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.