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Archive for the ‘Continental Divide Trail’ Category

Back on the Road

Today is Thursday, September 11^th  (remember 9/11/2001)and I left Gillman at about 8:00, headed towards Choteau.  The temperature this morning was 27 degrees, but as the sun comes up, it gets warmer. There was even ice on the windshield of the pickup.  I warmed up the camper and got the coffee going and decided to wait till it warmed up a bit before I started riding.   I’m riding soldier, today and the main issues he has is that when he sees other horses, he wants to go to them.  He is constantly “calling” to see if any horses answer.  The crew went on ahead and is to pickup some more feed for the horses, do laundry, and fill the propane bottles.  Just before lunch, a couple from Belgium stopped and chatted.  I’m still riding Hwy 287 and it either starts or ends at Choteau.  I’ll then take Hwy 89 on from there.  I traveled 27 miles and about 9 hours.  As I entered Choteau, a cowboy came out of his house and greeted me.  We discussed the trails in the mountains and I asked him about the Continental Divide Trail, segment.  He wasn’t very familiar with it, but he said that he and his family do a lot of clearing of the trails in the mountains and some are in pretty good shape, although none are actually marked.  He spends a lot of his time riding in the mountains and taking other people there, also.  I rode on through town, taking the back streets and found the camp at the Choteau recreational park. 

Weather, Again!!!

Today is Wednesday, September 10th, and let me start with the weather.  Tonight, on the local weather channel, the weatherman indicated that today’s temperature high (59 degrees in the Helena area) was almost 18 degrees below normal and I do believe it.  They also said that overnight, there was an additional accumulation of snow in the mountains of 3-5 inches and I believe that, also.  We are camped just north of Agusta on some county property that was once the location of the local railroad.  Our trailers are parked west to east.  At about 9:30 last night, a cold front hit with winds 30-50 miles per hour from the north.  The camper was like a rocking chair all night long.  It made you think you were in the middle of a hurricane and the rains hit just a few hours later.  The wind was so bad that it ripped a strap from Paul’s water tank on top of the horse trailer and almost blew it off.  He did get up and “buttoned” up the horses in the trailer for us.  The temperature dropped and this morning, it was misty, highly overcast, and the temperature was 34 degrees.  Needless to say, I wasn’t going to ride in that type of weather, so I slept for another hour.  Therefore….another weather day!!  We took advantage of it by driving on up to Choteau to find a location to camp for the next night (which we found at their local recreational area) and then on down Hwy 89 to try to find a location the following night (weather, again, permitting).  That will put us about 45 miles closer to the border by this weekend.  Luckily, the weather is to make a big change, back to normal and that is temps in the 70’s.  From the extended weather forecast, it looks like the weather will hold till we finish.  REMEMBER 9/11

Remember….

Inspiration struck, so this is what I wrote for September 11^th. It is raining and we are still sitting in Gilman, and it will probably be tomorrow that we move on. The winds picked up last night around 9 pm to around 35-50 mph, thought we are heading for OZ. Around 3am it starting raining, and is just plain cold, damp, and a good day for indoor activities. Hope that it inspires some of you, and reinforces your patriotism in our great nation. Any comments would be appreciated, you can email me at cowpony23@hotmail.com, just put poem in the subject line, that way it won’t get deleted, because have my daughter checking my email and getting rid of the junk.

 CORRECTION:    In yesterday’s posting I listed the town as Winslow, when the actual name was Winston                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             REMEMBER

It was seven years ago today,

when  Americans’ didn’t know what to say.

There were many who would say why,

as they looked toward the sky.

While watching the Trade Towers burn,

our stomachs’ felt like a butter churn.

Wondering how those in New York City felt,

proud of how America handled the hand she was dealt.

The attack came out of the blue,

when it happened Americans knew what to do.

There were many heroes that went in,

though not knowing what might have been.

Don’t just sit there and not care,

because it can happen anywhere.

We are a nation that is strong,

and is ready to right any wrong.

We may have to fight,

to make a wrong a right.

It just proves that, Freedom Isn’t Free,

but if it has to be, it is fine with me.

Please take the time to remember,

today is the 11^th of September.

Take the time to say a prayer,

Let someone know that you care.

Show that as an American you are proud,

Let your flag fly above the crowd.

Be proud of the red, white, and blue,

She’ll always be there for you.                   

Fly that Flag!!

Well, I am sitting here not a happy camper in Gilman, MT. the computer ate what I wrote on Saturday. I am handling it without throwing a hissy of any kind. Bet a few of you can guess what is going through my mind to call this modern invention, but I will be nice and just “cowgirl up” and start over.  Like getting back on after being dumped, but at least then I was dealing with an animal that I can understand.  These little puppies have a mind of their own and usually are smarter than I am.

