RoadKing
09-05-2007, 00:48
Lori and I just got back from an incredible fly and ride out of Salt lake City. From Salt Lake we went up to Jackson Hole and spent a couple of days there touring around Grand Teton National Park. We then headed north to Yellowstone and just about had to kick the buffalo to make enough room to get the bike through. From there a night was spent in Cody Wy. that claims to have the largest outdoor hot tub in the state, it holds about 35 people, but we had it to ourselves. Then we headed up the Chief Joseph Memorial highway (thanks Doc !!) that leads into the Beartooth highway that tops out at just short of 12,000 feet. An incredible ride with switchbacks and views that are beyond desciption.
We then went further North to Glacier National Park and although it was raining higher up in the passes and bottomed out at about 40 degrees, it cleared up down lower for a warm sunny ride coming out the west side of the park and down to Missoula Montana. Stop in "The Mo Club" for the best burger in town. And "Mo" is short for Missoula!!
From there it was ride through National Forest to Sun Valley Idaho, where the forest fire (as seen on CNN) was raging very close to the road and town. We spent a couple of days there riding through the evacuated areas and was able to watch it burn to within 200 yds of the road and into the backyards of multi-million dollar ranches/homes.
For the firefighters-- the fire burned over 70,000 acres and while we were there involved 1,300 firefighters, 11 helicopters, several bulldozers, etc. After we left the crew size grew to 1,600. We got lucky and got a 3 hour tour of the command post/base for the entire operation which was considered the most important fire this summer due to it's proximatey to the town and ski resort. The forest service has mastered the process of multi-agency incident command and logistics. They even had there own mapping/printing abilities, weatherman on staff- all run off of generators. The cooking is done out of a converted tractor trailer and hot meals served for breakfast and dinner. The bag lunch has 8,000 calories in it !! Even hot showers are povided by contractors out of converted tractor trailers.
The scenery was as diverse as you can find from desert plains to to rolling forests to the mountains. All of it very different than anything here in the East.
Bryan
We then went further North to Glacier National Park and although it was raining higher up in the passes and bottomed out at about 40 degrees, it cleared up down lower for a warm sunny ride coming out the west side of the park and down to Missoula Montana. Stop in "The Mo Club" for the best burger in town. And "Mo" is short for Missoula!!
From there it was ride through National Forest to Sun Valley Idaho, where the forest fire (as seen on CNN) was raging very close to the road and town. We spent a couple of days there riding through the evacuated areas and was able to watch it burn to within 200 yds of the road and into the backyards of multi-million dollar ranches/homes.
For the firefighters-- the fire burned over 70,000 acres and while we were there involved 1,300 firefighters, 11 helicopters, several bulldozers, etc. After we left the crew size grew to 1,600. We got lucky and got a 3 hour tour of the command post/base for the entire operation which was considered the most important fire this summer due to it's proximatey to the town and ski resort. The forest service has mastered the process of multi-agency incident command and logistics. They even had there own mapping/printing abilities, weatherman on staff- all run off of generators. The cooking is done out of a converted tractor trailer and hot meals served for breakfast and dinner. The bag lunch has 8,000 calories in it !! Even hot showers are povided by contractors out of converted tractor trailers.
The scenery was as diverse as you can find from desert plains to to rolling forests to the mountains. All of it very different than anything here in the East.
Bryan