Chief Joseph & Beartooth Pass

 Let me start this by admitting that I am not a great fan of high altitude riding.  Especially with a lack of guard rails and very high drop offs.  I had been worried that the bikes coming into Cody were talking about the 14” of snow on Saturday and they couldn’t do the mountains.  I kept checking multiple weather apps and it looked ok to me with temperatures in the upper 60’s.  By Wednesday the snow was mostly gone and the lows were in the 50’s.  

It was clear so I was going for it.  About 20 miles out of Coby I turned off on Chief Joseph.  This was a warm up to the Beartooth.  After 48 miles the road ended on Rt 212 or the Beartooth Pass then another 58 miles and I would be in Red Lodge!  The routing software showed that this trip was a total of 110 miles and should take 3 hours.  That’s an average of 35 mph.  That gives you an idea that it’s not an expressway.  I took 4 hours and stopped 6 times.  I would have stopped more times but only 2 turnouts were paved and the rest were very loose gravel and some were crowded.  Many of the turns were posted 20 mph and I wasn’t going that fast.  I had to stop multiple times just to release my death grip on the handlebars.  These stops were on the paved shoulders where I had room but didn’t get off.  For some reason when I reached 11000 ft elevation I lost my voice.  It returned when I got back down to Red Lodge.

I had gorgeous weather with light winds, which relieved a lot of stress.  Sorry the pictures don’t give a better feeling of the height of the mountains.  I am very glad that I did this ride.

I had the best steak for dinner when I got to Red lodge.  A beautiful town with lots going on.  I had one of their craft beers and tacos for lunch and I was a happy man!