18/08/2026
A Rookie Mistake.
Excluding one miserable hour of standing under the scorching sun at a red light for roadwork, we really enjoyed the beautiful, scenic route from Missoula to Troy. Montana never ceases to amaze us and we love immersing ourselves in its wild beauty, riding beneath gigantic mountains, along endless rivers, and past deep blue lakes.
Troy, our destination, is a small city in northwest Montana; Originally inhabited by the Kutenai, other Interior Salish peoples as well as the Piegan Blackfeet, the area was settled by miners in the 1880s, registered as a town in 1892 and grew quickly after the Great Northern Railway built a freight station there. Today there are less than 800 people in Troy, a few stores and restaurants, but its location, right on the Kootenai National Forest and the beautiful Kootenai Falls that have been featured in movies such as The River Wild and The Revenant, still attracts many people looking to enjoy some of Montana’s finest natural beauty.
We had already explored the area before, so our reason for coming back here for the second time this trip wasn’t (just) about sightseeing, but rather to visit Lacey and Jason, 2 amazing humans whom we’ve met here for the first time 2 years ago; Lacey and Jason run a magical inn named “Lake Creek Inn” in Troy, and when we stayed here for the first time there was a massive heatwave in the area so we had to extend our stay over and over until the conditions were reasonable enough for us to continue our journey, and during that time we became good friends. The second time we saw them was when they came to Colorado to visit us after Asi’s accident, and there was no way in the world that we’ll be back in the States and not go to see them.
The detour to Troy was one of the best decisions we’ve made on this adventure, and what was meant to be a 2 nights reunion ended up being a week full of laughter that made us cry, food that made us happy (and fat) and some shenanigans (do people still use this word?) that would probably be more suitable for a bunch of 12-year-olds, but between the four of us there’s not a single adult to keep us in check when we’re together, which is bloody awesome. In their beautiful home Lacey and Jason have horses, miniature horses, donkeys, a mule, goats, ducks, chooks, dogs and cats, all super friendly and happy to be cuddled, and while they usually do it just because they’re cute like that, I know that sometimes it’s just be the pile of treats in my pocket which they find to be delicious despite looking like p**p with small pieces of corn kernels in it.
To each their own, I guess.
During our stay in Troy we also had to change our plan, again, and cancel our planned excursion into Banff and Jasper in Canada, again, only this time it wasn’t due to wildfires, but rather because we couldn’t find any insurer who’d be willing to cover our Australian motorcycles for a few days in Canada without us having to sell a kidney, eh; we were disappointed, but we didn’t dwell on it and quickly built an alternative plan which will see us heading to the west coast on the USA instead.
After a sensational week, we said goodbye to Lacey, Jason and their Funny Farm animals and left Troy for Republic, Washington. It is not every day that you happen to stumble upon such great people, and we really felt like us leaving was such a miss, but our visas only allow us a limited time in the USA, and we still had a few bucket-list items to checkout before we head home, so we had no choice but to say goodbye, hoping that we’ll get another chance to meet in the future.
It was warm when we left Troy, and by the time we arrived at Republic, Washington, it was extremely hot, and except for a short walk to the local grocery store for some food for dinner, we spent the evening in our air-conditioned room. From Republic we continued towards Mount Vernon, also in Washington, and enjoyed a magnificent ride through the twisty roads of North Cascades National Park; the scenery was mind-blowing and the colour of the glacial water at Diablo Lake looked so unreal that I had to add a disclaimer to all the photos I shared with my family and friends promising that the photos aren’t edited. We could have easily spent a few more hours at the national park, but there were too many people for our liking and the fuel prices in Washington are so steep that for the first time we actually had to rethink our route, so we decided to head to the motel.
We had terrible grilled chicken for dinner, gutted to find out the following morning that there was a Burger King just around the corner from the motel; for a moment we contemplated whether it’s too early to eat a Whopper before 9am, but decided to act like grown-ups for a change and instead bought some lollies at the gas station. It’s not all fun and games here, you know.
From Mt. Vernon we headed towards Chehalis, looking forward to today’s ride as it will take us through Mount Renier National Park, which we were looking forward to very much. We crossed Seatle, surprised again about how easy it is to cross big cities in the USA, and when we got closer to the national park, we realised that what we didn’t take into consideration, though, or at least slightly underestimated, was the amount of people that flocks the national park on a Saturday, and not just any Saturday, but a school holiday one.
Rookie mistake.
The road was great and the weather was mostly lovely, but the heavy traffic made it very difficult for us to enjoy our ride; grey clouds hovering around Mount Reinier’s peak, but once in a while they’d spread enough and we were treated with a magnificent sight of the mountain’s snowy peak. We pulled over at a gas station for some fabulous home-made jerky that Jason and Lacey made, fuel and a drink, had a fun conversation with a group of Indonesian Harley riders and continued to Chehalis, where we had a room booked for the night. We had Jack-in-the-Box for dinner which made us regret that we didn’t eat the Whopper for breakfast after all, spent a quiet evening at the hotel and called it a night, wondering what is it about Washington that is makes us miss Montana so much.