6-11-05

I have a new friend in Miles City that has a Kawa-sakie-suckin KLR motorcycle that is interested in going to South America. It is possible we will both be heading down this fall. He likes to ride gravel and get out in the country and since his wife was gone for a few days, we decided to go for a little ride. It turned out that there has been a series of storms passing through the area and our planned ride to the Prior Mountains south of Red Lodge, Montana had to be put on hold as the roads down there are not passable when wet. It is supposed to be a very special place and I hope to get down there some day with Rich as he knows the country. We decided to take a pavement ride instead and when I showed up at Rich’s in the morning I let him lead out and I had now idea where we would end up. I am not sure he did either.

We headed west on the freeway for a few miles and then turned north at Terry on what is called a Back Country Byway by the BLM who put up this nice little sign. Aint it wonderful how the Enemy spends our tax money by pointing the way to some of the nicest places so they will soon be overcrowded by tourists and their trash.
This is hwy 253 and it starts out pavement but soon we hit the gravel part. It so happens that in their Ultimate wisdom the Government has decided that a nice little gravel road wasn’t good enough for some of the monster Motor homes and Fifth-wheel trailers that are expected to travel this ‘Discovered’ road. There was a serious road construction project underway when we arrived. As it had been raining like never before the equipment was parked with only a few guys working on a water system. The road was rutted mud but fortunately there were two fairly dry wheel tracks that we rode in. The first couple of miles were a little slick but finally the track dried out with only a few muddy spots to go through.

There is a system of irrigation in this country that takes advantage of infrequent rains that diverts the water coming down washes and spreads the water with a dike system. They are called ‘spreader dikes’ and I have seen many of them but never have seen them in action. We came to a farm that had these spreader dikes and the fields were flooded between the dikes.

These might be the last bikes to ride this gravel road before it gets paved.
 
We were  riding through wheat and grazing country. They grow wheat in strips to help protect the soil from erosion.

We were kept company by the clouds ridding along with us.

This guy had a nice planting of windbreak trees between his strip farmed fields.
Well, maybe not exactly trees but something taller than grass………..
I just love to see the grain bins out in the distance. There are a lot of them in this country. 

This guy is growing one of the Soil Conservation Service designed windbreaks around his farm. Did I mention that the wind blows in this country? I love to see the prairie sentinels (the grain elevators) on the skyline. They are being torn down at an alarming rate and replaced with huge concrete ones long distances from the farms. The farmers have to truck their grain now as the railroad has left town taking the tracks and leaving the station in disrepair. 
 
The Brockway Station.

We stopped in Circle to eat our lunch at the county museum. These are out in front. It was like a dinosaur party only some of them were getting a little rowdy.

They had some old iron that I like to walk around in.

This is a Minneapolis Moline ‘Bale-O-Matic’, lots of iron in this old gal.
I like these old Cats.

All along the sides of the highway were these flax flowers, miles and  miles of them.
I read on a sign that there were sixty country school houses in the county and now there are only two. Here is a nice example of one that didn’t make it.

I didn’t realize that I risked my life going up to get a photo of this schoolhouse. This is dinosaur country and I rode right into a fresh patch of dinosaur shit.

It would be hard to explain just how slick this is, but you can see my boot prints here, for good reason along side the tire tracks. I cant believe I made it out of there without going down.

Next stop was the Missouri River and this old bridge.
We stopped at the info station
 


We rode up to Wolf Point and had to stop at a restaurant that had a place to park under cover as there was a huge storm approaching. We went in and had tea and coffee while the hail beat the shit out of things. It was really nice to be under cover while that was going on. After the storm  we headed west and not too far out we stopped to drain off some of that afore mentioned tea and coffee. While we were standing there  a couple of loaded down dual sport bikes came by and one of them pulled off and came over to talk with us. we asked were they were heading and he said Alaska. I asked him were he had come from and he said South America!!!! I told him we HAD to talk so we all headed down the road and stopped at a parking lot in Glasgow to visit. When he pulled off his helmet I recognized him as the guy I met at Bob’s Motor Works shop in Roberts, Montana last year.
  He was getting some work done on his bike and I remember him saying that he was headed to South America. It is hard to imagine that chances of meeting him again as he was passing through the state again, and out in the middle of nowhere. Even more amazing is that Rich, just the night before, was reading a letter this guy had written on the internet. ( I can't imagine the odds of this chance meeting, and finally decided it is impossible that it happened. My friend Tucker says it is synchronicity, Who knows what it is, but it happens often to me and now somehow my friend Rich is involved.) His name is Bill and he rides a BMW R80ST that has 180,000 miles on it. His buddy that he met in Central America and is now traveling to Alaska with, is named John and he rides a BMW F650.

We had a short visit in the parking lot but they wanted to get some more miles on that day so I went with them as Rich wanted to do some visiting with friends in Glasgow and would catch up with us at the Sleeping Buffalo campground later.
We hauled ass down the road and made camp across from the Sleeping Buffalo Hot springs at a free campground next to Nelson Lake.

Bill and his Bibbler tent which is a top of the line all season tent that he highly recommends. At $600 it is a nice one for sure.

John’s outfit.
When Rich finally showed up we ate supper and proceeded to stay up until the wee hours talking Central and South America as well as gear, girls and grub. It is getting dark so late and light so early, I didn’t  get much sleep rolling around in my sleeping bag thinking about what else? Motorcycle trip to SA.

After a few cups of coffee and a little breakfast we all packed up and said our farewells and headed out in different directions. Rich headed us back to Glasgow and from there down to Fort Peck Dam for lunch and a look around the town.

The very cool all wood movie theatre from the 30’s. My grandfather was the head geologist on the dam project as well as my dad worked on the dam back then and I am sure they must have gone to this movie house when it was new.

We stopped at the new interpretive center, as I wanted to check out “Pecks Rex” in its new building that just opened last week.

This is the skeleton that was discovered nearby. It is BIG!!
On the way back we dodged, as well as possible, some rather large thunderstorms.

They are building a new fish hatchery and these are going to be the rearing ponds.
On the way back I just had to stop and get a photo of this rock fence post. This is one that will not rot away or burn up in a fire.

It was good to be back to camp and catch up on sleep.