Day 6 of the Slow Return.
Craig H. and I rode out of his ranch a little after 8:30 AM, headed to Stemple Pass and to ride the dirt road to Lincoln.
We got to Stemple Pass just fine, Craig let me go first so he was left with riding in the dust trail that I generated. This would cause issues later.
At the pass, we took a minute for a break and a pic:
The rigs at Stemple Pass
Not any more pics, we were mostly within the treeline so no scenic views to be had for the parts of the Stemple Pass Road that we covered.
We rode on, this time with Craig in the lead, enjoying a pretty good dirt road with many twists and turns, climbs and dips....and then we ran out of road. Hmmmm.
No maps, so we turned around and retraced our steps.
We'd stopped earlier because Craig's rig was acting like it was running rich and losing power. Scarlett, on the other hand, had a lit "check engine" light. Oh oh.
The code I got from the system was 143, which the manual says there's an issue with the heater in the left side O2 Sensor. Not ride impacting apparently but will probably have to replace it. Oh well, as long as I can still ride.
As we retraced our route, Craig's rig got worse and worse. Finally he stopped and after some diagnostics, confirmed that the air filter was clogged with dust. A short time later, he'd cleaned it with some gas and after waiting for it to evaporate, put it back in. His engine fired up just fine and ran well after that!
We rode on home, getting there by Noon.
Craig then helped me out in prepping the rig for travel and getting UMA the URRV ready for the road. Some short goodbyes ensued:
Craig and I found Julie mowing the grass in the "back 40".
Just kidding about the 40, all they have is 20 acres....just 20....
I'm jealous of course.
My thanks to Julie and Craig for letting me
moochdock these last couple of days and nights!
I left their place at 1PM but after getting gas in the town of Helena, didn't hit the highway towards I-90 till 1:45 PM!
By 5:30 PM I was in the town of Columbus, MT, at a free campsite provided by the city for dry camping. The park's name is hard to say: Itch-Ke-Pe but it's nice and basic. There's room between the sites and I found a nice site near the river.
Tonight's sunset was pretty mild, nice colors but nothing very dramatic....
All photos done with my iphone 6. Have to find a camera shop to see if they can fix my 16-50mm lens.
Tomorrow, Wyoming!
3 comments:
I think that piece of metal we dug out of the lens is gonna make repairing it a bit difficult.
It would be hard to complain about that campsite. A great view matching the great price...
James...ya think? Insurance company is working the paperwork to cover a replacement. Hopefully they'll tell me soon.
RichardM, hard to complain indeed when I was there by myself...it got a little crowded over time though.
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