After breakfast in Hardin, we arrived at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. This memorial was erected for the fallen soldiers. A memorial for the Native Americans is being planned and will be located on the other side of the hill from this memorial. It will include a "Spirit Gate" that will allow the ghosts still roaming the battlefield to find their way home and bring healing to this place.

These gravestones were placed on the slope below the memorial to indicate where Custer and his men fell. The black gravestone in the center of the photo is Custer's.

The forested area below the gravestones is where the Native Americans were encamped. Custer's men went down to attack, were repulsed and retreated to the top of the ridge to make their last stand.

We rode the length of the battlefield down to the Reno/Benteen site and met a couple touring on a big Harley Ultra Glide. They were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary by cruising the entire US! Another couple on a big Gold Wing pulled up to park and would have dumped it in the parking lot if not for Joe, Vince and Lenny coming to the rescue!

After Little Bighorn, we headed south to Ranchester, Wyoming to have lunch. We kept eyeing the Bighorn Mountains to the east over which a weather front was parked. We figured we'd get a bit wet and the locals assured us that the road was good. We spoke to a recently retired cop from Minnesota who had just crossed the Bighorns on his new BMW R1100RT, the Mercedes of sport touring bikes. He even had a GPS unit on this bike. He had retired 30 days prior to meeting us and he'd been on the road for 29 days! Anyway, he said it was no sweat.

Well, sure enough, it started raining on us once we entered the clouds. Ok, we figured on that. Higher and higher we climbed and then the hail started. It was fine hail, like rock salt, and it came down so hard, it stung our arms through our riding suits. Higher and higher we climbed and colder and colder it became. We pulled over at a rest stop but it was boarded up. Vince was wet and freezing but he said to keep going. We continued on up and the hail continued. I led the way on my VFR with my electric vest and waterproof riding suit on, followed by Lenny on the ST1100. Joe and Vince kept falling further and further back until they disappeared from sight.

Lenny and I went over Granite Pass and started down. The hail finally turned into rain as we dropped in elevation. We arrived at this rest area, a safe haven from the storm. Little did we know we'd be using the heated hand dryers in the men's room to thaw out Vince's hands!

I remarked how hard the hail had been coming down to Lenny when we noticed that the bikes that had been plastered with bug guts had been sandblasted clean!

I was going to toss the gear off the ST1100 and head back up for Vince when Lenny stopped a couple in a car in the parking lot and asked if they had seen Joe and Vince. They reported seeing them huddled under a tree toward the top of the pass and one of them was smoking a cigarette. Vince! Somehow I knew they'd make it down okay and I stayed put.

Joe and Vince pulled in about 15 minutes later and we had to help Vince off the bike. He was damn near frozen to it.

Vince thawed out in the men's room, burned a few more smokes and then we did the short nature trail around Shell Falls, a delightful change of pace after the hail storm from hell!

The water has eroded the rock so deeply here that the rock is almost as old as what is found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

Our first sign of civilization after Shell Falls. Lots of hot coffee, snacks and plenty of joking around in the parking lot. Vince pointed out that this winter weather bullshit was not mentioned in the "travel brochure" Joe and I had cooked up. One of us mentioned that this was "adventure touring" at its finest! I'll refrain from repeating what Vince had to say about that!

This far removed from the storm and our ordeal, we began to lament the road conditions of some of the finest mountain riding any of us had ever seen. We looked at the map and realized that there are 3 high elevation passes in the Bighorns creating a huge figure eight! Sweet Jesus! We talked of coming back in sunnier times and riding up and down the Bighorns for days on end until we had our fill of the intense twisties, if that's even possible. Coming back to reality and on advice from Annie herself, we soon headed for Greybull and some serious partying!

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