Coming down out of mountains and into eastern WA is when I really started to sink in that this was more than a weekend trip up to the cabin with the boys. The smell of the forest fires would serve to be a constant companion for the next three states. The ride to Spokane wasn't anything too exciting and mostly just a time to reflect as I was just on the 90.
Darrin, a friend of a friend, was nice enough to host me in Spokane. We had some dinner at new restraunt in his neighborhood, while getting our ears talked off by the manager. Megan say that Darrin and I are alike - I'm not exactly sure in which ways, because I didn't feel like we could really connect. Maybe I just don't have enough people like him in my life to know what to expect.
The ride out of Spokane, through the panhandle of Idaho and into Montaina was the first really great riding experience of the trip. The scenery was still very much NW but with a air of being less spoiled by population. Not sure if I already said this but smells are very much of experience on a motorcycle and that valley coming down into Montainia was clear and pine sented after the haze of smoke everywhere else.
The ride to Missoula went quickly and I got had some time to relax at a local coffee shop before Katy finished work. Katy is a friend of Michelle's and awesome. I'm still to new to this experience of crashing on someone's couch, but Katy's made it easy. We met up with some of her friends and sat on the patio to enjoy warm weather. They also had a great time getting me worked up with bear stories.
It was a long ride to Yellowstone with not enough sleep, but the coffee in Butte helped. Butte seemed interesting - at least from a historical aspect. I got into the park and found the camp site that Steve had thankfull already reserved. They went quickly and there was even more demand as we went deeper into the park. The northern park where we camped the first night felt pretty dry and alot like eastern Washington. I keep comparing everything to home - I suppose that when that is all you know...
So what do you do when you have a hammock-tent and only one tree? Well if you are me you figure out how to rig something up using the bike and some rope. I think Steve has some pictures. It worked well for about half the night, but by the morning the bike and slid back enough to put my butt on the ground. Mostly I was just happy not to have gotten by a bear (slept with spray, and a big knife). Steve and I made an early trip down to reserve the next camp site; An early COLD trip!
I'm happy that I had enough sleeping bag to manage to cold, but my gloves are not up to the same level. The next campground was busy and it took forever to get our slip. I'm not sure if he didn't like the look of us, but it had to be the sadest site I have ever seen. We were in a little slip crammed in next to the trail to the office. I had to make friends with our neighbors (thanks Duke and Robin) because we didn't have any trees for my hammock. It worked out fine because, they like everyone else, were in an RV and didn't care about the rest of the site they had.
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