure what I was expecting since ghost town merely means a town which is not occupied anymore. But there really wasn’t anything interesting about this one. It was too old to relate to but not old enough to be drawn into it’s history and contrast to our way of living and wonder about it’s previous occupants life. It was actually from after WW2. Honestly it felt more like a dumpyard for buildings. Some even had lots of trash inside.

I only spent a few minutes there after mistakenly haven paid an entry fee which was actually for a campsite somewhere in the area.

To get back to civilization I had the choice to either go back the way I came (which is never really an option) or keep following the road. Eventually the path split and I wasn’t sure which way to go. I was inspecting both ways when a guy on an ATV appeared. He explained he was a volunteer taking care of the town and he suggested to go back the way I came because the other two paths wouldn’t be exactly touristy smooth. I asked him if he thought I would make it with the bike which he didn’t deny so I knew where I was going. The right hand one would be more steep than rocky so I chose that one so as to not strain my tortured suspension unnecessarily.

The path indeed was very steep (which the fisheye GoPro Camera once again doesn’t show) and also had a steep falloff to one side. I had to be careful not to run over a few rabbits and chipmunks and arrived at the foot of the mountain an hour later.

.

Back on the freeway it was getting dark and I still had a considerable amount of distance to cover before I would reach the camp site I had picked on the map earlier. Of course clouds started to appear soon. Since I was the only one on the flat road and I could use some extra time I tested the bike to it’s speed limit for the first time and found out that 135km/h was the maximum on a straight flat road with no wind. A total of almost 500 kilos take their toll. Of course by going say 20km faster for 10min you don’t really save any time. the only thing you are doing is increasing your stopping distance….

Finding a place to camp became a bit of an ordeal. I did reach the point where I suspected the camp site in time. The only problem was that the last stretch of road wasn’t a road. The the GPS just marked a path straight up a mountain. I followed that path for a little while hoping it’d turn into a road but it didn’t.

After ten minutes I reached a fence with a locked gate. For a moment I was considering putting up my tent right there but since there was a ranch in within viewing range and I decided against it. Luckily though I noticed that there was another road to the campsite on the map approaching it from the back side. Since i didn’t have much of a choice and I thought that somehow there had to be access to it (if it existed at all) I decided to give this route a try.

I was so glad I had installed the auxiliary lights the other day as I would have had to drive much slower and much more carefully without the additional bright flood lights illuminating every pebble.

The road kept climbing and turned from gravel to a small dirt path with tree branches hanging onto it. After what felt like an eternity I reached a roughly 50 square meters wide space where a camper truck parked. A posted sign explained that from here only non-motorized vehicles were allowed to continue up the mountain and that this spot was indeed a campsite.

I had wanted to make a fire to grill food and hadn’t he truck been there I would have done that but when the lights went on inside I decided that it would not be a great idea to make a fire right next to the truck in the middle of the night. So I turned around and went down the way I came.

At the foot of the mountain once again I took a look at the map. There was another camp site a few kilometers away which I decided to go for.  If that one didn’t work out I’d just take the first available spot I’d see – anywhere. Of course by the time I arrived the camp site was full. So I backtracked my way and until I found a place where I could set up a tent.

I wasn’t going to make a fire there so I resorted to my backup ration which I carried for these cases. A can of ravioli, some bread and cheese crackers.

You eat with your eyes but I didn’t because I could not see my food after taking this picture looking directly into the flash.

Like the previous day sitting there in the darkness I noticed that there was no sound at all. No wind, no birds, insects, people or cars. Just complete silence. The temperature was just right too. The air was clear and the stars were all shining brightly. In case you were wondering you can see about 5000 stars from Earth. You are welcome. After I finished my meal I just sat there resting against the bike looking up for another half hour. I wanted to fall asleep right there which would have been easy after this long day but I still had to take care of my garbage so I wouldn’t wake up next to a – well so I wouldn’t not wake up.

