2013 Best of the Montana 1000

In on flipping the flapjacks.

I'll try to get a group together for the RideWest presentation in February. We did the Lolo/Magruder thang about 6 yrs ago and adding the Gravelly's would be great. dd

I wanted to do it last year, but had a conflict. I'm in for this year.

I was looking at Timmers planned route and would be interested in going along with you guys if theres room for another. The ride through the Gravellys looks amazing and we also missed the Macgruder last years ride do to faulty ranger info at Darby.
TB

Unless we get 20+, the size of the group is of no issue. Besides, we always break down into natural groups of 2-3 and meet up either periodically throughout the or hopefully at night at camp. We only had to send out two search parties last year! :eek1:eek1

The Gravellies are that good and it's why I'm trying to plan for 2 days there. We will have to skip some of what we did last year to do that and ride a bit more tarmac, but it's so worth it. Pictures simply don't do it justice as the others will I'm sure concur.

Timmer

Tim,

Last year's ride looked fantastic. If not for lack of vacation days I would commit for the trip right away. Ride West BMW is a very good place to share your story, one of the best dealerships I have ever been to. I was curious what the actual route looked like last year, if you have a detailed route of last year's trip please forward it to me.

Cheers,
RestlessRider

Here is my full route from 2012 (US 12 pavement x2 and Selway to get to start/from finish)

Ron

Yup, that's what it looked like! I do have tracks for every day and for me, it's another 400 or so miles each way to get there.

You sure do enjoy those Gravs there are plenty of good side roads that drop down to the Madison, and off the other side to the Ruby. You should be able to discover a lot of cool things if you spend a couple of days up there. Give me a PM if you have any questions on any of that area.

Yes, I do like the Gravs!

The challenge with riding the east side of the Gravellies is the lack of fuel locations. When I rode there last summer on a scouting mission, there was fuel in West Yellowstone and then in Ennis. What would be cool would be if a local rancher could be persuaded to haul up a 50 gallon drum to the top of the Gravellies and we could refuel up there and continue adventuring. It would be nice to ride up and down some of the various side roads connecting the ridge road and say, the Ruby River road.

Hey, I thought that is what the Ural sidecar is for! Oh, wait a minute, we filled it with beer, ice & goods for the grill, no room for gas!

This section begs for shag-wagon/pickup truck support out of Ennis. More research required.

The Ural may not be on the 2013 trip. We have 7 months to figure out options.

What kind of range do you think a person needs on the bike to make gas to gas?

One should plan for a 150 mile fuel range with either on-board or auxilliary fuel. In some places fuel is available within shorter ranges.

Last week in July sounds great for what I have already planned. Question: Is most of this dirt [non-pavement; hope so...]? As for fuel for smaller bikes, with 8.7 gals I can serve as a KC135 tanker in a pinch.

Did not read all postings, do I have to fill out anything or will you keep us in loop as to when and where to meet?

Thanks for putting this together...have done Magruder,came up over top from Cobalt via Mud Pass, but not Lolo and would appreciate having other areas in Montana pointed out...

Phil

Phil, Vast majority is dirt - back woods forest routes where at all possible with some pavement connectors where necessary. I've been playing with the routes and the only gas problem is the two days in the Gravelly's. There are no close (a relative term) access to commercial gas up in that area. The only really rough stuf would be some optional side trips (like Burnt Knob Lookout on the Magruder).

Ron

Sounds good. Count me in. Whoever is ram-rodding this please post ahead of time any information on when and where we meet to start out.

Perhaps I can get Tom Tucker to join it since we start in his home town.

Thanks...Phil

Ps...I was not kidding about fuel, I have pumped out fuel before to get my friends KTM home. Of course that is a limited offer!

PPs..If we start on July 22 then we start on a full-moon...very nice.

The 2013 Rally in the Gorge is July 31-Aug 4, 2013. This is an important NW rally for some folks and may effect planning.

Make the vacation two weeks and do both? I personally avoid the Gorge, no slight on anybody, but too many people. But perhaps the rally is off in the boonies and not actually in the Gorge.

Anyway plenty of time to do both.

I've got another riding commitment in June and July, so I'm looking at a 2nd week in August after the Rally in the Gorge as as a tentative date and before the Sasquatch Ride. Now that I'm back in town, I'll give some more serious thought to dates and post in this thread.