Gilman is a small town about 140 miles from the Canadian border. There is a historical marker at the edge of the road that explains the history between both Augusta and Gilman.  The railroad was what either made or broke a town, and where Augusta was established, the railroad ran to Gilman first, so most of the businesses in Augusta moved to Gilman. Once the railroad finally decided to come to Augusta, most of the businesses moved back and Gilman ended up pretty much abandoned. A couple of the old buildings are still here, but there aren’t many businesses even in Augusta. Paul and I stopped in the general store, and I got some junk food and an inexpensive throw blanket for those times that it gets cold in the early morning hours and there is no heat. Guess you have figured out by now, I don’t like to be cold.  At least the past couple days the temperatures have warmed up to the high 60’s and low 70’s during the day, and high 30’s low 40’s at night.

We spent the weekend in East Helena at their rodeo grounds, it is only a couple miles out of Helena, but they were going to charge us $160. To stay there for 2 nights and the one in East Helena had no signs, and was free ,the pens and arena were locked, with the exception of one large pen, that almost looked like it was put up to hold calves or goats, but it worked for the horses. There was also water and electric, so it worked as a home base. For a capital city, there really wasn’t a lot to get excited about. The Capitol itself was located off the main drag, know tv seems to be putting on lots of ads about their present governor who is running for reelection. I read an editorial on him in a western magazine, and he doesn’t seem to be well liked by the ranchers and farmers, though he is suppose to be one of them. Politics, yes it is that time of year, though we missed the Democratic Convention coverage, not that any of us really cared about that party, we did catch the Republican one and heard the speeches by both Sara Palin and John McCain. So that we aren’t completely in the dark as to what is happening in the world. Hate to admit it, but I was blown away by the cost of Cindy McCain’s outfit of over $3000, well she has money in her own right, and can spend it anyway that she wants, and she did look nice. That dress was more than I paid for my used horse trailer and Big Horn saddle. Ok laugh! A girl has to have priorities, and after all this is America, so we have freedom of choice.  We did make a few trips to Walmart and I got my education on tvs from Rocky, because I have no clue on anything to do with technology. There was a Chinese place to eat called the Jade Garden that is in the top 100 places to eat in the country. We did go there and it was packed so went to another place that served a Chinese buffet. Cowboy magazine did say that the museum in Helena was one of the best in the state. We didn’t visit it though. In New Mexico, it rated the Chama Railroad as the best railroad.

We passed through the towns of Harrison, which was a couple stores and that is about it. One gentleman there made a comment on the weather, because that was a real cold morning and snow was in the mountains from the night before. He was beating on an Indian summer and sure enough that is what they are forecasting for the weekend. We also stopped in the small town of Winslow to wait for Rocky and visited the store there and the man was very nice. We had planned on eating lunch at the steak place next store that didn’t open until noon, and the owner told us we were going to have to move because we were taking up space for paying customers. Paul told him that we planned on eating there, but if that was how he felt we would move on. He asked the guy in the store if we could move up in that space and he said no problem, so we had soup and sandwiches for lunch. The owner of the steakhouse lost 3 sales, and I know if I ever get to this part of the country again, I will not eat there.  It could be a top place to eat, but after the rude treatment, he won’t get my dollar.  That area is known for the Lewis and Clark Trail, and has lots of history tied to it.

We did camp at a truck stop at the intersection of interstate 90, and there was a Lucky Lil’s there. Yes, it is a gambling place, but can only play poker and keno on machines. I am not a card or game player in the least, so passed on the experience. It provided about an hour or so worth of entertainment for Rocky and Paul.  Neither one were winners, but had fun playing. The girls there were very nice coming around asking about drinks and free snacks. No they weren’t dressed as saloon girls, jeans and a t shirt that said Lucky Lil’s. Montana only allows these games on non Indian land, and they can only serve beer and wine. The Indian casinos can serve hard liquor and has other games. Paul is hoping to go to one on the Blackfoot Reservation once we hit the Browning area.

I have been reading a couple of the books that I bought on the history of the area. One, JENNY OF THE TETONS, by Kristiana Gregory, was very enjoyable since it gave a lot of the background information on how some of the lakes were named in the area around the Tetons. Jenny was a Shoshoni  Indian woman who married the Englishman, Dick Leigh, who lead people out to see the West, and lead the founder of Jackson Hole there. Jenny Lake was named after her, there is also Leigh Lake and other places named after him.  The book follows how the family lived from the perspective of a white girl who was orphaned when her parents were killed going west and taken home by Dick to help Jenny. There were many places mentioned that we had visited like Henry’s Lake. I did see a sign that said Rexburg, Idaho, where the cemetery is located for the family. Jenny and her children all died of smallpox, and she was only 27. Dick moved away to another part of Idaho, but continued hunting and leading people into the mountains and did remarry. The book even though it was a book written for kids was very informational, and really gives you a feel of what it was like to live in those times.  I also read one of a trip on the Oregon Trail that was written as a girl’s diary, there weren’t too many surprises there. It did reinforce what John, the ranger at Yellowstone said that most of the people that died, that was almost equal to death by disease was from drowning, because many of those people never  learned to swim and the heavy clothes that they wore didn’t make it very easy for those that could to stay afloat.

