Meeting Cirrus

Two evenings ago, as we sat on our front porch visiting with friends after returning from the Beartooth Highway, a young man approached us, looking for help with his back pack. His name is Cirrus Wood, and he is walking across the country. He left California last year, walked to Seattle and then on to Vancouver and British Columbia where he spent the winter working. Back on the road again, he is on his way to Acadia National Park in Maine, by way of Yellowstone and Wyoming (that's as far as he got in describing his plans). He was so personable, tall and very thin (wonder why...) and seemed to be content with his endeavor. His problem was that the strap on his pack was tearing, and he was worried that he wouldn't make it to Great Falls to get it fixed. We brainstormed ideas with him, suggested people and places to inquire in the morning, and he headed for the Choteau Park to spend the night.

Yesterday morning he stopped by again to tell us that he had gotten his pack fixed! That morning he walked to Cathy Chapman's place, knocked on her door (and woke her up) and traded her some help for the repair of his pack. She's a good person. (She made my tooled leather wallet.) We talked for a while about his journey. He has no phone but carries an iPod that he uses for email. His pack was not large at all, so I can't imagine what he carries with him. He walks about 25 miles a day and uses train tracks when possible to get away from crazy Montana drivers. (they may drive well, but they drive FAST) He tries to find a place to spend the night where he is somewhat out of sight, something that must be difficult as he walks the barren plains of Montana. Last night he expected to walk only half-way to Great Falls, spending the night along the way. I just cannot imagine it, and have spent a lot of time thinking about him (and doing a little bit of worrying, but Laurie tells me I'm foolish, she's done such crazy things...) After he left it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't even offered him a glass of water. I made two wraps and threw in some scones and anything else I thought he could carry and chased him down in my car to give it to him. He was very grateful and said he'd send me a postcard from Yellowstone or Wyoming. I'll be very happy to get one to see that he's still alive.

The Beartooth Highway: Part II

Soon after leaving Helena we had the view of the snow-covered mountains surrounding Yellowstone National Park. All through our trip the snow-capped mountains stood in stark contrast to the lush green fields and roaring rivers.

Harry talked of stopping at the site of the 1959 earthquake in the Madison River Canyon. This earthquake measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, moved 80 million tons of rock (which moved down the mountain at over 100mph, generating winds that tore the clothes off survivors), caused the ground to drop 19 feet, and completely blocked the flow of the Madison River, quickly forming Quake Lake, shown behind me. 28 people were killed in campgrounds, cabins, and lodges on the river. Within a month, engineers created a spillway which allowed the Madison River to flow once more, but the lake, with tree tops and cabin roofs still showing, still exists.

After a long but satisfying day of geysers, steam vents, and mud pots in Yellowstone, we were dismayed to find the exit road to our motel reservation in Cooke City was a wash-out. Any other route would require a drive of over 200 miles, and it was already 5pm, so we were stuck. To make matters worse, there was very limited cell phone coverage in the park for our rapidly-dying cell phones. What else was there to do? We drove to the next park exit and headed for the nearest town. In such a situation, you can get mad, or you can just make the best of what you've got. Livingston came to our rescue. After scouting out a few motels we decided to find food before making a commitment. We passed every kind of eating establishment, none of them calling our name. And just as we both agreed that we had passed all possible places and needed to turn around, there was the sign for Neptune's Brewery- one more block away! In a "hesitant" location, with "hesitant" locals on the porch, we parked and went inside. Serendipity! Thai food and micro-brew beer! and the nicest waitress who also happened to work at one of the motels as her second job. She advised us wisely, and while we ate we made reservations at the Roadway Inn (it was great!) located right behind the restaurant where we had a great breakfast on our way through Livingston many years ago. The local drug store was a block away, and the next morning we stopped for batteries and decongestants. (My ears were not handling the altitude changes well, at all.) Refortified, we decided to forge on to the Bear Tooth Highway and perhaps even give Cooke City another try!

Along the way we drove through little towns, such as Absarokee. Can you imagine this view down your main street?

And we made it to the top of the Beartooth Highway that day!. The Beartooth plateau is the highest plateau in the United States at almost 11,000 feet. There is always snow in June, but locals in the towns below said they never remember this much. This snow bank was every bit of 20 feet above us. At the top there were quite a few skiers.

