The start of Day 5 was full of expectation and promise as the first part of the ride had us going through Logan Canyon Scenic Byway up to Bear Lake and then into Yellowstone National Park finishing in the village of West Yellowstone. We hit Logan Canyon pretty much straight out of Logan and it did not disappoint. Beautiful riding country with just enough to challenge you. Again the road surface was immaculate. The temperature at this stage was very cold hovering around 30 to 40 degrees Celsius (single digits back home) as the canyon was not getting very much early morning sun. A big shock after the heat of Nevada.
We steadily climbed out of Logan Canyon and cresting the top we sighted the magnificent Bear Lake.
Bear Lake will change colour from green to blue to aquamarine depending on the light - today it was blue. We came down into the small town of Garden City which was gearing up for their annual raspberry day. We were invited to go into the township for the celebrations but respectfully declined and headed further East skirting the lakeside.
With the Kennedy's (our other riding buddies who join us in Chicago) still in Paris we decided that it was only right that we also went to Paris - Paris, Idaho that is. Finally finding something we could photograph with the town's name on it we pulled up right outside the Mormon Tabernacle. The church itself was absolutely beautiful and the good people who worship there happened to be holding an open day so had set up a booth exactly where we decided to park. We scared the hell out of them - to alleviate some of their concerns the Naikey's and Bo went off into the Tabernacle making a donation as they went whilst I stayed with two worthy religious gentlemen having a wonderful conversation.
From Paris we continued our journey reaching Afton around midday. Afton is famous for it's arch across the Main Street that is made entirely out of deer antlers. Main Street Afton is really quite nice in a rustic sort of way and the good citizens have put some serious effort into giving it a charm all of its own. I couldn't help but wonder how many deer gave their lives for this civic initiative - (Editors Note: You will see a recurring theme relating to deer as I proceed to outline events that occurred some days later).
From Afton we stopped off at a road house called Tootsies for lunch - here we met up with a couple of HOG members from Wyoming - Big Lynn and Big Jay - nice guys who happened to be brothers. They told us they were both retired and on a little adventure of their own. Like all the people we have met so far they struggle to get their heads around just how far we have travelled to do this ride. As veteran bikers they understand what drives us to do it and in that we share that bond of Harley's and riding for the sheer hell of it.
From Tootsies we headed North and into the Grand Tetons National Park - which according to my rudimentary knowledge of French roughly means large boobies - and large they were. More bucket list stuff here. Absolutely bloody magnificent.
It's the height of the Summer break right now and the river was packed with teenagers white water rafting. As we proceeded further into the park we were once again overwhelmed by the geographic beauty of this country - there is no end to it. Grand Teton National Park is simply magnificent and riding through it on these fantastic bikes is as good as it gets in my book.
I must end here for the time being as it is getting late (past midnight) and we have an early start and a long ride in the morning. There is a lot more to share from Day 5 so I will continue this particular day's journey tomorrow. Over the next few days I will enlighten you on the Bison incident and also relate how I survived hitting a deer at 50 miles per hour. For those needing a bit of good old fashioned grubbiness there will also be shots of some of the girls from Sturgis - but more of that later. We are all fit and well despite the local wildlife.
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