There are defining moments on every Porsche tour, episodes of a few minutes when car, driver, and the road blend to create memories of great clarity, memories that can be replayed as if happening all over again. The memories of A Porsche Runs Through It, the IRPCA tour in Idaho and Montana over the August 23-25 weekend, are memories of creeks, streams, and rivers. Moments of quiet serenity, but also memories of cars flowing swiftly over undulating roads, ripping through the careening course of downhill rapids, and strung out in a long line crossing a meadow in a broad valley defined by towering mountains. There was great beauty all around - and the awesome sound of Porsches wailing at high rpms - as we confronted the challenging terrain of river valleys and occasional mountain passes.

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On the Road, Idaho photo by Alexander Brittain

Kick-off

We kicked off the tour with a group dinner in Boise Thursday evening, August 22. A few cars arrived in a caravan from Salt Lake City, hooking up with Mike from Chicago along the way. In Boise, we met up with JR from Calgary and Per from Oregon. Per and Chicago Mike both participated in the Red Rock Run II in May, and Per had also been part of the original Red Rock Run in fall of 2000. The IRPCA's tours have a national following, with individuals from Michigan, Texas, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Canada scheduling vacations in conjunction with the tours we run. We tend to take our quality touring options for granted, forgetting just how lucky we are to live in an area with both spectacular scenery and lightly traveled roads.

In addition to those who made a special trip for the tour, IRPCA representatives included Tom Westenberg and his buddy, Mike, Mike Barr, Bill and Jane Robertson, Jan and Adam King, Mike and Ramona Rudert, and me and my son, Alexander, a veteran of several tours. We immediately recognized we had too many Mikes on the tour, but guessing Mike was a good strategy for anyone who found a name elusive.

Since we were mostly strangers, the dinner was a good way to get acquainted. It was also a little labored, as such dinners always are. This would change dramatically over the next two days.

Day 1: Boise to Missoula

An overcast sky muffled the morning light as we headed out of Boise Friday morning. After slogging through morning rush hour traffic, we turned north on ID 55 and were almost immediately winding our way through miles of farms as we ascended the pass at Horseshoe Bend, where ID 55 enters the Payette River Valley. The Payette Scenic Byway is a major north-south highway in western Idaho, so we found ourselves starting the morning on a four-lane highway, effortlessly slipping past RVs, trucks, and other slow moving vehicles as we wound our way through rolling foothills. Other than brief jaunts on the interstate in Missoula, Great Falls, and Bozeman, this would be the last four-lane highway we would see for two and a half days.

After a quick 30 miles, we headed east on a county road, following the South Fork of the Payette River upstream for about 30 miles. The South Fork originates in the Sawtooth Wilderness and has carved a steep gorge in the mountains separating western Idaho from the Sawtooth Mountains. With white water crashing over boulders and pine trees hugging whatever soil they can find in the rocky canyon, the road twisted and turned as sharply and violently as the white water just below us. It was very chilly in the gorge, with deep shadows broken by occasional bright sun as we climbed temporarily out of the depths of the canyon.

Canyon, South Fork of the Payette River photo by Alexander Brittain

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As we climbed to higher elevations at the east terminus of the canyon, we were deep in pine forest. Merging onto Idaho 21 at Lowman, we joined the Ponderosa Pines Scenic Byway. Idaho 21 squeezes between the 217,000 acres of the Sawtooth Wilderness to the south and the 2.3-million-acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area to the north. Vast groves of pine swallowed all sound as we worked our way up twisting roads to Banner Summit, at 7056 feet a healthy climb since leaving Boise (2704 feet) a couple hours before.

Taking a break, Sawtooth National Forest
(photo by Jack Brittain)

As we skirted the Sawtooth Wilderness Area, we could see jagged peaks poking above the trees. We took the opportunity to take a short three-mile drive to Stanley Lake for a break and to enjoy the spectacular view of the lake cupped in a high mountain basin.