And we finally made it to Cooke City, after all. Here is Main Street. Not much to look at, but our room was comfortable and super-clean, and there are several great restaurants in town. When we arrived I took a short walk to the visitor's center and helped to keep it open by purchasing a pair of locally made mittens and the rhubarb cookbook published by the community church. Afterwards, Harry and I ate at the Beartooth Cafe, boasting a page-full of beer choices, about half of which were Montana brews. I had the best vegetarian lasagna I've ever had, so I'd go back just for that! At the visitor's center I was encouraged to travel as far as possible down the road into Yellowstone (the one that was closed and kept us out the night before) to see the abundant wildlife. Before dusk we headed out, and it was totally worthwhile! I'm sure the most special sighting was the small grizzly, running at full-speed with its head up. Something you don't see in a museum!

Harry had a conversation with this pronghorn antelope at our window in the Lamar Valley,

And last, but NOT least, we took the Chief Joseph Highway back home from Cooke City. Look at the switch-backs in this picture. It went up and up and up, and although it's very different from the Beartooth, it's just as spectacular. It's very important to note that without the road closure we would have never seen this, or introduced Harry to Pad Thai or have seen the gorgeous black and silver wolf as we left this morning. Life is good!

Geyser Girl and the Beartooth Highway

We left Saturday afternoon to visit Yellowstone NP and exit it's NE Entrance across the Beartooth Highway.  We spent the first night in Three Forks, MT, which is about 160 miles south of Choteau and where Louis and Clark came through while exploring the headwaters for the Missouri River.







Sunday morning, we headed south toward the west entrance of Yellowstone on route 287, taking us through the Madison Valley, which is spectacular.








 Toward the end of that valley is the site of a significant earthquake which struck near a recreation lake in August 1959.  More than 25 people were killed, mostly campers, when the side of the mountain came tumbling down on them.  There is a visitors center located at the head of a new lake that was created when the Madison River was dammed by the slide.  The other lake near there was tilted 19 feet to one side creating new beachfront property on one side, and covering cabins on the other side.  It was an interesting lead-in to West Yellowstone.








Since our goal on this trip was to drive the Beartooth Highway, we planned to spend a brief time in Yellowstone and go out the NE entrance and stay in Cooke City for the night.  So we planned our path through Yellowstone and decided the main thing we wanted to see was the Norris Geyser Basin, which has a lot of colorful features and many geysers, fumaroles, and mudpots.  It was there that I discovered Beth is Geyser Girl - she really thinks they are cool, loves the sulfur smell (thinks it therapeutic), and I practically had to drag her out of there.

It was about 5:00 PM when we headed out the NE entrance where we encountered a road sign blinking "road closed in 8 miles".  Since Cooke City, and the motel we had reservations for (good to have reservations in the remoteness of Yellowstone), are 21 miles away, we knew we were screwed.  No explanation why we weren't informed by Park Rangers or some signs in Yellowstone.  It would be over 200 miles to go out the other entrance and come to Cooke City, so we headed across to the NW entrance and drove 50+ miles up route 89 to Livingston, MT.  There, we did find a motel and had a very good brew and meal at Neptune's Brewery, a place we'd like to visit again.

After debating whether to head on back to Choteau today (Monday), we decided that since the purpose of the trip was to drive the Beartooth Highway, we would head on east on I-90 and go in through Red Lodge, MT and across the Beartooth to Cooke City today.  Which is what we did.  The drive was spectacular, rising to over 10,000 feet at the top and then decending to about 8,000 in Cooke City.  We're in the middle of the two block town for the evening.

After getting supper at the Beartooth Cafe, we drove the 13 miles down into the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone to where the road is closed.  This area is famous for the wildlife, and we did see a small grizzly, a big black bear, antelope, deer (of course), elk, buffalo, and several ground squirrels.

More updates need to be made, but that will sort of catch you up for this trip.  And neither of us are going to whine about our colds and Beth's ear problems with the elevation changes.

My Experiences as a last-minute-substitute 4-H Fair Judge

Last night I was recruited as a replacement for one of the judges at the 4-H Fair taking place here in Choteau.  Although my only experience with a 4-H fair was when I was a chicken-raiser in elementary school, how could I turn them down in their moment of need?? I agreed, thinking I was judging "Creative Design," and that I'd have an experienced partner. Wrong! Today I spent four hours judging art; drawings, paintings, crafts, and lots of great pottery, and doing it all by myself! (my partner was an unexpected no-show) That means I was the person who interviewed (it is really a wonderful process) 25 young people who had a total of 66 pieces of art, and had to decide (by myself!) who won best in class and various recognitions. That was the hard part, of course. Thankfully, one was a huge stand-out as best in show, but the rest were just gut-instinct on my part. I kept thinking, "What would Caitie say?"

I really want to say only nice things about it, however. There was a room-full of judges donating their time, and a huge number of kids, ages 8 through 18 who walked up to your table, introduced themselves, and stuck out their hand to shake yours. They were polite, articulate, and not a "loser" in the bunch! They tackled multiple projects of every shape, size, and description, and apparently did them all well. The process was incredibly well organized and quite an inspiration to see what the young people of Montana are doing with their time.

Blackfeet Ride and a Typical Day

Yesterday, we took a ride to Heart Butte, which is on the Blackfeet reservation.  I know, you'd sort of think about the only thing exciting we do is take motorcycle rides, but we do other stuff too.  It was the first day of 80+ degree temps since we've been in Montana and the weather was perfect - not a cloud in the sky, and no wind.  Even though it was a beautiful ride up route 89, then west  towards the mountains, we didn't take many pictures.  I tend to keep moving when I'm on the Reservation.  It was sort of cool that we took that ride, then went to the Old Trail Museum last night and listened to a presentation by a husband and wife Blackfeet couple.

It was about 95 miles round trip.  We had one deer try to run hard and catch up with us so it could run in front of us and hit us, but I was doing 60 mph and it just couldn't keep up.  But we did have two ground squirrels that did manage to time it just right to take a full blow.

There are a lot of different "typical" days for us in Choteau.  Here is an example of one (today): 

Beth gets up at 6:00 AM to go to exercise class.
Harry sleeps in.
Harry pours a cup of coffee Beth fixed before she left for exercise class and sits on the front porch
and reads the Great Falls Tribune - his favorite newspaper.
Beth returns from exercise class and starts doing stuff.
Harry goes up to the Choteau golf course and walks 9 holes.
Around noon, Beth leaves to go be a judge in the Teton County 4-H Fair.
Harry takes a ride on his little motorcycle to check on the flooding Teton River west of town and go by the park to see how Beth is doing judging the contest (also visits several friends on the way and meets a couple of grandparents visiting from California who are toting around their 4 month old granddaughter).  Harry spends a lot of time with them getting the scoop on being a good grandparent.
Harry comes home and sits on the front porch reading about the Beartooth Highway drive that we are planning to take in a few days.
Harry goes inside as a thunderstorm approaches (Montana thunderstorms can be brutal).

And that only gets us to 4:00 PM.  Lots of stuff is bound to happen before the day is out.

BTW, you can click on any picture to see it enlarged (for some of them, it's really worth it).

Pictures That I Like, and I Don't Need to Say Why

Flood Ride

Montana still has a lot of flooding.  One of the larger rivers near us that has flooded most of the community of Sun River is the Sun River (yep, that's right, the community and river have the same name).  There is a drive from Augusta to Simms that takes you along the Sun River.  This picture doesn't show the community where the flooding took place, but I thought it was a good picture.

Favorite Passenger

Every Harley needs a hot moma on the back, riding the _____-seat.  This is mine, and I'm glad of it.

The News

Today, I watched the noon news on KRTV out of Great Falls.  They did an agriculture segment on a Rocky Mountain oyster feast this coming Saturday in Billings.  The chef demonstrated how he fixed them, while 4 newscasters stood around and tasted them like they were candy.  Out here, they are also called tender groin.

Neighbors

We now have a neighbor behind us! Robin bought the little house several weeks ago, and moved right in. That's Eddie, her dog, who could be a little happier at his relocation from Portland, Oregon. I think she'll be a wonderful neighbor.

Here are our neighbors on the other side of the corner. These are only a few of Michaela and Krist's dogs (there are 10 more black and tan hound puppies like this one!) Poor Emma, the lab, puts up with them all with great patience.

Harry Is Kickin' In

Ok, this is going to be a big disappointment to you Choteau Summer Blog followers.  I'm blaming it on Beth.  She has asked me to kick in and contribute some, so here goes.  One thing I can assure you, there will be little on the food recipes and flower stuff coming from me.

I'm going to start by explaining what we're doing in Choteau.  And the more I think about, and am asked about it, or told "what the hell were you thinking" the harder it becomes to explain.  I'll just say it simply, using the motto of the local Choteau Community Bank - "If you're lucky enough to live here, you're lucky enough".  You'd have to come out and experience July 4th and some of the other stuff before you would start to get it.  Most people that have, do.