Please remember to fly your flags on SEPTEMBER 11in case that I don’t get back on the computer before then. Know as time goes by, it is easy to put the past out of our minds, but let’s all try to think about the lessons that we learned as a country on that day and never let it happen again.

Will stop here so the computer doesn’t run out of battery and this can get posted.  So take care of your selves and keep those comments and questions coming. We love hearing from you, no fashion questions though, for that ask Stacy and Clinton, on What Not to Wear. My daughter has threatened to send me to them, but there would be tears if they tossed my boots, jeans, t-shirts, and warn clothes, just so I could make a fashion statement. Never happen!

Helena, MT

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.

Montana Weather!!

September 3, 2008

It was to be a short day.  The route is from Harrison to Hwy 90 on Hwy 287.  It was cold to start with (55 degrees) but warmed during the day.  I rode Pepe because it was a short ride and he gets tired on the longer ones.  He also does pretty good in traffic and along the ditches.  I ended riding 15 miles and 4 hours.  I ended at the 90/287 junction.  We camped at a truck stop, there and there happened to be a small Casino in the station.  Paul tried, but still loss about $25.  We got a good rest and will start tomorrow on a ride to Toston.

September 4, 2008 (Thursday)

Left Hwy 90 junction, north towards Toston and Helena.  The temperature was in the lower 50’s and the wind was blowing in my face, making it a lot colder.  I was riding Soldier and he was moving O.K., but he looked like he has a “hay” belly, after us feeding them a lot of hay and feed the past few weeks.  He just doesn’t seem to stop eating.  He needs the useage and exercise.  After about 6 miles, it started to drizzle.  That and with the lower temperature made me decide to not to go much further and safe my “health” so I can complete this trip.  I completed 6 miles and I met the crew on the road and we loaded up and went on to Toston.  With the rest of the day available, we took advantage and stopped in Townsend at a local stock yard, put the horses in the pens, disconnected the pickup and took an exploring trip into Helena.  Also, we scouted the road for my next leg, riding into East Helena, tomorrow.  When we got to Helena, we found the fair grounds and asked if we could spend a couple of days, until I could ride out, again.  WOW!! Talk about a rip-off.  We have stayed in many rodeo grounds on our trip and have only had to pay for 2 of them.  Helena fair grounds office wanted $15 per horse per night and $20 per vehicle per night, but would let us stay 2 nights for $160.  There was no waivering on their charges or giving us a “break”.  This is just to let all know.  I believe that any rodeo grounds, roping arena, or stock yard should let any equestrian riders or campers stay there without charge!!  Otherwise, it is hard to find any place to camp with horses except along roadsides and then the horses have to stay in the trailers for safety reasons.  If you have any influences on the fair or rodeo grounds in your area, please bring this up as an issue and support our equestrian friends.  There is no reason to charge our horse people for staying overnight in their areas.  There aren’t very many of us left!!

September 5, 2008 (Friday)

First, let me say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALYN” (my grandson).  Again, a cold morning and a cold start.  I left Townsend at about 8:30, riding Soldier, again.  The weather seemed O.K., for a while, but then started to turn “nasty”!!  I rode 14 miles and the wind and rain started coming in.  Luckily, the crew weren’t too far ahead and I was able to meet them, load up, and avoid the weather.  We went on into East Helena at the rodeo grounds and set up camp.  The weather man said that it is to be seasonally cold, with showers and wind throughout the weekend.  We’ve come pretty close to setting new record lows for Montana at this time of the year.  It would happen when I’m trying to get something done!!  I guess we’ll try again on Monday.  The horses are in good shape (probably better than I am) and we have electricity so we can run the heater as well as the TV.  I guess we won’t get too bored.  I plan on just resting.  We barbecued tonight and Paul did a good job (as always) fixing the meat.  We did our shopping at Walmart today, so we’re up on our food supply.  R&R is what we (as well as the horses) need right now.  At least we can all see the end of the tunnel, which is more than we could do when we first started this.  Thanks, again and again for the support of Paul and Kathy.  Remember the troops and remember 9/11.