July 1 - Canada Day
Up early (6AM) and hung out at the tent till 8 AM for breakfast. Breakfast was included with our stay and was great! Talked to the owner of the place to find out what she suggested for a scenic drive for the day. She recommended a trip around Flathead lake. Headed out and first thing i notice is my engine light on. Not going to lie.....it was bitter sweet as you hear alot of people that have the engine light come on for various reasons, well in 20,000KM, mine had never been on and i was kind of wondering if it actually worked. After a little research on the forums we figure out that the code is the O2 sensor and assume that because of the slow speeds and stop and go from the Going to the Sun Road the day before that it did something and hoped it would go off after a few miles like other peoples had after slow drives like that. So we continued on to Kalispell and south on 93 knowing that we are going to stop at the "big casino" in Polson. Stopped at the casino and spent a few hours there and actually walked out a few bucks ahead. Went out to Kerr Dam, but the GF seen a sign about bears and would not go down to the dam. I suggested that she could sit in the SS and close the doors if a bear came and i would go down to the dam. She did not find it as funny as i did. So we both took a look from afar and continued on our days journey. Headed east out of Polson on highway 35. I found the east side of the lake to be more scenic and as it was more of a secondary highway, did not have so much traffic on it. Did not feel pressured to keep a decent speed. Was amazed at how many cherry orchards there were.
Stopped at the Whistling Andy Distillery for a bathroom break and a beverage. Our first time in a distillery. Now, I don't know if it was because it was a distillery or if in Montana the spirits are usually mixed that strong but we both had a cocktail and there did not seem to be any mix. I chalked it up that they are trying to highlight the taste of there spirits. Finished our drinks and continued on north back into Kalispell. The day before we were told about Moose's Saloon and thought we would give it a try for dinner. What an amazing place!! We walked in there was sawdust and peanut shells on the floor and names and what not carved in anything wooden in the place including beams, wall, tables, booths and chairs!! We grabbed a seat and waited for our server. After about 10 minutes and not getting served, we figured it might be something different. Went up to the bar and asked how this works as this is our first time hear. Well......they do not have servers come to you to take an order. Order beer and peanuts at the bar and food in the back corner. They bring the food to you when it is ready. We ordered two draft bud lights. $3.50......I gave him $9.00 assuming he meant each..... Nope $3.50 for the two of them!!!!! Now just because i could i had to have some peanuts to throw my shells on the ground! We each had a 7" pizza and a ceasar salad. This pizza ranks in my top pizza i have ever had, and it was probably one of the cheapest pizza's i have ever had. The ceasar salad was amazing. I have no idea where they get their dressing from but it was out of this world. In total, 2 beer each, 1 pizza each, a large peanuts and a large chicken ceasar salad to share cost us a total of about $30.
Headed back to the tent and had another early night. - No SS's seen
July 2
Up early once again (6AM) original plan was to leave camp after breakfast, but up 2 hours early so we decided to pack up and head out as we had a 9+ hour drive ahead. We back tracked the way we came all the way to the same boarder crossing, knowing on a Monday of a long weekend, lines were going to be long. Our trip west to east of the Going to the Sun Road was even more spectacular and beautiful. The weather was great throughout the road, except for 2-3 minutes of some small hail, which had me a tad worried about what might follow it, but it was all sunshine. I assume traffic was slower because the weather was a lot nicer than on Saturday. We did see one red SS on the East side of the road, gave a honk and a wave, but i think he was admiring the views. About 10 minutes from the boarder it started to rain lightly and about 1 mile from the boarder we had to pull over and get our rain gear and full face helmet on. Got to the boarder and only three cars in line. The amount of bikes we seen on this stretch of the two parks in the two countries was probably around 25. No issues at the boarder and 10 minutes later the rain let off. We knew that from there on it was going to be scattered showers as we checked before we left, so we kept our rain gear on.
We headed north on highway 6, east on hwy 3, and north on 2 all the way home. About 20 KM south of Clairsholm the rain started back up. Rained all the way to Red Deer. We did have to make a stop to warm up and get a bite to eat as temps were dropping down to 7C and we were doing speeds of 80-120 KMH depending on the amount of water on the road. After Red Deer, it was all sunshine and rainbows. Got home about 8:00 PM - 1 SS Seen
Lonesome Dove Guest Ranch
If you are adventurous at all, stay here. The main reason i booked it was because i am to cheap to pay the $300+ USD that is wanted per night in the area in and around GNP. We payed $170 CAD total for the two nights. They have some cabins, 2 outfitter tents and 4-5 teepees. All accommodations include breakfast. This is not your typical buffet or continental breakfast. There is actually a menu to order from and it is all fresh. There are two buffalo that stay on the ranch that you walk by to get to the bathhouse. They rescue and take in unwanted horses and break them for trail rides. The staff was friendly, the accommodations were warm, even with night time temps of 8-10C. The last 1/2 Mile or so was gravel and the driveway in was a tad rough, but if you pay attention, you should not have any issues.
Summary
40,000+ pics ...... go pro was set up on time lapse for the trip down and till it started raining near the boarder on the way to take a pic every 1 second and 0.5 second for the Going to the Sun road
72 hours
2200kms
2 SS seen
2 ways on Going to the Sun Road
1 trip around a huge lake
Great food
Great People
1 Amazing Weekend
Now for a 900km trip on Sunday July 8 followed by oil change!!
10,000 characters...... oops
