Winter has lingered further into spring this year than in the past here in Northwest Montana. Spring had just begun when the weatherman turned up the heat two weeks ago – just in time for a long awaited motorcycle road trip my friend Steve and I had been planning for a long time. Planning is perhaps the wrong term…we had been talking about a road trip – “You wanna go for a ride? Sure, where do you want to go? I don’t care – where do you wanna go? I don’t know… OK, pack your camping gear and I’ll meet you Friday after work. Where are we going to go? I don’t know. OK, I’ll be ready!” As I’m packing, I called Steve to tell him to pack his passport because we might want to cross into Canada… I have no idea where we’re going…
It’s 6:00pm Friday, May 16th and I am finally leaving Bigfork heading to meeting Steve in Kalispell at 6:00 – yep. I’m late! Still no plan when we meet…Steve says he heard about a car show in Sandpoint, ID – and just like that the “Plan” came together – head west ‘til dark:30, camp and then on to the car show…
We head to Libby for breakfast and on through Troy, Bonners Ferry and finally Sandpoint and the car show. It’s hot so we don’t want to stay too long… The “Plan” doesn’t have any more chapters…time to improvise – out come the maps and we decide to check out Priest Lake, ID, then on to Canada!
It’s 6:00pm Friday, May 16th and I am finally leaving Bigfork heading to meeting Steve in Kalispell at 6:00 – yep. I’m late! Still no plan when we meet…Steve says he heard about a car show in Sandpoint, ID – and just like that the “Plan” came together – head west ‘til dark:30, camp and then on to the car show…
We head to Libby for breakfast and on through Troy, Bonners Ferry and finally Sandpoint and the car show. It’s hot so we don’t want to stay too long… The “Plan” doesn’t have any more chapters…time to improvise – out come the maps and we decide to check out Priest Lake, ID, then on to Canada!
Priest Lake is a beautiful and remote lake in northern Idaho. We stop at a marina/bar for some lunch overlooking the lake…
That’s when we saved a guy’s life… So we’re having lunch and a boat comes up and tries to dock – the guy slips as he’s jumping onto the dock and misses, falls into the water between the boat and the dock. I notice the guy hasn’t come up and start getting nervous – run down to the dock and find him struggling to stay above water. Steve and I drag the guy out of the water and he’s in obvious pain – he dislocated his shoulder trying to grab the boat when he fell and could barely tread water!! So the ambulance comes… and it’s time to leave.
We tried several routes to get into Canada from the Priest Lake area but were stopped by snow every time! Plus Steve managed to run over a nail…here he expresses himself in a time honored fashion:
So we’ve now “wasted” so much time that Canada will have to wait. Time for Plan B…the Yaak!!
We backtrack into Montana – the “Plan B” is to get to the Yaak Bar before they shut down the kitchen – we make it in plenty of time!! Cold beer and good pizza and we’re ready to find a campsite when someone volunteers “You guys should just get one of the cabins across the street – they’re only $25.” Now I’m pretty happy being in a place where you can watch the swollen Yaak River and have someone bring me beer every time my glass is empty…
We backtrack into Montana – the “Plan B” is to get to the Yaak Bar before they shut down the kitchen – we make it in plenty of time!! Cold beer and good pizza and we’re ready to find a campsite when someone volunteers “You guys should just get one of the cabins across the street – they’re only $25.” Now I’m pretty happy being in a place where you can watch the swollen Yaak River and have someone bring me beer every time my glass is empty…
The next morning we decide to try Canada again… We hatch “Plan C” which is to take the Yaak road to Rexford, Montana and then cross into Canada – maybe visit Fernie… After talking with a few local we discover that nobody has been across the pass to Rexford yet this spring because of the heavy snow pack… That sounds like a challenge to me!
As you can probably guess – we did not make it over the top and were forced to give up on Canada… We took the Pipe Creek Road (MT Hwy 567) to Fisher River Rd. and McKillop Rd. back to Happy’s Inn on Hwy 2… But along the way we explored some Plum Creek Timber Co. Roads south of the Libby Dam and found a neat old fire tower…
Finally, we headed for Kalispell and home to Creston and Bigfork. For not having a plan, we wound up having a great trip, full of adventure and discovery. I can’t wait for the next “No Plan” trip!
- Doug
- Doug
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