>North to Alaska – 7
>
>June 26, 2007
>
>It was 62 degrees when we went for dinner last night. In less than an 
>hour the temperature was 57. It dropped to 37 at night. The altitude 
>where we stayed was 5500 ft. What a change! We are now about ½ way to 
>Alaska in only a week!
>
>When we woke this morning the weather was a 10! Near perfect! Bright 
>blue sky, after all we were in Big Sky Country! There was no wind and 
>the temperature was warming quickly. We left by about 8:00, after 
>breakfast at the motel. The road to Beartooth Pass was about 30 miles. 
>It took us well over an hour. The total distance to Yellowstone was 68 
>miles. By 12:30 we still had not gone 100 miles but it was worth it! 
>The pass topped out at
>10,944 ft. The ride and scenery was exceptional. We got into snow on 
>the hills next to the road at 8000 ft. There were a couple of ponds 
>near the pass. They were still frozen. The temperature was 35 degrees. 
>It was a ride neither of us will forget.
>
>Near the start of our ride I was attacked by a kamikaze black squirrel. 
>He missed and lived to try another day. Jim led the way through the 
>pass. I have the minor advantage of knowing where we are going usually 
>because I did the routing but Jim has the major advantage of being a 
>better rider so he took the lead and got us safely through the climb 
>and the descent. We stopped at several view points and had coffee at 8500 ft.
>
>We entered the park about 11:00. There were many people in the park. It 
>made driving slow but it did give us a chance to enjoy the wonderful 
>vistas and wildlife Yellowstone has to offer. We saw elk, bison, deer, 
>prong horn and some hawks. The weather remained perfect all day in the 
>park. It got a little warm as we traveled north in Montana but nothing 
>like a few days ago.
>
>We traveled about 340 miles today and we didn’t arrive in Helena, 
>Montana till 9:00pm. In the park we noticed that Jims rear tire had 
>worn significantly. It looked like it was worn enough that it might be 
>dangerous so our top priority was getting the tire replaced. We did 
>that in Bozeman, Mt. It took a couple of hours to make the repair so 
>the repair plus the traffic made for a long day.
>
>We were approaching Bozeman when we saw to motorcycles coming up on us 
>fast. We were riding below the speed limit because of Jim’s tire. We 
>waved them by. I noticed that one was on a Honda and the other on a 
>BMW, just like the two people we were to meet were riding. I passed Jim 
>and caught up with them. Since our faces are mostly covered by our 
>helmets and face shields I couldn’t tell who they were. I raised my 
>face shield and Tom immediately waved. We pulled over in a gas station 
>and Tom and I hugged one another. We spent a winter together in 
>Barcelona, Spain and crossed the Atlantic together a couple of years 
>ago. This trip to Alaska was hatched in Barcelona.