Exhausted but happy I climbed into my tent at two in the morning.

My plan for the morning was to get up early and install the auxiliary lights on the bike. I took this opportunity of the first time on the trip that I was not on the move to reorganize some of my luggage. What you see here is a quarter of it.

Before the trip I had already completed some of the wiring on bike and lights.

To my delight the self made mounting setup worked just as I hoped and after about an hour I had both lights fastened on the crash bar on either side.

The first flip of the switch gave me 34 blindingly bright Watts.

I would have to wait until the evening to be able to really tell how big the improvement was.

As I kept packing up my stuff my camp neighbor to my right (not the Amish) came up to me and asked me if I needed any tools, water other help. I was still surprised about how welcoming everybody had been in the US so far.

Matty was a US army veteran who even was involved in the “Black Hawk Down” operation in Somalia which many people know because of the movie from 2001 named after it. After retiring from the army he bought a truck camper and a trailer and was now travelling through all US states visiting historic battlefields with his dog Kimber.

We exchanged routes and travel experiences and talked about all sorts of random things.

In his trailer Matty also carried a full sized grill (to his left in the above picture) with which he could even smoke food. He gave me some delicious samples.

It was now noon and although I wanted to keep throwing the ball for Kimber I was worried  the weather would change soon and I didn’t want to risk getting my gear and tent wet before packing it up.

So I said goodbye to the duo and got back onto the road heading east to Lolo Pass, my next goal. I had avoided the rain.

Earlier I had noticed that I was low on oil again. I didn’t have the time nor the patience to do a full oil change now so I just poured fresh oil into the engine at the next gas station, knowing that I would soon have to drain it all and do a proper oil change so as to avoid the old oil contaminating the engine.

Just half an hour later the weather caught up with me and out of nowhere suddenly hailstones started pattering from the sky creating a proper world end feeling.

I stopped immediately at the next building ahead of me to see if I could find shelter there. I was just hoping that the owner would understand that I didn’t have much of a choice. Unlike in most European countries most gardens in the US don’t have fences so it’s sometimes difficult to tell what is public land and what isn’t.

The roofs of most houses don’t reach far beyond their walls and often they don’t have roof gutters. So like a waterfall the flow from the roof was thoroughly cleaning the bike and my cloths.

The biggest hail stones were a centimeter wide and within minutes the tarmac was completely covered in white.

As quickly as everything had started everything was over again. I still decided to put on my rain cloths since I didn’t want to take any risks anymore. Of course it started pouring down just a few minutes later. It was a bit late for the rain cloths and my waterproof gloves could only take so much.

On the other hand I was very happy with the bikes performance on the wet road as I previously had been very worried about the my tires. My old set of tires had been very slippery and felt quite unsafe even in dry conditions. I swapped them before my trip because their tread was already almost completely gone and they were badly out of shape. But new tires do not immediately promise an improvement. In fact they are almost worse. Most tire manufacturers sell their tires with some fancy coating to make them look shiny. Sometimes a shiny coating also comes from a material they use during the manufacturing process sort of like flour in a baking pan to easily remove the tire from the mould. It can take a few hundred kilometers until this layer is off and I really felt the bad performance at the beginning of the trip. However by now this layer had come off and I had fantastic grip on any kind of surface. Even on the wet road it didn’t feel a bit unsafe.

Since I was already wet I decided to keep driving as far as I could without stopping to try and put some distance between me and the bad weather.

It took over an hour but finally the rain stopped. It stopped because the landscape had changed. The flat fields had turned into hills and mountains and soon I was surrounded by rocks and trees again. It was still cold but I didn’t want to put on my last additional layer of clothing from my luggage because I was saving it for the night to have something dry and warm. The sun started setting and the clouds were becoming lighter and the trees were glowing in the orange light of the setting sun.

