Home Stretch

May 28 - 29, 2019

After dropping Nancy off at the airport in Bozeman, Black Bart, the Alaskan, Totoro, Asiago and I headed west on I-90.  We stopped in Deer Lodge for ice cream and then Potomac (near Missoula) to visit the land that my grandmother Sara Beaton was born in.  

Potomac is an opening along the Blackfoot River.  There are hay farms surrounded by mountains and a small school house.  I have a photo of my great grandmother Laura Pelletier on a mule outside the original 1895 school house in Potomac.  In the current 100 year old school house, they have the same photo on the basement wall.  I asked for connections with someone who knows of or is interested in the history of Laura and her cousin Matilda in that photo.  I hope they will contact me.  I then drove down the Hole in the Wall Road to take photo's of the land Little John Beaton owned when he married Laura Pelletier.

All the people I met had moved to Potomac in the last 10 years for the beauty of the area.  Many of the old forest and farmlands are subdivided into 5 acre lots for homes and horses.

Laura and Matilda are on mules on the left center of the photo.

I continued west after chili and a beer in the Potomac cafe.  I slept in a campsite along I-90 in a Ponderosa tree grove.

Photos are of Potomac Hole in the Wall Road, the Potomac school with Laura and my last campsite.

Thursday morning I got up early and drove and drove and drove.  I had lunch in CleElum and was in the driveway by 2pm.  The end to a wonderful spring voyage through the mountains of the West.

Signing Off - Paul and Asiago

Grande Finale Part 5 - Asiago and the Weasel

While at the upper geyser basin in Yellowstone Asiago and Totoro were looking at maps to decide where to hike.  They looked out the window at the geysers.  Then they headed down the banister to the ground floor.  They went to the Snow Lodge to get better reception and found a map of the Observation Look Trail.

They headed out in the rain across the meadows.  First they spotted some bison poop.  Totoro was not impressed.  He said it smelled and asked for a clothes pin.  A little further up the trail we passed our first hot spring.  A beautiful bubbling blue.  Totoro thought that Asiago had just farted and asked for the clothes pin again.

As we continued a panicked chipmunk ran past yelling about the attack of the weasels.  "Arm yourselves.  Run and hide.  The weasels are on the attack."

Weasel image:
https://images.app.goo.gl/1XtBEivsYCcFt9xg8

Totoro and Asiago first built a fort to fend off the attackers.  Then they armed themselves with forked sticks to defend themselves.  
After a long march in the woods stalking the weasels the rain picked up in earnest.  Being a Totoro, Totoro became more interested in the sound of the rain.  They spent the rest of the afternoon under my hat enjoying the quiet sound of rain in the woods.  Finally I wrested my hat back and we headed back to Old Faithful Inn to have bison burgers and hot chocolate.

Grand Finale Part 4 - Geysers

May 24 to 28;
Nancy and I settled into our room in the Old Faithful Inn overlooking the upper geyser basin.  For four days and nights we hiked and then hung out in the upper balconies overlooking the lobby of the Inn.
We hiked upper geyser basin, biscuit basin, middle basin, and both Mystic and Fairy Falls trails.  On the way we saw at least 5 geysers go off.  Often we were almost the only people on the trail because we hit the trail early (or late) and walked more than 1/2 mile from the nearest access.  We also had picnic lunches and dinners of salads, tuna, salmon, and lentils and sausages using the Alaskan as our mobile kitchen.  Pretty nice to be looking out over the Firehole River meadows with several dozen bison for window seats.
On the Observation loop trail near the upper geyser basin we finally found an area not choked with lodgepole pines that have filled in after the 1988 great fires.  We saw mature lodgepole, sub-alpine fir, engelmann spruce and juniper.  One tree looked like silver fir but they are not supposed to have silver fir that far east.  We also saw two types of squirrels, a chipmunk, several marmots, AND a weasel running off with a squirrel in its mouth.  The view was nice too.
Afternoons were usually spent in the Inn to avoid rain/snow squalls.  Up in the third balcony we read, people watched and looked in wonder at the intricate stick frame construction.  We met one family of 4 from New York playing board games.  That reminded me of being there some 16 years ago playing board games at the same table with a mother, her son, and Ruby and Rose.  We had a nice conversation sharing places to visit.  In the end one of my origami Totoro's wanted to travel with them.  Another person we met was a single man camping in his car.  He had been on the road for 6 weeks.  I also had fun teasing the bar tender about which room he should bill my beer to.


While at the Inn, Totoro and Asiago had another adventure (see part 5).
We headed out at 7:30 am Wednesday morning to take Nancy to the Bozeman airport via Livingston to have one more steak for lunch.  By 8:00am we approached a small crowd of people on the side of the road.  Several had spotting scopes and professional telephoto cameras.  That is the clear sign of some interesting wildlife.  BINGO!  A grizzly sow and 2 cubs came into the meadow below the roadway embankment.  I must have taken 100 photos.

Photos include the grizzlies, Riverside Geyser, Mystic Falls and hot pools.