Heading north, we caught U.S. 93, the Salmon River Scenic Byway. The Salmon River is a major river, and its course between Stanley and the town of Salmon is much tamer than the wild waters of the South Fork of the Payette. Still, the road had plenty of twists and turns as we wound through stands of pine, over the foothills along the river's edge, and across broad valleys with farms and meadows.

After lunch in Salmon, we headed towards Missoula. As luck would have it, we were stopped for construction just outside Salmon for a half hour, and this was, indeed, a lucky break. Lucky? Yes, because as we waited a half hour for traffic to come from the other direction, the road ahead was clearing. Once we were through the relatively short construction zone, we quickly passed the handful of cars and trucks ahead of us and found ourselves on a completely open highway heading up to Lost Trail Pass.

The highway ascending Lost Trail Pass is a series of tight switchbacks and broad, sweeping turns with constant elevation changes. As much roller-coaster as highway, this was a hugely entertaining stretch of road with no traffic. Switchbacks advised at 25 mph slipped by at 50 mph on this posted 70 mph road, and Porsches with their revs screaming in the low gears accelerated with incredible precision down the short straights between complex turn sequences. Driving mostly in third gear as I worked my way through turn after turn, I burned more than a third of a tank of gas in just 40 miles, running between 5000 and 7000 rpms the whole way. To say this was an exhilarating drive is an understatement! Running along the North Fork of the Salmon River at this point, we were carving up the road as surely as the white water of the canyon was slicing through rocks and grinding boulders.

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Taking a Break (photo by Jack Brittain)

Day 2: Missoula to Bozeman

The skies were threatening Saturday morning, plus it was chilly, so we started the morning tops up in a slight mist. MT 200 is a secondary road, but it is also the major route between Missoula and Great Falls. Not that it had a great deal of traffic, but it is a road definitely designed for high-speed travel between the two cities. Following the Blackfoot River for its first 70 miles, the advisory for turns on this road tended to be 50 and 60 mph rather than the 25 mph turns we saw the day before. Still, while following the Blackfoot, MT 200 is a beautiful road winding through pine forests and among mountain peaks.

Break, Blackfoot River
(photo by Jack Brittain)

After crossing the Continental Divide at Rogers Pass (5610 feet), MT 200 leaves the national forest and passes through about 50 miles of high prairie. An area of tall, yellow grasses and undulating hills, it resembles of sea of jumbled waves as the grasses blow in the breeze as far as you can see. By the time we reached this point, the skies had cleared and we were running top down, just cruising into Great Falls for lunch.

On the Road, US 89 (photo by Alexander Brittain)

After a relaxing lunch break, with a good 20 minutes spent in the parking lot talking about the morning drive, we turned south on US 89 headed for the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The area around Great Falls is part of the high plains that span the middle of the U.S. The Rocky Mountains are to the west, and US 89 runs south along the eastern foothills before plunging back into the heart of the Rockies south of Bozeman. The road in the Lewis and Clark National Forest winds through the foothills, and occasionally skirts an isolated peak, but for the most part traverses broad valleys of plains grasses rhythmically swaying with the wind.

On the Road (l-r, Mike Barr, Olaf and Per Sweetman, Jan and Adam King, Mike and Tom Westenberg, Katie and Mike Legel, Jane and Bill Robertson, and Ramona and Mike Rudert) (photo by Alexander Brittain)

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With very little traffic and roads that, although only two-lane, featured long straightaways with miles of visibility, we made excellent time. After about a hundred miles, we cut off US 89 onto MT 86, which serves Bridger Bowl Ski Area. Little more than a county road, this highway began with a set of twisties thrown on top of a landscape of ravines and gullies. We immediately were working the cars between second and third gears as we went up-down, around and sideways, all at the same time. Steadily ascending into the mountains north of Bozeman, the road soon became a twisting mountain demon with 15 mph turns and sharp ascents out of hairpins, then plunging down a mountainside before climbing again. After a good hour of straightline driving, this stretch of approximately 30 miles was a great workout for cars and drivers on the way to an early arrival in Bozeman.

