Orca to Johnson Creek to Glacier to Butte

[rph142]

Here’s a little motivation for the builders out there. My friend had to be in Bozeman for a family trip and we figured it would be fun to take a few detours on the way up.

We started up the coast from SF but quickly realized there was no escaping the heat.



A short while later we were parked in front of the motherships big orange prototyping hangar. A few engineers outside eating lunch took the time to give us a quick tour.


after drooling over the 15 it was time to head north. Our final stop for the day was Orca Island. Bikes are available in the shed.

 

[rph142]

The next morning we were on dawn patrol in an effort to beat the heat to Johnson Creek. You’d think you were over southern Nevada at times.

We flew down the salmon river to yellow pine and approached from the north. After landing we grabbed bikes and rode up to yellow pine for supplies.


And of course we hiked up to the fabled warm springs.

 

[rph142]

Camping was about as good as it gets.
The next morning I fired up the jet boil for coffee and we were quickly off to Glacier.


After a quick stop in salmon for fuel we headed up to Big Fork MT for lunch. Another manicured grass strip and bikes made for a fun stop. We rode down the swan river into town for lunch

 

[rph142]

I’ve been trying to get to glacier for years but weather or timing has always blocked me. Not this time. We flew right down the valley over the road to the sun.
Next up was butte. We had a hangar in Boman and a car waiting for us.
Butte is an interesting town. There are 10,000 miles of mine tunnels below the town. This shaft was one mile deep. Miners would be standing in blizzard conditions at the tops and arrive to over 100F heat at the bottom.
The next morning we were off to Bozeman, but not before passing a huge abandoned copper smelter stack.

 

[Mtbguy]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing

 

[rph142]

From there it was a quick 4.5 hour flight home over typical western terrain…lava fields, mines, salt flats etc.

I’ve flown from Idaho to SF many times so I don’t have too much to report other than it was turbulent beyond belief and I was wishing I was in a glider. Build on!

 

[Vlad]

Nice! What kind of tent do you have Rob?

 

[rph142]

Nice! What kind of tent do you have Rob?

The big Agnes fly creek. It’s super light and fits between the brake hoods on a gravel bike.

 

[JonJay]

Looks like a great trip. Flown over and around all of that at times and it sure makes one feel small.

 

[paulsmeds]

That trip looks awesome. We’ve done some adventure bike motorcycle camping and you can go down the rabbit hole of trying to put together the lightest and most compact but useful camping gear. Very similar to fly camping want to keep things compact, light, useful and comfortable. Tent, air mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, water jug w/filter treatment, cooking burner, plate/utensils, coffee making equipment, toiletries, cloths, shoes, food, etc. Having just done this trip comfortably it looks like, I’d love to see your list of gear/supplies for this trip! That’s a pretty nice compact pile in the picture.