Shakedown drive and Layover day!

Polebridge Test Drive

With the windows and stove installed, and most of our gear packed away, we were in need of a test drive. We'd slept in Little Foot in the campground at work for a few weeks, but we hadn't driven anywhere and then lived out of the rig. A test or "shakedown" drive is a very important baby step on the way to on-road living.

Our friend Dre invited us to celebrate her birthday in a little town called Polebridge on the very northwest corner of Glacier National Park. The town is accessible only by improved dirt road, it borders the pristine North Fork of the Flathead River. The local mercantile has killer baked goods (if you visit, forego the overrated huckleberry bearclaws and get the poppyseed and chocolate pastry…or just get both!). Dirt roads, no crowds, and baked confections? We're in.

Just a little Austrian/Swiss military surplus van finding his way through the foliage!

The drive went well, albeit slowly. The road was at times so rough that we were slightly fearful of rattling the contents of the box apart as we bumped across washboard sections with an unavoidable minefield of potholes. Amazingly, nothing of the sorts happened. The fridge walked it's way to a different spot about an inch out of place (which was easily remedied with another strap) and we lost the hitch pin to the pintle hitch on the back. Luckily, Chelsea's photos and videos provided evidence of when and where we lost the hitch pin, narrowing our search from 20 miles to ~6. We found it the next day driving back by looking HARD.

Posing.

We got up to Polebridge early with the intentions of going on a walk, so after touching base with our friend Dre, we headed up to Bowman lake to get some fresh air and enjoy being out and about for the first time in a while.

It was a gorgeous fall day and the short few mile walk couldn't have been better.

After our walk, we headed back to Polebridge to find a free camp spot on National Forest land… one of our favorite traveling past times.

Free camping at the river launch.

Getting the fire started for the cookout.

Dre and Caleb organized a superb campfire potluck, with dishes coming out all night, all cooked over coals. Brats, lamb, asparagus, root vegetables, shallots, and more.

The test drive was great. As we said before, the dirt road out to Polebridge was moderate washboard, had a few sections of potholes, and gave us a good idea of how the stiff off-road suspension handles rough road driving (It doesn't do well going fast). On the road to Bowman lake we had a chance to climb some minor hills. I stalled out once, and subsequently got to practice a moderate hill start maneuver, using granny-1st gear, and shifting the Hi-Low transmission on the fly. I even put it in granny-1st in low gear, and it was awesome! Little Foot crawls in this configuration at only a few miles an hour at 1/2 throttle.

Layover Day

We've driven around the country a few times in both the Campbulance and Stubbs the bus. Before each trip, we promised to take it easy and enjoy days off while driving, and inevitably we don't make that happen. Inevitably we blast past stuff we want to stop and take a look at, only to keep a self-imposed and often arbitrary time-line. I think, in a way, this is a coping mechanism. Perhaps by rushing ourselves, we feel less like homeless vagabonds, and more like the rushed masses of modern, socially acceptable civilization. The drive to stay in line with the norm is strong.

Rocketing along the Swan-Seeley highway with some evidence of controlled burns around us. The silhouette of the portal axels is profound.

We had a long day of driving, with Rusty tailing Little Foot down the Swan-Seeley high way, through Missoula, and out to Hamilton. Chels found a beautiful free campsite at the Blodgett Creek campground in the Bitterroot National Forest. As dusk was fading into darkness, we were commiserating over the radio about not making it to the site in time sunset, when Chels said, "Why not take a layover day?" Why not indeed?

Loulou and I getting used to home on the road.

Layover days are definitely as important as test drives and shakedown trips; they are the whole reason we travel! The Bitterroot NF is amazing, and this little Blodgett Creek Campground is the best. The camp host mentioned that the area earned the nickname "Little Yosemite of Montana," and while he wasn't far off. The creek valley we hiked on our layover day bore many similarities to Yosemtie, albeit on a much smaller scale.

A big shout-out to Chris the camp host for recommending the hike.

A great hike at a great time of year.

Our turn around point was Upper Falls.

The Layover day was perfect, and got us ready to head out the next day for what would HOPEFULLY be out last day of driving separately for a while. Rusty the Samurai and a lot of our stuff is being stored in Salmon, ID as we travel, and from there on out we should be each other's copilots in Little Foot, the terrestrial spaceship of our dreams!