Dual Sporting Border to border

Day 1—My plan to ride the CDR solo on my CRF230L began on 3 Aug at Roosville. Some of you may have read the test ride of the CDR I did across NM back in June-now it will be the entire ride. I’ve been vocal in my belief that off road the bike should be light and not heavily loaded. I confess to a chase vehicle on this ride but it came about as a result of other travels I was doing at the time. You will see below that the 230 does not have a lot of luggage on it—here is what it carries: extra gas(66oz) tools\patches and tubes for front or rear tire change, sleeping bag, tarp(lean-to), matches, food for 2 days, hatchet, knife, bear repellant, 2 GPS, Spot, cell phone, rain suit, oil, epoxy, tow strap, soap, rags, complete tool set, 3 tire irons, breaker bar, air pressure gauge, air pump, radio, water bottle, camel back (on me), spare parts\nuts\bolts, personal items and lifting strap. If needed I can camp in the woods and sleep eat for one or two nights from what I have on the bike. I choose not to mostly and will be staying in the chase vehicle or commercial accommodations—as many do. Light, compact and controllable—yet it still carries the key necessities.
Day one was a late start by plan and began at Roosville—funny the start of the CDR is Airport road and most of the first few miles are PAVED—foreshadowing I guess. There was almost a half mile of traffic waiting to get into Canada so I just used the zoom to get a pic:


Then off to Airport road:

No planes but an airport:


You always need a friend on the road—this is mine—big dog was always with me

Some things in life I just don’t understand

Lot of really nice lakes up here—mosquitoes too

Also a lot of nice steams—unfortuntately the CDR is routed over bridges! No water crossings so far--but a lot of water.

Always get gas where you find it—never pass up the chance! Polebridge--$3+

Should be some stories here--too bad they are most likely lost forever.

Some names are just hard understand how they came about

Unfortunately first day’s impression is this is going to be gentleman’s ride—no tough stuff at all. That is based on day one and over 700 miles across NM in June—we’ll see. Day one ended at Whitefish as planned.

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I’m writing this from Helena on Day 3 as I did not have connectivity for day one or day two. My connectivity is less than stellar—taking almost 30 minutes to upload a picture (to photobucket) which I know you want to see more than my narrative. Will finish day one and then try again tomorrow at the next wifi spot to see if I can get a better connection. Looks like rain--:eek1

Looking forward to updates... Do you think you could still manage this ride on the CRF without a support vehicle? How fast can you go comfortable on your bike?

Good luck!

Great pictures and report!

One small question... What is the CDR?

Looking forward to more Happy

Great stuff so far! Keep it coming!

Excellent!

sy, it was nice to have met you out there the other day. Hope you've been staying dry... Looks like a rainy couple of more days ahead. How did the lincoln to helena stretch turn out?

Went great--some showers but no lightening. Right after this post I will put in the ride report for the next couple of days. Sure enjoyed talking to you and thanks for the info. Ride safe and watch out for those bears!:eek1

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Day 2 started off as a tour of Whitefish—a lot of back country roads and farms—not real exciting as far as dirt riding since most all of it was PAVED! Did find some logging operations along the paved section—at least it made it smell good!<o></o>

I did find a hitchhiker along the route—<o></o>

Did finally get to some dirt<o></o>

and as you move south toward Swan and Seeley Lakes it gets better—grizzly habitat, never saw one but I saw a lot of roads blocked to “improve the bear habitat”. <o></o>

Using bigdog’s gps track results in dropping off the route at cold creek road and taking highway 83 south all the way to Seeley Lake then getting back on the track. I tried for two hours to find a way thru—including finding the famous rocks blocking the single track on the west side and all of the locked gates around Owl Lake—all with no success—my recommendation is just follow the track as laid out by bigdog in the Lolo National Forest area.<o></o>

I thought about going on thru at the infamous rocks—while pondering my decision, a ranger pulls up and that kind of made it for me. He indicated this leads to private land and is blocked for that reason.<o></o>
Anyway moved on and stopped at Seeley Lake.<o></o>
Day 3<o></o>
Got started early to backtrack and try to find an open route thru Lolo National Forest—I’m a sucker for a challenge. Spent the better part of two hours trying and only found locked gates—and mosquitoes! Finally a ranger stopped me and asked if I was riding the CDR! Yep—he was a rider and member of this site and he said he had been working to get something for bikes to take thru the area but so far no luck with management—good luck hope you are successful at some point!<o></o>
So with that I went back to Seeley Lake and picked up bigdog’s track toward Helena. Did find some neat signs<o></o>

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Didn’t see any just black cows—do they count? Roads between Seeley and Helena are generally good—dirt and gravel with neat creeks.<o></o>

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Bigdog’s track goes south of the route in the Lincoln area so I did the map thing and stuck to the CDR route—something to take a look at if you are riding this. I did find some neat curves on the route and some held some real interesting results if you “missed”.<o></o>



There was some minimal challenging areas—mostly just some rocks.<o></o>

Then there are some administrative jobs that I just never got offered…<o></o>

Of course you have to EAT!<o></o>

Then you get the ever present detour—this one around Lincoln for a bridge replacement—the construction guys were not interested in letting me try to cross so I had to go around.<o></o>

Then finally the pass above Helena and on in for the night.<o></o>

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Day 4 begin’s with a night of rain and sunrise comes with some more of the same—but it was not excessive. Rode out of town and immediately met a CDR rider headed north. Maniac was his screen name here and he was headed north—said a RR will follow, hope to read it soon—safe travel.<o></o>
Found a lot of gravel dumped and I love the start of the dump run where you get a whoop! Crusher run is not my idea of the best riding but it will do—interesting note in this area south of Helena. <o></o>


The riding is good if you miss a turn—which I did and found this, went to the top of a long hill and ended, too bad.<o></o>

Got turned around and to the other side of the interstate where you can see where I was in the last picture from this side.<o></o>

Fianally found my way around and got to riding the old rail bed that parallels the interstate—some really good riding, not difficult but fun with things like this along the way.<o></o>

But it was a bit wet----<o></o>

Still more great lakes, they seem to be everywhere just like the free running streams.<o></o>

This is a long downhill run heading toward I15 which you go under and continue on…<o></o>

One of the few marked ones I have found on this end of the CDR.<o></o>

This is on the old railroad bed I mentioned earlier—some interesting riding.<o></o>

I was disappointed at the route from I-15 crossing north of Dillon to Polaris—way too much pavement! The trek into Wyoming and Colorado will be coming shortly, hope some of you are finding this informative.

