Today was a great example of the definition of Funcut. The morning was cold, real cold. The forecast said 38 degrees but on the bike at speed it must have been close to freezing. I had almost every piece of cold weather gear on and my heated grips set to magma level. After only a few miles I could tell my fingers were going to go numb. Pointer fingers, left middle, and both thumbs gone. Reaching up for either the clutch or brake levers I do as little as possible because in the short time it takes shift or brake the hand grips feel like ice when my fingers return to their positions. This went on for about two hours or so.
We found out yesterday from a nice lady at a gas station that Montana’s weather right now is abnormal. Usually the wind comes from a particular direction, but because of a front from Canada the wind and cold are moving in a counter clockwise direction. Because of this we changed or intended route twice today.  Looking at the map vs the weather direction we had a choice, stay in Montana for the rest of the day and freeze tomorrow too or make a tactical withdraw to Idaho. This is where the funcut comes into play.
After lunch the temperatures were slightly better, but we were still at a high enough elevation that once we were moving it was cold. Realize when I say cold I mean uncomfortable, not it’s a little chilly and I want to complain. We change direction for the second time today to escape that Canadian weather and reduce our elevation.  The funcut gods smiled upon us and the rest of the day was epic.
Landscape wise Montana was beautiful, they aren’t kidding about this area being big sky country. Wow it was cool. I think it appears bigger than ‘normal’ because you can typically see mountains in the distance and that makes you appreciate how far you are seeing. But I’m no scientologist so I have no idea how it works.  After the funcut we were treated to awesome rock formations, rising temperatures, another amazing river, towering rock walls, and just enough room for farms to squeeze into the same valley. Check out the 360 for a little taste. Today there were more wows and whoas than any other day this trip. We were in awe. It was amazing.
Something else that comes along with all that water and farm land are hella 😉 bugs.  This is in my opinion the worst part of riding. There you are bopping along, big stupid grin on your face.. then POW! It can be as minor as a pin prick or like a marble hitting you in the face. It’s jarring to say the least and always not when you expect it . And you better hope there isn’t a stinger attached to that little bastard. To us this isn’t a big deal what is a big deal is the dark passenger comes to play. This is the name we’ve come to use when a bug some how escapes exploding against our face and makes it’s way into our helmets. You can feel it’s little gross body moving across your head basically doing whatever it wants. Sometimes you can smash it against your skull by moving your helmet around. Sound gross? You’d do it.  The absolute worst type of dark passenger finds your ear. You can feel it slowly making its way towards your ear, you beg it to stop. You try not to focus on it. Try. That’s when it starts either biting or worse it tries to get into your skull. Once they get in the level of distraction is indescribable. The eye on that side of my head starts to water and that aweful tickle. Yarrr! Part of you begs for it to eat some of your poison wax so it dies and the other part of your brain is trying to keep you alive. It’s terrible. Typically I ride out this aweful experience, but yesterday’s passenger was so bad I stopped and physically killed that one.  Kat did the same today in that epic valley.  Little bastards.
Time to celebrate the day. Have an amazing weekend.