Stage 3: Eastbound and Broken-down

Anyone know somebody that fixes BMW motorcycles in Malta, Montana? Yeah, me neither.

Well, let me start out with the good news. The past few days have been really unbelievable. Tad and I had an awesome ride up to Glacier National Park. That place is just incredible. We arrived on Saturday about noon and drove the going-to-the-sun road all day up and over the continental divide. Then we went to the east side of the park (which is much less traveled) and went to camp in Many Glacier campground. You can see a picture of our riverside campsite in the pics below. On Sunday we went on this crazy hike out to Iceberg Lake. Along the way we basically walked stride for stride with a grizzly and her three cubs. Apparently it's a rare site so that was pretty crazy to see that. Out at iceberg lake, there is a glacier that dumps right into the lake and icebergs break off and float around. I bet Tad dinner that he wouldn't swim out to an iceberg, but as you can see, he did. Then I had to do it too. The water was cold, but not heart-stopping cold. It was probably mid forties. The scenery, the grizzly, and the iceberg lake made for a truly unforgettable day.

Tad and I parted ways yesterday morning and he ended up doing an all day (and night) marathon ride back to Vancouver, WA and I headed east on highway 2. Highway 2 is known as the high-line hiihgway as it heads along the top of the country. It's full of history and Lewis and Clark took this route when they did their western exploration.

ANYWAY, I rode aobut 320 miles yesterday to the town of Malta, Montana. I was really low on gas and filled up just outside of town. As soon as I rolled into town the bike started to sputter. I had had a few flooding issues before and the mileage has not been good and this is all pointing to carburetor issues. I may have gotten some bad gas, but I also think I have a stuck float in the carburetor and need to get that cleared somehow. This is where a guy named "Scott" comes into the picture. I'm doing some laundry in this dark laundrymat last night (they turned the lights off cause the mosquitos are so bad) and I was just feeling a little dejected and wondering what I was gonna do. There was one other guy there (Scott) and we got to talking and I told him about my porblems and it turns out this guy knows everyone in town and knows quite a lot about engines himself. I got his number and I went to the local bar this morning (they serve free coffee) and I met him there along with a few other locals. We looked at the bike and I put some fuel/carb cleaner in the gas with no luck (yet). Scott had to go out and do some work on a guy's roof this morning but we're gonna look at the bike when he's done with that. He knows another guy in town that is a bit of a bike mechanic so between the three of us we should be able to figure this out. I'm hoping to be back on the road by tomorrow.