I had entered Lolo (not Yolo) pass. I didn’t necessarily want to sleep on a mountain pass with wet cloths and rain behind me but looking at the map I would not get across the pass today so I decided to instead look for a camp site right away to at least be able to pitch the tent during daylight for a change and maybe even warm my cloths at a fire. It didn’t take too long to find a campsite and turned out to be the best one so far.

Waterfront property. There was a big creek just a few meters to the left. Once I took off my wet clothes I realized that it hadn’t actually been really cold. Not here anyway. Luckily it wasn’t warm enough for mosquitoes either despite the humidity next to the river. It must have been warm here during the day.

I set up my tent and before I got to start a fire for my food the sun had completely set. It was pitch dark and despite the river right next to me there was complete silence. I found good kindling in moss growing on tree branches hanging down like wisps of hair. Almost like they are put there to be used for this exact purpose. Closer to the stem they were dry enough. All around me everything else was very wet from the humidity. Even my tent was covered in drops just minutes after pitching it. I also used my knife to break off pieces off a rotten tree stump underneath one of the larger trees which seemed to have been protected from the humidity.

Despite using lighter fluid I only got the fire going on the fourth and last possible attempt with a large amount of kindling and purposefully stacked wood. I had used up all the dry wood I could find. Initially I had hoped a good amount of lighter fluid alone would do the job but especially the way the fire wood is stacked can make the difference between fire or no fire. I spent a good three to four hours with the fire and grilling my food. After the flames had died down I warmed my still wet sweater above the glowing embers. I went to bed a little past midnight after carefully making sure I had taken care of all traces of food.

I got up early in the morning with the first sun rays. It’s surprising how easy it is to get up early when you went to sleep the previous day so tired you fell asleep instantly.

It was a chilly 10 degrees Celsius and I just could not wait to get further south.

Finally having reached Spokane which had now only been a few km away I went on a paper chase for a few supplies. Mounting brackets for the auxiliary lights I had been carrying with my luggage. A helmet. And food. I had planed to buy a new helmet many months ago but for various reasons didn’t manage to do so before this trip. My current helmet didn’t fit me properly, was not certified for North America and was much older than 5 years which is the time frame after which most helmets start losing their structural integrity. So I hoped I would get to buy a new helmet somewhere on the way and send my old one home in the mail. It would be a hassle but again, safety goes first. I’m just too attached to my head.

I went to at least 5 different shops before I gave up on the auxiliary lights brackets. But since I had wasted so much time already I also went to check the home depot for a more home made solution. Of course they didn’t have any ready made brackets but by putting a few parts together I came close enough to what I needed. All in all this solution cost me under 15 Dollars as opposed to 70 Dollars for the real thing. I always like these kind of DIY (Do It Yourself) solutions because not only are they cheap but you can fix and change parts. The hunt for a helmet didn’t turn out as successful but my hopes had been pretty low anyway so I did what everybody else would have done and stuffed my face with burgers at the next McD.

By noon I regretted having wished for warmer weather in the morning but it was still OK as soon as I was back in the saddle. I left Spokane in the afternoon driving south now through many little country villages.

The seemingly endless road that I was following south was running alongside a single railway track that seemed to connect all the little villages like a life line. With it the harvest from the countless crop fields would be brought to giant silos. It seemed like the railroad would really only be used once a year.

After over an hour on this monotonous road I started getting a bit worried because a look at the fuel gauge -wait the KLR doesn’t even have one- so a look at the trip odometer revealed that I needed to start looking for a gas station. It didn’t look like there would be any around anytime soon but considering that people did live there and also needed gas at some point I was not too worried to find one.

I did eventually find one but it turns out that the KLRs gigantic gas tank is big enough to get you to Moscow on an almost empty tank. Moscow, Idaho that is. Moscow is an old town with some old architecture (I.E. wild west style brick buildings) which I believe is supposed to be a bit of a tourist town although I currently can’t think of a reason why anybody would want to go there more than anywhere else in Idaho. Or why anybody would go to Idaho for that matter. (My excuse was I was passing through). In all honesty though it’s not that bad and there are actually a few very interesting sights and places to visit in Idaho. What I really didn’t like about Idaho was how flat it was. How could there not be any mountains! Not even a little one. Not even a teeny weeny, itty bitty mountain?

