Jim Williams of Charleston SC, Traveled Part of the ZMM Route in 2001. Here is his email to me.

Professor Gurr

Here are the only two photos from my trip to Oregon in 2001 which are actually on the same route as Phaedrus took in 1968.

The Montana Border photo was taken by remote Control, on Hwy 12 between Marmarth, ND and Baker, MT. The weather was pleasant and not as hot and dry as described in ZAMM. Where Phaedrus saw brown, dried up vegetation, I saw
green. The additional moisture no doubt explained the thousands of insects and two birds that had a "Close Encounter of the Final Kind" with the front of the motorcycle as I made my way across the Great Plains at 70 mph.

The Bear Tooth Pass photo was taken at the summit view turnoff by a "real Harley high miler" from Philadelphia. As you can see, very little snow as compared to Pirsig'sphotos. It was cool, but not overly cold. The day before, at a gas station in Forsyth, MT, I had met Bill Shockley, his son and a friend, from Tomahawk, WI, all on BMWs similar to mine. They convinced me to rendezvous with them and other similarly-mounted BMW riders at Givens Hot Springs, Idaho for the Nez Perce Rally. Since Robert Bannis [Road To Richmond] had beat me to the punch with the ZAMM Route magazine article, I decided to leave the ZAMM route and rode to Cody, WY, to pay my respects at the grave of mountain man John "Liver-eatin" Johnston, whose life was the subject of the 1972 Robert Redford movie, "Jeremiah Johnson." I then went on to Idaho via the west entrance of Yellowstone Park and joined the other BMW riders for the cross-country trip to Redmond, OR.
NOTE: Scroll to right to see photo.

Concerning The ZMM Bozeman Mountain Climb and Mt. Blackmore
After re-reading the ZAMM passages that describe the hike, I'm a little less convinced they were headed for Mt. Blackmore and now considering that it could have been Hyalite Peak, or a summit which is slightly closer and higher, Mt. Chisholm.

Pirsig writes, "Three days hard to the snow. Four days easy. If we don't show up in nine, DeWeese will start looking for us." If he and Chris only made four miles a day, that would still be 16 miles one way.

[Although,] There are forest service roads which will allow you to drive very close to these peaks. They most likely did not exist in 1968.

Regards,

Jim Williams

More photos and information re ZMM Book, Robert Pirsig and the ZMM Route here: