Glacier Park, Central Montana, Pompey’s Pillar, Hardin
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We’re starting to lose track of what day it is. Les informs me its stardate 9291994.1842. The Star Trek analogies are beginning to wear thin…
I am awakened by the now familiar PHOOM of the campfire being lit at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am. I try to go back to sleep but sleeping with the equivalent of a movie theater spotlight shining through the tent makes it impossible. Much as I hate to get up before the sun comes up, I venture forth. Les has decided, without consulting me I might add, that an early start would be a good idea since we need to cover most of Montana today to stay on schedule. After a hearty breakfast of ramen noodles and hot dog chunks we head off at first light.
We head east out of Glacier towards Browning and the Flathead Indian reservation. Montana has this distinct characteristic of marking highway fatalities with small white metal crosses. No dates, no names, just the crosses. Usually just one but sometimes in groups of twos and threes. We saw them every 10-20 miles or so. But as we approached Browning, they seemed to increase at an alarming rate as did the number of crosses per sighting. We saw one cluster of six. I was still stumbling out of my sleepy stupor but this served to wake me up considerably. They seemed to taper off after the reservation and much as we tried to fight the stereotype, we speculated that they might be the result of drunken driving.
We headed south along the eastern edge of the Rockies to Choteau where we stopped for gas. Along the way Les spotted a coyote but I missed it. We headed through Great Falls where we spotted upwards of 6 F-16s apparently strafing the town. They came from the Malmstrom AFB located near by.
We continued east. The land became flatter and the mountains faded a little off into the distance. Signs of civilization began to disappear. The day was overcast with occasional drops of rain. After the turn at Armington we started into the Lewis and Clark National Forest. We experienced the interesting phenomenon of dropping down into the mountains. The road started twisting and turning a little and trees began appearing on the hillsides. We stopped at the Ranger Station where Les bought a map of the area as a souvenir.
As we crested Kings Hill, we found ourselves part of the great western cattle drive. There were cows everywhere, being herded somewhat unenthusiastically by cowboys, cowgirls, cowmoms, cowdads, and cowkids. Les managed to herd a few cows back onto the path (the road) by driving off the side and forcing them back. Some of the cows had wandered off into the neighbor’s yards and were eating the bushes but no one seemed too concerned. There were probably 200 head of cattle and they were spread over about 2 miles. The path of cow manure continued past them for another 2-3 miles before turning off the road.
We reached the cutoff for Hwy 12 at White Sulphur Springs and headed into the long flat. Picture slightly rolling grasslands, a double wide trailer home every 5 miles or so, the occasional pile of hay balls and the road continuing straight for miles on end, and you pretty much have it. We actually reached a stretch of about 20 miles where there was literally no sign of humans other than the road and some fence line. No homes, no structures of any kind, no piles of hay, no abandoned farm implements, nothing.
It was along this part of the road that we started seeing the wildlife. Actually slightly before this stretch we saw llamas. They had a whole pen full of them. And a little bit later, elk and buffalo. But out in the middle of nowhere, we came across a small herd of antelope. There were about 7 or 8 of them. We approached them slowly and stopped to take their pictures. They were sufficiently concerned to look up so I got a good picture of them. But not sufficiently concerned that when we honked at them, they ignored it completely.
When we reached Harlowtown (renamed Harlot Town by us), we stopped at a rest area. There was a little lake there where we took a serious of short lurching movements towards the guard geese and discovered just how stiff 13 miles of hiking followed by 7 hours of driving can make you. The guard geese were monitoring the approaches to the west side of the pond but allowed us to pass when we appeared to be so crippled as to present no immediate threat.
It was just then that Les noticed a new and interesting creature off to the left. We’re still not sure what it was but it looked like either a weasel or a black ferret. It had something, although not an animal, in its mouth and it proceeded to run and hop around the area with no particular purpose. It would bound over to one tree, then scurry back. It was really cute.
From there we continued on to Hwy 3 and into Billings from above. Billings, when compared to our previous 8 hours of driving was a monstrous town with towering structures easily 10 stories tall and a pretty damn big oil refinery smack dab in the middle of town. There were tons of cars, easily 20 or 30, multiple lanes of traffic, stop lights and everything. We were pretty disoriented and got out of there as quickly as possible after obtaining gas.
We set out for Pompey’s Pillar which I had discovered in the AAA book and Les insisted on seeing it. It was 20 miles or so out of our way down the interstate and promised to be a large sandstone rock that Wm. Clark had carved his name on on his way back to Missouri.
We arrived at the area at five minutes to five only to find the gate closed and apparently padlocked. The sign said the park was open until five and we fumed for a few minutes about lazy government workers and tax dollars and how we had traveled 1500 miles to see this etc. Then Les, who had seen this kind of behavior before, decided to test the locks and discovered that one side was not actually locked shut. He opened the gate and in we went. I expected the rangers to give us some grief, but as it turned out, I think they realized that their little trick had been discovered and they happily encouraged us to take a quick look around.
We headed up the path through a huge swarm of gnats. Now, up until this point we had seen maybe 9 insects. It turned out that it was because they were all here. Anyway, after clearing the gnats, we climbed a short staircase where we did in fact discover Clark’s name carved in the stone, along with lots of other people’s too. Having accomplished our goal, we headed off to Hardin where we planned to camp for the night.
The map showed a gravel road that connected I-94 (which we were on) to I-90 (which Hardin is on). The only trouble was, it was a little hard to find. We ventured into the town of Pompey’s Pillar (I use the term town loosely here) and after the road turned to gravel and twisted through the few meager dwellings that make up the city, we did discover what appeared to be the road we wanted. At least it seemed to head off in the right direction. So, off we went. The road went through various people’s backyards, which we filled with gravel dust. After about 10 miles we spotted another antelope. This one had a pretty big set of horns. At the end of the road where much to our joy it reached Interstate 90, we happened on your typical mobile home farmstead but this one had a twist. It had an old railway boxcar that was apparently used for storage. It wasn’t clear how it had gotten there. The nearest tracks were probably half a mile away.
It was a quick drive from there to Hardin. We decided, with a certain amount of trepidation to stay at the KOA campground there. Primarily because there weren’t any others. But, as it turned out, it wasn’t in the center of town, wasn’t right on the freeway and had a couple of things going for it. One, it had showers (something we hadn’t experienced for a few days) and two, it had a hot tub! We found a campsite, set up the tent, and headed in immediately for a hot shower.
There are few things better in life than a hot shower after 3 days without one, unless it’s getting into a hot tub right after it when your legs are tired from hiking. So, we declared the KOA to be a big success. We had ravioli and potatoes for dinner. Les is reading by the lantern and I am about to go see if the camp people will plug this PC in somewhere so the batteries won’t fail.
Weather report: had some drizzle today but it’s dry for the moment. We have the rain fly up. Les would like to experience some rain while in the tent. I’m happy for him to have this experience but I’m willing to live without it. We’ll see what morning brings.
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