Since you asked about this particular ride I would have to consider that it is maybe 1500 miles from my place to the start. Would I want to ride the 230L up then back--not really I would take my XT350 as it is much better for on the road riding. The 230 is a 55-60 cruise bike for two lane. I can get more but it depends on conditions like hills wind etc. Yesterday I did 15 miles on the interstate doing 70 but it was hard on the bike-wfo. I use it out and back from the house all the time for 200 mile dual sport rides but if it requires interstate riding I go with the XT. As to what I'm carrying on the bike no problem doing this ride without a support vehicle.

Gots lots of beetle kill down there to??

Not a clue but I will switch colors when I post the next update.
Thanks

UPDATE!!!
Dillon toward Yellowstone is next, cold and rainy day dawned with me headed to 9000ft plus&#8212;put on all I had with me and was still cool but the lack of good cold weather gloves resulted in putting on the blue latex gloves I carry&#8212;must have looked like Dr Kildare heading for surgery!
The first picture shows that the roads handle water well--mud on the surface but still realative good traction. This is seen better in picture 2--45mph was still possible just don't waggle the bars!
Picture 3 is one of those things that I still don't understand? Such is life.
Picture 4 is to let you know that bears are still an issue--never saw one!
Picture 5 is one of the few CD signs--yep I'm headed the wrong way here--went past it at speed and had to come back!
Picture 6 is a historic note from earlier in the day--somewhere west of Dell.
The last picture is near Island Park where the route apparently is closed about 2 miles from the highway--easy divert but a shame.
Camped at Island Park for the night.

Print color changed for Hondo--is this any better? Blacked looked good to me!

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Sy, great report, the black font is easier to read.

I noticed you decided on that reliable CRF230 instead of your XT

Have you been staying in hotels/motels? or are you aslo doing some camping?





BTW: both the black and red fonts are hard to read.

Nearly impossible for me to read as well. I have to "block" the text in order to read it. White text would be best, and a little smaller font so scrolling left to right isn't necessary. Other than that, I'm enjoying your RR. Looks like fun and the scenery is great!

Concensus seems to be that I need to use white for the font--so here it is. Left Island Park and headed south on the main road--encountered the only bear of the CDR trip--big black bear crosses the road in front of me, gone before I can get stopped and get the camera out, most likely just as well. Then on to the CDR which immediately took to an old rain bed--very interesting riding in loose packed gravel\pumice, enjoy the pics of it below it ran for almost 30 miles:






The rail bed ran above the river at the end and dropped down to it at the very end.

Somewhere along the rail bed I found this "diversion" who could pass it up--CRF climbs well



From the rail bed the route runs over dirt roads between Teton and Yellowstone Parks--generally good riding but watch out for other vehicles.
Yes I had some rain especially later in the day as I made my way toward Dubois (you don't get all the way there) and turn south across the mountains to Pinedale--it was wet and rainy with climbs across the mountains.






From Pinedale it is a long haul across 240 plus miles of the Wyoming Basin to Rawlins the only ?town? is Atlantic City with no gas. If you need gas it is a 23 mile oneway divert to Lander from Atlantic City\South Pass City. I think the pics speak for themselves on how desolate it is out there. From Atlantic City to Rawlins I wnet 160 miles without seeing even an old building.

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Great report.

I just didn't want to do 2500 miles of kick starts considering the number of stops for photo ops! Camping with some help, if I was on the bike only then I would be moteling.

After a night in Rawlins I headed south toward Steamboat—still more straight roads but all of a sudden the mountains come into view and trees pop up—riding gets better with aspen groves, pine and twisty roads.



Got a bit worried as I made the turn off of 70 toward Steamboat and the sign said road closed in 16 miles. I was running low on gas and could not toss 32 miles but I chanced it and found the road did make it thru. Did see sheep herds on the way along with more cows, deer, antelope and other criters.


Out of Steamboat I got run off the side of the road by a young lady that took her part down the center of a one lane road—immediately followed by another one who did the same thing!
Riding got much better as you can tell by the pictures—rough, rocky, twisty and enjoyable.

One deep stream ford appeared—must have been 18” deep by my wet leg—bike went thru just fine.


Long climbs and descents followed as I made my way to Kemmerling Co for the evening.
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<o>Kemmerling to Salida was next and some of the ride was enjoyable--but I can do without the trip thru Dillon and Breckinridge--great mountain riding north of Dillon</o>
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<o>Then the climb out of Breckenridge up across the pass on apparently an old rail bed to 11500 feet</o>
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<o>Then down the other side into Como for lunch--</o>
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<o>Lunch</o>
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<o>Then some fast paced stright back roads</o>
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<o>Yet another water crossing-- not as deep as the earlier one</o>
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<o>Then up and down the mountain into Salida</o>
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<o>230L is running fine--even at nearly 12000 feet--MT21's are great on dirt and gravel--but wearing like the first set, rear will be done at 2500 miles. More later.....</o>