Despite this huge problem I was able to continue and found a camp site not far from Russia – I mean Moscow.

And highlighted almost like a big neon arrow sing I got my mountain. Not a big one but it sufficed.

After the sun had set completely I went about playing around with the flint and steel I had brought with me to practice making a fire without a lighter. Things went well and despite not having any fire wood I had a nice fire going in not time, warming me and my raviolis and sausages.

What you don’t need to know is:

I was not alone at the camp site. There were a hand full of other travelers. Among them was an Amish family. It very much surprised me to see that they had a gigantic caravan that must have cost a fortune. I always thought the Amish renounced technology. Yet this families caravan could probably fly to the moon – and back again. Twice. Anyway it was pitch dark and I was sitting there grinding the steel across the flint creating some decent sparks when the man of the Amish family got out of the caravan and walked towards me. First I thought he was bothered by my sparks (they were pretty good ones I must say) but instead he offered me their fire wood and lighter fluid. Asking me to just return what I hadn’t used the next day he dissipated again in his caravan.

So as I was saying, I was creating decent sparks and quickly had a fire going. The fire wood and lighter fluid may or may not have made a tiny difference.

I was so hungry from the exhausting day I ate six hot dog buns with 8 sausages, a can of ravioli and a pack of cheddar cheese before I fell asleep in my tent.

It had gotten pretty late by the time I went to bed the previous day and I wanted to sleep a little bit longer, maybe until 8 am but because it wasn’t raining when I woke up and I didn’t want to risk having to take down the tent in the rain I got up quickly and started my daily routine for next couple of weeks, collecting my gear, taking down the tent and packing the bike. Of course it started raining again soon anyway.

It usually takes me about two hours from getting up to getting onto the bike. In the rain miraculously I am faster.

I had left the mountain pass and to my delight I had also left the clouds behind me. I took this opportunity to stop at a McDonald’s (after all this was the US) and rolled out the tent at the parking lot to let it dry. When the sun is out this doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes and it would save me the annoyance of dealing with a soaked tent late in the evening when I just wanted to find a warm and dry place to sleep after another exhausting day.

After grabbing some unhealthy fats from the yellow M I was back on my route riding due East. Up until here the landscape in the state of Washington (Washington DC is on the exact opposite side of the state Washington on the continent) was very much like what I was used to from British Columbia. Now it changed. The trees and the green of the rain forests started to disappear. There wasn’t much green left except besides the water.

The sun was now burning on my cloths but with the wind blowing it was just perfect. That is of course until the wind got so strong that it almost pushed me over to the wrong side of the road multiple times. Luckily I was the only one on the roads for many miles. As a result of the strong winds I had to slow down losing quite a bit of time. I realized I would not be making it to my next goal Spokane today.

Driving against strong wind is extremely exhausting. Where had that wonderful rain gone! The reason for the strong wind was the change in landscape which now was actually an impressive sight for me despite how boring it was. I had never seen so much ‘nothing’. Nothing as far as the eye can see. All around me, nothing. The horizon was completely flat in all directions. I am used to see mountains in some direction and mostly when there are mountains the land is overall a little hilly. But here? You guessed it. Nothing.

The sun was setting now but I had at least gotten fairly close to Spokane. The camp site I had chosen on the map turned out to be some exclusive club thing that I really didn’t need. But I didn’t mind having to look for another one as the appearing trees were blocking the wind and the setting sun dipped my surroundings into a beautiful orange hue.

Eventually I did find a campsite where I put up my tent in the dark. I quickly ate some canned food and a few cold sausages and went to bed looking forward to day three.