Route recommendations - Minneapolis->SF Bay via Montana, Portland

[NoneMoreBlack]

I am going to ride my 82 CB450SC from Minneapolis, through Billings MT, and then via the Beartooth Pass into Yellowstone, and ultimately to Portland and the SF Bay. As you can see, a large part of my route is already planned out, but I would like to look for recommendations from anybody who knows the area for the Yellowstone-> Portland leg of the journey. I especially could use a good idea for where to stay somewhere in there, as that will be a 2-day ride.

I am not so much trying to avoid interstates as I am looking for nice road and scenery, so while I am not taking a 100% direct route, I do need to get there eventually. I am aiming at 4-5 days for actual travel, not counting stopover time in each destination.

I will of course be documenting the trip and posting it here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[flynrider]

   One of the finest biking roads I've ever ridden is on the way.   Go to Missoula, MT and pick up U.S. Hwy 12 westbound.  You'll travel up to Lolo pass and then there's about 125 miles of twisty canyon road following the Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers.  The beauty of this stretch of highway is that it runs through National Forest and borders on Wilderness areas.  There's virtually no local traffic to deal with.   The views and the curves are spectacular.    Whenever I'm within a few hundred miles, I'll make a detour just to ride that road.

  Here's a few pics :





Here's an overhead view.  Every time I fly over that road, I wish I had room for a bike on the plane.
The road twists along the bottom of the canyon as far as you can see.


If you have camping gear, you can set up on any of the many forest service roads that meet the Highway or use one of the many forest service campgrounds.  If not, continue on to Grangeville, ID (the Elkhorn Lodge is biker friendly and reasonably priced) or press on to Lewiston ( a college town with lots of accomodations).

I first stumbled across this road back in 1985 and it's remained on the top of my list ever since.  Don't miss it!

[NoneMoreBlack]

Hot damn, that is exactly what I needed. Could you tell me more about your cargo setup there; I plan on the same, just netting/bungees. What do I need to know to get a decent amount of luggage on the back?

[flynrider]

  Underneath all that luggage is a Hondaline backrest/luggage rack.   My method is pretty simple.  Every piece gets two bungees.  Avoid bungeeing one piece of gear to another.  Also, heavy items go as low as possible to keep the center of gravity down.  The last thing you need is a top heavy bike on twisty roads.

  The big (heavy) blue pack is clothes and light camping gear, tent on top of that, sleeping bag on the back and the orange pack has a light air mattress, rain gear, maps etc...



  That setup has clothes, camping gear, bike stuff and assorted items for a week on the road.  Bring a large piece of plastic to cover it all up if it rains.   I used the giant plastic bag that my 37" flat screen TV came in.  Looks kind of goofy, but I could get that thing on and secured in about a minute.

[chas550sc]

google robert pirsig's route from zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance