Day 3 of our Montana trip started early. I couldn’t wait to get ready to see ‘Big Sky Country’. And I’ll tell you, ‘Big Sky’ is exactly correct. I felt that a magical glue that kept me anchored to the earth had saved me from falling into the wide-open blue. I expected to be sucked into the sky, a feeling similar to the awe I felt when I first witnessed the majesty of the Grand Canyon. The morning was amazing, not a cloud in the sky, just the golden glow of another awesome sunny day to ride.
While we didn’t do an exhaustive tour of Missoula, we saw enough to know we’d love to stay, but the road was calling so we headed out. My passion for watching Montana was sparked by a movie, ‘Last of the Dogmen,’ starring Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey. The story centers on a broken but skilled bounty hunter. [Tom Berenger] who is hired by his estranged father-in-law [Kurtwood Smith] to hunt down three armed runaway convicts on the loose in Montana’s Oxbow Quadrangle. I was overwhelmed by the splendor of the mountains and resolved to make my way there. And damn, here we were right at the proverbial door to the Oxbow. YeeeHawwwww!
It wasn’t until we got to Missoula and took a closer look at the map that we realized that a town in Montana bore our last name: Rollins. So we HAD to get there and check it out. To get there, we took I-90 West to MT-93 North bound for Flathead Lake and Rollins. The trip was pretty nice, but uncomplicated. However, the promise of seeing the ‘Dogmen’ Mountains and our namesake was almost as motivating as the sheer pleasure of riding.
The excursion to Rollins of less than 100 miles, lasted approximately 2 hours. Rollins is a quaint little lakeside resort town with a post office, gas station / convenience store, and burger stand [just south of the town]. The latter caught our attention, advertising ‘Buffalo Burgers’. So, we made a stop and frankly enjoyed our one and only ‘Buffalo Burger’. We asked about the origins of the city and learned that a boatman named Rollins founded the settlement in the early 1900s. It transported customers across Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. In addition to the peaceful splendor, the lake offers world-class fishing for rainbow, cutthroat, bull, lake and brook trout, as well as arctic graylings, bass, perch and pike. We had no equipment, but if you like to fish, Flathead seems like a great place to spend a weekend or a week!
We leave Rollins heading south, go down MT-93 for approximately 11 miles and turn right onto MT-28. This was a very nice trip. The road was old but solid and there was practically no traffic. About an hour down 93, you’ll pass just east of a local hot spot, literally Hot Springs, MT. We didn’t stop to enjoy the springs, but were told it was wonderfully relaxing.
MT-28 intersects with MT-200. We turn left and then about 5 miles south, we turn right onto MT-135. Now get ready for one of the most beautiful walks of your life. MT-135 goes through the mountains and runs along a beautiful mountain river, and oh what a beauty! The river is perfect for “tame” tubing, and we watched several families tubing in the Montana sun. I bet there will be good fishing there too. Every now and then we passed a mountain resort, and I thought more than once that a family retreat here would be fabulous. I was disappointed when we left the beauty of nature and returned to the concrete reality of I-90 in St. Regis, MT.
St. Regis is a typical truck stop community. We filled up on gas, enjoyed a snack, and were on the highway north to Coeur d’Alene, ID. The trip to Coeur d’Alene is 95 miles on I-90, which runs east-west across the United States from Chicago to Seattle. The stretch from St. Regis to Coeur d’Alene traverses the Montana-Idaho mountains with breathtaking views and pine-laden mountainous landscapes. What a wonderful beauty. What humiliating greatness.
Appearance of the calm waters of the spa of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the main attraction of the area; announced our arrival at Coeur d’Alene. The city of more than 50,000 inhabitants is mainly dedicated to tourism and enjoys a full complement of hotels, motels, restaurants and services. We stayed at a popular discount chain that I won’t mention or recommend. On subsequent trips we continued to Post Falls, ID. – a smaller but more welcoming community. In Post Falls, there is a great restaurant from the 60s: the Hot Rod Café. Bike night is Thursday from May to September. The Hot Rod menu offers a great selection of burgers, sandwiches, appetizers, desserts, and beverages. And the food is as delicious as the atmosphere is fun.
That brings us to the end of the third day of our trip, a day of ‘Big Sky’ views and quiet driving, the conclusion of stage 3 of our BEST first trip to Montana.