Beth didn't go into great detail on how we got here this summer, but she probably explained enough.  We spent the entire year, since last September 4, looking forward to a nice train trip out this summer, including sleepers - the works.  It didn't occur to me there might be any problem with that idea until about 2 weeks ago, when the Empire Builder, which is the train from Chicago to Seattle, started being cancelled due to flooding in the mid-west, especially Minnesota, North Dakota, and believe it or not, Montana.  There's a lot of stuff that is supposed to happen in Montana, most of which never occured to me before we started coming out here, but flooding, fires, tornadoes, are not examples of what I originally expected.  But they all happen.  And like other stuff in Montana, when they do, it is big.

I'll not go through the gorey details of getting here, but suffice it to say the Empire Builder finally got dumped, along with my myriad of backup plans, last Thursday.  I was lucky enough to jump on two frequent flyer tickets for Friday, so rather than starting on the train and getting here 3 days later, we bopped into the Roanoke airport and started flying on Friday.  United is not yet quite good enough at their trade to get us here in one day, so they dumped us in Denver for Friday night, then got us on a nice flight to Great Falls on Saturday.  So it was a 2-day trip.

One of those things you don't expect in Montana - it's flooding.  I took the little antique Honda trail bike I have out to the west side of town on Saturday after I got here, and saw that the Teton River is flooding.  Normally, all the irrigators west of town have sucked the Teton almost dry by the time it gets the 25 miles from the Rocky Mountains to town, and it looks like a creek.  This time, it is 100 of yards wide north, west, and south of Choteau.  It about has us surrounded.  As a matter of fact, the local authorities are advising the citizens, which probably includes us, to be ready for flooding.  Most aren't concerned, and unless it rains some more and gets hot, which would make the unusually large snow pack in the mountains come dumping down, we should be OK.  At least that's what the ole timer's around here are saying.  Hopefully, not famous last words.

On Sunday (after going to church, Ma), I took a nice Harley ride out the Teton Canyon Road, which is being re-built this summer and is presenting some great pot-hole challenges to the motorcyclist.  Out there, I took a bike picture.

Today, we got into the usual early Choteau summer mode, and worked our butts off around the house.  Beth in the flower beds, me cleaning gutters and mowing the yards.  A new wrinkle this year seems to be that not only am I mowing my substantial yard with a push mower, but my neighbor beside me and a new neighbor behind me.  That's supposed to change, but we'll have to wait on that.

At this point, it is about 7:00 PM out here.  Beth is supposed to return from her Yoga class at 7:30, and because we've worked so hard today, even though we're supposed to be trying to lose weight, I'm proposing that we walk a block down the street to the ice cream parlor, and get a great Wilcoxens ice cream cone.

Now, see what you might be in for with Beth bringing me in to the blog?

This explains a lot about our failed train trip...

BNSF Floods May 21-25

Green Grass and Lilacs

 

Because of the late spring and abundant rain, the lilacs waited on us this year. Everywhere you look, bushes of emerald green leaves are topped with the most vibrant colors of pink and purple. Pictures can't do them justice.

Driving into Town

I think this is my favorite Choteau landmark. The grain elevators of the midwest are rapidly disappearing, and I look to ours here in town as a sign that I've arrived and all is safe and sound.

 

Driving toward Freezeout Lake with the Rocky Mountain front ahead of us.

And So It Begins....

After spending 9 months eagerly anticipating our train ride from Virginia to Shelby, Montana, the Empire Builder (along with most any other train trying to cross the Missouri) was cancelled. Bummer. Harry, being the ever-resourceful traveler that he is, started investigating options a week ago, and yesterday was lucky enough to score frequent-flyer tickets to get us to Great Falls today. With the help of a great principal and creative packing, we went to bed last night expecting to board a 6:11am flight this morning. That was not meant to be, either, as we received multiple phone calls last night at 11:15, alerting us to the fact that the flight out of Roanoke was cancelled. Again, after an hour and a half on the phone with a United agent, we were re-booked on US Air for a 5:23am flight! That meant back in bed at 1am and up at 3am. So now, here we are in Kansas City, and yes, that's Harry at the podium trying to make another plan for what to do when we miss our next connection in Denver because this plane is delayed... I said it before, what an adventure!