Helena, MT
Written by admin on September 9, 2008 – 9:14 pm -We got into Helena on Friday and decided to take a break. We had water and electricity as well as one large horse pen for the 3 horses at the East Helena rodeo grounds. All of the pens and access to the rodeo arena were all locked, but it worked out, after all. Saturday, we just relaxed and explored Helena (which isn’t really very large, being the state capitol). It did rain most of the day and continued through Sunday. Sunday, we took our exploration trip north on Hwy 15 to see if the route I had planned to ride was O.K. The two back roads and trails ended in private property or someone’s house. That ended that option. Plan B was to start at the “Gates to the Mountains”, which was just off of Hwy15 and the crew would meet me 15 miles later. No…..that didn’t work out, either. I couldn’t ride Interstate 15, so we by-passed it and would start on Hwy 287 as it leaves Interstate 15 and heads North. That became the plan. I couldn’t ride the trails in the mountains, because we were told that the 4-6 inches of snow completely covered them this past week. So the Hwy 287 became the route. We were also watching the temperature. Monday was suppose to be warmer and no rain.
September 8, 2008 (Monday)
Got up at 6:30 and the temperature outside read 34 degrees. I went around to start up the pickup, but there was ice on the windshield and on the side of the door. I started riding on Hwy 287 at about 8:00 and should get in at least 20 miles. The map showed 20 miles to the intersection of Hwy 287 and Hwy 200. That’s where we plan to spend the night. I’m riding Blackie and he seems to have a lot of energy this morning. I hadn’t gone 45 minutes, and I saw a heard of about 10 mule deer along the road. Later, I saw 3 good size bucks and after that another heard of about 8-9 does. I jumped about 12 prairie chickens and Blackie wasn’t like Soldier. He got spooked and almost jumped off the hill I was riding on. When they flew out from under Solder, he just kept “marching” along. The landscape is just rolling hills with no trees. Not much water or creeks along the way. That part of Hwy 287 is sparcely traveled. I don’t know why, because there arn’t very many roads going north through this part of Montana. The ditches are wide (20-30 yards) and plenty of room for me to travel and be away from any traffic on the road. I did get off the road, for a while, riding an old road that ran parallel to the highway. After opening and trying to find 5-7 gates, I decided to just get back in the bar-ditch on the hwy. I ended the day with 22 miles and 7 hours. We were able to watch football while in Helena on Sunday, but we couldn’t get Monday night football where were were camped for the night. So……I tuned in my Sirius radio and listened to Greenbay and Denver win their games before going to sleep.
September 9, 2008 (Tuesday)
Boy!! It was cold last night and this morning. Since we don’t have an electric hook up, I’m not running the heater in the camper. When I got up, it was 35 degrees, but within the hour, it had already started warming up quite a bit. The high for the day got over 75 degrees. After 10 miles, I met the crew on the road for lunch and headed on out. In about another mile, road construction started. The road turned from asphalt to dirt. I wasn’t riding on the road, anyway, but it did slow down any traffic going through. It lasted for the next 9 miles and Pepe did just great going past the large construction vehicles and I finally got her to cross the two bridges just before entering into Agusta. Agusta was a small town, but I took the alley ways for the 3 blocks through town and on out the other side on Hwy 287. The road north, now has very little room beside it for traveling. I only had to go 2 more miles to meet up with the crew for the night, who was parked on a county road going into Gilman. There is a historical monument just across the road that tells the history of the two towns, Gilman and Agusta. Altogether, I rode 23 miles and 8 hours. We listened to the weather and it looks like it is suppose to be light showers tomorrow morning, ending in the afternoon, then 4 good weather days. We’ll see what it’s like in the morning. If everything goes right, we should hit the border within a week. We do pass through the Blackfoot Indian Reservation and we’ve been warned by at least 3 individuals to be leary of the Indian towns we pass through. I don’t really know why, but hopefully we don’t have to find out.
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