We were very fortunate to have a Saturday evening invitation to a barbecue at Rich and Molly Semenik's home in Livingston, just up the road from Bozeman. Rich is a friend and colleague who used to be at the University of Utah before becoming the business dean at Montana State in Bozeman. He is a car nut, and he insisted we join him for dinner when he heard we would be in the area. Standing on their deck overlooking the Yellowstone River, we had a wonderful evening of conversation and a great fajita dinner before calling it a night. After two days on the road, this was a group of friends with much to talk about and a great interest in one another.

Over the Cattle Guard: Arriving at Rich and Molley's House
(photo by Rich Semenik)

Day 3: Bozeman to Salt Lake City

We lost participants here and there along the drive as individuals headed out on their own to see friends or take care of other obligations. The Robertsons are in the process of moving to Florida and had to get back home to attend to the details of moving. Mike Barr decided to take an alternative route through southern Montana, so left us at Lost Trail Pass. Sunday morning Tom and Mike decided to head to Yellowstone, JR headed north for Calgary and Chicago Mike headed east from Bozeman to get home in time for his daughter to start school. This left four cars still on the tour Sunday morning, Per and his nephew, Olaf, from Oregon, the Kings, and Ruderts, and Alexander and me.

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Gallatin River Valley (photo by Jack Brittain)

Leaving Bozeman, we headed south down the Gallatin River Valley. It was quite chilly, with temperatures in the low 40s in shady stretches along the river. Picturesque, with the broad river hugging the rock walls of the valley and the road winding beside, this is an area of abundant wildlife and RVs. But RVs did not really matter too much this particular morning as we cruised the valley enjoying the lush meadows and the light rays streaming through the trees as the sun cleared the canyon walls.

After leaving West Yellowstone, we picked up ID 47, the road to Mesa Falls. This road, and the Mesa Falls viewing area, were just completed in 1999 and are relatively unknown. The surface of the road is pristine and winds along the Henry's Fork of the Teton River to the falls. It was a real joy to find this road after spending a couple of hours working through the Yellowstone traffic, and we made the most of the few miles to Mesa Falls, where we spent an hour walking the catwalks along the falls and enjoying the cooling mists.

After an early lunch in Rexburg, Idaho, Jan and Adam King had to take their leave to hustle back to Salt Lake City and retrieve their dogs from the kennel. After cutting over from Victor, Idaho to the Swan Valley, the three cars that remained picked up ID 34 through the foothills and into Soda Springs. ID 31 outside Victor and ID 34 are both terrific roads, winding along mountainsides and plunging into ravines, then climbing again through hairpins that seem to do backflips on the side of mountains. What a great way to finish up the tour.

We made a stop at the Arctic Circle in Soda Springs for milkshakes and goodbyes. Per and Olaf were headed toward Boise for the night on their way back to Portland, and Mike and Ramona were going to their cabin at Bear Lake. Alexander and I were headed back to Salt Lake City, he to start school on Tuesday and I had to get back to work Monday. But it was hard to call it quits and say goodbye. We sat around over milkshakes and talked about the roads, about "next time," and tours we might do in the future.

Next Time

As wide open as the roads were in Montana, I doubt I will make a trip back to the same area. There is something particularly satisfying about difficult, winding roads well driven, and this was not what we experienced on the roads we traveled in Montana. Idaho was a real surprise, terrific roads, light traffic, great scenery, and also an incredible number of route options. I have not given up on Montana, but the roads I want to explore are in the far west. Exploring more of the Bitterroots looks very promising, as do the many river valleys in the panhandle of Idaho. One thing is clear from this tour: running river valleys in a Porsche makes for an outstanding tour.

Cutting off US 89 onto ID 34, we came across a small town that is not even marked on my atlas map. Stopping to take a picture, I think we perfectly captured the feeling of being on the roads we traveled for three days.

Less crowded than we expected.
(click to enlarge, photo by Jack Brittain)