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Eagle Guard Station is a favorite for Paul and I. Lots of back roads through the Helena National Forest to explore, and close adequate to Bozeman to invite some pals up for an oveight stay.

A Wandering We Will Go
It's the dead of winter when my riding buddy Paul and I make the dream of beautiful summer riding in South West Montana come true. Forest Service cabins grow to be available to rent on ReserveAmerica.com six months ahead of time, and by late February we've got a route planned from a single cabin to the next for our week long summer ride. Come midnight each night exactly one half year in advance on the riding date, we've got our fingers hovering above the "reserve" button ready to snap up each cabin in order to string together the adventure. Contingency plans are made in advance should someone sneak in and snatch a cabin from our grasp, but by the beginning of March our ride and route are secure.

Dirt roads are preferred, but back country Montana pavement will often deliver a spectacular bimble through Big Sky Country. This year's route was roughly 50/50 totaling about 900 miles for me, along with a thousand for Paul who left a day earlier than I.

Our route for the trip. We start in Bozeman (F). Paul took the southe route stopping at Black Butte Cabin (G) on Saturday night. I caught up with him at Bloody Dick Cabin (B) Sunday. Monday we lit out for Woods Cabin (C) on Como Lake for two nights. Tuesday was a day ride to Twin Lakes (not shown). Wednesday it was over Skalkaho Pass to Cummings Cabin (D) in Lincoln, MT---home of Ted "The Unibomber" Kazinski. Thursday was Stemple Pass Rd. through Helena to Eagle Guard Station Cabin for three nights with day rides. Sunday we retued to Bozeman...the back way.

A Little Music....Please!
Paul and I aren't afraid of a little peace and quite. Sundown in the mountains brings bird calls and coyote yelping often, plus a crackling fire with distant thunder is way better than a TV. But shuffling around the fire ring reducing logs to coals for dinner, or late night whiskey drinking and cigar smoking even though playing cribbage by candle light sure does benefit from some tunes. Problem is, it is damned hard to keep electronics charged for ten days out inside the middle of nowhere.

When I stumbled into the EnerPlex booth at T.H.E. Show Newport earlier this year where they were showing off their Kickr IV Portable Solar Panel and Jumpr storage battery and device charger I knew a solution to juicing up devices off-the-grid was at hand. Following talking to the representative about my upcoming motorcycle trip and the need to charge portable devices we agreed it would make a fine review opportunity, cards had been exchanged, and samples have been promised. Now to sort out the rest from the gear.

My Samsung Galaxy S3 would be the phone for the trip, and for music I have an Astell&Ke AK120 that has Bluetooth capabilities and is loaded with tracks, so all I needed to complete was find a good Bluetooth rechargeable portable speaker. Following my visit to Harmon in June, I had them send me a Flip portable speaker, which sounded quite very good for $99 but unfortunately it needed a higher voltage and different connectors than was available around the Kickr and Jumpr so I wouldn't have the ability to use it. A little inteet searching tued up a very cool looking new item, the Ultimate Ears Boom. A few emails had been exchanged together with the UE PR folks and one was around the way. My moto-camping music system was complete but there was little time for testing. I hope it all plays nicely together.

...it didn't go so effectively in 1 case, we'll get to that. Flip the page for the whole story.

Vacation Photo Interlude
On the road to Twin Lakes we found an idilic swimming hole complete with waterfall. A sure cure for getting rid of the grunge from three days of riding.

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