Two Weeks, Part 17

September 1 to 15

Much of the last two weeks has been sitting on an R1200GS doing 3200-ish miles around Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. My father has the R1250; at some point we became the old BMW guys. It’s fine.

After a few days of prep - engine and drive oil, tires, brake pads, brake flush - I set off toward Billings, MT. Quick overnight in Couer d’Alene, a bit of rain, a couple of side roads, no wildlife or fires.

Our travel style is roughly “wake up and figure out what we’re doing that day”. It works for us. This particular weekend was Labor Day so that meant larger crowds and vastly more expensive hotels in and around Yellowstone. Still, we got two nights in Billings and did a day loop up Beartooth and down Chief Joseph. It was stunning! And also quite hot.

The next days were getting to Missoula on the state highways through Helena and doing a day loop up to Thompson Falls and back. Not very long rides but with all the stopping and side roads we were typically out for 5-7 hours. And the occasional stop to get huckleberry shakes.

After that we bombed down US 12 through Idaho into Lewiston and further south to La Grande, Oregon. Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon have some sleeper roads.

And finally we rode out to Bend and Crater Lake before calling it and heading home.

It was a solid trip. Maybe not our wildest adventure - the Dalton, the TAT, and many BDRs were crazier - but there’s no replacing just getting out for a ride. I’ve owned two different R1200GS bikes and they are (famously) very good motorcycles but I think I might be done with big fast road rides for a while. I want to get something small and wildly inappropriate and see what kind of shenanigans I can get into.

Separately, I grabbed a Leica Q3 43 and it came in a few days before the trip. It’s kind of an endgame camera for me. I’d probably ask for IBIS instead of OIS but other than that it’s just exactly what I need. I’ll keep the M11 as an ILC but I’m planning on getting rid of the rest of my gear.

Anyway, good trip. I’m already up for the next one.