Grand Finale Part 3 - Hamilton, Nancy, Steaks and Arriving in Yellowstone

Dateline May 23-24

After leaving Hamilton I headed to Bozeman to pick up Nancy at the airport.  I took back roads to Butte then I-90 to Bozeman.
My route headed south down the Bitterroot Valley on Highway 93 to Lost Trail Pass (Lewis and Clark got lost in the snow and spent extra days up there.  The nice campground at Indian Trees was even nicer than the one at Blodgett Canyon and not snowed in as I expected.  I didn't stay there.  I continued from Lost Trail Pass east on Highway 43 through the Big Hole.  Think of big skies, wide open spaces, high open grasslands and lots of cattle. "Give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above.  Don't fence me in..." They must have driven the cattle down the highway for some miles.  The result was a splattering of dung on my truck.  Speed limit is 80 mph.  Many people go faster.  I stuck to 65-70 mph.  I drove through Wisdom and Wise (not being qualified to stay), and ended up in Butte for lunch.  I ate carrots and tomatoes from the cooler then visited the rock museum on the campus of the Montana Mining College.  Butte is known as being a mile high and a mile deep because it is at elevation 5000 feet, but the mines that permeate under the city are up to a mile deep.  I also paid tribute to the Berkeley Pit open pit copper mine.  The stew in the abandoned pit is so toxic that a flock of geese once landed in it and died.  You can open a mine for almost nothing and leave a polluted landscape for generations to come.  We do not pay enough for our metals, coal, oil, fracking and minerals.
The visitor center in Butte had exhibits of over a dozen fishing flies.  They gave the history of each fly going back 100 years.  They described the type of bug they were mimicing, the performance of the flies, and the person who first made them.  Each exhibit showed how the fly evolved over the decades. Cool, but overwhelming for a non-fisherman.

On leaving Butte, I had a huckleberry milkshake.
I arrived in Bozeman with time to "clean up good" before Nancy's arrival.  We immediately decided to drive 35 minutes east to Livingston to eat at THE BEST STEAKHOUSE IN THE WORLD,  Montana Ribs and Chop House.  We waited 20 minutes for a table at 7:40 on a Thursday night, but it was worth the wait since we had wanted to come back since the first time we were there 15 plus years ago.  Green beans, salad, beer and 8 oz sirloin steak so tender you can cut it with a butter knife.  So tasty you could come back every day (we did circle back for an early steak lunch on our way back to the airport 4 days later).  We drove back to Bozeman in mixed snow and rain.
The next morning we stocked up on food at the Bozeman Co-op. Then we skedadled up to Yellowstone via the Gallatin River.  At West Yellowstone there were only 2 cars in front of us at the entry gate.  I used my old man's national park pass to get in free.  We continued on to Old Faithful Inn with stops to stretch our legs and lunch.  Lunch was sitting in the camper in the rain along the Firehole River canyon.  After some geyser walks, and a stop at the visitor center we chilled out on the third floor of the Old Faithful Inn lobby.  Dinner was in the camper in the parking lot of the Inn.  We had steak and green pepper stirfry.

We settled into our primo room on the third floor with views overlooking the upper geyser basin.  A romantic spot to say the least.

Next post will be about our stay in the Old Faithful area.

Grand Finale Part 2 - Lolo Pass to Hamilton Montana

Dateline: Wednesday May 22, 2019

After sleeping in a nice campground along Highway 12, I got on the road to finish the last 25 miles to Lolo Pass and go as far as I felt.  I only needed to get to Bozeman Montana by 6:30 pm Thursday to meet Nancy at the airport.  I had two days to cover one day's worth of travel.

After about 10 miles I pulled off at Weir Creek.  One quarter mile trail led to a hot springs.  Since I arrived at 8am and got to the springs before 8:30, I had them all to myself (except for the garbage left by others).  There is a photo of the hot springs above Weir Creek.  After an hour soaking, I headed back downstream, using my plant ID feature on the Ipad to check out the flowers.  There were calypso orchids, monkey flower, trillium and several others.  Other couples started up to the hot springs about the same time I was having a snack along the creek at the trailhead.

The drive up to Lolo Pass is littered with historical pullouts describing Lewis and Clark's descent out of the mountains.

Lolo Pass visitor's center was closed but the fat and sassy ground squirrels where out running around.

Highway 12 slowly descends into the Bitterroot River valley.  I stopped for lunch at Bouilla cafe.  I had a great meatloaf sandwich.  The french fries were battered in flower, parmesan cheese and garlic. Yum.  I spend an hour using their wifi to scope out campgrounds along the way to Bozeman.  In the end the best lower altitude campground (i.e. snow free) was just outside of Hamilton at the opening to  Blodgett Canyon.  I topped off my half growler (a howler) with beer at Bitterroot Brewery.  After setting up the camper, I hiked up the canyon a ways then sat by the creek for an hour or two.  For dinner I ate a pound of asperagus that I bought at a roadside stand near Royal Washington.  No need for more after the filling sandwich and fries at Bouille.

The next morning I ate my oatmeal and drank my coffee in the camper.  Then I circled back to Hamilton to take a picture of the Roxy billboard.  I guess they have run out of horses in Montana (see the photo).
Other photos include my campsite in Blodgett Canyon and views of the canyon from my hike.