IDBDR North half, Lolo - Porthill

[Idarex]

I’m taking a week off to finish the IDBDR.  Leaving this am by truck to drop my youngest son in Butte MT for school.  Tomorrow I’ll move him in the dorm and then drive to Lolo Hot Springs.  Thursday I’ll head out solo and the GF will take my truck back to Poky.

 

Right now I think I’m overloaded so I’ll ditch some gear before I start.   A friend is meeting me in Wallace Friday night on his KLR.  He’ll do the last two days of the ride.  Hopefully I can post up some of my shitty phone pics here as I go.  Mostly because I’ve enjoyed looking at other T7  holligan’s trip threads.

 

I’ll start with this one.

 

 Leaving the house, headed to Butte

[AZJW]

The IDBDR is on my bucket list. Following this thread for awesome scenery, have a blast!

[Idarex]

Well, I didn't have service for most of the last 5 days so couldn't post up as I went.  I broke the IDBDR up in to two rides as I couldn't get enough time off in one go to do the whole thing contiguous.  I rode from the Bitterroot to NV on one ride.  This past few days I rode from the Bitterrroot to the Canadian border.

 

The T7 was flawless.  I'm loving this bike.  I will be lowering it.  A friend, Arash, met up with me north of Wallace on his KLR and rode the last two days to the border.

 

I almost center punched a brown bear the first day on 500.  It was a 100 to 120 lb cub.  I didn't see him until he bolted right across the front of me head down full speed from right to left.  Scared the hell out of me.  I didn't stick around to meet his mom.

 

There was a black bear in the road 10 miles out of Clarke Fork.  It was huge.  Almost the size of the bike.  I came around a bend and its in the middle of the road.  It took off running about 40 yards down the road and then dove into the bushes on the right.  It was amazing.

 

Other than that just the normal wildlife,  hawks eagles owls deer.

 

Crazy moment  -  We were primitive camping north of Wallace way up in the mountains.  We weren't too far off an intersection of multiple trails.  At 1:32 am gun fire erupts on the intersection just below our camp 20 - 30 yards away.  Multiple rifles, bam bam bam bam bam.  It's pitch black, I crawl out of my tent and Arash crawls out of his tent.  We don't want to stand up and get hit by a stray round.  I tell him its just kids shooting signs and they'll leave.  Nope, they swap mags and open up with a second volley.  It was bat Shet crazy.  He says, "should I fire off a round so they know we are here?"  I say, "hell no, just wait them out."  So these kids reload again and empty their mags as fast as they can, bam bam bam bam bam bam bam.  When they are empty Arash says out loud, "Hello."  It's quiet for a second, then scrambling and slam slam slam slam as they jump into their truck.  Then vroom off they go down the mountain not to be heard from again.  It was pretty funny after that.

 

The bridge was out ten miles from the border.  We hit it Sunday evening so the construction crews weren't there.  They had placed some beams across the river so they could cross back and forth.  We were able to ride between the barriers and cross their beams so we didn't have to back track.

 

Other than that it was an awesome journey and I rarely ran into anyone.  I came back through the Pahsimeroi as I had never been there before.  It just teased me with more rides for the future.

 

Some random low quality phone pics kind of in order.

 

Cabin at Lolo Hot Springs.  Start of ride.

 

Indian Post Office, Trail 500

 

Devil's Chair on Trail 500

 

Camp where Lewis/Clarke smoked a pipe, brown bear was a couple miles later.

 

North of Pierce

 

Camping in wild flowers north of Pierce

 

My Blue Heaven

 

North of Wallace, met up with Arash on his KLR

 

Primitive camping mountains North of Wallace.  Awakened by nonstop gunfire 1:32 am.

 

Lunch break 20 - 30 miles South of Clarke's Fork before the black bear.

 

Canadian border at Porthill.

 

Pahsimeroi valley South of Salmon home to future adventures

Edited August 21, 2020 by Idarex

[Idarex]

Got that done!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Idarex

[vagrant318]

Did you bring extra fuel? Some of the sections are over 200 miles, no issues with tank range?

[Great Escape]

Sounds like a great trip....glad your liking the T7!. Those kids must have been really spooked when you called out...probably never considered anyone was nearby!. That trail looks great.  Cheers,  Steve 

[Idarex]

21 hours ago, vagrant318 said:

Did you bring extra fuel? Some of the sections are over 200 miles, no issues with tank range?

I carried 2L of extra fuel in MSR bottles.  I never needed them.  I went between 200 - 210 miles twice. 

[vagrant318]

25 minutes ago, Idarex said:

I carried 2L of extra fuel in MSR bottles.  I never needed them.  I went between 200 - 210 miles twice. 

That's excellent to hear. The tank capacity/range with the fuel indicator has really been throwing me off a bit. I thought about a roto pax for idbdr but maybe I'll just do a 1 liter fuel bottle. 

[MeefZah]

Nice.   I didn't realize the Lolo Motorway was on the IDBDR.  We did that a few years ago in a 4Runner in a loop with the MacGruder Corridor.  Pretty country.   I'd like to ride it on a bike. 

 

Cool Taco!

[Idarex]

I think I will be doing Lolo Motorway and McGruder again sometime.